NovaStar’s Home Post
Preamble
Hoooo boy we’re starting this now… I’ve been slightly dreading it but also looking forward to it, as I literally bought my quartet books almost a year ago, but college was making me take forever to finish Genki II. But I finally did that this week, and after taking a break to read instead for two days, I’m starting…
I mostly am doing this to have a structured way of learning grammar, as I feel doing the drills and reading exercises from Genki helped me to make the foundational knowledge for my grammar, so that when I read I’m not spending too much time lost on grammar. By doing this first, and then reading, I can solidify my grammar and get better overall. It’s also one of the few ways I can practice output, especially writing, because I mostly focus on input (which isn’t bad necessarily!).
Goals
I really want to be able to get more comfortable with reading and listening, because there’s so much media and games that I’m missing out on by not being more comfortable with it. Part of that is just reading more, but the other part is me frustratedly looking up grammar I don’t know, or grammar that I keep seeing but can’t remember. So hopefully Quartet can help me remedy that. I do plan to study abroad in Japan around my Junior year or so, I need to start putting the gas on so I can look cool when I get there in a few years. By doing the book and workbook writing exercises I can practice my output and not look like a toddler if I have to write something there 
If I do study abroad, I might do a JLPT test after that, so I also need to lock in on this so I can start making my way up.
Pace and plan?
I haven’t made a solid plan, because I know I’ll adjust depending on how I feel as I go through, but I want to try to do a chapter in 2 weeks. I just feel like a month per chapter is too slow for me to wait, especially while I’m on summer break and still have free time. I don’t wanna take a year to get through Quartet I and II! We’ll see if I actually stick with this lol, might go faster or slower depending on the day.
According to Quartet’s Website, a chapter is about 16 hours long (classroom time, so self-study is probably quicker). This means I should be doing a little over an hour of studying per day in this 2 week time period. A potential 2 week plan would look like this (a number is a Day):
- Do reading 1 and answer the questions, if not out of time do workbook reading section 1
- Do reading 2 and answer the questions, if not out of time do workbook reading section 2
- Review 1st half of the grammar alongside TokiniAndy video
- Do 1st half of the workbook grammar
- Review 2nd half of the grammar alongside TokiniAndy video
- Do 2nd half of the workbook grammar
- Do the writing essay assignment
- Do 1st half of the speaking assignments (with who? We’ll find out… )
- Do 2nd half of the speaking assignments (maybe with Discord randos? Talk to myself?)
- Listening section looks short, so maybe one day for that?
- Do Brush-up section (looks short tbh, it’s more reviewing in Eng than anything)
- Do both kanji challenges in one day (kanji is not really a challenge since I’ve studied under the almighty crabigator!
I suck at writing them tho - Profit!
Not a specific day, but I’ll make Anki cards out of the vocab I don’t know, and review those daily. Hopefully I saved enough time for myself to still do a quick Anki review of my mining deck and do some reading.
I will post my writings and answers to the old quartet thread, and use Langcorrect to get feedback on them!
Quartet 1 Chapters
Started On June 10th, 2025! - Finished On August 26th 2025!Well, speaking is still ongoing!
Quartet 1 Tracker
Chapter 1
 |
Section | Completed On: |
|---|---|---|
|
Reading | June 11th 2025 |
|
Grammar | June 16th 2025 |
|
Writing | June 16th 2025 |
|
Speaking | July 6th 2025 |
|
Listening | June 20th 2025 |
|
Brush-up & Kanji Challenges | June 24th 2025 |
Chapter 2
|
Section | Completed On: |
|---|---|---|
|
Reading | June 25th 2025 |
|
Grammar | June 29th 2025 |
|
Writing | June 30th 2025 |
|
Speaking | July 20th 2025 |
|
Listening | July 4th 2025 |
|
Brush-up & Kanji Challenges | July 6th 2025 |
Chapter 3
|
Section | Completed On: |
|---|---|---|
|
Reading | July 9th 2025 |
|
Grammar | July 13th 2025 |
|
Writing | July 15th 2025 |
|
Speaking | August 10th 2025 |
|
Listening | July 17th 2025 |
|
Brush-up & Kanji Challenges | July 18th 2025 |
Chapter 4
|
Section | Completed On: |
|---|---|---|
|
Reading | July 21st 2025 |
|
Grammar | July 25th 2025 |
|
Writing | July 29th 2025 |
|
Speaking | August 31st 2025 |
|
Listening | July 30th 2025 |
|
Brush-up & Kanji Challenges | July 31st 2025 |
Chapter 5
|
Section | Completed On: |
|---|---|---|
|
Reading | August 2th 2025 |
|
Grammar | August 6th 2025 |
|
Writing | August 7th 2025 |
|
Speaking | September 7th 2025 |
|
Listening | August 9th 2025 |
|
Brush-up & Kanji Challenges | August 10th 2025 |
Chapter 6
|
Section | Completed On: |
|---|---|---|
|
Reading | August 14th 2025 |
|
Grammar | August 19th 2025 |
|
Writing | August 26th 2025 |
|
Speaking | October 5th 2025 |
|
Listening | August 22nd 2025 |
|
Brush-up & Kanji Challenges | August 22nd 2025 |
The end (of Quartet 1 at least) is so close! I can taste it!
Edit: No need to predict, I’m there now!
Will be on hiatus during Fall Semester! Check in sometime around December for Quartet 2, although I might not start it until after Spring Semester…