Coddiwomple-ing through WaniKani - A study log

Coddiwomple · June 13, 2020, 7:29am

Thursday 11th-13th June
Road bump! Hardly slept Thursday night, spent Friday sulking over my headache while still trying to do lessons, forgot half the items, did not have the energy to do the self study quiz’s that could have helped me learn the items properly (or maybe I just did not think of that until today), so I just wallowed in my 63% accuracy.

Today I reached level five! However I have spent the day trying to squash all the leaches from Friday I have my first mastered items and that feels good.
Tomorrow will probably also be dedicated to level four vocabulary. I am not sure when level 5 will begin for me, perhaps Sunday, perhaps Monday.
There was a typo in my lvl 5 congratulations email - is that something I should point out? It is nice to receive it anyway.
It is 3:30, time to get on video chat and do homework with my classmate
See you next time study log!

Evening edit:
[*] Written homework
[*] Spoken homework
[*] Anki
[*] Self study quiz level one
[*] Self study quiz level two (98.5% accuracy on vocabulary! yay! Could not do radicals because they are coming up for review)
Self study quiz level three
Self study quiz level four

I would like to review previous levels to boost my confidence in how fast I can learn. Particularly that level four vocabulary.
The halfway mark of the Marugoto is also coming up this week, which seems an excellent time to consolidate all my class notes.

Also, taking notes in class has been rather inconvenient. There must be a way of doing that better. Perhaps, rather than noting what sensei says, I could try taking note of topics, questions, mistakes etc and then use that as a post class study guide? Or, google how to take better notes in class?

Coddiwomple · June 17, 2020, 6:27am

Dear study log.
On Monday I knew I would stay the night at friends, so I refrained from doing any new lessons even though my apprentice items were dropping significantly (~50) I think this was wise. Of course I ended up staying Tuesday night as well but today I was surprised when I hit the end of the level four vocabulary! I moved right through the radicals too. I would have preferred not to do any kanji, however on my phone I don’t have the lesson filter script and in order to get the last radical…
Japanese lessons are back to being in person tonight!
On Monday Dat and I started a google doc for all our class notes on the first half of the workbook. I am hoping it will function well as a reference document for all the extra-textbook study/learning that is still related to class. Eg. Professions and hobbies that aren’t in the standard vocabulary, comments that our teacher makes etc. Of course, even if the final product is unwieldy the process of making it is top notch review and study
I have almost entirely caught up my Anki cards to where I am in the book! It only took a few days of learning 100+ items I am not worried about the reviews however as many items I already know, and many others I am satisfied with passing recognition at this stage (like country names) and will crack down on quality later.

Coddiwomple · June 23, 2020, 4:20am

Wow, it has been a while since I posted here! Well, time to add some reflections

On Reading:
Okay, yes, reading is a skill in its own right! Or rather a set of skills.
What do you do when you come across a word you don’t know? (Dictionary!)
Or a word you do know that is used in a new and unexpected way? (Google frantically. あお青 I am looking at you!)
Or a word you think you know, but is actually just a homophone of a word that MAKES NO SENSE IN THIS CONTEXT? (おきます I first learned as ‘to wake up’. In this case, it means ‘to put’. I worked this out by putting the whole sentence into google translate, establishing the object was being placed, searched ‘to put’ in jisho, and found the word I needed.)
I have learned to pay attention to page numbers to make sure you are reading in the correct direction. Some grade 0 readers are simple enough that reading them back to front still makes sense. Surely this is a skill to be proud of
Also, reading is really really fun. Although, I did work that out at the tender age of ~3

