Hey ho! I signed up for the December N2 test in Leicester yesterday so I thought it’d be good to make it official with a study log
I took N2 this July after a few very turbulent years of onandoffing to see where I am. I’d say my biggest weaknesses are:
- Vocabulary - forgot loads because of study breaks and it’s hard to build up new vocab because of that. I’ve made it a point to come back to WK and battle the leeches and started using JPDB to recap forgotten stuff and learn more
- Reading speed - even though I mostly understand mock tests it takes way longer than it should. Knowing more vocab will help a ton. Other than that reading reading reading
- Grammar - any nuance is lost on me but that’s okay for now. I hope consuming more content will naturally help with this a little but other than that the focus is on vocab and fun so not planning much dedicated study to this at the moment
The past couple of weeks (months?) I’ve been able to build a somewhat consistent routine getting back into wanikani and finally reaching a point where consuming Japanese content doesn’t completely eradicate my braincells. Honestly I’m so glad I get to have fun with this language again! So with that being said - let’s have fun and try to avoid burning out again
Balancing act is right - I’ve been trying to find a good balance for several years now and it’s still a work in progress.
Hi hello welcome, hope journaling your efforts helps with your exams. Also props to you for going through with it a second time, it takes dedication to deal with that stress.
Thanks! And yes absolutely it’s been years for me too. Doing to little - feeling guilty, forgetting stuff, losing interest. Doing too much - burning out and neglecting other things/commitments. It’s a neverending battle But hey we live and learn, so hopefully we’ll get better at it!
WK 100 reviews 10 new lessons. Should be levelling up to lvl 47 early next week, these levels really are quicker!
JPDB about 80 reviews and 20 new cards. Not sure if marking word as known makes it go into new cards or if it gets ignored. Still building up the db of known words, but definitely seeing benefits of learning this way
Reading
8 pages of Konbini Ningen. A few instances of super long sentences (gotta love her monologues) but I think I got the gist of everything
Listening
1 episode of Terrace House. It’s been a while since I watched it and forgot how much I enjoy it
Other than that I booked a 30min session with a new italki teacher for next week and one with a previous teacher for this week. Will try to assess who’s giving me less anxiety and pre-book a bunch of sessions to make sure I stick with it, otherwise months pass without any output practice
Busy busy day today but made it a point to tick off all Japanese stuff from my list (finished just after 11pm )
Vocab
WK 100+ reviews 10 new lessons.
JPDB about 44 reviews and 29 new cards. Also marked off a bunch of words as known so still building up that knowledge base.
Reading
10 pages of Konbini Ningen. Doubled my usual daily number of pages to make up for missed days this week. Tired by the end of it but feel like it’s much easier to sit through reading compared to a few weeks ago.
Listening
1 episode of Terrace House. Really struggling to understand Arman - the new guy who speaks super fast and with an accent
In other news, my wife signed up for jlpt n5 today so hoping we get to study together Already watched totoro together this week, and I was really impressed with how much she understood from it!
I’ve not been consistent with it lately. Even though I had a fun teacher last year who I actually managed to meet with regularly for a while, eventually life happened and it felt off when I came back to her. I didn’t like that she would try to correct me mid sentence without knowing what I wanted to say and causing me to lose flow. I also changed jobs in the meantime and time difference has become more of a problem.
Today was my third session with a new teacher who is a bit more reserved personality wise but doesn’t correct me with every word. She waits for the whole sentence and only then writes down a more natural sounding version or just lets me carry on if she understood everything. Even though it’s been a while since the last time I’d spoken Japanese, I felt like I strang together some decent sentences talking about my new job and the recent work trip.
Next week I will be meeting with another teacher - a guy who’s into games, anime and manga. Hoping we’d have more in common to talk about and heard that his teaching style is great so hopefully I should be able to decide who to stay with.
Other than that, I ticked off the usual suspects - WK and JPDB lessons and reviews as well as 4 pages of Konbini Ningen. Too tired for more now but 4 is better than 0
Started a big renovation over the weekend. Pretty sure it’s going to test my commitment
Didn’t post yesterday but I’m proud to say despite a very busy day I still managed to get some study in. Literally forced myself to read whilst taking a break from stripping back the walls with a hammer drill
WK reviews + 10 lessons
JPDB reviews + 20 new words
10 pages of Konbini Ningen
This means I reached my weekly goal of 35 pages a week (did 36)!
Today was another hard day with lots of life admin things to take care of and I ended up very overwhelmed. Got lots of help and support from my wife to get through the day but will need to make sure I manage all this stuff long term. Turns out regular running is a must have to keep my head clear.
Anyways, despite everything Japanese didn’t take a hit today (work did).
WK reviews + 10 lessons
JPDB 34 reviews + 20 new cards
6 pages of Konbini Ningen. Kinda tired of certain someone’s rants about the society But not much left to finish!
