😉 polv Study Logs 📑 and Tools 🛠

[polv]

I guess I need a single place to link to posts that are important to me.

Logs and goals

• Yearly goals
  • 2022
  • [2022] Birth Year Goal (June) ^[1]
  • [2022] Extensive Reading Challenge
• Quarterly progress (3 months each)
  • Q2 春 of 2022 (Oct 2021 - Jun 2022)
  • Q3 夏 of 2022
    • Reading
    • Listening

WaniKani

I have done WaniKani to the last level in 2017, and tried so compile some more Kanji after that, yet my reading isn’t good enough. (Truthfully, I may have forgotten many vocabularies and Kanji.)

As of Jun 2022, I tried reading earlier levels’ context sentences; and collecting vocabularies, to be sorted by WaniKani levels.

I don’t exactly agree with WaniKani’s way, but I like how levels are sorted, and Kanji and vocabularies are curated.

• I like learning Jukugo before Kanji itself. Also, lone Kanji with long readings and perhaps Okurigana can be learnt without regards to Kanji at all.
  • Maybe, Kanji non-seriously pre, and seriously post.
  • I am always against learning Kun reading and clipping out Okurigana.
  • Vocabularies aren’t necessarily split by Kanji – Special kanji words derived from other words. Also, Kana vocabularies can occasionally be split too.
• Meaning groups, reading groups, and use cases
• Learner-himself-focused vocabularies
  • Truthfully, I do copy some WaniKani settings to Anki.

Some UserScripts I have been using, and might be using now.

• [Userscript] WaniKani External Definition from Weblio (JP) and Kanjipedia
• [Userscript]: Hide Context Sentence Translation
• [Userscript] Self-Study Quiz
• [Userscript] WaniKani Pitch Info (Doesn’t work with ViolentMonkey)
• [Userscript] Keisei 形声 Semantic-Phonetic Composition

WaniKani Community (Forum)

• Book Clubs (same-material’s club)
  • Absolute Beginner Book Club (ABBC)
    • Happiness (Offshoot)
  • Beginner Book Club
    • Death Note (I also managed the Offshoot. First one for me.)
    • Night Cafe
    • Yuru Camp (13, 1)
    • SHADOWS HOUSE
      • https://community.wanikani.com/t/shadows-house-beginner-book-club/57363
    • Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (Miscellaneous Book Club)
  • Intermediate Book Club
    • SPY x FAMILY
  • Miscellaneous Book Club
    • JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure
      • Part 1: Phantom Blood
      • Part 2: Battle Tendency
        • This part is full of place names, and history in the time of World War 2
  • Watch anime along with reading
    • Death Note
    • SPY x FAMILY
    • JoJo
    • Yuru Camp
• Anime Clubs
  • Samurai Champloo (dropped at EP.4)
• Visual Novel
  • ATRI -My Dear Moments-
  • LOOPERS (watching on YouTube playlist for now)
    • https://community.wanikani.com/t/loopers-visual-novel-book-club/57547
• Some recommended resources
  • A list of recommended books from the Japan Foundation – Can be found in Bookwalker and Audiobook.jp as well.
    • https://community.wanikani.com/t/a-list-of-recommended-books-from-the-japan-foundation/57451
    • Shedding light on Japan’s youth
      • インディヴィジュアル・プロジェクション (Individual Projection) (聴き放題 in Audiobook.jp)
      • 桐島、部活やめるってよ
    • Exploring Japan’s diverse regions
    • Illuminating love in Japan
    • New ways of living in Japan
    • Imagining Japan’s tomorrow
      • 流 by 東山彰良
      • 海うそ
• For books, I got lucky with Bookwalker, so I can recommend that.
• UserScripts
  • Many of which comes from Kumirei’s Userscripts
    • [Userscript] Like Counter
    • [Userscript] Large Image Embedder
    • [Userscript] Forums: Giphy/Pinterest Embedder
  • Good, but not enough for me to install everywhere.
    • [Userscript] Forum: Details Keep Open State
  • Broken
    • That Shiritori Duplicate script. (I have removed the link for safety, but it is in edit history, anyway.)
• Some nice topics
  • Japanese language itself
    • Nuance Index
    • A List of WaniKani’s Radical Names vs More Common Radical Names - #2 by Belthazar
    • Font differences that confuse 🤔 or surprise 🙀 you
      • I now think the best way is – learn 異体字 along with the textbook form, exactly at the same time (same WaniKani level). Though, of course there are patterns.
  • Music and songs
    • Sing along, or also strummable, songs?
    • 70's-90's Japanese Music
    • Favorite Songs from Anime
    • Fun videos!
  • Other immersion / using the language
    • Japanese Gaming Thread
  • Computer-related topics
    • Juggling between more than 2 keyboard layouts (languages) on PC
    • How do I write by hand, for Kanji not suggested by Romaji IME, on laptop?
      • It appears to be very easy for Windows.
    • Microsoft IME User Dictionary for words not suggested by IME?
      • Installing Google Japanese Input appears to be a breeze; and keys map similar to Microsoft IME.
• How to use the forum
  • Post Formatting Guide
    • How to write Markdown inside HTML in this forum?
    • List of LaTeX / maths rendering supported in this forum

