Cutting Down Study Logs To Make A Study Home

[PlayTheSaturn]

Level 18

Happy Valentine’s Day to those celebrating! Hope you got to spend it doing something you love.

My girlfriend beat my tax returns and bought Genki for me, which I greatly appreciate. I still haven’t really decided how I’m going to study with it. I’m going to take a bit of time tomorrow to decide that by cracking open the books and seeing how they’re structured. Going in with a plan seems like the best, erm, plan.

I’m still regularly using Bunpro, which I’m genuinely proud of. I’m quite glad I was able to get my brain into the space of “check WaniKani, check Bunpro” whenever my alarms go off - even when the alarms aren’t for Bunpro. Once it hits the end of the month, I’ll probably consider it a “habit” of mine.

Otherwise, I am happy with my progression. I am unhappy with 勝手 as it has become a demon of mine. “As one pleases” and “victory” don’t really match together in my mind, but I’m doing my best. I was able to get it today and it’s still in Guru so I’ll take it I guess. I won’t hold my breath, though.

That’s all for today. I’ll see you next time with hopefully a Genki update! Hooray! :]

[tip]

@PlayTheSaturn

勝手 as it has become a demon of mine. “As one pleases” and “victory” don’t really match together

I made a visual memory for this based on an old movie called The Princess Bride. …he spreads his hands and declares her victorious.

[hrudey]

@tip

I made a visual memory for this based on an old movie called The Princess Bride. …he spreads his hands and declares her victorious.

I was today years old when I realized the Princess Bride is old and today years old when I decided to ignore that fact for the manyteenth time. But that’s an awesome mnemonic. I have used inconceivable as a user synonym I think on MaruMori for something meaning ridiculous IIRC.

[hrudey]

@hrudey

I was today years old when I realized the Princess Bride is old and today years old when I decided to ignore that fact for the manyteenth time. But that’s an awesome mnemonic. I have used inconceivable as a user synonym I think on MaruMori for something meaning ridiculous IIRC.

Ran across it less than a day later. Good times!

[PlayTheSaturn]

2/21/26 Study Update

Level 18

Howdy folks! Before I get into Genki, I am now engaged to my girlfriend of five years. Hooray!

I did some very light reading with Genki before I figured out a study method. I’d killed it over quite a bit and determined that it’s pretty hard to figure out how much time I’d realistically need per day. The goal is to at least finish a page a day when I get home from work to start with, ramping up as I gain some confidence. I’ll be completing the workbook as well, of course.

My Bunpro consistency continues, which has kept me quite content. I’m sure I’ll get overwhelmed once Genki gets added into my routine, but Bunpro is proof that I can do it!

WaniKani is progressing a bit slower than I wanted to, I don’t think I’ll be Level 19 come the end of the month but maybe I’ll just make it in time. My biggest issue right now is running into some vocab I haven’t seen in a hot minute and getting them wrong. Shout-out to 石ころ for humbling me today, as I was soooooo confident when I saw it but absolutely fumbled.

A bit of a shorter one today. I’m going to push to use Genki tomorrow in order to get the ball rolling. Thanks for stopping by, see you next time! :]

[hrudey]

@PlayTheSaturn

Howdy folks! Before I get into Genki, I am now engaged to my girlfriend of five years. Hooray!

Congratulations! That’s definitely the right thing to lead the study log with.

[taiyousea]

@PlayTheSaturn

I am now engaged to my girlfriend of five years. Hooray!

おめでとう!!!

[shitsurei]

Congratulations!! Someone who buys you Genki seems definitely like a keeper!!

[PlayTheSaturn]

Level 18

I’d like to start this by saying thank you to everyone for the congratulations. This is certainly a big step in my life and I’m glad to share it with such a supportive group of people. Thank you all for your continued input, advice, ideas, and wisdom.

I feel like I keep starting these with “today’s a short one” and then it’s not all that short. Anyway, today’s a short one. I want to talk about the feeling of absolutely CRUSHING a vocab you haven’t seen in a hot minute just to burn it. I had two instances of that today. The first one is 氏名 which isn’t too impressive, but it still felt good. I’ve been seeing 名 fairly frequently but 氏 hasn’t been in many reviews for a while. It felt even better to take on 必ず without any hiccups. For whatever reason, the かなら reading really stuck with me (so much that it has messed me up in words like 必死). That has probably been the height of my day so far, lol.

I didn’t get started on Genki as I had a super busy weekend. However, I should have time to get cracking tonight.

Thanks for stopping by, see you next time! :]

[PlayTheSaturn]

Level 19

Feburary’s over! Happy March, the month where winter and spring fight to the death (at least that’s how it happens in the Midwest) until spring eventually wins. Now to talk about a few goals I had in February and if I accomplished those, as well as my usual numbers talk.

