No matter what comes I possess a dogged persistence when it comes to learning, so it’s only a matter of time before I break through each wall. Thank you for your support!
It really is a great community here. 
Super sleepy, so short post tonight.
Had a busy day, I was able to keep up with reviews but didn’t add to many new words to my SRS. Not a problem though, not every day needs to be maximum efficiency!
I also wanted to say thanks to everyone who comes to say hi in my study log, its nice to be a part of a community for learning, knowing we in this together is great motivation. <3
Waterfowl picture of the day:
Falkland Steamer Ducks photographed by Ryan F. Mandelbaum on iNaturalist
Another day at it’s end, got 20 new words for my SRS today and kept up with all my reviews, also did 2 JapanesePod101 lessons so pretty good day! I’ve been trying to do 40 words per day, but my new game is eating up a lot of my time. Though I’m sure at this rate it won’t be too long for I 100% it then get back into my studies full swing.
Waterfowl picture of the day:
Lesser Whistling Duck by Hongbin on Unsplash
If you ever see a villain impaled by his own sowerd, remember the saying: “Reaperd what you sowerd!” 
Ending off the day, once again not super productive but I kept up with all my reviews and learned a few new words, though not that many. 100% sure I will get to level 5 again tomorrow in WaniKani based on my review forecast so that’s exciting! I’ve almost completed everything in my new game to so my study schedule should be returning to normal pretty quick here too, which is welcome as fun as playing this has been!
Waterfowl picture of the day:
Barnacle Goose by Виктория Мизяк on iNaturalist
I accidentally answered “look” instead of “see” for 見 so no level 5 today after all, I must have lost focus when doing that batch of reviews. I would have passed by now but I had mistakes on 3 other kanji that knocked them down earlier in the week. WaniKani can be punishing for me, because I often know a right answer but the way my brain works synonyms get confusing for me when I’m trying to output. I got ranked down on 車 for writing “vehicle” instead of “car”, “rock” instead of “stone” for 石, and “even” instead of “flat” for 平. Oh well, I just have to add user synonyms if I think they are reasonable as I go. Oh well, we press on! And get level 5 tomorrow?
I had also been talking to my mom today, and she mentioned that a friend of her coworker is a Japanese teacher that has actually been looking for more students, I’m not really sure how it would work with my focus on listening and reading rather than speaking and writing, but if her prices are reasonable maybe I will look into getting some lessons, if not just to have someone once a week or so that I can ask all my accrued questions. So potentially that to look forward to!
Waterfowl picture of the day:
Torrent Duck by Edwin Múnera Chavarría on iNaturalist
Maybe you already know this because it comes up on the forums a lot, but there are user scripts you can use to override getting things incorrect for cases like that, if you want. You’ve got a lot of examples already of incorrect answers that are definitely not wrong in a meaningful sense. Last I used WK years ago, Doublecheck was the name of one?
Up to you, just wanna make sure you know the option is there.
I’ve seen user scripts and a lot of them seem useful, but I admit I’m woefully out of depth with knowing how to use or set up that kind of thing haha.
If you want them they’re not too hard! You just need to install a browser plugin like Tampermonkey, here are the pages to get it for firefox or Chrome:
Then install the scripts how they say to, they should add pretty easily and basically just work on their own, but I’m sure I or anyone else here could help if you run into issues. This is the one I was referring to:
Oh! It’s more simple than I thought. I’ll consider adding it.
I wish she was where I am!
Level 5 today! I learned all the new radicals and kanji available to me, and polished off all of the level 4 vocab lessons as well, along with a good chunk of the new level 5 vocab. So it’s safe to say I easily met my goal of 40 words per day, since I think I probably did double of that. I’m quite happy with my progress so far, I’ve now learned just over 400 words, 10% of my goal before the end of the year. That may not seem like much, but I’m actually well on track reach my goal over the next 4 months as long as I keep up my daily lessons.
I’m really proud of myself for coming so far in such a short time, when I originally was studying my methods for learning we’re really inefficient and I didn’t really understand what I was doing, this time around I understand the science behind learning a language effectively (the book ‘Fluent Forever’ was a very worthwhile read) and it really shows. So yay to me for that!
Waterfowl picture of the day:
Mandarin Duck by Zdeněk Macháček on Unsplash
I was just doing some sewing, and naturally one of the thoughts that came to me was “what is this called in Japanese?” So boom, Jisho open:
Ah! …But then what about?
Oh, alright. Seems like this word is mainly used for exercise or espresso machines specifically, based on looking at google images. Just thought it was interesting that there are two loan words from machine that mean two specific things.
Had a bit of an odds and ends day, went to an appointment, went shopping, spent a few hours sewing… So I didn’t study for as long as I usually do today. Still I kept up with my reviews and learned a decent chunk of words, and I had been itching to sew for a while so it felt good to craft. I mentioned about a week ago that I was looking to start reading Chi’s Sweet Home with another user here, so before I go to bed I will probably send them a message about that too now that my schedule has returned to normal. It will be the first manga I’ve read since returning to active study so it will be a challenge for sure, but a rewarding one I hope!
Waterfowl picture of the day:
Mallard Duck photographed by Callum Hill on Unsplash
Bit of a late night tonight, but I made some good progress today! As per usual I kept up with lessons and reviews. Me and my reading buddy also start with chapter one of Chi’s Sweet Home tomorrow which I am very excited about, and I scheduled to meet with that local Japanese teacher this Saturday! She wants to test the skills I already have to get a baseline for knowledge level, and I’m hoping that my spoken Japanese doesn’t embarrass me too badly because it has definitely not been my focus haha. Saying things properly inside my head and saying them out loud are different beasts.
Not related, but I was actually talking to my brother today and he was mentioning how that he actually learns new kanji meanings and readings without mnemonics because his memory is just that good without them and I was like man, why do older brothers have to be better at everything lol. No wonder he learns so much faster than me, he’s a freak of nature… I have to work extra hard to keep up! Sibling rivalry dictates I can’t let him go outdoing me too hard lol. But seriously the speed at which he is able to learn new things baffles me.
And as always before I end the day, birds!
(I’ve been excited to share this one, it’s so beautiful.)
Waterfowl picture of the day:
Trumpeter Swan photographed by edporopat on iNaturalist
グラス
ガラス
similar example
I mean doing it for the first few hundreds works fine… but when you start to hit several with only 1 or 2 radicals difference and the same shape… (but maybe he is a genius… and in that case… you’re the underdog everybody is pinning for ! Go shounen protagonist go !)
I agree. It may seem easy until you get into the hundreds. I guess there would be exceptions, but it would be extremely rare to outright memorize multiple readings for hundreds or thousands of kanji and recall them correctly.
Well, normally I would agree but he is just genuinely just insanely talented at learning things, he’s already fully fluent in one language and he’s learning Chinese at the same time as Japanese and doesn’t even get confused by it. He scares me greatly. Some people are just born built different… If we weren’t such good friends I would be awfully jealous. 