２５日
Coming up to one month of WK’ing soon! That’s pretty exciting.
I redid a basic calculation of how long I’ve been studying. I discovered that my original number may not have been completely accurate, and it looks like I can reasonably say that I started studying Japanese on June 21st. Given that, today marks my 92nd day learning Japanese, meaning that my original estimate or previous studies was markedly off by an entire month??? Slightly embarrassing timekeeping on the one hand, but personally I’m shocked since it certainly felt like it had been 3 months.
So, uh, here’s to 3 total months with Japanese I suppose? Perhaps I should mark my calendar to do a 4 month review of those goals I set in my introductory post, see how I measure up at that time.
WK
Nearly a month into the platform, and I’ve got to say I like the system. This is working pretty well for me in terms of vocabulary and kanji recognition, so I will probably stick with it for a while longer. I’ve more or less got a routine down, though I’m not really a morning person so my weekend lessons and reviews may be a few hours later than on weekdays (on which I have external factors enforcing alive times). This is not inherently a bad thing, but it’s obnoxious in some ways and messes with my groove. I will simply have to deal with it or push the review times of some items further down.
Anyways, pacing: assuming no or few issues, I should hit level 5 in ~4 days time. I don’t tend to look too much ahead, so the size of this level was something of a surprise. Fortunately it wasn’t all new and I already recognized a number of particles and kanji thanks to previous studying, but it was still like 75% new.
I’ve managed to keep a fairly strong 98% review rate. My reading rate is a little lower than it should be thanks specifically to typos on my phone, where correcting minor errors is flat impossible, but in the long run that will be small potatoes and is an incentive to inherently improve on my own ability to actually input the characters I intend. So, skill issue basically (still frustrating).
Wagotabi
I think this segment will be retired in the near future since it’s pretty much just numbers now (106 mastered:180 learning), though the actual grammar component is still good practice. It isn’t so hard to pull apart most basic sentences and get the meaning or even an accurate translation of the statement, but putting sentences together is, as should be expected, a whole ‘nother beast. For my purposes — primarily for appreciating and interacting with native media — the ability to write and speak the language is a bit of a secondary objective, yet improving in that capability will absolutely improve my ability to understand the language as a whole. Given that, it will be a continuing goal to start writing more in Japanese.
Bookwork
New books aren’t in, but that’s probably okay. This was a sleepy week and I haven’t had a lot of energy, so mostly I’ve been trying to maintain the review schedules on the above systems.
Anime
小市民「しょうしみん」
I was pointed toward 小市民 (Shoushimin: How to Become Ordinary) recently, and it’s been a pretty good way to practice listening comprehension. I’m nowhere near the point of being able to listen without English subtitles, but the modern setting helps in identifying common language. Sometimes, I can even pull apart a sentence wholesale and simply (by way of English subs for context) understand the full nature of the statement. Such flashes of insight aren’t common, but they are deeply rewarding and a proof that I am making progress. Feels good.
Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain
Last night, 夕べ even, I watched Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain. This was my first introduction to the series, but my gosh. Holy guacamole. This thing drips with style. Everything about it was incredible: I love the heavily stylized visuals and the intense sound design (seriously, when the soundtrack hits, it hits). Similar to Shoushimin, this was good practice to catch certain words, though mostly it was interesting to catch the intensely formal inflections of words I had already known. Can I remember them aster a watch? Absolutely not, too pretty to remember anything else. Did I recognize what was said were words I already knew and it was simply inflected into a different register of speech? Absolutely. Also it had Araragi’s voice actor, which is always a plus for me. Do recommend.
夕べ、友達と映画を見た。映画はかっこよくて面白くてすごくきれいだったよ。楽しかったよ。
and good luck with your studies.
