Hi, can I ask where/how you made that beautiful schedule?
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Same. I slowed down to doing no lessons as well, and now I am “up to” every other day so this will be helpful in terms of making progress. I am currently- ok it has been a few months- battling burnout but at the same time wanting to still move forward, so I am going to adopt this practice.
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I’ve been putting it together on Google Sheets:
Feel free to make a copy or export it.
Features:
- Start of each week, I can delete the old schedule, update values as necessary on the “Blank Schedule”, then copy it for the new week.
- Current date is highlighted with a green background, making it easy to know which column I should be updating when on a smartphone.
- Daily reading goals (red numbers) auto-populate based on progress on the “Progress” tab, and auto-update based on my progress and the current date.
- If I read over my quota one day, the daily quota goes down for following days.
- If I’m under my quota one day, the daily quota goes up for following days.)
Usage:
- To add a new manga, I simply copy and paste an existing row within the reading area, then modify the manga/book name.
- When I complete reading something, I type in the number of pages I read into the appropriate field. The number turns from red to black, and check mark auto-checks.
Notes:
- Subcategories are kept short so I can easily see on my smartphone. This allows me to update page counts while reading away from my desktop computer. If I were using this only on my desktop computer, I’d likely use more than four letters for everything.
I try not to spend too much time working on the spreadsheet’s design when I can be doing more reading manga, so it improves slowly.
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Thank you so much!! I have trouble tracking my progress sometimes because I hand type a study log each time, but hopefully this will be easier to stick with. I really appreciate it!
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Last Week’s Results
I want to go at least a minimum of one single lesson every day…and already I’m bad at that.
I should probably remove ごちうさ from the daily reading because I never get around to it. If I want to read something without furigana, I have Kiki’s (manga of the animated movie).
Grammar Refresh
The week before, I was going really well on reading a lot some days. This past week, not so much. But it’s for good reason. I’ve been learning Japanese grammar terms, as well as refreshing my knowledge of Japanese grammar, by going through the pages on this site:
They have something like 80 pages of material, so it’ll take a while to get through them all…
What I like about this resource is it seems to use very simple language, and a lot of the same language gets used over and over.
I may add it to my checklist to read one page per day, but for now I’ll see how things go reading it sporadically.
This Week’s Goals
I received アクア volumes 1 and 2 in the mail this past week, so that’s been added to my reading.
The missed reading last week has increased the number of pages to read for this week (sort of like missing WaniKani reviews for a couple of day). Looks like Sunday will be focused on getting these numbers down a bit!
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Two more weeks, and then it looks like I’ll be back to working in the office. It’ll be nice to have a set bus commute each weekday morning and afternoon as an enforced time to either read manga or review in WK. (Even though that also means waiting for the bus in the cold.)
WK Status
With my unexplainable dropping retention rate, I’m definitely looking at two months for level 23. It still is what it is.
Reading Status
Earlier in the year, my ２０２０多読 progress was falling behind, but I’m a little ahead of schedule now for manga. I don’t know if I can keep the pace once I finish my easy reads, but I’m doing well on reading stamina, so maybe it’ll all work out.
アオハライド
I considered upping my reading from two months per volume to one month, as it’s been mostly easy to read. However, I’ve decided instead to increase the number of different series I’m reading. I’m trying to adjust my reading schedule for this series to compensate, so I’d be reading a little each week, rather than a large amount every two weeks.
AQUA
I’ve completed the first volume in less time than I expected. Once I made it past the first few pages, it became a lot easier. I’m hoping to make it through one volume per month, which should help keep me over my reading goal.
I do wonder if there are any differences between the original release and the 新装版 release. I mean, besides the original having the better-looking cover. (My copy is the 新装版 release.)
ふらいんぐうぃっち
I’ve been comfortable with the reading club pace, one chapter per week. I’ve mostly been reading a full chapter in one reading session, but sometimes split it up across two or three days. Sometimes I wonder if I should split it out over more days, as it’s one of the easier reads.
よつばと！
The book club reading is nearing its completion, with only one volume left after this week. After that, there goes one of my easy reads.
