Week 54. Took a day off from Japanese studies yesterday due to travelling.
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Grammar and KD anki deck: continued as before. Mature cards now number over 700 
, yet median difficulty sits stubbornly at 97%. Am I retaining much?!
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Listening comprehension: reached episode 7 of the フリーレン anime and shadowed through the episode of Speak Japanese Naturally about communal cats (yes, it’s a thing!). That went by quickly, no time to fall asleep 
The bear alerts broadcasted on public speakers sounded spooky… maybe enough to shoo away the bears?!
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Reading: reached story 113 on shinobi, the grammar is getting harder for me. There’re some weird translations that make me wonder how reliable are the Japanese sentences 
Decided to binge read one evening half a dozen stories on Todaii, which are taken directly from news articles. Bears are a problem this year in Japan. Reached dream 6 of Sōseki’s Ten nights of dreams. Rather bleak. He must have been fun at parties 
3 Likes
Week 56. Very busy week, still managed daily Japanese studies.
- Grammar and anki decks: briefly checked a couple of tofugu articles but otherwise just got on with the reviews. With my choice of settings, total daily review time is under half an hour. Very glad I’m doing both Kanji vocabulary and listening comprehension deck. They reinforce each other nicely.
- Listening comprehension: 2 more episodes of フリーレン, our subscription ends this week though, so probably won’t get to the series’ end. Oh well, happy to switch to something else with perhaps more standard Japanese than anime speak?
- Reading: reached story 136 on Shinobi. The difficulty grading is a bit weird and some content reads like TV ads from the 50s, but overall it seems to have improved my reading and listening skills through gradual introduction of new grammar constructs and constant repetition. In hindsight, I started on Satori Reader too early to truly retain anything from their extensive grammar notes.
- Manga: bought the old ドラゴンボール booklets 3 and 4, to read over the holidays
4 Likes
Week 57. Somehow I missed the 1 year mark 
Can’t believe it’s been that long. Time to look back and reflect.
Kanji SRS
Anki stats for the Kanji Damage deck tell me I have been studying regularly since the 2nd week of January. It took me a couple of weeks to figure out how to actually use the deck 
, but then I got through the daily reviews with few days missed.
It took me several months to switch to FSRS…and finally reach a sustainable 50-items per review session. Before that, I was doing reviews the WaniKani way, adding 5 new items daily no matter what. This led to large number of failures for both older (red) and new kanji cards (orange), and ever longer reviews.
The chart above sums 5 days of reviews per bar. Anki also gives the daily success rate for the last 3 months, and lately it looks like I’ve been struggling to absorb new material, as shown by the big orange bars:
Did I retain anything? Here I’m not entirely sure how to read the stats. From the number of reviews per card, I’m a bit shocked to see a very long list of kanjis with over 50 reviews. Agreggate stats:
To me the graph says there’s a good chance I will retain about 200 kanjis, and no chance in hell I will remember the rest (700 kanjis at >95% difficulty). Also I will forget most of what I’ve learned within a month. I suppose 200 kanjis is better than nothing, but yikes 
Am I missing something? My recall numbers aren’t that great, but I can’t quite see how they relate to the numbers above:
The right hand scale confuses me: it does not match the percent correct answers in the box that pops up when I hover over a bar. One thing is certain though: I should avoid late night and very early morning reviews
4 Likes
Weeks 58-60. Lots of travel and socializing.
- Anki decks: just about managed daily reviews. Thoughl my settings set the daily limit per deck to at most 50 reviews, the stats don’t take into account timezone changes. Goodbye streak
- Reading: completed all levels on Shinobi. I like the concept of reading increasingly complex texts, but was longing for grammar explanations, and got confused by oddities in the AI generated content. Still, I only used the free version, so really can’t complain. In principle it could fill the gap between Tadoku and Satori reader. Pondering whether to give Satori another shot
? It will be a relief to hear the voice and read notes produced by a real person . Packed vol 3 of ドラゴンボール manga to read on the plane… and managed to lose it somewhere along the way 
- Listening: watched 2 more episodes of フリーレン before our sub ran out and the last couple of videos on Speak Japanese naturally.
Passed by the Latin Quarter in Paris, and was struck by the number of manga shops at every corner.
5 Likes
Week 63. Week started well, then workload went off the charts. Allocating remaining energy to family and quality time with spouse. Barely kept up with anki reviews and fell asleep listening to anime snippets on the JLab deck. Also fell asleep while reading the first 3 episodes of Kona’s big adventure II.
6 Likes
Week 64.
Reading: finally started Volume 3 of ドラゴンボール. With no prospect of getting my hard copy back, I finally ordered my first e-manga on Bookwalker and started reading it on my tablet. Worked great 
. Reached episode 12 of Kona II and caught up with 変わらないもの on Satori.