On Writing
I am actually picking up a bit of confidence in expressing myself through writing. When doing my homework for this week, I was not satisfied by simply answering in a way that indicated I understood the question. I wanted to push my self to try and write fuller, more natural answers.
Homework: いつもどこでひるごはんをたべますか。
うちでひるごはのたべます。ときどきベントをじます。（つくます？ ‘to make’ in the context of a bento) でも,よく上手じゃないです。それでおにぎりをつくます。
What I was trying to say: I eat lunch at home. Sometimes, I make my self a bento. But, I am not very good yet. So I make onigiri.
Bento attempts on this thread
I used a bunch of stuff in this sentence that I have not actually learned yet. I looked up ‘to make’ in jisho, and I hope I picked a term that works, but I am not confident. I looked up ‘therefore’ in the DBJG, and hopefully that is close enough to what I meant. As much as I want to only preserve good things in my study log, I know I want to be accurate to my level so when I look back I can see how I have improved More than anything, I am excited that this week the first seed of confidence in writing has been planted.
(Actually, the seed was probably planted last week when I pushed myself writing the ‘birthday card for a classmate’ homework. But, like, it has sprouted this week, so. )

On ‘Why I am learning Japanese’

I hardly touched on this topic in my original post. This is my fundamental motivation, but it is much too ambitious to be the whole story.
I was planing a trip to Japan this year. I would have been there for pretty much the whole of May. Once I booked my flights at the end of 2019, I started looking at learning a few useful words. My goals were mostly easy, with some modest hopes. They included the absolute basics i.e. learn what I need to be a polite tourist, ranging from saying thank you, to how to sort my recycling.
Beyond that I hoped that with six months I could gain enough familiarity with Japanese to make the best use of the tools we have to get around a foreign city. I wanted to be able to recognise enough kanji radicals that when I needed to memorise a street sign, or tell the women’s change room from the men’s, or find an exit from the train station that I could. I wanted to be able to troubleshoot google translate should it (inevitably) spit out something bizarre.
With only six months, I knew I would not reach even conversational fluency, but I wanted to learn what I could, because I believe that communication facilitates understanding, and understanding makes every aspect of your life richer. Especially holidays
Come January, I was at a DnD game when traveling to Japan came up (everyone in the group had been except for me! From a holiday, to student exchange, to teaching english) and one of the players mentioned they wanted to learn Japanese. Study partner get! We signed up for classes within a few weeks.

Then, the pandemic.
Cancelling my plans was a little disappointing, but mostly everything was refunded (although I am still waiting on whether my travel insurance refund will be approved). Japan will be there next year, and the year after. Now, now I can strive for much greater language competency for my holiday! I may even travel with my classmates! I can also refine my travel plans further (I do love excessive levels of planing. I can keep looking into interesting things without needing to acknowledge that I have about three months worth of ideas for things to see and do. It is wonderful.)

TLDR, Goals: First, to know a smidge of Japanese when I go on holiday. Easily done Second, to know what it is like to think in a language. May or may not be something I can achieve, but I sure will have fun trying.

On Grammar
Wow, that topic change feels terribly abrupt. But, may I remind you dear reader, this post is about reflecting on my thoughts on this past week of learning Japanese.
Bunpro is really really cool, I would recommend it for anyone to try, and… I have hardly used it.
I have found that right now, I am looking for a framework for the grammar points I am learning, and not better tools for learning grammar points. It is hard to put together, but I am making progress.
I made a significant step forward when I finally started reading the words and word classes section of ‘An Introduction to Japanese’. It has done an exceptional job of putting grammar jargon into plain language that I understand.
My favourite quotes:
A good rule of thumb is “if you can say it’s ‘something else’, it’s a noun”:
“This car is old.”
“New York is hot.”
“The magnification is high.”
“This ambiguity is omnipresent.”

When used to be specific about a noun, a word is called an adjective. When used to be specific about a verb, it’s called an adverb.

Words can belong to multiple classes, and which it is depends on how it’s used in a sentence

Sadly, as soon as the next section begins, this dedication to using simple language to describe complex concepts is dropped like a hot potato, so I am still moving through my bookmarks and trying different websites. I am confident that with all the information I have at my fingertips, I will be able to cobble together a thorough understanding of grammar. (My biggest questions right now relate to sentence structure, because I want to write better sentences. Particularly for my homework.)

On Speaking
My voice gets super high when I speak in Japanese. What is up with that!?!?