Tools and scripts

• Tested on mobile Android (Kiwi Browser + ViolentMonkey)
  • IME2Furigana with some improvements
  • [Userscript] Forum and some websites: Prioritize Japanese glyphs (Han unification) – can be used on other websites with wrong configuration as well, such as natively made in Japanese, but forgot <html lang="ja">.
    • As of June 2022, this includes Kanjipedia (has wrong font), but Goo is OK (using resources from Kanjipedia, but with correct font).
    • Wrong font only on my Android smartphone, which has English interface; but not on Windows, even if it is also in English.
  • [Userscript] Like Counter
  • [Userscript] Large Image Embedder
  • [Userscript] Forums: Giphy/Pinterest Embedder
• Personal scripts for desktop
  • Preprocess on copy-pasta (from VSCode) for easier and better Markdown syntax
    • [山梨]{やま.なし} / [打ち解ける]{うちとける} become <山>{やま}<梨>{なし} / <打>{う}ち<解>{と}ける, respectively – copied algo from GitHub - patarapolw/furigana-markdown-it: Furigana plugin for markdown-it
    • I introduced the tool here – 📚📚 Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 🌸 🌱 - #2064 by polv
• JPTools - this is created for myself first, and I might not add link to everything from homepage, such as /preprocess
• Yomichan is helpful to me, but I map trigger key to Ctrl (rather than Shift).
  • Also added JJ dictionaries, semi-JE, and (Tokyo) pitch accent.
  • Works in Google Sheets (regardless of text formatting), but not in Google Docs.
• My Git repo, where notes and revisions are tracked.

---

1. • I think the goal is around B2.
   • I may decide to focus less on Japanese language, after that.
   • I would probably realize before that whether it is within reach.
   ↩︎

[polv]

Rather than writing progress here every week or every month (where I have better social places to write, anyway), I am going to write when I reach a worthy milestones (which is subjective, but I will use subjectivity to find meaningfulness). So perhaps, things like – joining a higher level book club and survive / realizing that I can listen well to what is impossible or unclear before…

Also, this comment is to prevent bumping up Latest, when OP is edited.

[polv]

Wed 15 Jun 2022

• Books I failed to read, and later can read (well), should qualify as a milestone. Novels in general, and decisions to read non-fiction (even if not in a book club), including
  • Night Cafe (夜カフェ)
  • 時をかける少女
  • 人間失格
• Failed to listen / watch also works similarly.
  • 呼吸法 reading manga
• A markdown syntax, can be used in a table ^[1]

---

1. good for mobile too. ↩︎

[polv]

Yeah, I have progress every once in a while, or this topic will be closed in 1 year. (So editing the OP isn’t enough, if I want replying to be alive.)

Wed 29 Jun 2022

Q2 of 2022 wrap-up (study logs )

Since this is the first quarterly wrap-up, it would cover everything from time I decided to really resume Japanese studies. (Around Oct 2021. Looked at Downloaded All archive.)

That time, I want to read a manga series farther than the translated version. Also, I want to read original Japanese version as well. Sometimes, I noticed that I translated flatly wrong.

Amongst the things that I attribute my progress to most, other than the Community itself, include

• Read Every Day Challenge - Spring 2022
• Several book clubs
• Several users – some amazing 達人, 初心者 and 道連れ’s.

Of course, I have fun in several Appreciation clubs, POLL topics, Shiritori, Letter games, Wordle, etc., too.

For this post, rather than making a generic resource pool for everything, I’ll pick out what is relevant to me during the period.