レンタルおにいちゃん
I’m looking forward to seeing how the last quarter of the story goes, but I also don’t want it to end too soon. With no more new volumes coming out for this series, this will be the first of my easy reads to end.
三ツ星カラーズ
I’ve started the final volume currently available. It’s been a nice companion to よつばと！, providing easy material. Hopefully volume 8 will be out in August, as I’ll be short another easy read in the interim.
異国迷路のクロワーゼ
While rearranging my manga, I happened across this series, which is two volumes long. Flipping through them, it looks a lot more approachable than when I bought them a few years back. I’m ready to jump into reading them. It’s been a long time now since I watched the anime, so much of the material will probably feel all new to me.
美少女戦士セーラームーン
The scheduled reading of one chapter per week is going well for me. I’m occasionally able to complete reading a 45-page chapter across one reading session, although I do like to break it over two to four.
GOSICK―ゴシック―
The first chapter was a struggle. Second chapter seems a bit easier, but still difficult. I may be setting this series aside for a bit after I finish this first volume.
Et cetera…
Any other series on my reading list, I haven’t been making notable progress with.
I’ve been slacking on 「あしたからは名探偵」. I’m only barely making my children’s book reading goal because I’m in the middle of both this and 「わんわん探偵団」.
Hopefully I’ll be able to do well enough in reading the 「魔女の宅急便」 novel. The volume of unknown vocabulary is the main issue I’m facing. I do look up the list of words in a sentence before reading it, but by the time I get halfway through the sentence, I’ve forgotten all the unknown words I just looked up… Guess I’ll see how it goes!
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I bought this series after you enthused about it in this thread - I have yet to start reading it, but thanks for the tip to keep my eyes out for anther volume soon.
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Hopefully you’ll enjoy it when you get to reading it. It’s hard to say what series someone will or will not enjoy (especially when I haven’t seen them in any of the manga threads, as far as I can recall), so if you ever want more information about a series I’ve talked about, don’t hesitate to ask.
If I can get one or two more people interested, I might have reason to create a 「三ツ星カラーズ」 discussion thread in the future…
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That would be lovely!
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I love your reading list with pictures and impressions! Very fun to read.
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This is such a huge block that I haven’t been able to figure out a solution to either…
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I may have mentioned this previously, but here’s where I’ve been on learning vocabulary:
- Tried learning the most common vocabulary (ex: Core 2,000 deck). Progress was slow and painful because (a) I didn’t know most of the kanji, and (b) most of the words would never come up in anything I was reading.
- Tried learning all the vocabulary in a single manga volume. Progress was slow and painful because (a) I didn’t know most of the kanji, and (b) most of the words only appeared once in the volume.
I considered making an Anki deck for Kiki’s Delivery Service in advance of the book club re-read, but I expect a lot of the words I don’t know to come up only once or twice. And I still won’t know most of the kanji!
My current plan of action is:
- Keep learning kanji in WaniKani, aiming for completing through level 60.
- Read a lot of easier material in the meantime.
- Look up words that I need to know to understand what I’m reading.
- Hope that by WaniKani level 60, I’ll recognize enough kanji to feel comfortable reading more difficult things.
At level 60, one will recognize over 99% of the kanji in Kiki’s Delivery Service. However, at level 23, I should recognize around 89% (counting duplicate usage of kanji, or 73% of unique kanji). For this reason, I’m hoping that Kiki’s Delivery Service will be like other things I’ve read where the background material covered up front is difficult, and it gets easier after that.
By the way, at level 14, you should recognize over half of the unique kanji used in Kiki’s Delivery Service book 1, and counting repeat kanji appearances, you should recognize over 78% of the kanji. It makes the book sound approachable, doesn’t it? But then there’s all that unknown vocabulary in chapter one…
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Level 60
sighhhhh
Hoping for sometime in 2022… 
As much as I have reading goals, I’m also not about to become a speed demon to get to 60 sooner than later (because I don’t want to ignore overall comprehension for the sake of just kanji) but there’s so much that I want to read RIGHT NOW. I really have been looking past manga but maybe I need to investigate some that mirror my interests and are more in-line with where I am comprehension-wise, versus all of the advanced stuff I can’t help buying, but still n+1. I had heard of Oishinbo but didn’t realize that there is a whole category of cooking/food-related manga so maybe I’ll head in that direction.