On Listening
Listening strains my short term memory. Often to the breaking point In class I either read the audio script in the back of the book while listening, or I just listen for the specific information I need to answer the question and forget the rest pretty quickly. For this, I am trusting that in time I will become better able to remember what I hear. When I am doing listening homework however I just keep playing the track until I think I have the gist of it.
There was also a useful YouTube compilation of simple conversations that I will go back to at some point.

On Marugoto
Term three starts on Wednesday. We also have a new student!
Having lessons in person again is better than I remembered, and we often go out to dinner afterwards as a class (of four).
I have signed up to the online Marugoto A1 katsudo&rikai course with my classmates for revision (and I hope a little expansion) of term one and two.

On WaniKani- STOP! This post is getting too long! Also, my reviews have come available. Bye~

ChristopherFritz · June 23, 2020, 4:52am

DeepL is good for this as well, often giving better translations than Google.

I also like dropping a sentence into ichi.moe, as it often parses words out in a way I wouldn’t have expected (such as a group of words forming an expression). It doesn’t give you an overall translation, but you get all the words, including multiple possible translations for homophones.

From my own experience writing up notes on grammar that I can refer back to later and still understand, it’s quite hard to keep things simple! One can shoehorn everything into English grammar for an easy start (for those who know English grammar terms), but then you soon find you have concepts that don’t exist in English grammar. Or one can try to avoid the English terms altogether, and pick terms that match the function in Japanese…which leads to feeling like Alice adventuring through Wonderland.

The nice thing is once you grasp the basics, it’s easier to follow resources that stray from English grammar terms.

I started reading “Japanese the Manga Way” this week (after starting it and getting bored with it and dropping it several years ago, unfortunately), and two lessons in I feel like it’s done a really good job of starting to cover the basics while keeping with English grammar terms. (Whether that’s the best way to go is debatable, but I feel it does it well.) But…I’m only two lessons in (aiming for reading one lesson per day).

I recall seeing something about this on a YouTube video. It’s been a few months, but let’s see if it’s in my browser history… Ah, here it is, in the description below this video:

I don’t know how accurate this is, but it sounds as good an explanation as any to me!

Coddiwomple · June 23, 2020, 5:09am

I am SO EXCITED to look through these resources, どうもありがとうございます！ You are a gem, ChristopherFritz, I will be back with a longer response soon!

Okay I am back.
Those translation sites are EXCELLENT! They fill a role I had only just started to realise was empty. This will be very very useful thank you

So so true. I can see how using language that is specific to the concept you want to convey is infinitely more accurate than using any thing else. Bloody confusing at the start, but a necessary stage to reach. Hopefully by starting with plain English, then English jargon, then moving to Japanese terms I will have an accurate understanding and not a confused one
‘Simple but profound’ explanations require the most exceptional understanding of what is going on, and are really really hard to do for anything. I am always excited when I find someone who can express themselves in such a manner. Even if a guide dips back into ‘complex and profound’ I will keep reading looking for those gems

Ahhh Reina is so cute It sounds quite reasonable to me too! Do you notice yourself speaking in different pitch when you switch languages?
_{How have I not read your own study log before now??? Ahhh I am looking forward to it now!}

MegaZeroX · June 23, 2020, 6:30am

Yay, we have a Coddwomple update! Some of my own thoughts:

On reading:

I highly recommend looking up words on Jisho or Weblio. The former is more user and beginner friendly, while the latter is usually more accurate and has better sentences.

Unlike Christopher Fritz, I very strongly advise avoiding any automatic translation, as Japanese has A LOT of homophomes, and is generally a super highly context dependent language. As such, automatic translation is pretty bad and doesn’t improve your Japanese at all (and can make it worse).

On writing:

I’m pretty sure I see mistake.

For うちでひるごはのたべます, I think that “の” isn’t doing what you wanted. The main uses of の in isolation are to “nominalize” verbs and sentences before it, basically making them nouns (ie: “ピぜをたべるのがすき” is “I like to eat pizza”, so we basically made “to eat pizza” into the noun that we like), stand in for an object after an adjective (ie: どこはいいのですか。 would be “where is the good one?”), or link between two nouns (the possetion use you have probably learned is just a specific kind of this). You are doing none of these. I know these are vague descriptions, and I don’t expect you to pick them up from this. I’d just like to know what you were trying to go for.

