About me: lifetime WK subscription Jan 2019, reached level 42 in 2020 then walked away from all things Japanese for sad reasons, reset to level 1 in May 2024 with the goal of learning to read.
Specific goals:
• Reach WK level 60 before my subscription expires.
• Read the two books of short stories I purchased in Japan.
• Read a modern Japanese novel that I have already read in English. Contenders include: Convenience Store Woman, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, The Lonesome Bodybuilder, All You Need Is Kill……
The plan:
• WK reviews daily. Lessons will be done based on my regularly irregular work schedule.
• Read one short story per day without taking notes. Reread incrementally and take notes.
• Watch general media with Japanese subtitles when available.
• Consider switching the language on one of my devices to Japanese.
Currently reading free stuff :
Learn Japanese Through Short Stories: 25 Unique Tales for Beginners to Grow Your Vocabulary by Fluency Pro. It’s an e-book available on Hoopla via my local library.
Free Tadoku Books. These are graded readers with audio at the lower levels.
KCよむよむ: A1 to A2 levels with audio available as an mp3 file.
Grammar and vocabulary resources:
japandict
gokugoku.app/japanese-grammar
wasabi
Google and Microsoft translator
Reached level 6 days ago with 30+ level 5 vocab untouched. The last 9 lessons start today. If anyone is reading this, I’m using WK in vanilla mode just like the first time. I do “cheat” with the back button when I make mistakes. The benefit is obvious. The punishment is that I have to redo all the progress made during that session.
Chapter 1 page 1: The Red Cat
道を歩いているときにある猫を見つけました。When she walked down the road, she found a cat. WK9見つける to find ^wondering why it’s a level 9 vocab^
そして、お父さんに赤い猫を見たことを伝えてみました。So she tried to tell her dad that she saw a red cat. ^the thing she tried to tell dad was …^ WK4見る to see ―てみます to try to… usually kana not 見; follows Te form of a verb ^had to look up what an auxiliary verb is^ WK4見せる to show WK5見える to be seen, to seem like
困惑したまま家に帰りました。She went home confused.
WK 20 and 27困惑 noun or participle taking the aux. verb する= bewilderment まま= as it is, without changing Plain form of the verb+まま usually in past tense.
その晩、いつもよりは早く寝ました。 That night, she went to bed earlier than usual.
より is placed between two terms (A) and (B) to indicate that (A) is more than (B). ^A= いつも B=早く This does not make sense…… could be an expression/idiom. ……いつもより is just an adverb that means more than usual. This took way too much time to figure out.
It does seem backwards. I was on the struggle bus for a while until I discovered that いつもより was one whole word to itself meaning “more than usual”, so we get more early (earlier) than usual.
Weekly wrap up
WK level 6 begins. I’ve decided to start with all the radicals first rather than let the system choose the lessons. My hope is that I will get to unlock the vocabulary sooner. WK has changed a lot since my first run. Why do we have vocab that’s only hiragana? Does that continue at all levels?
The context samples and sentences are much more useful now. Being able to see the next week’s review schedule is also helpful in planning how many lessons to do in the current week. Having to log in every 2 weeks is not a hassle at all for me. Slightly annoying is the primary meaning of some items has changed from what I remember them to be. Some of them seem to be made up for no particular reason. 未 radical is literally the kanji for not yet. Why rename it to jet?
What has not changed is the need to make up my own mnemonics. No shade on the WK team It’s got to be hard finding a connection that will resonate universally with all kinds of people. I tend to make up stories tied to a personal experience so it is much easier to recall.
Reading has progressed slowly. Should I be reading a lot or reading deeply? One story from the e-book took me the whole week to parse but only an hour to read. The library took the book back and now I have to wait a cooldown period to get It back. I did manage to read three more stories (out of 25) but did not dissect them for grammar and vocab. Based on the quizzes at the end of the stories, I did understand 70% of what I read.
Until I can borrow the e-book again, I will start the Tadoku level 2 graded readers. At first glance, this level has fewer pictures but lots of repetition of grammar/ vocab. Maybe the e-book is just too far ahead of my abilities.
Passive listening with NHK for Schools (this site has changed a lot as well). Grammar with ToKini Andy on youtube (highly recommended even though I am not using Genki)
Next week is a busy work week so WK will be once daily.
7PM just got home from work…doing WK reviews while eating a take out meal and listening to ToKiniAndy lesson 8 on YouTube. might read a tadoku story before bed.
7AM: WK reviews started before coworkers arrive. Home by 5:30 PM to do the rest and 15 lessons (all kanji). will try to end the night with a 0/0.
9:30 PM I did it. 0 lessons 0 reviews. Watched ToKini Andy 9 but did not do any reading… so tired.
@Jintor That makes a lot of sense. I just get a bit discouraged with the deep reading because it highlights how much I don’t know. Extensive reading allows me to pretend I know Japanese. @Nafets@RebBlue fingers crossed I’m no spring chicken.
Four 12 hour work days are harsh. I only consistently did WK reviews. Radicals for this level are done along with a small group of kanji. I also noticed some kana only vocab I could pick off. Will spend the long weekend playing catch up.
frankly, this lasts forever it feels like… but on the other hand, last year i wouldn’t have been able to just look at a random set of manga (or books, even, to some extent) and think ‘i can read this if i give it enough time’, and this year I can, so there’s a solid feeling of improvement I latch on to whenever I get too down.