Materials done:

• Manga – I am lucky to have found Bookwalker, and can buy a lot of stuff. ^[1]
  • Death Note Vol.1-2
  • 呪術廻戦 0
  • Happiness Vol.1-4
  • JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Part 2 Vol.1-2 (total of 4 in monochrome version)
    • Also, about the latter 1/3 of Part 1, but I can’t clearly remember it to attribute the success. I watched the former 2/3 in Anime of Japanese dub / English sub.
  • Yuru Camp Vol.13 and Vol.1
• Novels and books – sizable results are yet to be seen.
• Japanese interface for
  • WaniKani Community: to enforce Japanese font variants
  • Netflix: to see Japanese reviews and Japanese dubbed previews
  • Steam: to see Japanese previews and enable internationalization
  • Android tablet: to make Bookwalker app start at Japanese store

---

1. There are shameless and obscure? stuff done as well. ↩︎

[polv]

毎週文章を書く挑戦 (トライアル期間 : 一か月間＝七月)

.

不可能な約束しないのために、毎週だけのは約束しました。恐らく、日曜日になります。しかし、できるなら、毎日にします。

7月1～3日 (+6月30日)
7月4日(日)
7月11日(日)
7月18日(日)
7月25日(日)

[polv]

Home Post for Q3 of 2022

My bookmeter profile

I will plan and summarize weekly here, probably with some appropriate daily summaries .

Priority for daily doing for this quarter would be – listening , writing , and speaking , in this order.

I will list plans for each week on Monday and should include – grammar/classwork , natural learning materials , and immersion .

七月	月	火	水	木	金	土	日
第1週目	27	28	29	30	01	02	03
第2週目	04	05	06	07	08	09	10
第3週目	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
第4週目	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
第5週目	25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Future Calendar

八月	月	火	水	木	金	土	日
第6週目	01	02	03	04	05	06	17
第7週目	08	09	10	11	12	13	14
第8週目	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
第9週目	22	23	24	25	26	27	28
第10週目	29	30	31

九月	月	火	水	木	金	土	日
第10週目				01	02	03	04
第11週目	05	06	07	08	09	10	11
第12週目	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
第13週目	29	20	21	22	23	24	25
次時期	26	27	28	29	30

---

Materials

• Death Note Vol.3+
  • anime (EP.8+, no subtitle)
• ジョジョの奇妙な冒険
  • Part 2 Vol.3+ (Monochrome)
• SPY x FAMILY
  • anime (Japanese subtitle)
• Happiness Vol.3+
• 進撃の巨人 Vol.1
  • anime (EP.2+, no subtitle)
• SHADOWS HOUSE Vol.1
• (Finished ) (anime) やがて君になる (EP.5+, Japanese subtitle)
• 福娘童話集 (Hukumusume)
• Podbean podcast app for Android
• YouTube (news, short clips, songs)

Secondary materials

• Manga
  • Yuru Camp Vol.2-12
  • それでも歩は寄せてくる Vol.1
  • WANTED
  • ３月のライオン Vol.1
  • 四月は君の嘘 Vol.1
  • うらら迷路帳 Vol.1
• Novel
  • Night Cafe Vol.1
  • Dragon Ball超 漫画ノベライズ みらい文庫版
  • 時をかける少女
  • 人間失格
  • Individual Projection
• Games
  • ATRI (Visual Novel)
  • Yakuza / 龍が如く series
    • Yakuza 0
    • Yakuza 極

[polv]

Week 1 (Jun 27) of Q3 of 2022 's planning and results

Summer Listening Every Day Challenge – (7/7) 前：後
Summer Reading Challenge
Sentence a Day Challenge – 木金 / 土日

• 1 volume of manga
  • Happiness from Vol.3 (started from around 40%)
• 1 grammar point to be taken seriously
  • 〜たい ＆ がる and 〜がり
  • つもり
  • でも
• Death Note Vol.3 Ch.19 ( 屈辱(くつじょく) )
• 進撃の巨人 Ch.2+
• JoJo Part 2 Vol.3/4 of monochrome version
  • Solitary Caesar arc (from 2/6 to 6/6)
• Extra reading
  • SHADOWS HOUSE Vol.1 (from 34%) to 66%++
  • SPY x FAMILY Ch.2 – so that I can watch more Anime (EP.2)
  • A chapter of Night Cafe (or any novel)
    • Night Cafe Vol.1 Ch.10
• Anime with subtitle
  • Finish SPY x FAMILY EP.1
    • EP.2+ (Will read first)
  • やがて君になる EP.5+
• Anime without subtitle
  • Death Note EP.7
  • Considered
    • 進撃の巨人 EP.2 (Will read first. This one is troublesome, as no subtitle, and I might not know enough vocabularies, if no reading.)
• Everyday listening and read-aloud of 福娘童話集
• Testing out weekly writing, and if possible, everyday