In terms of programs to get into using regularly, I wanted to start using Anki at least semi-reguladly, and Bunpro multiple times a day. Along the way I stumbled upon Cure Dolly’s videos, and my fiancé gifted me Genki 1 and 2 for Valentine’s Day. Out of all of these, I’ve only been able to stick with one: Bunpro. Every day I was able to continuously review Grammar through Bunpro! I never got started with Anki, and Cure Dolly’s videos I eventually fell off, but plan on hopping back on. Genki is awkward for me to fit into my schedule, but I think I’ve figured out a way to use it at least twice a week.

Here’s my heatmap for February. Pretty proud of this. Since starting these study logs, this is the only month I’ve had fully red.

In comparison to this is probably the first month where I had less Reviews and Lessons in comparison to the last, although not by much! One more day and I would’ve been ahead.

I really love the new dashboard (I guess it’s not new anymore, huh…) for all of the analytics you can give yourself. Here’s my daily learning percentage. I think the number’s probably a little high.

Anyway, time to talk about MARCH, my favorite month synonymous with a method of movement.

I have two goals for March:

• Get Genki in my routine
• Use Bunpro even more

If there’s anything to be proven from last month, I can add things to my routine if I have a plan from the get-go. For a while with Genki, I didn’t, but now on my two days off a week I have 2 hours of free time in the morning, some of which will be designated as Genki time. Tomorrow is the first Monday of the month, so I’m going to give it a shot!

As always, thanks for stopping by. I’ll see you next time! :]

[PlayTheSaturn]

Level 19

Spent two hours with Genki yesterday, made some progress. I’ve decided to do the thing that schools hate you for: writing in the textbook! I think I’m going to have sticky notes on the side with regular notebook paper so I don’t write directly into the book. I know it’s only the first couple of pages, but being able to read some of these initial exchanges without any issue aside from expressions I’d never heard of (あの is a good example, even though I’ve heard that one in anime before so I was able to figure it out). Did Genki ask me to translate the first conversation example? No! I did it because I felt like it!

That’s all I wanted to say today! Thanks for stopping by, see you next time! :]

[PlayTheSaturn]

Level 19

Howdy, howdy. Worked some more on Genki yesterday. I’d love to fit it into three days a week, but I currently don’t see how possible that is with my current work schedule. Maybe I can wake up earlier each day to tackle a little Genki each day, instead of spending 2-3 straight hours of Genki twice a week. Either way, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to keep at this one for a while.

I think now’s the time I need to take listening fairly seriously. I work in a pretty busy office, so I can’t really sharpen my listening skills in there (at least not yet) as that would be far too distracting. Once I’m off my shift today, I’m going to try throwing a podcast on that focuses on listening, although my expectations aren’t very high to start with. My goal in the car is to, at the very least, understand some content. I don’t expect to be able to understand everything. Today I’m starting with Bite Size Japanese on Spotify, but I’m also interested in Japanese with Shun. I may decide to flip-flop between the two, one for my commute to work and one for going back home.

I’ve found when listening to music, I can understand a bit of what they’re singing, and I hope to be able to accomplish that with these. I’ll let you all know how that goes!

That’s all for now. Thanks for stopping by! :]

[PlayTheSaturn]

Quickly going to update!

@PlayTheSaturn

Today I’m starting with Bite Size Japanese on Spotify, but I’m also interested in Japanese with Shun. I may decide to flip-flop between the two, one for my commute to work and one for going back home.

This didn’t go well. I listened to the first two episodes of Bite Size Japanese and the pace was too fast and I don’t think my grammar has come along far enough to understand. I didn’t expect to understand everything, but I definitely need to take a step back. Listening is still important, though, so I’m going to try listening through YouTube while I’m at home (probably not today). I’m going to try listening to Shun’s podcast at a slow rate to see if I can handle that, if not I’ll dial it back even further and find something that’s considered easier.

This is a pretty big reminder to me that I really need to push my grammar studies, so I’m going to devise a plan to improve the rate at which I study grammar. I definitely need more studying, that’s for sure. I’ll come up with that plan either tonight or tomorrow, and share it here so I can stick to it.

[PlayTheSaturn]

Level 19

The Grand Grammar Gambit

I couldn’t think of a better name.

I took some time last night before falling asleep to hash out a couple of ideas for studying grammar more effectively, and ultimately came to a couple of conclusions:

• I’m terrible at taking notes, especially organizing them in a coherent way.
• Bunpro isn’t enough grammar application. It’s good for introducing new concepts, but it needs supplemental teaching in order for it be useful for me. Genki should help with this a ton.
• Since I only use Genki a couple of times a week, I either need to increase my Genki usage or have something else fill in the gaps.

These conclusions led to the inception of the Grand Grammar Gambit! I’m starting to like the sounds of it now. Proudly wielding my grammar hammer, I shall master Japanese grammar! Maybe not master, but I’ll hopefully understand it a bit better with the following plan.

