Made it to level 57!
I spent my usual fourteen days on the past level. I realized a few days ago that I was fast approaching my WK forum anniversary, and that that day was almost certainly going to coincide with my level-up day, so I wanted to get this post out as soon as possible so that I could post my year two overview (which should be coming very soon!).
Also, I’m going to be reducing my daily lesson count to 8 (3 kanji + 5 vocab) instead of 10. I came very, very close to running out of lessons at the end of this level, so I did a bit of math and realized that either I needed to do more kanji each day (and therefore level up quicker), or do fewer lessons each day and keep my two-week pace. I chose the latter because I think this is a better pace for Tobira, and I like using my WK level-ups to motivate me to stay on track with the textbook. The good news is it should lighten my review load a little bit, because I’ve had more older items coming back, and the latter half of the 50’s don’t tend to stick as well.
Last level was me sowing (neglecting my translations to work on some writing projects instead), so this level was me reaping (having to crunch extra hard to catch up on the translations before TJPW’s biggest show of the year) . I did kind of get into a groove with them, though, and they weren’t as hard as I was expecting! My stamina has improved a lot.
I tried timing myself for the first time, and I determined that at my current rate, it takes me about an hour to translate 600 characters. This includes the initial rough draft of the translation, researching the words and grammar I can’t figure out, watching the video and following along with the transcript, posting my questions in the pro wrestling thread, and then implementing edits and doing the final polishing.
So standard TJPW shows are about 2-4 hours of work, press conferences tend to be 4-8 hours (depending on if they have one or two parts), Korakuen shows are about 9-10 hours, and big shows like Wrestle Princess are like 15 hours. I’d estimate that maybe an average month’s worth of shows is about 20 hours (minimum) of translation work for me. This month is, uh, not an average month!
According to one of my friends, professional rates for a translator are like 500 characters an hour, which felt shockingly low to me, considering how so much of the time I spend on it is due to a lack of Japanese skill, which presumably a professional would not have to deal with . I think I still have plenty of room to get faster. I kind of wish I’d timed myself for some of the earlier ones, just to see how much I’ve already improved.
My burned item count as of the beginning of this level: 5556 (and 4100 on KW!)
Fun encounters with Japanese outside of WaniKani:
While watching a DDT show, I noticed these comments in the chat: “頑張れ電波!” “電波がんばれ”. I was like “Huh? Radio waves?” My immediate thought was that they were referencing ふりーWiFi (TJPW tag team consisting of Hikari Noa and Nao Kakuta. ビビビビビ!), but this was DDT, so that didn’t make any sense. Then I realized that the stream was bugging out, so the fans were trying to encourage the video signal the same way they’d cheer on a wrestler, haha! Here was another comment that made me smile: “このシングル楽しみだけど、電波…ファイト!”
I also was amused by this comment during a TJPW show from a fan who was remarking on Hyper Misao’s, er, way of schooling the rookies: “噓を教える悪いセンパイ” .
I found out that a friend I’d made in a pro wrestling discord is Japanese, though he’s not currently living in the country. He was incredibly charmed by the fact that I’m learning the language for wrestling, and that I’m attempting to translate TJPW. He also loved my senryu translations, and asked if I was familiar with kakekotoba (掛詞). I confessed that I wasn’t, so he linked me to this famous example. I’ll admit, it did my head in a little bit, haha!
This is another one that isn’t exactly “fun”, but the Pro Wrestling NOAH wrestler Daisuke Harada had to retire unexpectedly (after a 17 year long career) due to health concerns from a previous injury making it unsafe for him to keep wrestling. His retirement match was a one minute exhibition match with his longtime tag partner Atsushi Kotoge, who was also his debut opponent. Their tag team, 桃の青春, was one of my favorites in NOAH, so I was devastated to see Harada retire, but I was very touched that he chose Kotoge to be his retirement opponent.
They played a short video recapping Harada’s career before the match, and I think I understood almost all of it! It was mostly just a list of notable moments, with text in the corner of the screen giving the details, so it’s not a huge accomplishment or anything, but it was still nice to be able to fully appreciate the video. It’s amazing to me how Kotoge was there for practically every major moment in Harada’s career…
One of my friends found a Light/L Death Note doujinshi that I had stumbled across in a thrift store in Alaska and bought for her probably ten years ago. It occurred to me that I can in fact read Japanese now, so I asked my friend to photograph it for me so that we could finally understand the plot, haha.