When you are going for “not yet”, I would recommend just throwing a まだ in there for the future. If you haven’t learned it yet, you will soon (it is N5, and usually introduced pretty early in it even for that).

それで does works here, but I would recommend being careful with using grammar from just a look up. Generally, you don’t want to come up with an english thought, and then translate into Japanese, but instead use what grammar concepts you know to convey your thoughts. Again, it is fine here, but in the future, directly translating sentence structures from English can be haphazardous. I mostly recommend the dictionary when you encounter grammar in your learning and you say “I want to learn more” or “this doesn’t make any sense” or “how do I use it in a sentence?”

On grammar:

Ooh I like pomax’s guide. Did I recommend it to you, or did you find it elsewhere? Regardless, yeah, it can be THICK. I don’t think I can recommend it for a first time resource. However, for talking about verb conjugation, it talks about etymological stuff, which is super helpful for going OH SO THAT’S WHY IT WORKS LIKE THAT! So, I recommend a future Coddwomple, who is knee deep into verb conjugation, shaking her fist in the sky, screaming “WHY DID THE JAPANESE CURSE US WITH THIS? AAAAAAAHHH” to take a look with your new found knowledge and learn a history lesson that makes things less weird.

I kind of want to write up that etymology stuff in an approachable way for learners at some point. I have a distant goal to write my own grammar guide after I become an expert in Japanese, since I already know how I would teach N5/N4 concepts

Coddiwomple · June 23, 2020, 8:27am

I will use with the utmost care, I promise! Going to the dictionary is my first response to a sentence I can’t work out, (I try and break the sentence down into words, but sometimes I get the kana separation wrong that is never helpful) but when I still can’t understand what I am reading my plan B is still a little shaky. I have used google search, google images, and once google translate to get more hints on what might be in the sentence. After which I always go back to a dictionary to see if those hints will let me work out what I was struggling with.

What is your method of working out a sentence you don’t understand? You know, one guide I have yet to read is one about how to use the tools we have access to in the best way. I don’t suppose you know any posts on how to use Jisho, Weblio, and other dictionaries to their full potential?

Oh dear you do!! Fortunately (kinda?) the first is a typing mistake typing phonetically, I wrote ‘hirugohanotabemasu’ instead of ‘hirugohannwotabemasu’. It is also a reading mistake because I did not even notice! Oops.

The まだ is an excellent suggestion thank you! I learned the から/まで terms about two weeks ago (EDIT: Glaring mistake here. I definitely have not learned either of these well enough when I still get them confused まだ is ‘not yet’, mentioned in the first week of class. まで is ‘~until’, learned two weeks ago. Damn it Coddiwomple!), but I totally missed the chance to use it here, it makes the sentence much better.

I foresee many many mistakes of this kind in the future! My aim is to only make them when I am writing something that will be corrected by a native speaker so experimentation doesn’t lead to bad habits _{I hope}

It is really impressive! Not this time I found the link on the /rLearnJapanese subreddit months and months ago, but I kept being distracted by sites with prettier layouts. I finally remembered that I had not really given it a proper look last week and I am really glad I have.

This table is where my brain collapsed

I can sense that it is a very concise, useful table, full of information. However. It could really use a dozen example sentences and a breakdown of the kanji used (as they are used to refer to the base form for the rest of the document) and what those terms actually mean! Like, 形 (shape) I recognise. I find the implication that these terms are defining the ‘shape’ of the verb really interesting. But, I am going to need to do that research myself.

Even though most of this section was beyond my comprehension, I did learn a few things and I will definitely be back. As long as I don’t fixate on trying to understand everything, I am… mostly fine.
(I am delighted to learn that there are so few irregular verbs, that is such a cool contrast to English. The impact of languages interacting over history is huge, right?)

I am really looking forward to doing this one day

So cool! Please do! I would be very interested in reading that!