Unplanned extra materials

• Manga
  • (21%) うらら迷路帳 Vol.1
• Novel
  • 妖怪の子預かります Vol.1 Ch.1
• Anime
  • Black Jack OVA EP.1 (no sub)
    • Somewhat too difficult for me. Also, around 50 minutes.
  • キノの旅 EP.1 (no sub)
  • 蟲師 EP.1 (no sub)
• Podcast
  • たびラジ

Interesting vocabularies (perhaps not in a dictionary)

• スカタン - essentially 間抜け

Word distinction

• 「寂しい」と「淋しい」の違い

Some other things I picked up this week.

These books:

[Redglare]

The amount of boxes in this thread attracts the unofficial box durtle !!

[polv]

Week 1 (Jun 27) of Q3 of 2022 's wrap-up

So many things happened this week, but to mention something major – that would be read-aloud (with listening first) and trying sentence composing (on Japanese Sentence a Day Challenge).

At the end of this week, I got a chance to visit a bookstore (Kinokuniya), so I bought some textbooks / reference books.

• 聞いた覚える話し方：日本語生中継！初中級編１
  • For JLPT N4 and up, and with audio CDs. There are also things like speaking prompt in the book.
• the Japanese Language by Haruhiko Kindaichi (translated to English by Hirano)
  • Although I concern most about pitch and intonation (or anything else that is spoken, but not written), it can’t hurt to learn about other aspects of the language as well.
• Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication by Taeko Kamiya
  • I feel this is needed for Sentence Every Day Challenge, or speaking and writing, in a longer run.

In the end, it’s just about promising books; and depends on how well I use them…

[polv]

Week 2 (Jul 4) of Q3 of 2022 's planning and results

Summer Listening Every Day Challenge –
Sentence a Day Challenge –
Summer Reading Challenge

The plan now becomes, focusing on Listening (30 minutes ) and Writing first (and do them everyday). Speak if I can. Reading is still needed in background.

• Listening (or watching)
  • Listening and read-aloud of 福娘童話集
    • Alternatively, speak (converse) from textbook prompt (聞いた覚える話し方).
      • As far as I have tried, the audio aren’t really slow, but they are in the level that I can understand everything. (Also, short enough for me to think.)
      • But then, I’ll have to reply to them?
  • 1 hour worth of podcast
    • This is actually possible on some day, on certain activities, like exercise or commuting.
  • Anime
    • やがて君になる EP.7+ (subtitled)
    • Death Note EP.10 (no sub)
      • Probably will hold back at 1 episode every two weeks now (even though I like the animation), to avoid going ahead and hold momentum for, the book club.
  • Extra listening
    • 進撃の巨人 EP.2 (no sub)
    • SPY x FAMILY EP.3 (subtitled)
      • Probably will wait for the book club first.
• 1 longer writing
• Reading
  • 1 volume of manga
    • Finished JoJo Part 2 Vol.3/4 monochrome
    • Finished 進撃の巨人 Vol.1
  • Death Note Vol.3 Ch.20
  • (Finished) 進撃の巨人 Vol.1 Ch.4
  • Extra reading
    • (Finished) JoJo Part 2 Vol.3/4 monochrome
      • Solitary Caesar arc (from 2/6 to 6/6)
      • Lead-in to Wham! arc (1 chap) + Wham! arc (2 chap)
    • SHADOWS HOUSE Vol.1 (from 34%)
    • SPY x FAMILY Vol.1 Ch.2+ (re-reading)
    • うらら迷路帳 Vol.1 (from 21%)
    • A chapter of Night Cafe (or any novel)
      • (Finished) Night Cafe Vol.1 Ch.12+

Unplanned extra materials

• Listening or watching
  • Anime
    • 盾の勇者の成り上がり
• Reading
  • Novel
    • 妖怪の子預かります Vol.1 Ch.2+
  • Manga
    • Chain Saw Man Vol.1 (3 chaps, 51%)

Interesting vocabularies (perhaps not in a dictionary)

• 多聴 (た.ちょう) – I don’t think I am worthy to use this word yet.
• 弟子入り – で.し.いり – apprenticeship
• 根負け – こん.まけ – beaten down by persistence
• 小間使い – こ.ま.つかい – maid (servent of the master, I think)
• 腰に差す – こし.に.さす – to hold (a sword) at the waist
• 武者修業 – む.しゃ.しゅ.ぎょう – samurai drill (exercise)

Word distinction

Some other things I picked up this week.

