There is unfortunately one more pandemic related update
So, about those boostersā¦ yeah, fiancĆ©e and I are still not really feeling quite normal. Seems like people who had/have long covid, while they sometimes see improvement from vaccines (and I did see the last of it go away a while after my last shot so itās hard to say if it did or didnāt ultimately help), itās also not too uncommon to have a sort of resurgence with shots. Itās less bad than before, thankfully, and it hasnāt impeded me TOO much because it comes and goes through the hours of the day, just like it did back thenā¦ but sometimes I just have feel malaise for some hours, every day I feel like I have a fever for part of it, Iām working on building back endurance to do normal things like stand for a while, etc. No fun! Today has been kind of worse and Iāve wasted a lot of hours not doing much, which is frustrating.
That said, when I can manage, on I go. Iāve finally finished the second case in Ace Attorney! From this game alone I believe Iāve mined over 300 words already (doing a few too many per day in my voraciousness, to be honest). I havenāt had many roadblocks learning this way, and itās been the best of my Japanese learning yet. I love seeing how Redd White, who in the localization was made to use words like āSplendiferousā and āGiantesque,ā in the original, he just peppered basic English words throughout his speech (written phonetically in katakana and not always used well), and would not shut up about how he spent time America. Itās a totally different character trait, in one sense.
I also came across this absolute nightmare of onomatopoeia, haha. I think itās actually helping me remember those words.
On the other fronts? Well, Wanikani is still happening. Nothing too exciting to say there. Iām still excited to learn more kanji but the more my reading comfort creeps upwards, the more I feel the pull to get to doing that, which is great honestly. WK kanji stick with me well, so thus far I think Iāll stick it out all the way to 60, but who knows what the future holds.
I mentioned it elsewhere, but I also picked up Paper Mario! There are some bits I have to give up on, but Iām treating it as a nice extensive reading break, where I just do my best to understand and then move on, no dictionaries. And I understand quite a bit overall, but at the same time, there is clearly so much a child is expected to know that Iām nowhere near still, heh.
ā¦like spoken Japanese! Here and there Iām watching Midnight Diner and K-On to practice my listening, but listening hasnāt become easy enough to not get a little disheartening and frustrating, so I do it in small bits compared to reading. I know listening is its own skill that has to be practiced, in order to even properly hear the words I do āknow,ā but at the same time, since reading will both teach me new words easier and get the words I know more deeply ingrained and natural through repetition, part of me wonders if the key to better listening is just to keep my head in the books for a little longer before gradually shifting more attention to that skill specifically. Hard to say.
Lastly, since we were both not feeling super well, my fiancĆ©e and I exchanged a single early Christmas gift, and she was very nice to get me Azumanga Daioh, since I loved Yotsubato so much! It turns out that has no furigana, which is inconvenient since itās physical as well, but I dragged myself through a chapter looking up kanji by radicals because I REALLY want to read it. Luckily the actual writing has been basic and easy so far; the unfamiliar kanji are all that cause me issues.
Thatās all Iāve got I think! Hoping I find a little more energy to read tonight, cause today has been the least Iāve done in a while. I want to, just not quite mentally there. These days happen and we get through them <3.
