Japanese Advent Calendar 2022 🎄 🇯🇵

I’m sorry to have made you uncomfortable

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December 6

Winter song
Kanji writing
Origami

Winter song

Today’s song had so many surprises for me:

  • Non-japanese singing in Japanese was a first for me to see!
  • English verses after the Japanese verse
  • Rapping on two occasions

So much diversity!! From instruments, to kind of singing, to language and race! I just love it! I also wanted to look up the english translation and found the original song, which I also enjoyed. It seems the original song was about a break up? Is this new song answering to that? Is it a happy ending now?

Reading more into the lyrics of the one that was linked, I’m not sure I really understood the story it’s trying to tell. I couldn’t make sense of any of the english lyrics, tbh.

Kanji writing

Yayyy! I love today’s pick because I looked through the list beforehand and was thinking to practice this one.

Words of interest not already posted:

  • 気楽「きらく」carefree, comfortable; easygoing, happy-go-lucky
  • お気に入り「おきにいり」favorite, pet (teacher’s pet); bookmark (in web browser)
  • 気候変動「きこうへんどう」climate change
Origami

Was honestly intimidated by this one watching the first few seconds of the video. But it was easier than I expected! I think I’ll be sending the toys I make to my nephew! :slight_smile:

Replies

@Beyond_Sleepy it will only get better as you practice! I think they look good considering this is your first time trying! I’ve had a lot of practice with also learning Hangeul previously and I learned the kana writing way back like 10 years ago. Kanji is definitely way more difficult! Tried out free style this day’s kanji btw. And will download the pilot episode of Sword Art Online to see if i like it.

@softlyraining loved your choice of 3-stroke and 5-stroke kanji. That five stroke one looks like tetris to me. Haven’t encountered any of those kanji in WK yet, but have seen them in the wild… Wonder which levels they’ll show up on here.

@DIO-Berry happy to post mine on your origami thread at the end as suggested. I may also need a reminder though. Hoping to see your creations on here soon!

<<day 5 day 7>>

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Reply on privacy

Your pics are your own to do with as you please. When I suggested a post with all 24 origami at the end in the origami thread, I meant that each person would post their own pics if they so wished. I just wanted to make it clear that I wasn’t intending to repost anyone else’s pics. :slight_smile:

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Day 6


Tricky:) I’ll have to practice a lot more to figure out how I want to write it^^;

< day 5 day 7 >

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:spiral_calendar: :christmas_tree: Japanese Advent Calendar 2022 – Day 6 :christmas_tree: :spiral_calendar:

December 6th

Today’s Kanji:

Kun’yomi: あお.ぐ、 おお.せ、 .っしゃる、 おっしゃ.る

On’yomi: ギョウ, コウ

Meaning: face-up, look up; depend; seek; respect, revere; drink, take

:fountain_pen: Kanji writing

Kanji writing practice

Tried out three black-coloured pens when I replaced the one I’ve used so far. I think I’ll stick to the one used in the second to last row.

I also noticed that I recognised a good amount of all Kanji containing <7 strokes when I searched for the one I would choose for my practice.
It’s a nice reminder that the work I’ve put in Wanikani as of yet is not to be underestimated even though I’m only at 1/4 of all levels. Granted, I’m aware that the WK Kanji teaching order is based on complexity of the Kanji (strokes) themselves, meaning that soon enough I won’t recognise as much. But it was still a kind of motivating observation to see how much I’ve learned in the last 3-4 months. :slightly_smiling_face:

Replies

@alygator
Haha, I’m not sure I’d describe my practice as courageous because with the exception of my calligraphy pen writing mini-sheet, I don’t really write freely as my notebook (supposedly a passport notebook? which I’m err…misusing) still has those dotted lines that serve as reference points. :wink:

I am somewhat familiar with Kanji composition, though, so I can write freely with varying degrees of success. When I was trying to make more sense of Kanji a few years ago, I used the following website (214 traditional Kanji radicals) to familiarise myself with Kanji radicals and composition.
The main group overview (へん hen), (つくり tsukuri) etc. in regards to positioning the Kanji radicals/phonetic components helped a lot. It gave me a good idea on where the components tend to be located and how much space they roughly take up within an ideal square. Maybe it will prove useful to some of you too.

@softlyraining
I really like the look of the pen you use – is it a calligraphy pen with magenta-coloured/pink-coloured ink?