Though I will say that now when I am able to recognize a few kanji in the wild this is really motivating to keep moving forward.
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Forcing myself to push through a few levels was nice, but it’s not something that I can keep up with, so I’m definitely with ya on going slow and steady. I do need to force myself to do at least one lesson daily, though, so I don’t take forever to make any progress.
For reading selection, I consider myself that there is a fair amount of easy manga that I like, as well as the children’s detective picture books being read through in book clubs here. There are books I’d like to read, but I know I won’t be there for a long time. Seeing the level 60’s here and the Intermediate Book Club inspires me to believe that I’ll get there. As I slowly begin to pick up and read through furigana-containing manga I bought years (or decades!) ago, I know I’m getting close and closer to that day when I can read some of the no-furigana manga/books I own.
I wonder if there is a lot of vocabulary commonly used in cooking/food-related manga, where learning them in a few manga helps prepare you for seeing them in other. Sort of like how if you’re reading detective stories, you learn words like じけん and 殺人 and はんにん real quick.
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ChristopherFritz! Your extensive reading has astounded me! How amazing 
One day, I would like to read as much native material as you!
This video was great 
I shall be watching more Cure Dolly in the future I am sure.
Keep up that slow and steady progress, one lesson a day keeps the 
in second place 
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Basically what I was thinking as well!
Little bit of an out-of-band post from me today.
I find a lot of the words I’m learning in WaniKani, I actually never encounter with all the reading I’ve been doing this past year. (Granted, I’m still a low-level manga reader.)
That hasn’t changed, but this happened recently:
…
…
…
Fast-forward a day or two later, I’m happily reading a manga when suddenly, out of nowhere…
I imagine I’ve seen 「有り難う」 numerous times in the past, but didn’t know because I couldn’t read it before. (Well, I still can’t read it yet.)
It’s probably not in any of the manga I’ve been reading (aside from the one pictured above), as it would have stood out to me if I was reading it as 「
Note: The reason ゴザイマス is in katakana is because the girl speaking is in France, and they’re actually speaking French. The use of katakana is probably to show that her French is weak, or that she doesn’t pronounce it properly. Particles in her speech are also written in katakana.
P.S. Frequency bias is alive and well!
Edit: I wasn’t expecting an actual Crabigator icon to show up in the quotes. If it’s not obvious, that entire quoted dialogue is fiction.
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I had the same thoughts, so thanks for the evidence that it wasn’t the Crabigator just making me jump through hoops! (love that icon showing up)
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off-topic
B…Baader-Meinhof? May I ask what this is about? A reference to the manga you posted?
Especially as a German, I think of this when I hear (or read) something about “Baader-Meinhof”.
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That’s the Baader-Meinhof, but not in the way you might expect.
In 1994, a commenter dubbed the frequency illusion “the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon” after randomly hearing two references to Baader-Meinhof within 24 hours. The phenomenon has nothing to do with the gang, in other words. But don’t be surprised if the name starts popping up everywhere you turn."
For some of us here in the States, “Baader-Meinhof phenomenon” is just a fancy way of saying “frequency bias” or “frequency illusion”. (I’ve updated my post to not be confusing. No one told me WaniKani has people from outside of the US! )
Essentially, the bias/illusion is when something you recently learned starts showing up everywhere. Like, imagine you’re living in Japan and you don’t know any kanji. Then you learn the kanji 水, and you start seeing 水 everywhere. The truth is, it was there all along, but now that you’ve recently learned it, you’re primed to notice it.
Another example (one often used) is that if you are looking to buy a certain make/model of car, you start seeing that make/model of car everywhere. You realize your co-worker owns one, your neighbor owns one, you see several of them in the grocery store parking lot, you’re passing by them all the time on the freeway.
For me, because I just learned 有り難う, I was soon after encountering 有り難う.
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