Grammar: human Japanese on Satori. This is so well done, instead of breezing through the basic material , I’m enjoying the journey, reading and listening to all the extra examples, doing the quizzes and taking a break with the cultural interludes.
Listening: “How Japanese children learn kanji” was interesting … they learn by writing and only memorize the KUN reading. ON readings are introduced later with compound words and there’s no point memorising because there’s furigana. In some ways I ended up doing the same with the KD deck: instead of struggling to remember the ON, I’ve been memorizing the jukugo that appears on the front of each card.
7 Likes
Week 65.
Reading: Satori stats say I read every day this week Reached episode 19 of Kona II and p50 of ドラゴンボール. Word of the day: 一目散.
Grammar and KD deck: moving along. Doing my reviews earlier during the day seems to have improved my accuracy somewhat. It looks like I squashed a few leeches… as well as gained new ones My brain refuses to store the meaning of 卓
Listening comprehension: audio clips on Jlab are getting longer, and harder to understand. Good practice. Binge watched several episodes of Black Clover one evening for a change. Lots of echos of Harry Potter, except the main character is the underdog. The original manga is apparently inspired by Dragon Ball… wouldn’t have guessed from the anime, maybe it got watered down?
5 Likes
Week 66.
Reading: reached episode 41 of Kona II on Satori and p69 of ドラゴンボール. I’m glad I chose that hilarious manga to lift up my day 
. A number of stories on Satory tend to be rather gloomy with little action or suspense, and Kona II appears to follow that trend. Explanations and audio are great, though.
Grammar: still enjoying Human Japanese very much.
KD deck : average accuracy during reviews dropped below 80% this week: I got stumped on old cards and new material is taking longer to learn. Not sure if it’s due to the material itself or simply that as I go through the deck, I encounter more kanji that looks similar to previous ones and it takes longer to recall the difference. It’ll be interesting to see how the FSRS algorithm adapts to the increased failure rate. From my stats it seems like I know a core 250 kanjis and can maintain a few more with daily SRS. The rest are piling up in the 95-100% difficulty bucket. Does this mean I will eventually reach a state where I fail most items during review ?
Listening: working through the JLab deck to gain more exposure to anime dialogues, with regular look ups on Tae Kim for extra grammar. I like reading the comments from the deck’s author; he doesn’t shy from sharing his struggles with the language. The double negative is a killer …
5 Likes
Week 67.
Reached p89 of my manga and episode 47 of Kona 2 on Satori. Finally we get some more uplifting material and the promise of some action 
KD deck: forced myself to get through reviews quickly and ruthlessly fail a card when I start to hesitate. Overall accuracy increased . Still new cards only appear very rarely, less than one a day on average… with over 500 new cards to go this is going to be a long slog.
Listened to the last 2 episodes of Speak Japanese Naturally and tried to shadow. Dialogs are still blazing fast, but I’m starting to catch fragments here and there. Great views from that 40th+ floor in Shibuya!
2 Likes
Week 68.
Reading:ドラゴンボール vol. 3 reached p.120. Sentence of the day: キョロキョロしてまいごになるなよ. The whole 修業 section had me 
Satori: Kona II reached episode 58.
KD deck: new cards appeared once this week and I thoroughly flunked it. It took me an average of 7 repetitions per new card to memorize the meaning . Brain refuses to learn new kanji. The FSRS adapts accordingly and is not serving any new lessons for now. Fine with me!
Human Japanese: very enjoyable section on adjectives, clear and concise. Also shows that it’s possible to teach how Japanese adjectives work without kanji, surprisingly.
4 Likes
Week 69. Where did that week go?! Glad this log exists, or else I would think not much happened with my Japanese studies. Turns out I binge read at the beginning of the week and slacked off later 
Reading:
- ドラゴンボール vol. 3 reached p.164. Sentence of the day: 目潰しや急所攻撃反則です. First time I stumbled on 金玉 written in katakana. Are naughty words supposed to be funnier in that script ?!?
- Satori: Kona II reached episode 68.
Anki decks: daily KD reviews are the anchor of my Japanese studies, rain or shine. I’ve slowed down a bit with the JLab deck, but finally caught up. The double negatives are really a world in themselves.
3 Likes
Week 70.
Reading:
- ドラゴンボール vol. 3
Wish I could hear my 8-year old self giggle at all the silly 屁 jokes 
. That was my first experience with Book Walker and I’m quite pleased with it. The iPad interface is a bit clunky; zooming in and out occasionally causes the window to freeze. Not a big deal. I can’t wait to explore more of the titles on offer. In the meantime, onwards with my hardcopy of vol 4!