Coddiwomple · June 23, 2020, 9:19am

I did more calligraphy practice on Thursday!
Although, that is not entirely accurate. On Thursday I practiced writing kanji. And I realised that writing kanji with a brush is about as far from calligraphy as normal writing. It was fun, and great writing practice, but for calligraphy I definitely need more resources. Probably some mix of rereading that-one-book-I-own and copying samples I find. Although I believe I did see another book in the local library…

Writing practice is essential regardless as when I am reading my eyes don’t even notice that the kana I am looking at is not the kana I am expecting to read. Attentive writing is my best plan to train my eye to notice what it is seeing.

Side note: One brush can produce a HUGE range in character size! I haven’t broken in my largest brushes yet, I wonder if they will be able to produce full page characters?

ChristopherFritz · June 23, 2020, 1:42pm

I’m aiming for recognition and not production, so I have zero speaking ability in any language other than English =D

I actually agree with your point =D I mentioned DeepL only because Google Translate was brought up, but I hadn’t considered the context of entering text without kanji. If you’re working with text that has kanji, you have a decent chance of getting something accurate with DeepL, but when you’re working with hiragana only, it becomes a lot more difficult for the algorithm to get it right. Never rely wholly on automated translators. If you don’t already have an idea of the meaning of what you put in, you can’t know whether it’s reliable what you get back out.

Having hiragana only also makes it more difficult for ichi.moe, unfortunately. There is a way to adjust how ichi.moe parses it out, but the lack of kanji will always make for an uphill battle with parser tools.

This is one of the areas where Japanese presented itself as harder to me than it really is. As it turns out, English can be very context-dependent as well, and realizing that helped me grasp the minimalism found in Japanese sentences.

“I ask him to give it to her for me.” = English sentence requiring context to understand.

Once I realized (= learned watching CureDolly videos) that Japanese sentences without a named subject (etc) are like English sentences with pronouns, it became a lot easier for me to grasp.

This will get easier as you become more familiar with particles. Easier, but sometimes still not always as easy as one would like =( This is why books for little children books, where kanji is not used, put spaces between words.

What kind of source of sentences are you using that doesn’t use kanji and doesn’t separate words with spaces?

MegaZeroX · June 23, 2020, 3:11pm

If you can’t understand enough to work it out with the help of a dictionary, then I generally recommend asking for help on places like WaniKani. If you can narrow it down to a more specific problem not asked before on the Japanese Stack Exchange, then I recommend doing that. If there are several sentences you are encountering where you can’t translate even with a dictiomary in a row (such that asking for help on an if them would be unwieldy) then you are probably striking a bit above your level at the moment.

Also, what would ひるごはんんをたべます be? If you were trying to make it explanatory, then it should be ひるごはんをたべるんです。The んです/んだ is kind of a package. You can’t just go and put the ん in front of any verb, it’s gotta be packaged with です/だ. And it has to be in dictionary form rather than polite in this case (the politeness comes from です)

And yeah, I didn’t, and still don’t understand the fancy terms in that table. All you really need to know is that there are 5 base forms of verbs (hence the 形 in the names), and they have various uses that you can learn later.

You’ll know most of the kanji for those forms by level 17 (where I am at). I think 15 even, but I don’t remember the exact levels.

Coddiwomple · June 24, 2020, 2:32am

I am reading on tadoku.org. They do generally use kanji, but sometimes it just takes one word in hirigana for me to get all muddled. I have only read half a dozen of these mini stories, so I am still real short on practice

All the kudos for taking the most efficient route to what you want!

Coddiwomple · June 24, 2020, 2:40am

Bookmarks Japanese Stack Exchange
That will be useful, thank you

So, I was intending to type ひるごはんをたべます however, because I was thinking phonetically, I typed を as ‘o’ instead of ‘wo’ and that turned the phrase into ひるごはのたべます (also because of the ん needing to be typed as ‘nn’ else it will be altered by the following vowel.)