[polv]

Week 2 (Jul 4) of Q3 of 2022 's reflection

I went to Kinokuniya bookstore, just like last Sunday, but now I have found a new branch (at Central World) – there are so many books there that make me dizzy. (The effort requires to find the said branch in the shopping mall makes me dizzy too.)

And, I have bought two new books.

I have read the instructions (Step 1-6) about Shadowing, but don’t quite understand how to do them. Also, can’t the same instructions be done with 聞いた覚える話し方：日本語生中継！ as well?

Another book, A Dictionary of Japanese Particles, looks nice, both as a reference, and probably can also be read head on.

Noted that, Shadowing is found at language learning section in Japanese language, while A Dictionary of Japanese Particles is found at language learning section in English language.

About the books from the last Sunday, 聞いた覚える話し方：日本語生中継！ might be good, and also teach variations of answers ^[1]. I was thinking about internalize enough dialogues first…

Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication was used as a reference for writing sentences; but the Japanese Language isn’t used yet.

Additionally, yesterday, I read Tip for Pitch Accent (Tokyo accent) and associate Wikipedia entries. Indeed, I want to make sure I can internalize the tips I read.

---

Regarding listening, I managed to listen at least minimally everyday, which I think it is important. However, I still need both of how to use understand better (general materials) and how to learn better from selected materials.

I also read aloud and record voice almost everyday, however it might not help that much with simply dialogues and replies. Pronunciation and narration skills? Maybe a little, just be aware; but too vast to improve as a whole…

I planned to restart learning vocabularies, as well as Kanji, if anything would help with listening (e.g. knowing or being able to infer, more vocabularies).

---

Regarding writing and replying to spoken prompts, I feel it is eventually helpful; but I am not exactly sure about writing everyday, writing empty sentences with repeated patterns. Sentences need to confer meanings and give some expectations. More to be learnt, of course. Probably shadowing first in the near future.

---

Regarding reading, I feel I should focus on chosen materials first, holding back from following the flow. I want to focus on listening better first, for now.

Even mangas that doesn’t require that much effort still takes time. Compared to English, for example, I am not good enough yet (for binging on enjoyment).

---

I am planning on learning vocabularies to help with at least listening, and learn associated Kanji, if it is helpful (like Kanji in subtitles / transcripts) – W2022-07-09 - Google Sheets

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1. has sections of “listening and understanding” (i.e. short dialogues), “couple of sentences to be replied to” (with silence waiting for reply), and “how to say yes and no” (also dialogues) ↩︎

[polv]

Week 3 (Jul 11) of Q3 of 2022 's planning and progress

• Listening –
  • Indeed, I will try to listen everyday for at least 30 minutes
  • 1 hour worth of podcast (or any materials that looking isn’t needed)
  • Anime watching
    • (Finished ) やがて君になる EP.11+
      • As a matter of fact, I am getting tired of this series (plot-wise), but will try to finish it anyway.
    • Probably, となりの怪物くん is to most fun one.
  • First italki session (smalltalk)
    • Some medical manga and movie recommendations
• Vocalizing –
  • Will consider regular dialogue shadowing. For now, storytelling might be more easily done.
• Composing / Writing –
  • Rather than pushing myself to do everyday, I would consider quality and efficiency.
  • Try to do 5/7
  • … (essay of the week)
• Grammar points –
  • Topics can be picked from any places. Physical textbooks or online (e.g. Maggie sensei)
  • Try to do 3/7
• Reading
  • Foremost focuses are things to be discussed.
  • Manga
    • Death Note Vol.3 Ch.21
    • … (1 volume of manga)
    • SPY x FAMILY (book club)
    • SHADOWS HOUSE (book club)
    • Some other books that have their recently updated posts for personal reading
    • うらら迷路帖 Vol.1 to 29%
  • Novel
    • 妖怪の子預かります Vol.1 Ch.2
  • Non-fiction
    • I don’t make a promise on this one, but I will let WaniKani Community sway me.
    • Probably news, first.