• I own three books that are dedicated to grammar. I own Genki, All About Particles: A Handful of Japanese Function Words, and A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. I should probably use more than just Genki, no?
• A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar (aka DBJG from now on) is going to be how I primarily study now. I’d like to, well, read the whole thing. 600 something pages. I’ll be using DBJG to structure my notes, directly following the order that DBJG is in. Any Bunpro or Genki grammar points will be studied in DBJG as I encounter them.
• I’m ditching Obsidian. I like it, but not enough to warrant dealing with its downsides. I use three devices and don’t want to pay for syncing between all three. I’m going to go through an experimental phase of trying different software. Logseq is up first, I’ll see how I like it in a week or two.
• Studying from DBJG is probably going to be difficult at first. There’s a lot of terminology and I don’t understand English grammar all that well, so reading a book all about grammar is going to be like running headfirst into a wall initially. However, I fully intend on sticking with it. I’ll be reading the book alphabetically.
• Anything learned from Genki or Bunpro, supplement with DBJG. For additional examples or context, I’ll also be using imabi. I’ve used it before, but I’d really like to get back into the swing of things.

There it is, the Grand Grammar Gambit. I’ll update with how the first day goes, which is today.

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon! :]

[hrudey]

@PlayTheSaturn

The Grand Grammar Gambit

I couldn’t think of a better name.

I’m going to read it (the name) mostly literally and assume you’re going to entice Grammar into thinking it gets the better of you, and then you’ll reveal that you are winning after all.

[PlayTheSaturn]

The Grand Grammar Gambit

Level 19

Update time. I still resonate with the idea, but my note taking strategies are all wrong. I’m loading far too much onto the page of information that is unnecessary. So, I’m going to research some note-taking strategies to ultimately make my life easier and make it so I’m not taking notes for 2 or 3 entries over the course of an hour. For now, sleep!

[PlayTheSaturn]

The Grand Grammar Gambit

Level 19

All right, with a bit more planning, I’ve come to a few conclusions. Notes are for quickly referencing, so now my notes on each item in DBJG is going to be pretty short. If the entry has a polite form I’ll show both forms. Logseq has a pretty neat flashcard feature that should allow me to create notes that I can actually use to study with.

Once I get home, I’ll try it out. I’ll make sure to put the page to the entry in DBJG and also to imabi (assuming the page exists).

Prepare for more updates later today. o7

[hrudey]

@PlayTheSaturn

All right, with a bit more planning, I’ve come to a few conclusions. Notes are for quickly referencing, so now my notes on each item in DBJG is going to be pretty short. If the entry has a polite form I’ll show both forms. Logseq has a pretty neat flashcard feature that should allow me to create notes that I can actually use to study with.

Sounds like a good (and quick!) pivot. I actually got into the habit when I was starting grammar in MaruMori of trying to do notes for every grammar point, which usually ended up with bullet points and a link to the lesson. And then when I found I was struggling and some couple of hundred lessons in, no matter how I tried to organize in OneNote, I couldn’t find what I was looking for easily and seeing them didn’t help, and the amount of time wasted was disheartening.

But I’m not a good note taker in general either so it was a case of me trying to do what “should” be done rather than what would likely work for you. Sounds like you’ve got a better grip on it.

[PlayTheSaturn]

The Grand Grammar Gambit

Level 20

I took shorter notes, but they were still probably too long. I’m trying an additional method on the side for short-form notes which is a spreadsheet. I’m a freak who enjoys creating spreadsheets, so I have a feeling that this method will work pretty well for me. However, I am still going to be taking traditional notes in Logseq to see if it helps some grammar points stick. Lengthier notes are probably going to be helpful for more complex grammar as well, but I don’t want to sink too much time in if it isn’t going to help.

I find that taking notes in a spreadsheet kind of forces me to take notes on the important things. It can’t be too much info, or else the sheet isn’t easily searchable or human readable. It allows me to easily group different entries together, whether they’re coming from DBJG, Bunpro, CureDolly, Imabi, or anything else, I can find the link that connects them together fairly easily. Verb conjugations on here are a no-brainer.

Note: This was supposed to be sent yesterday, but I guess I forgot to send the darn thing, so here’s a little Genki update:

I’m using it. I should use it more, but I’m glad I’m using it at least twice a week for 2 hours at a time. I get pretty well focused on it. I do appreciate the listening comprehension the app provides, as well, that’s a nice feature.

That’s it for now, thanks for stopping by and see you next time! :]

[PlayTheSaturn]

Worth mentioning: Level 19 felt really short. I normally take around two weeks go clear out a level, so doing it 4 days sooner just feels weird. I tried a new strategy for this one, studying all of the radicals first instead of letting it pick for me.