It is a very very fancy table

Coddiwomple · June 24, 2020, 1:51pm

Class tonight was fun! I was quietly ecstatic when a term was mentioned and I recognised it from WaniKani (一回). After class we went out for (fantastic) pizza, talked about what we learned, and figured out it would be feasible for at least three of us to take a month to travel in Japan second half of next year… It may or may not hold up to more serious consideration but I am hopeful!
Level seven is a mere 36 hours away! I feel great because I am sitting at 0/0 lessons and 79 apprentice items. That may swiftly crumble when I unlock the remaining 66 vocabulary items…
This level is likely to be 13 days. That is much longer than level four, and I feel that I made responsible choices about time and pace this level.
I watched a handful of Cure Dolly videos today. I think they will be helpful, and useful, and I don’t overly mind her method of presenting her videos. I wonder what I will study tomorrow?
Good night study log! See you tomorrow

Coddiwomple · June 25, 2020, 2:09pm

Dear study log,
Today I read more of ‘Introduction to Japanese’ and watched 9 CureDolly episodes. My goal right now is to study grammar extensively, I am paying attention to what I can understand quickly and moving right past what I can’t. Once I have my framework, I will move my focus to intensive study of grammar. This means reading and watching without stopping to take notes or cross reference. Just keep reading.
Of course, there is still a little intensive study going on! I realised today that I have been neglecting the mistakes in my homework, just noting their existence briefly when they are the best opportunity to target material I have not understood as well as I could.
Spelling mistakes now get their own fillable Anki card. This weeks cards are done, I will slowly move back through past weeks.
Grammar mistakes will have their own study plan… to be determined tomorrow

Coddiwomple · June 26, 2020, 1:10am

Level Up Day!
Reflections on level 5.
I reached level five while staying at my friends place for a few days. Unable to guarantee my study-and-review cycle (and unable to use any scripts) this level started by learning a handful of that fresh-leftover vocabulary from level for the first few days. Well friends! This is why I have a study log I thought I would take a moment to check just how long I was away and discovered I remembered this all wrong.

Then on Monday the 15th:

Time to start this post over with some accuracy!

REFLECTIONS ON THE REAL LEVEL 5

This level was taken in vanilla order; level 4 vocabulary, level 5 radicals, level 5 kanji. It was also taken slowly and responsibly rather than smashing through dozens of items while sleep deprived and distracted (at least, not after that shocking Friday 12th). I remember being quite surprised when I found a radical in my lessons, doing all the radicals in one go, and finishing with a 1R/4K lesson because I did not have access to the lesson filter script to get that last radical on it’s own

The next day (or maybe that evening?) I continued with ~5 (I think? I am not actually sure, but my last batch of kanji was in a group of 5 so…) Kanji twice a day._{Okay this level I am making a post with my lesson plan + what actually happens and editing it throughout because I evidently cannot be trusted to remember. _{Not that I knew then that I would WANT to remember that much detail.}}

This start is the primary reason why this level was so much longer than last level. (13 days, compared to 8 days 15 hours) I would like to try for an 8-10 day rhythm this time, an 8 day schedule/plan with the expectation that life will get in the way just enough to stretch it up to 10 days. Although, if I need to consistently allow for up to 13 days a level then that is fine too, living life comes first! It is best to adjust my plan and my expectations to what is happening than to be stressed or dismayed at ‘falling behind’. - I will continue this train of thought in my Level 6 Plan post.

I have heard that level 5 is the level with the most items introduced out of all 60. It was rather shocking to see the number of available lessons when I levelled up, and that is a good experience I think. Because the level was fine, and I won’t be intimidated by high lesson numbers in the future. Just take them bit by bit (and don’t skip any)
High review numbers are a different matter altogether, I hope to be like the frog in boiling water with that inevitable future

I have recognised the importance of leach training, and yet, I don’t put it into practice. I would like to do better this level, and squash leaches early. Daily! Whichever way I find of putting this into action, I want it to happen.

Coddiwomple · June 26, 2020, 1:15am

Level 6 Plan
I have read a significant number of posts that describe learning a small number of radicals and kanji every day. I will try this method for level 6.
(I believe many of those posters also intended to take more than nine days for their level, but these are the fast levels so nine days is the plan!)