Saturday, October 26, 2024
OK so the Tadoku level 2 graded readers jumped up in difficulty. This is mainly due to vocabulary rather than grammar. I switched to the KC graded readers and found a sweet spot with the A2 level. Read 4 stories with no real need to dissect them. They are a bit easy but fun to read. The one about emergency exits was actually informative.
Grammar with Tokini Andy is much easier to understand in the morning rather than right at bedtime. Go figure. Lesson 10 covered comparisons, “becoming”, intention and using で . The somewhere/nowhere words was less successful…basically just memorize them.
WK is flowing at a comfortable pace. I’m tempted to ramp it up on my slow work weeks but worry it will bite me in the behind the following weeks.
Radicals: all 19 guru
Kanji: 6 apprentice, 15 guru, 20 more unlocked
Vocabulary: 19 apprentice, 66 of 135 unlocked
Didn’t do any listening this week unless you count falling asleep to the entire Andy playlist.
Random comments from deep reading the 25 stories:
I looked up ながら once and now I see it everywhere.
To give: あげるvs くれる
To receive: に(thing given is not physical e.g. help or advice) vsから(thing given is physical e.g. book)
So many ways to say “and”: と、や、たり、て、くて、し, も、それに
So many ways to say “must do, have to, should” with distinctions for spoken vs written unless of course the written part is dialogue.
Recurring words: 最近 recently、例えば for example、涼しい cool (temperature)、探すto look for
Katakana: ダメno good だめ、ゴミばこ trash canごみばこ、パンキ paint ぺんき
10/27/2024: The last hurricane caused two ceiling leaks. A crew came by 10/25 to set up an industrial air cleaner and a heater. They are both very loud and run ceaselessly. The disruption and lack of sleep is most likely why I did not post this yesterday.
Did 10 WK lessons and all reviews. Popped into Duolingo just to see what’s new. I don’t recognize any part of the U I but my progress is still intact. Watched 2 Andy videos… fell asleep on video 12. Deep read one KC story and one from the e-book. No new grammar.
-大陸 continent た い り く (big land) JLPT N3
-保存 preservation ほ ぞ ん (protect exist) JLPT N3
-風邪 common cold か ぜ N.b. reading not related to kun or on
(wind injustice) JLPT N5 風邪をひく to catch a cold
10/28/24
Woke up after a rough sleep and turned off the air cleaner. Spent the next two hours on WK reviews, Duolingo until I ran out of hearts… it’s a fun and surprising diversion, rewatched Andy video 12 and fell asleep again in the same spot. After that good nap, the air machine went back on for the day.
This afternoon, the remediation crew returned and confirmed the walls are still wet. They really should just expose the studs but have to follow procedure…
Finished all WK reviews and spent 45 minutes reading a 550 字 story。 A good chunk of that time was spent learning the causative verb form and so many ways to say " if ".
たかしくん 「ポップコーン食べさせていい？」
おとうさん 「いいよ。でも、食べるかなあ」
かしら is the feminine way to say かな “I wonder”. おかあさん 「どうしてかしら。しらべてみなさい」
たかしくん 「もし車にひかれたらどうしよう」
Ending the day after reading two more KC stories totalling 700字.
10/29/2024
Good news Bad news: the walls are still wet but we have approval to “remove materials” i.e. expose the studs; time frame ???
Did WK reviews in AM
Reduced Apprentice count enough in PM to do 15 lessons of vocabulary
Duolingo until out of hearts.
Two more KC stories totaling 950字. Katakana
マンホール manhole シンボルマークsymbol mark i.e. logo マスコットキャラクター mascot character
Why are these katakana?イチョウ = いちょう ginko ヒマワリ = ひまわり sunflower Vocabulary
凹凸unevenness お う と つ (concave convex) 凸凹unevenness でこぼこ (convex concave) JLPT 2
感じるto feel, to sense, to experience かんじるJLPT N 3 風を感じて、空を見てください。
育むto raise, to bring up, to rear はぐくむJLPT N3 kanji
—Coincidentally found during Duolingo lessons 教育education, schoolingきょ う い く(teach raise) JLPT N4
Learned “Earth” then looked up the rest of the planets. Way to go Pluto bringing that King energy to the party. Coincidentally level 6 vocab includes some planets. Mercury was in tonight’s lesson.
solar system= big sunshine system sun =big sunshine
10/31/24
Good news Bad news: the walls are dry and the heavy machines were removed yesterday. Another crew came to take samples of the drywall presumably for mold but they are concerned about asbestos. Yikes.
Anyway, I did WK reviews as usual plus Duolingo. After that, I chose to reduce my screen time by writing in my paper journal. With Stranded Alien Dawn playing in the background, I made a progress tracker for my reading and grammar goals. Then, I spent the rest of my study time writing inane sentences using as much of what I learned this month (from all sources). This did not go too well since I cannot even write hiragana properly….back to digital then…. Me wondering if I can find a Japanese version of speech to text for my kindle.
Today: WK as usual plus 10 more lessons. I was in the middle of a Duolingo quest when the program froze then the UI changed. Instead of being on level 91, I am now section 4 unit 1 which is a topic completely different from what I was learning. There is no way to go back to before section 4 either. The only way out is forward.
I quick read a short story from the e-book and found it easier than the preceding ones. Hopefully, this means the deep read will be likewise. Feeling good about my progress overall. It has been a good month.
It should be more (B) than (A). More 早く than いつも, aka earlier than usual.
I’m no spring chicken. 