It’s the Mother of Ultra!! Oh, sorry, the Mother of Ul*ra, ahaha.
I recognized her immediately thanks to having translated Kamiyu comparing Juria Nagano’s hairstyle to hers (see this post). I didn’t read enough of the doujinshi to get the full context for why she’s here, but I’m sure it’ll be an adventure.
上級へのとびら – Chapter 2
Managed to finish the second chapter, though it came kinda down to the wire. My translations have been keeping me busy, and there was a certain five hour AEW PPV last weekend…
とびら:今週末、何をしますか。
私: 日曜日には長いプロレスのPPVを見ますから、普通より土曜日にはもっと勉強しなければなりません。
This is another one where I feel like a lot of what the chapter taught me, at least in terms of the reading (which was on 日本語のスピーチレベル), was stuff I’d either picked up on my own or had learned though Tofugu and this forum and the like. It did occur to me that with my translations (and manga reading, honestly) I’m getting quite a lot of practice with 話し言葉 and not quite so much practice with 書き言葉, so that’s probably something I should keep in mind . I already feel like I have a tendency to answer the exercise questions with language that I encounter in my translations, which tends to be 話し言葉. I’ll eventually even this out a little more when I have the time/energy/skill to dive into reading novels in earnest.
I did laugh when the 読み物 mentioned different speech styles and warned that if a woman says “俺も腹へった”, people will be startled. I remember Shoko referring to herself and the rest of the TJPW roster (remember, this is a pink princess-themed women’s wrestling company) as “俺たち”, and I’ve heard the wrestlers use tough guy speak on multiple occasions, though perhaps not as commonly as wrestlers in other companies use it.
Reading/Listening:
Spanish: (reading: Cantoras) (listening: Bob Esponja)
I managed to get 29% of the way through Cantoras before the read every day challenge ended! I’m hoping I can finish it by the end of the next reading challenge.
I started watching Bob Esponja again for the listening challenge. I can’t tell if it’s any easier than the last time I watched some of it, though the difficulty usually varies pretty heavily depending on the episode. Some of the settings/themes are in areas where my vocabulary is a lot weaker, and my comprehension suffers as a result.
I finished the winter read every day challenge with a perfect score! As usual, I signed up for the listen every day challenge for the off-month. I haven’t really had to try at all to keep up with it with Japanese, since I’ve been really busy working on the translations and watching shows .
I translated two senryu!
I finished… a lot of TJPW translations . The Nagoya show was already partially done, though.
2023.02.18 TJPW CITY CIRCUIT WINTER~名古屋公演~ (part 2) — (24 words added + 2 kanji)
2023.02.21 KEIJI MUTO GRAND FINAL PRO-WRESTLING “LAST” LOVE ~HOLD OUT~ (TJPW portion) — (0 words added)
2023.02.22 TJPW press conference (part 2) — (20 words added + 2 kanji)
2023.02.25 TJPW CITY CIRCUIT WINTER~蒲田公演~ — (9 words added + 2 kanji)
2023.03.02 TJPW press conference (part 2) — (13 + words added + 3 kanji)
From the Nagoya show, I added 云 from the word 云々, meaning “and so on, and the like, etc.” (or “yadda yadda” as rodan put it), and I also added 溢 from the word 溢れる, meaning to overflow, to brim over, to flood.
From the first press conference, I added 絆 from the word 絆, which means bonds (between people), (emotional) ties, relationship, connection, link, and I also added 峙 from the word 対峙, which means confrontation, squaring off against, standing facing each other, etc. (I love this kanji!).
From the 2.25 show, I added 禄 (fief, allowance, pension, grant, happiness) from the word 貫禄, which means “presence; dignity”. I’m guessing that this one shares the same phonetic component as 録, which makes it nice and easy to remember. I also added 涛 (waves, billows) from the word 怒涛の勢い, which means “with great vigour; in leaps and bounds; with the force of surging waves”.