Day 1-4 is part one. It covers all 113 lessons I had available on level up. I do 1/4 of the radicals twice a day for the first two days (they are so easy and tasty it is hard to restrict myself to just 1/4!) and 1/8 of the available kanji (K₁) twice a day for the first four days. Because I still want to reach 0/0 at some point this level (the 0/0 club is too fun! I am on a 5 level streak right now I can’t skip level 6, even if it is intentional ) I want to have all my lessons done before my radicals and kanji from this morning reach guru and unlock yet more lessons .

Day 5-9 is part two. All remaining 144 level 6 items (+3 that haven’t unlocked yet due to one delayed kanji) are learned over 5 days. As the kanji unlock I complete them, I don’t know how even the spread will be as some radicals may unlock more or less than others, and I may have a few late unlocks due to getting radicals wrong, but they will all be learned by ~day 7, making my level up date ~day 9. Vocabulary will also be unlocking at this point, at an even more unpredictable pace. To try and smooth this out, my plan is to learn half the available vocabulary items at a time, as more Kanji should be reaching Guru at each morning/evening review. Or, I will just cover 5-10 vocabulary as mood and availability allows.

Morning of the 10th is potential level up!

Day	Morning Lessons	Evening Lessons	SRS notes	Item Notes	Self Study Quiz
1: 26/6	R6, K3, V10 [*]	R5, K3, V7 [*]		21R over 4 sessions	[*]
2: 27/6	R5, K3, V7 [*]	R5, K3, V8 [*]	Radicals complete	22K₁ over 8 sessions	[*]
3: 28/6	K3, V9 [*]	K3, V9 [*]		70 Vocab over 8 sessions (+3)	[*]
4: 29/6	K2, V10 [*]	K2, V10 [*]	Radicals and Kanji₁ start reaching Guru tonight.	If I do my lessons early this is 0/0 chance	[*]
5: 30/6	~~~5K, 1/2 V~~ 10K* 5V [*]	~~~5K~~ 10 V [*]			[*]
6: 1/7	4K, 1/2 V [*]	4K 1/2 V [*]	All R Guru, all K₁ Guru		[*]
7: 2/7	1K 4V [*]	10 V [*]			[*]
8: 3/7	1/2 V [*]	1/2 V [*]
9: 4/7	1/2 V	1/2 V
10: 5/7	… R?, K?, V?		All K₂ Guru.	Possible level up!

This is a ‘steady pace’ plan, let’s see how I like it! …It does not quite make the ‘slow’ category, averaging 29 lessons a day.
(I already want to go back and do all the radicals.)
(Maybe the temptation of those lessons can be a motivation to do leach squashing… I can’t do one part of the SRS system, so distract myself with another? )
I am not going to try for a specific hour for lessons/reviews, taking lessons some time between 6-10 is regular enough for me.
The level up email says this is the level to “control your Lessons and do your reviews every day”. It’s like こうち is watching me… (o_o*)
Out of curiosity, I did the maths. (disclaimer: I have not checked the maths. Lessons per day x 3.5 = total apprentice items with perfect accuracy and timing?). With perfect accuracy, 29 lessons a day produces an apprentice volume of 101.5 items. Surely no one, no where, has ever suggested keeping apprentice items below 100 is a useful rule of thumb Full steam ahead!
In light of my probable accuracy demands, I am adding a ‘self study quiz’ column.
I found the thread that got me thinking about this pattern.
I made my 0/0 goal! Plsplspls don’t end up regretting taking all these lessons on such a busy few days
*As I did Tuesday morning lessons on my phone, they were completed in vanilla order. All the kanji (I believe it was 10) and 5 vocabulary. In order to slow my level up, I should complete no more kanji tonight 30/06/2020
*Thursday, Day 7: with only feeling like taking 15 lessons today I felt I was going rather slow. However, there were only four more lessons available anyway when I did my evening session at 6pm. Now that I have finished my reviews, at 10pm, there are only 14 lessons available, and no more unlocking until 2pm tomorrow. Perhaps I shall chalk this one up to the guru-ed kanji not having that many associated vocabulary items. 66+14 vocabulary items to go!

