I have a collection of responses I’ve been making since a few posts ago
I like the additional features you’ve put in manga kotoba, I need to go play with that!
And your handshake / applause trick is just in time. I only noticed last week how similar those are
I want that little knowledge bean
八つ当たり was definitely in that camp for me - never noticed it before I learned it, saw it at least now and then after
what is known discussion
This is tough, I agree. So far I’ve decided “what’s known” is a) multi-tired and b) an evolving scale that changes as I study, depending on what use I’m getting out of that information
Right now, I just like knowing whether I’ve learned the kanji for the words I already know and can distinguish them from similar kanji.
Later, I’ll probably care about gathering up more readings, etc, but that feels more like a secondary and slower process of srs mining as I come across the words. At least at that point I recognise the kanji and have a higher chance of guessing the meaning or at the least searching for it quicker (paper reader).
The kanji study app has three “levels of known”, maybe that would work in manga kotoba? If there are multiple levels, the user can define for themselves what that level is, or you could as automate then which could be interesting, ie, level 1 is one reading known, 2 is at least 1 on and kun known, 3 is all words in target vocab known, or something like that.
For me my basis level 1 (is the kanji known) means:
I’ve learned a mnemonic and can distinguish that kanji from other similar kanji
I’ve practiced writing it a bit (helps with above but I don’t drill production).
I know at least one word with this kanji in it (and recently refreshed/added to Anki so I get targeted SRS reading practice)
I don’t spend a lot of time upgrading kanji to level 2 or 3 but I have a vague idea about using that in the future to filter for better levels of ease and knowing more readings
What finally cemented that for me is reading 人狼サバイバル - there’s a character called 伯爵 who gets mentioned often - not actually the same kanji, but clearly some shared phonetic component.
There’s actually a decent number of words and kanji that have got cleared up by disproportionate use in one piece of media for me - 本好き gave me 門 and 本棚、Frieren gave me 怠ける, etc.
I’m feeling the desire to add my mnemonics too… 拍手 is the thing you do at a show, 握手 is the thing you don’t want to do if you just achoo’d into your hands.
I’m finding more and more instances where I encounter a word I don’t recognize in the Maruko kanji book, such as 口実, only to encounter it in manga I’m reading soon after.
The Conan book is easy to make progress on as it’s six kanji on one page. But also, that one feels more like an exercise in looking up words I don’t know so I can complete sentences, rather than helping me recognize kanji. And it can be a little time-consuming.
The Maruko book is easy to get through, but between a three-page manga to introduce the kanji, and typically three kanji per chapter getting one page each, it’s typically 12 pages to get through six kanji.
To reach my goal today, entirely Maruko, I need to get through two kanji pages, the next three-page manga, then one more kanji page. (But I want to get a little ahead since it’s the weekend.)
Reading
While I aim to read less in 2025 than in 2024, I do want to catch up on book clubs and stay on track. For this, I took my current method of tracking my yearly goal and added tracking per-volume deadlines. This lets me see how many pages per day I need to read to finish a volume with the club.
Not including Blue Box (where I’m accidentally a little ahead, so I’m pausing that one for a bit), my book club volumes are sitting at:
