hi folks. please call me aisje（アイシェ）or ruairidh（ルーリー）– either is fine! (who knew that furigana could be so useful for english )
nice to meet you!
i’ve decided to start a study log - i’ll put my first entry in tomorrow, this is just me kinda pre-setting it up. i’m not new to wanikani or japanese, but i can be very bad at motivating myself to continue doing something, sometimes – especially when the long term gain is so far away
background:
i started japanese study when i was ~14 for the sake of going on japanese student exhange, and i have basically kept it up with the idea of maintaining the connections i made there – all these years later, i am still embarrassingly bad at japanese, especially when it comes to reading
i’m not a huge manga/anime guy but i am particularly fond of sports anime for some reason. my favourite sport is running, and i would highly recommend watching 風が強く吹いている (translated as “run with the wind”). other favourites include haikyuu!!, free!, and recently i’ve enjoyed blue lock too – although i know people have strong opinions either way on that one
the plan:
i reset on 10 Oct (a little over a month ago) and i’m approaching with a slightly different strategy from the last few times that (i hope) will be more sustainable. (it’s a bit hard to tell when i’m still facing a lot of very familar kanji for the monent.) i’m going to aim for a 7 day level turnover, two days’ lessons being solely reserved for learning the radicals/kanji i need for levelup, and the other five days’ lessons maxing out my vocab ontake at 20/day
at the same time, i’m reading one piece (very slowly) on my kobo, which isn’t going horribly - i do have some prior knowledge/osmosis helping me through there, but i’m only reading one chapter a week due to the amount of lookups – i do know there are easier manga out there, but i’m not finding it unmanageable
tldr:
nice to meet you, i’m aisje! plan right now is tackle some manga very slowly and try and push through WK at 1lvl/wk
today i levelled up to level 6! and i’ve already hit the limit for mistakes i’m allowed to make before 7 day turnaround becomes out of reach lol – but that’s ok, i knew this would happen every now and again, and i’m not going to let it stress me – it gives me more of a chance to catch up on the vocab
i’ve now read up to 第4話 in ローマンスドーン, and i got a lot of enjoyment in chapter 3
in this chapter luffy & koby have made it to the 海軍基地の町 where koby hopes to become a 海軍の海兵 and luffy hopes to start his 仲間集め
this chapter is giving me lots of practise with contractions – and i feel like the more i follow along as zoro joins the crew, the more comfortable i’ll get with things like いらねぇっつったろ
i’ve struck a little unfamiliar grammar in this chapter too, particularly some “legalese” on a sign, but i got the jist and i’m not going to let the nitty-gritty distract me for now
otherwise, lots of good new vocab from this chapter → 七光、成し遂げる、頭が高い ++
and lastly, shout out to that one panel inventing a whole new kanji
I’ve made my way to level 7 – very nice having a lot of free vocabulary coming through, plus kanji that were either familiar, or easier to remember since I knew some vocab they are in. I’m still surprised by just how many words feel unfamiliar, but some of those I can see my hands on with my previous user synonyms
starting two days ago, I’ve begun using かな入力 again on my computer – not for any particular reason except that last time i was studying i decided to try it, and when an idea gets in my head i struggle to let it go. it’s not actually a horrible layout as far as memorising locations goes, but I don’t really recommend it unless you find the same sort of weird satisfaction i find in struggling through something needlessly difficult until it becomes easy
one more chapter down into ローマンスドーン, this time taking note of the existence of さん in the new vocab 像 (as in statue) and 象徴 (symbol, representation) – not yet sure what to make of that!
i also managed to decipher the use of 殺る as slang for “do in” even though I haven’t seen that before, thanks to the power of 義訓
no explicit attempts to read grammar this week, but fingers crossed I have some time to get that done over the next week. my grammar study for this week has been mostly watching kaname and dogen on youtube (´・ω・)
hello! i’ve still been studying, but i also went camping!
i haven’t done any reading since my last log, camping takes a lot of preparation and driving and all that fun stuff
while i was camping, i did keep on top of my flashcards (fortunately, i had reception, but i wasn’t afraid to drop it for a week if i didn’t!)
i have been sucked into a bit of a sidequest (which always happens to me (´・ω・`)) and started learning a weird layout for japanese input – it’s called TUT code if you want to look into it!
study wise, all I have to report for this week is that 返’s mnemonic gave me such a big laugh out loud moment: i would be returning my scooter if it was anti-scoot
other than that, if you’re ever in australia, and you’re camping inclined, please visit the warrumbungles national park!
i’ve decided to take a page out of other users’ books here and add a weekly planner to my study log. i think it would be good to have some daily accountability for the things i hope to accomplish within the week. i won’t necessarily aim to do each per day, but if things start to look neglected i have an idea of what’s most important to put some focus into
before each week’s new calendar, i’ll work on having my report done on a saturday along with a focus on what i hope to accomplish in the next week, and otherwise i’ll just update this planner daily to track progress in the categories
i’ve decided it’d be worth a shot putting my name down with a local language school. they’re already a term in (i’d be starting term 2 with them if they accepted me this month), but i think that should be ok with some prior knowledge. i think i’m A2 heading into B1 if i had to rank myself – i’m interested to see where they put me if they’re able to offer me a place in a class
Okay, I may have left some overly beginner-oriented advice in another thread before I found your study log. Whoops! Maybe someone else will find it helpful.
I love to run too, and I’m reading the manga adaptation of 風! One day I want to read the original novel, but it seems like a step up in difficulty. I also have a copy of 走ることについて語るときに僕の語ること (What I talk about when I talk about running) on my shelf as a long-term goal.
i was training for my first marathon up til 10 weeks ago :')
i ended up discovering a soft tissue injury two runs after my longest long run before the big one (which was 34km). given the nature of injuries, it probably came about during the long run (or earlier) and didn’t get enough recovery afterwards
since then it’s been painfully slow rehab, but i’m working on it every day and i should be back to run-walking in another 4–8 weeks!!
how about yourself, any events around the corners?
i appreciate the links, i’ll definitely come back to these when i’m struggling a little less with prose
I’m so sorry to hear that! I dealt with injuries for big portions of last year. It’s definitely the most frustrating thing there is when it comes to running. Hopefully you’re getting some cross training in to maintain your aerobic base while you’re recovering. Stationary bike is the classic example (but I hate doing it, haha). When you finally get the chance, your first marathon will be all the more satisfying because of the long journey to the start line.
I’m training for the Philadelphia Marathon in November, which will be my third. I talk about it a lot (too much) in my own study log if you want to know how training’s going, but I know when I was injured I hated seeing all the fun my friends on Strava were having, so I wouldn’t blame you at all if you didn’t!
)
さん in the new vocab 像 (as in statue) and 象徴 (symbol, representation) – not yet sure what to make of that!