Coddiwomple · June 27, 2020, 1:04pm

Level 6 Day 2 report!
Apprentice items peaked over 100 for a little this evening, but my reviews graduated enough items that I am now 91/378/267. I am sure that will increase tomorrow!

Having a plan this detailed is very… focused. I frequently need to remind myself that I am not, in fact, under any pressure and I don’t need to take my studies quite so seriously (still, the pseudo intensity is very fun. It can also be channeled productively, like ensuring I go to bed on time gotta be bright eyed and busy tailed for those reviews! )
However, that fake pressure makes overuse of the double check script highly enticing.
I was close enough, right? I got it right on my second guess, that is surely fine. I knew the right answer I just mispronounced it mentally as well as making a typo!
This is the first notable con to taking this many lessons a day. Even when my accuracy is over 90% (without fudging), I second guess whether that is ‘good enough’. What I happily let go last level, I want to change this level.
Responsible use of double check:

To fix genuine typo’s.
To test my recall of secondary meanings and readings that I do not commonly use
To give myself a chance to make a second, third, or even fourth guess at an item, before submitting the original, honest wrong answer and failing the item.

These are the guidelines I have been using since I installed the script, and these are the guidelines I will continue to use.

In other news! Today I:

Watched one CureDolly video.
Worked on my homework. Study sessions with my classmates are fun, but we don’t always get much done
Sat on the balcony and cracked open my little ‘kids first kanji’ workbook from the Japanese grocer (the one with the $2.50 section). I worked out that I know 78/80 kanji in the book, so I took a crack at it! Five kanji are covered at a time, over three sections. Section one, practice writing the kanji three times, and read a few examples of its use in vocabulary (from 一日 to 一石二鳥). Section two, select the correct reading for the kanji when used in sample sentences (一年生になる、一つのほし). Section three, select the correct kanji for the sample sentence/match the kanji to the provided furigana. (Some cool sayings given in this section: 一番星, 'the first star to appear in the evening. 三日ぼうず, ‘monk for three days’, or, ‘person who cannot stick to anything’. Translations may not be reliable.) It was fun, although it took too long to be a frequent form of practice.
Still poking at various learning tools online, but I did not find anything noteworthy. Although I did recommend the Jalup blog to my classmate who loves games. Oh! Stardew valley is on sale so I grabbed it with the intention of trying to play in Japanese. I have not looked into how to do that yet, or what level of reading is required. Almost certainly beyond what I am ready for today so I won’t be rushing that.
In other hobbies, one of the ladies at my craft circle has always wanted to learn how to make bobbin lace! I watched a video or two on youtube and I think we can do it! (there are lots of pins involved in making lace.)

There are thirty six reviews coming in over the next two hours. Do those, then straight to bed with Miss Womple it is!

P.S. I had two things to come back and add, what were they… Oh! Monday night/Tuesday morning won’t be good for study as I am out…

Minor panic

Reviews I can do my best, but lessons? There is no Lesson Filter on my phone! All my lessons would be kanji!

Fortunately, by Monday I will learned all the radicals and the first set of kanji, so I can simply take lessons in the vanilla order while maintaining my spacing. Pure luck that

Major Study Reflection
Taking time with the lessons is essential. ESSENTIAL. Rushing through a lesson before the end of the hour in order to stick to a schedule is most harmful for review accuracy. Either hide the clock, or take lessons in the first half of the hour, every time. (or, failing that, perhaps to take note of the items learned and commit to studying their pages separately…)
This might seem obvious, but experiencing the difference between leisurely and rushed lessons is far starker than I expected.

Rowena · June 27, 2020, 1:13pm

Oh how I need to work on this (spouse accidentally woke me at 5am this morning because I was still on the sofa with lights on when he came down to put on a load of laundry)!

Coddiwomple · June 27, 2020, 1:16pm

Oh no! That does not sound like a good night’s sleep at all! What were you doing when you fell asleep?

Rowena · June 27, 2020, 1:21pm

Snuggling with a storm-phobic dog