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Day 6:christmas_tree:
Back to home post

I got new origami paper for Nicolaus! …but I didn’t understand how to fold today’s origami so I can’t show it off. ):

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:u7981: Advent of Ascending Kanji - Day 06 :secret:

Six stroke kanji: 両

Both, old Japanese coin, counter for carriages, two
Kun: てる; ふたつ
On: リョウ

Practice

Correct spacing is hard


This image of origami in action is amazing :rofl:

@Midnightblue, can’t remember if I said thanks for telling me about that pen, or if I just thought I had, so belated thank you!

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Today’s reading was めくらぶどうと虹 which I read with this 朗読.

It was ok. A pretty normal children’s story. I understood the meaning, I didn’t look up very many words, and I only needed to read it once. It’s much easier than yesterday’s reading, but also less fun to make sense of because I didn’t need to try.

Tomorrow is an 江戸川乱歩 story and I’m excited for it :female_detective:

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:christmas_tree: :snowflake: Advent day 6

Read: NHK news article

Summary: There was the annual akita dog breed event on the 4th in Kousashi. There were 170 people (?) that attended. Some foreigners came to see the show and saw lots of akitas.

Thoughts: This was a hard one… I couldn’t understand the third paragraph basically at all, and I had to look up some key words frequently. I think I’ll do some manga reading tomorrow for fun.

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Dec 7

Kanji in Ascending Stroke Order
Strokes:7

Kun: たまご
On: ラン

Words of the day: らんけい (oval shape; egg shape), るいらん (dangerous situation; pile of eggs), さったまご (aspiring writer)


I was between several kanji today, but I find 卵 a very pleasing shape, so I went with that. It means egg, and it’s a Jōyō kanji taught in grade 6, JLPT level N2, WK level 32.

Here’s a video of Japanese Calligrapher Takumi writing it (0:09 mark):

Here’s the stroke order:

And variations:

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Dec 6 :christmas_tree:
Had a bit of a busy week and I’ve fallen a bit behind so here’s a catch up for the past few days.
Kanji Writing

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

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Day 7

Song

Somehow this discrepancy is what stood out the most for me when listening to today’s song



The song was an alright start to my morning. I’m generally not a fan of Christmas songs as a genre tho.

< day 6 day 8 >

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Day 6

Kanji Calendar

Ascending Stroke Order Kanji Advent Calendar

:sparkles:




:sparkles:
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 :snowflake: 8 :gift: 9 :star2: 10 :christmas_tree: 11 :dizzy:
12 :star2: 13 :christmas_tree: 14 :snowman_with_snow: 15 :santa:t2: 16 :deer: 17 :snowflake: 18 :gloves:
19 :snowflake: 20 :gift: 21 :dizzy: 22 :gloves: 23 :snowman_with_snow: 24 :star2:

Wow, there are a lot of nice 6-stroke kanji! It was really hard choosing which one to practice.

Today I chose 印 (kun: しるし, on:イン), meaning “arrow.” I also wrote the word 矢印 (やじるし), which can mean the symbol for arrow (→) or romantic interest, somehow? That one surprised me. I only found that definition on Jisho, but I also only checked the two dictionaries on my computer and kotobank, so maybe I just didn’t look hard enough.

Also, since @Midnightblue asked, I figured I’d give a peek behind the curtain. I’ve been using Samsung Notes to practice kanji for this challenge. I have a Note 8, so I just use the stylus to write. I changed the background to be squares (which was a recent discovery for me). Below are the different settings I use.

Song Calendar

Winter Song Calendar - Day 6

I was surprised to see a song by MONKEY MAJIK show up! They’re a bit of a blast-from-the-past for me. The song itself was okay. To be honest, I got distracted while I was listening to it, so I can’t say I was paying the closest attention. :sweat_smile: Maybe I’ll give it another listen tomorrow.

Short Story Calendar

冬の物語 - Day 5 (凍れる星の論争)
冬の物語 - Day 6

I only found the time to read one story, so I’ll have to kick the can for catching up to tomorrow. Day 5’s story brought yet another new genre into the mix: sci-fi! This one features a planet of ice. The people of the planet have learned of the existence of a new planet called 地球 and are holding a meeting to decide how to proceed. The topic of weapons is brought up, and the story mentions one of 地球’s weapons being a 死の箱. I puzzled over this for some time. When puzzling proved fruitless, I continued reading, trying to gain some kind of understanding. Lo and behold, the answer was the punchline of the story: the people of this frost planet mentioned how the 死の箱 made people fall into a death-like sleep, and they go to see the professor who’s been researching it. His bottom half is eating while his top half is fast asleep. They scream, and he wakes up to inform them of the item’s true name: こたつ . Part of me wishes the story leaned in more to the genre, because I kind of wanted to see what this ice planet was like. Still, it was an amusing story that’s on the shorter side (5 pages).