Vocabulary / Kanji list of the week

• W2022-07-11 - Google Sheets
  • Kanji from my impression
    • Meaning are from translated look-up in Goo.
  • Vocabularies with pitch and 類語
    • And translations written in my impression as of now.
    • Highlight vocabularies I regard as potentially important
  • Set phrases and idioms
  • Homophones
  • Onomatopeia

[polv]

Week 3 (Jul 11) of Q3 of 2022 's thoughts

So, the highlights of this week are

• Vocabulary and Kanji list according to my progress and understanding, that is, vocabularies I feel I don’t know enough and somehow forget.
  • Translations of all items are according to my understanding as well.
  • It was a good idea to use Google Sheets, although I am not use how well it will work with embedding images.
• Smalltalk in italki somehow went well (I think?)
  • But of course, it wasn’t even a lesson.
• Sound recording can be compared with audio segmentation in Audacity, segment-by-segment.
  • The same technique can be used to record 2P (or 3P) conversation, but speaking alone.
• My native language may help with pronunication, and perhaps gauging the meanings properly.
• Reading and vocabulary collecting would still be needed, but ensuring that I can pronounce and read properly is needed.

[polv]

Week 4 (Jul 18) of Q3 of 2022 's planning and progress

.

• Listening –
  • Indeed, I will try to listen everyday for at least 30 minutes
  • 1 hour worth of podcast (or any material that looking isn’t needed)
    • りっきぃの夜話 on YouTube
  • Anime watching
    • となりの怪物くん EP.4+ (JP sub)
    • Death Note EP.10 疑惑 (No sub, just enough not to be ahead of manga)
• Vocalizing –
  • Will consider regular dialogue shadowing. For now, storytelling might be more easily done.
  • italki is planned on Wednesday. I’ll see how much I can speak Japanese.
    • 3 sessions
• Composing / Writing –
  • Rather than pushing myself to do everyday, I would consider quality and efficiency.
  • … (essay of the week)
• Grammar points –
  • I need to do this at some point, just as some vocabularies do need deeper look-ups.
  • An interest right now is ～際.
  • Mutual accountability checker?
• Reading
  • Foremost focuses are things to be discussed.
  • Manga
    • Death Note Vol.3 Ch.22
    • うらら迷路帖 Vol.1 from 29%
    • … (1 volume of manga)
  • Novel
    • … (1 chapter of novel)
  • Non-fiction

Vocabulary / Kanji list of the week

• W2022-07-18 - Google Sheets
  • Kanji
  • Vocabularies
  • Grammar
  • Set phrases and idioms
  • Homophones
  • Onomatopeia

[polv]

Week 4 (Jul 18) of Q3 of 2022 's reflection and extras

.

This week, a lot of things happened; but a part of it is circumstances are different from usual – IRL, I had a workshop from Mon-Thu, and I had assignments and worries too.

Also, this week, I had italki talk with 3 tutors (but I might settle with the last), so I had some Japanese conversations. Still, should I use future italki sessions for talking practice or also how Japanese Language works (i.e. 文法)?

Truthfully, I thought of focusing less on reading, but then, occasionally I watched anime with subtitle matching the audio, as well as reading on Hukumusume with listening to matching audio. Then, I read in a post about significance of reading at book level. Maybe I should also go thus far… next week. (But also, probably I won’t focus on mangas or picture books. VN / audiobooks are interesting, so maybe?)

I listened to an audio series, perhaps Podcast-ish (りっきぃの夜話). Relatively senseless (I do understand, but too little) and frustrating. I wonder will it improve with time?

I focused too little on grammar. Nonetheless, Google Sheets on my above post is added Grammar Section anyway, but I can’t say I focused on it at all.

About pronouncing, and to some extent, listening, I see some importance of pitch accent; so I take note of whether a vocabulary is usually 頭高 (color-coded, or ^symbol), but only that far for now. (尾高, 中高 are ignored, assumed 平板; but I expect POS’s to have their own rules.)

For Kanji, I am bought in to Kodansha Kanji Synonym Guide, even if no one specifically deny or encourage it. Heck, it’s hard to gather opinions in the first place (unless I make a new post, I guess; but for reply level, receiving a following reply is difficult).

Edit: I misremembered the book. I meant this one from the beginning. Yeah, I have bought it just now.

For composing a paragraph or an essay, I saw LangCorrect in another post, probably like Lang-8 of the olden days. Nonetheless, I would probably focus on smoothness of speech or dialogue first. Then, the prompts in 生中継 textbook is the second in line.

[polv]

Week 5 (Jul 25) of Q3 of 2022 's planning and progress

.