Work scheduled a meeting after my usual hours so I decided to start later and spend the morning on Japanese. It’s cool to start work knowing most of my to-do-list has already been ticked off, I might actually make it a permanent change
All the reviews and 10 lessons on WK
57 reviews, 20 new cards and a bunch marked off as known on JPDB.
6 pages of Konbini Ningen
YT video about Switch’s price from KENT. His pace of speaking is too fast for me, but I like to train on the end-goal content every now and then. Plus watching stuff about gaming without understanding much reminds me of when I was a kid and would watch game reviews and gameplays mesmerised by this magical thing I didn’t fully understand yet.
This makes me think that I’ve made a big leap in how I approach my Japanese study now. I used to try to translate every unknown/fuzzy word so going through each page was a slog and the amount of new words was so overwhelming I wouldn’t study them anyway. I now only translate vocab that’s key to understanding the story, leaving out everything I can deduce meaning of. Sometimes I don’t get a meaning of a whole sentence. But when it’s one in ten of a repetitive monologue - I deem it safe to skip. This means:
I get fewer new words to study, so I remember all of them better, and don’t burn out
My reading speed increased dramatically with marginal drop in understanding
Enjoyment increased a lot, which actually makes me wantto read and watch stuff now.
It’s funny because this is exactly how I learned English and how I used to study German and yet with Japanese I somehow lost sight of the 'fun’ aspect, struggling to stay consistent and quitting many times over the years. Glad to have found it now, I feel like I jumped over a massive mental wall
Tried another italki teacher today with a 30min trial lesson. It was my first time having a lesson with a male teacher, as for some reason I always felt less nervous speaking to women He seemed really nice and said he uses spreadsheets for feedback with hints for sounding more natural which could be a huge help. I now have to decide who to book lessons with in the future - they both seemed good
Other than that today’s achievements are:
WK reviews and 10 lessons
JPDB 113 reviews and 20 new cards
6 pages of Konbini Ningen
16min YT video from Kent about reasons to keep your old Switch
Why not both? I used to meet the same tutor every single week but I’m no longer so loyal Sometimes I meet with two regular tutors and alternate weeks, other times I have kept a bunch on rotation as I figured out what worked for me or didn’t re: teaching style.
13 levels left, hopefully it will all be finished without any more 3month+ breaks In any case from what I’ve seen lvl 50 should be good for N2 so that’s what I’m working towards now.
Today’s report:
Booked next week’s italki session - 1h with the new guy
99 WK reviews and 10 lessons
21 JPDB reviews and 20 new cards
Another 6 pages of Konbini Ningen down. Weekly goal status: 24/35
One episode of Terrace House. Some new people showed up this episode and I really struggled to pick up anything they said, but at least we finally get some story development so I can’t complain
What a day! I woke up to a message from the airlines telling me one of the flights for my trip to Shanghai and Japan has been cancelled and I spent the morning on the chat with Booking.com trying to rebook stuff. All sorted in the end but it’s literally the second time they’d changed something for this trip and it’s been literally three days since another trip’s hotel booking got cancelled as well. Hopefully that’s the end of my bad karma for this year!
As my morning got sabotaged and I had a deadline at work, I found myself unable to focus on WK much so cut the reviews short and decided not to do any lessons. Straight after work it was renovation time until late evening. I might still do some JPDB reviews in bed but all in all it’s just one of those weaker days and that’s okay
WK reviews (not sure how many, probably around 80)
6 pages of konbini ningen
Video review of Drag and Drive for Switch 2
Wish I could just buy switch 2 and play some games but instead we’re neck deep in renovation. Somehow managed to lose power in half the sockets today, needing emergency electrician tomorrow. Life’s a bit too stressful for my liking lately but I’m proud of myself for trying to stick to my routines no matter what
Big milestone today! I finished reading Konbini Ningen - the first novel I read in Japanese
It’s been a long time coming, as I tried to get into it a few times before, but it was either too hard or I’d lose interest in studying. I’m proud of myself for sticking to it this time though, and it went by so fast once I got into the habit of setting weekly goals rather than daily. This somehow works with my brain by giving me a good balance of flexibility on individual days to allow for a break once or twice, and regular strict work that boosts the progress.
So today’s summary is:
WK reviews (no lessons as I’ve struggled with focus and review accuracy)
JPDB 40 reviews and 20 new cards
2 episodes of Terrace House
7.5 pages of Konbini Ningen
I’m so excited to start reading my next novel, and this time something I’m genuinely interested in as well
Thank you! The next one had in mind was Kaze ga tsuyoku fuiteiru, though it might be a bit too much of a step up. If that’s the case, I’ll try something else
But hey we live and learn, so hopefully we’ll get better at it!
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