From the second press conference, I added 嫉 (another one with a phonetic component that I think I can guess, since I just learned 疾 a few levels ago. And hey, looking at the keisei script on that page, it looks like I’m right!) and 妬 from the word 嫉妬, meaning jealousy or envy. Both kanji have that same meaning. I also added 曖 (dark, not clear) from the word 曖昧, meaning vague; ambiguous; unclear. This is kind of a neat one because it looks like 愛 is the phonetic component (yep, checked the page, and sure enough!).
Very grateful for the keisei script for teaching me these things! And to rodan for the help as usual. I want everyone to appreciate their brilliant solution for translating the pun in Mahiro’s apology here: “睡魔”に負けて“すいま”せんでした” (“My falling asleep… was inexsnoozeable!!”).
New resources:
I finished getting my Notion page set up! It’s optimized for a smaller window, so it might look strange if you fullscreen it on a wide monitor. I even found a spot to feature my latest senryu translation on the main page. I compiled almost all of my senryu translations here, with the newest ones on top and the oldest ones on the bottom. I’ve done a lot more of these than I thought!
The 図書館 page has my progress on the actual books I’m reading (not a lot of activity there, as you could probably guess from all of the times I’ve posted about failing to make progress on my manga reading ), and the 勉強 page is mostly just a compilation of quick reference links for my TJPW translations and Japanese resources in general. I was going to delete the timer, but I decided to try it out first, and I found that having a timer running actually did help me be more productive. The spotify playlist on the main page is a bit vestigial, though. I don’t listen to music while studying, and I don’t really use spotify, but I liked how it looked aesthetically, so I kept it .
The sticky notes page is basically a collection of odds and ends that don’t really belong anywhere else, like Japanese study resources that I want to hold onto but aren’t actively using at the moment, various projects that I want to do but currently have on the backburner, etc. I also went back through my study log and compiled all of the media that was recommended to me or which sounded interesting according to other people’s descriptions. The list is almost entirely recommendations from other people, or paraphrased descriptions from my friends on discord or folks on twitter. At some point, I hope to get around to actually reading/watching some of the stuff on there!
I’ll probably add and remove stuff from Notion over time as my own process shifts, and as I start to check out the things that have been recommended to me, so don’t rely on it as a stable resource, haha, but pretty much everything in there will remain immortalized in this log. Notion is sort of just a distilled down version of my study process that cuts out all the messiness in my study log and threads like the senryu thread, so it’s a convenient resource hub, but all of my actual learning happens in the messiness, so I think of Notion as like something nice to have but optional.
Honestly, I’m glad I only found it fairly late into my language learning journey, because I feel like as a beginner, I would have either gotten overwhelmed by it, or would have gotten way too distracted trying to figure out the perfect way to study, haha. But at this point, I already know basically what works for me and what I’ve got going on and where I’m headed, so I can remove all of the chaff and just keep the stuff that I actually need and let it be a nice supplemental tool rather than taking over my studies.
I found out that unfortunately, Yomichan is no longer being maintained. The good news is that it looks like TheMoeWay has forked it and will be rebranding it as Yomitan. So that will be a bit of a shift, but hopefully not a huge one.
I discovered YomuJP from Tofugu’s Winter 2022 resources. It’s another place to go for free graded readers (they have stuff from N6 through N1). As I think I said before, I’m reaching a point where I feel increasingly less of a need for graded readers, so I haven’t felt particularly inclined to browse these, but I thought I’d hold onto the link in case I changed my mind.
MissDagger is starting a book club for A Dictionary of Japanese Grammar! As one of the enablers who encouraged her to start it, I’m totally planning on participating! The goal is to very gradually read through all three volumes of the dictionary cover to cover, with people encouraged to ask questions and share examples from their immersion along the way. Conveniently for me (and inconveniently for anyone who hates pro wrestling), I have compilations of my wrestling translations saved in easily searchable master documents, so people might be getting some TJPW examples, haha.
I think the timing of the club might actually work out just about perfectly for me. If we make it all the way to the advanced volume, and if I stay on pace with my own studies, I think I’ll be studying advanced grammar by that point. I just ordered myself a copy of the third volume, so I’ll be ready !
Next steps:
My immediate next step is finishing that year two overview!
Besides that, I’m about two (short) TJPW show translations away from being caught up, so I’m on track to finish those soon and then have a few days to rest until Grand Princess. Then I’ll, well, have Grand Princess to translate .
I think that’s enough to focus on for the time being.
Onward to level 58! 行くぞ!