• Listening –
  • Listen everyday for at least 30 minutes
  • (Probably just around 30 minutes) 1 hour worth of podcast (or any material that looking isn’t needed)
    • かがみの孤城 (上) Ch.1 - May [1], and some of [2]
  • Anime with JP sub
    • となりの怪物くん EP.8+ (JP sub)
    • Dr. Stone
  • Anime without sub
    • 盾の勇者の成り上がり
    • 青春ブタ野郎はバニーガール先輩の夢を見ない
    • Death Note EP.11 = End of manga Vol.3
  • NHK for School, especially on 国語
  • I don’t hate YouTube / watching, but I consider it a different category from 1. listening with no visuals 2. listening with script and read-aloud.
• Vocalizing –
• Communicating
  • I am thinking of a sustainable and cost-effective way to do this, but… Tandem? HelloTalk? italki? Something else?
  • I have been an exchange student too, but I can’t really remember anyone…
  • Sustainability means that I should be able to express well, as well as understand well, enough to keep human connections, I guess.
• Composing / Writing –
  • Rather than pushing myself to do everyday, I would consider quality and efficiency.
  • Probably would write in LangCorrect.
• Grammar points –
• Reading
  • Foremost focuses are things to be discussed.
  • Long text with no visual cues, of multiple “pages” (e.g. novel) would be specially considered
  • Manga
    • Death Note Vol.3 Ch.23
      • Ch.24-25 = end of Vol.3
  • Novel (1 chapter of novel)
    • かがみの孤城 (上) Ch.1 - May
      • Have bought audiobook (for both 上 and 下). Will try to switch to listening, if my understanding is good enough.
    • 妖怪の子預かります Vol.1 Ch.3

Vocabulary / Kanji list of the week

• W2022-07-25 - Google Sheets
  • Kanji
  • Vocabularies
  • Collocations
  • Set phrases and idioms
  • Back-translation
  • Grammar / How language works
  • Homophones
  • Onomatopeia

[polv]

Week 5 (Jul 25) of Q3 of 2022 's reflection

.

I can mention that some of my electronic devices are changed to Japanese interface – things that aren’t taken home or to work; including PC, tablet, Steam, Discord, Visual Studio Code, and WaniKani Community. (Technically, the tablet is used for other purposes too, but not as much as smartphone.)

Personally, I don’t recommend people changing UI to Japanese, unless you can tolerate some level of Japanese writing, as well as quick reading (Kanji, Katakana, loanwords, vocabularies, sentences) when urgencies arise.

Anyway, eventually I decided to change Windows’ UI (interface) back to English. Searching from Start menu probably works best with English.

I tried taking notes of Collocations in Google Sheets as well just today. Today’s vocabulary is 手.

	Reading	Meaning	Note
手に入る	てにはいる	to obtain	手が入る
手に入れる	てにいれる	to obtain	手を入れる
手に汗を握る	てにあせをにぎる
手に余る	てにあまる
手に負ける	てにまける		手に負けない
手に落ちる	てにおちる
手に掛かる	てにかかる
手に掛ける	てにかける		手をかける
手にする	てにする
手に付かない	てにつかない
手に取る	てにとる		手を取る 手取り
手に乗る	てにのる
—	—	—	—
手を挙げる	てをあげる
てを上げる	てをあげる		降参
手を繋ぐ	てをつなぐ
手を振る	てをふる
手を伸ばす	てをのばす
手を切る	てをきる
手を取る	てをとる
手を合わせる	てをあわせる		拝む (おがむ) 勝負
手を入れる	てをいれる		手入れ
手を打つ	てをうつ
手を替える	てをかえる		手を変える
手を掛ける	てをかける
手を貸す	てをかす
手を組む	てをくむ		手を結ぶ
手を拱く	てをこまぬく		拱く
手を透かす	てをすかす		透かす
手を染める	てをそめる
手を出す	てをだす
手を尽くす	てをつくす
手を着ける	てをつける
手を通す	てをとおす	to put on
手を握る	てをにぎる
手を抜く	てをぬく
手を濡らす	てをぬらす
手を引く	てをひく
手を広げる	てをひろげる
手を施す	てをほどこす		施す
手を回す	てをまわす		手が回る
手を焼く	てをやく		手に負けない
手を緩める	てをゆるめる
手を汚す	てをよごす
手を煩わす	てをわずらわす		煩わす
—	—	—	—
手が上がる	てがあがる		手を切る
手が空く	てがあく
手が掛かる	てがかかる
手が切れる	てがきれる		手の切れるように
手が付けられない	てがつけられない
手が出る	てがでる		手が出ない
手が届く	てがとどく
手が入る	てがはいる	to be investigated / to be corrected
手が離せない	てがはなせない
手が離れる	てがはなれる
手が塞がる	てがふさがる
手が回る	てがまわる
—	—	—	—
手が長い	てがながい
手が早い	てがはやい
—	—	—	—
手も足も出ない	てもあしもでない
手も無く	てもなく		手もない
—	—	—	—
手の平	てのひら
手の甲	てのこう
手の裏	てのうら		裏手
手の裏を返す	てのうらをかえす
手の切れる	てをきれる
—	—	—	—
行く手	ゆくて
—	—	—	—
手取り	てとり	being crafty / net income
手取り足取り	てとりあしとり	attentively
手元	てもと
手持ち	てもち
手頃	てごる

(And yeah, pasting here works better with Yomichan than Google Sheets.)