- Satori: Kona II reached episode 76.
Anki:
KD deck: after some quick research on YT, decided to reduce the slog by adjusting the FSRS retention rate down to the recommended 85%. This happens to match my yearly average, so in theory this should get me through the rest of the deck faster without affecting retention. I also reset the default behaviour for leeches, i.e. suspend those cards after 8 consecutive lapses. Time will tell if this was a good idea… and whether it was wise to follow this guy: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RqeGzPkA4H4
3 Likes
Week 71. Productive week, managed to read every day
Reading:
- ドラゴンボールvol4: reached chapter 36.
- Satori: Kona II The story felt a bit disjointed at times, with chapters alternating between gripping action and philosophical musing. Before I embark on a new story, I decided to pick up ‘John and friends’ again and try to finish it. Reached episode 71.
- Finished Sōseki’s Ten Nights of Dreams. 豚 obsessions are a thing. The story was weird and unsettling like the others, with flashes of humour. Sentence of the day 庄太郎は豚と雲右衛門が大嫌だった。Looks like Kumoemon was a popular singer with impressive hair. Sounds familiar
Listening:
Caught up with Speak Japanese Naturally and watched an old Moomin episode about a Phoenix.
Anki:
- KD deck: finally seeing more new cards after adjusting the FSRS. Average pass rate dropped to 83%, so expecting some reduction in new items over the next days.
- JLab deck: I like that it introduces one new grammar point at a time, with lots of examples.I sometimes wished I could see the full sentence, instead of just the snippet.
Grammar
- Human Japanese: completed 3 chapters, all short. These are fairly easy after going through Genki I and II, though I keep bumping into ‘surprises’ where I draw a complete blank Better plug those holes before I dig into the intermediate content!
4 Likes
Week 72.
Reading:
- ドラゴンボール. 其之三十七. Love the graphics and irreverent humour
- Satori: reached episode 77 of John and Friends. Gave Yuyu podcast another go after a long hiatus: finally the fog is starting to lift. His delivery still feels rushed, but I can catch enough words to guess the meaning. I then read the transcripts and notes, then listen again. Great practice.
Grammar
- Human Japanese: finished reviewing the basic material, onwards with the Intermediate section! This resource is really well done. Best of all it is accessible to beginners with no kanji knowledge. I thought it would be annoying to have all examples in the main text in kana, but I was wrong. As I went through the Extra Credit examples on Satori with full kanji turned on, I found that knowing the kana helped to remember the kanji.
KD deck
Despite a couple of bad review sessions, was doing well enough wih the mature cards to get a decent chunk of new cards every day. My latest leeches are pairs of kanji that have related meanings but look different, and unfortunately pop up together during reviews: 膨 and 腫, 揮 and 振. Fortuitously, 振 appeared in one of the episodes of John and Friends this week, as 振り込む to make a payment via bank transfer. I should recall that one now 
5 Likes
Week 73. Wondering how weird it will be to read this in 5 years time. The world is on fire and I’m studying Japanese.
Reading:
- Satori: finished John and friends. Started The Bartender, episodes 1 to 3. Listened to Yuyu and was struck by how repetitive he sounded. Does ですけど generally appear that often in daily conversations?
Grammar
- Human Japanese Intermediate: completed long intro and chapter 1. Thought I could breeze through it until I failed the first set of tests . Damn those pesky little words that ought to take a particle but don’t
Anki decks
- KD kanji : A bit surprised that more new cards keep appearing in reviews despite general drop in retention. It’s getting harder to learn new kanji. Leech count now at 51, with 12 cards automatically suspended.
- JLab: the literal translations provided are getting wilder, to the point where I can’t make sense of it. I also can’t help fixing the syntax of the notes and grammar explanations, which is a bit silly and takes time away from reviewing .
5 Likes
Indeed
Then again, unlike the infamous meme about the dog sipping tea in a burning house, it’s not like we can do anything about the situation, except for panicking, which would only make things worse…
So, studying Japanese in such a situation is actually a wise thing to do…
But I do hope that 5 years from now the world would be a much more peaceful place and we would still exist and this community would still exist and we would still be able to study Japanese and talk about it here!
So, best of luck with your studies and other cativities – and may the Great Cat of Safety purrotect you and your family and your friends from our fiery times 
1 Like
?
! The voice acting is great on this app. I’m getting more listening exposure with the YuYu podcast, and started daily grammar practice again with the Human Japanese series that comes bundled with the sub. Sweet.
. Some of the demonstratives keep tripping me up, so it’s been good to go through the basics before plunging back into the intermediate content.
