Well, itās been two years. Thereās always that weird feeling with time where I could both think Iāve been doing this most of my life, but at the same time, two whole years already? Last time I took that N2 practice test (barely passed!) to have some show of my abilities, but thereās nothing too special this time. Briefly toyed with the idea of taking an N1, but that sounds dull and tiring tbh, and who knows if Iād pass. Donāt need the pseudo validation right now. This yearās been a bit rougher as I took an actual break for a couple months, but Iām back at it, and that in itself is a success of a sort.
I guess above all else, I completed the transition to just using native media totally to learn this year. I quit WK at level 58 or something (lol), and now I just read and watch things exclusively. Still going without Anki so far ā sometimes I find my memory for new things a little lacking and start wondering if it would help, but it sounds tiresome right now so Iām not bothering. Still struggle with the language in a lot of ways, but Iāve finally started just doing whatever with no regard for easy lookups, playing videogames like Octopath Traveler 2 and Tears of the Kingdom and looking up what I need to. Enough comfort to move in that direction and not have it grind playthroughs to a halt is real progress. And I donāt really think about reading difficulty ever anymore. Iām sure I could be hit with all sorts of things too hard for me at some point, but itās not a leading factor in choices like it used to have to be. Most grammar feels far more intuitive by now. Am I missing nuances? Who knows, I can read so much of it more naturally without having to stop to puzzle through bits, so itās mainly just unknown vocab that is the enemy, as it will be forever.
Listening isā¦ better? Iām doing alright with random streams and youtube videos I think. Sometime soon I need to try movies and the like again, give myself a real test and see how usable I think my skills are right now. Still a long way to go in learning words, Iām sure, but last year I found listening nearly insurmountable still so I think thatās progress.
I ended up not bothering with that whole Lost Judgment playthrough cause I was stressed and struggling then, so thatās a goal āfailed,ā but itās ok. I do want to give that another go soon. Iām not going to set any specific things to do as a goal now, but I think I can increasingly turn the things Iād already do to Japanese and get by, and feel less fatigued from time spent in the language, so Iām hoping this year really snowballs from the point Iām at. I seem to read 9-Nine- (my only current read with a reliable character count) at above 5000 characters per hour which is a bit of a speed increase, and doing a little over 10,000 per day with it is now the norm for me, when it used to be where Iād stop on particularly ambitious days. Gotta get that speed up so the visual novel club can read exciting, long things
I feel like I somewhat was convinced to start this by being a little misled by how much work is still involved in ājust look up words you donāt know.ā Like, this is sort of more difficult than I hoped it would be at 2 years? At the same time though, I think my progress is a lot better than average for 2 years (thanks loads of free time) and Iām not really dissatisfied now that Iām here. Itās something you have to adjust to as you come to understand it better, I guess.