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December 7

Kanji writing
Origami
Song
Mystery book reading


Kanji writing

You know how sometimes kanji just flow off the pen, with no conscious thinking of your own? Well, this was not one of those kanji. Even after 56 repetitions, I still had to think about what shape each stroke would have to be, and even how many strokes there were. I don’t know what it is about it, but its appearance and its stroke breakdown just don’t connect for me.

Origami

You can see how one corner wasn’t as exactly folded as it should, but other than that, a nice, practical little box with an unusual shape.

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:spiral_calendar: :christmas_tree: Japanese Advent Calendar 2022 – Day 7 :christmas_tree: :spiral_calendar:

December 7th

Today’s Kanji:

Kun’yomi: しの.ぶ、 しの.ばせる

On’yomi: ニン

Meaning: endure, bear, put up with; conceal, spy, sneak

:fountain_pen: Kanji writing

Kanji writing practice

My first try tried being sneaky just like the Kanji’s meaning. Nice try, but I noticed the messy diagonal stroke that was supposed to be curved.

Replies

@softlyraining
Thank you for giving me a little peek behind the scenes – I never would have guessed that your writing was digital all along. :exploding_head:
The digital calligraphy pen would also explain the unusual ink colour. Besides, it’s really neat that Samsung Notes has the option of displaying those notebook squares which helps with Kanji writing practice. :slightly_smiling_face:

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December 7

Winter song
Kanji writing
Origami

Kanji writing

Origami

Replies

@Midnightblue thanks for the kanji writing reference. I had a chance to read the first part about the seven main groups and looks pretty useful, but haven’t gone through all 214 radicals just yet. :sweat_smile:

@softlyraining well done writing digitally! How do you control your strokes? I wish I could do the same to lessen my paper waste, but it’s so hard for me to make the transition…

@pyororon i love the variety of pens you’re using. can I also ask what kind of pens they are? Or has that already been asked before? Sorry if it has.

Song was just okay for me too, but I was curious what you were referring to @Beyond_Sleepy when you said this?

Are you talking about the profile photo not being consistent? Or being a bunny?

No notes for everything today except some replies to posts cause I got in late. 家事をしなければならない. :sleepy:

Recently (re)learned that grammar point on Bunpro today and it’s one of my pet peeves… Double negatives are soooo confusing!

<<day 6 day 8>>

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Sounds like fun!
I participated in the “Read Everyday Challenge”

I’ve been actively doing these things recently:
-trying to read (to the best of my knowledge/ability) social media posts, then translating them & learning words, vocabulary & phrases/ sentences from them, then adding them to my anki deck to learn.
-I’ve ‘learnt’ a song & listen to it almost daily. I want to be able to sing it (not there yet).

I’d like to participate in this too.

I’ll try these (at least 1 a day):

  • Translate a sentence a day
  • Study a grammar point a day
  • Listen to a different Japanese song every day
  • Read about a different Japanese tradition every day

This will be fun!

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reply

Yup. Or more like, this used to be their pfp but they got rid of it without replacing it, but it still represents them in a advent calendar video link. Huh.

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:u7981: Advent of Ascending Kanji - Day 07 :secret:

Seven stroke kanji: 呂

Spine; backbone
Kun: せぼね
On: ロ; リョ

Practice

I like this one, it’s a fun kanji to write.

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Dec 8

Kanji in Ascending Stroke Order
Strokes:8

Kun: なが.い、 おさ
On: チョウ

Words of the day: なが ( long visit, overstaying), ちょう (match fixing; put-up job; fixed game), なが (patient; unhurried; leisurely), れいちょうるい (primates)


長 means long, senior, superior, and it’s a Jōyō kanji taught in grade 2, JLPT level N5, WK level 6.

Here’s a video of Japanese Calligrapher Takumi teaching us how to write it (2:07 mark):

Here’s the stroke order:

And variations: (that last one again!)

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