I didn’t do or schedule any italki this week, and I haven’t found someone to talk with in Japanese yet. Probably next week or soon. Having been in Japan and talked with Japanese people long ago, getting back in touch with them is… difficult? Otherwise, make some new friends?

But then, just as a teacher on italki has noticed. I am probably not ready for Japanese-only talk yet.

I watched a few things without sub, audio only and probably some pictures or minimal irrelevant Kanji. I didn’t understand well, but it also depends. Just as I wrote earlier – the understanding and coherence/continuity are about how much I let pass without immediate understanding.

I made a vocabulary extractor, but I can’t promise it is made well. Also, the app works better (has better customizations) when run locally.

[Chocobits]

@polv

Communicating

• I am thinking of a sustainable and cost-effective way to do this, but… Tandem? HelloTalk? italki? Something else?

Perhaps VRchat or Omegle?

[polv]

@Chocobits

Perhaps VRchat or Omegle?

Omegle looks nice in concept, but English interface (and user base)? Also, on trying, I was immediately greeted with spam.

There are probably more than one companies that released VRchat.

As for my region, I have LINE, so maybe finding an OpenChat there might be helpful? But don’t really care about my local stuff (other than my work). Discord is closer to my internet life.

---

Week 6 (Aug 1) of Q3 of 2022 's planning and progress

.

I don’t feel like doing a monthly recap for all-around Japanese progress in this topic, so I put it here as I was focusing on listening.

• Listening –
  • Listen everyday for at least 30 minutes
  • 1 hour worth of listening materials that looking aren’t needed (e.g. audiobook, podcast)
    • かがみの孤城 (上) Ch.1 - May [2]
  • Anime with JP sub
    • となりの怪物くん EP.10+ (JP sub)
    • Will try to finish this series. But of course, depending on the fun and occasions.
  • Watching without sub is considered, but not a priority.
    • Hunter x Hunter (1999) EP.1
    • きみに届け S01 EP.1
  • NHK for School, especially on 国語
• Vocalizing –
• Communicating
  • I am thinking of a sustainable and cost-effective way to do this.
  • Sustainability means that I should be able to express well, as well as understand well, enough to keep human connections.
• Composing / Writing (which days of the week?)
  • Rather than pushing myself to do everyday, I would consider quality and efficiency.
  • Probably would write in LangCorrect.
  • Might be in Sentence Every Day thread, but most importantly, when I feel like it (like feeling expressive).
• Grammar points (which days of the week?)
• Reading
  • Long text with no visual cues, of multiple “pages” (e.g. novel) would be specially considered
  • Manga
    • (Finished) JoJo Part 2 Vol.4/4 of monochrome version
      • Colosseum その3+ ( ワムウ )
      • ワムウ 's final words; Becoming god of Kars ; and the conclusion
      • I will try to finish this one first. JoJo has been fun, because of a lot of references to look up. (Not only about language, and not confined to Japan.)
  • Novel (1 chapter of novel)
    • かがみの孤城 (上) Ch.1 - May
      • Have bought audiobook (for both 上 and 下). Will try to switch to listening, if my understanding is good enough.
    • 妖怪の子預かります Vol.1 Ch.3 (Considering a substitute, if this one couldn’t attract me.)

Vocabulary / Kanji list of the week

• W2022-08-01 - Google Sheets
  • Kanji
  • Vocabularies
  • Collocations
  • Set phrases and idioms
  • Back-translation
  • Grammar / How language works
  • Homophones
  • Onomatopeia

---

A recent recurring grammar that came back to bite me would probably be 碌(ろく)に…ない

[Chocobits]

Another possibility is starting up a Japanese MMO. I wish I had taken the opportunity to learn Japanese when Final Fantasy XI was in its heyday. Playing an MMO and doing end-game content means likely joining a guild or equivalent, and you’d be communicating via voice and chat constantly to coordinate events/battles.