You’re right, it’s probably classroom hours. And then for the readings, you have to go around the class, and everyone reads one sentence at a time stumbling over the Japanese… Ok I can see this taking some time now. Your class sounds fun and chill, though, it’s nice to have that casual practice environment.
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I did the first reading today. I will be very slow for this month as wanikani cosumes most of it. Maybe amp it up next month.
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Went through the vocab sections on the app today for chapter 1 
I did a while ago but I forgot half of them by now so little brush up, and I tried the sentence questions for the first time (still on the app) which were multiple choice but quite good for gathering the usage of the words. Should be doing the speaking section next week I think. And here’s a little guy from the app
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Ooh how cute, maybe I should get that app! I wouldn’t have looked otherwise since the Genki ones were so expensive. It’s only about a euro!
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Yeah I was glad it was so cheap, its just a little bit iffy functionality wise but it beats having to make your own anki deck or whatever. The flashcard section isn’t spaced repetition so it shows you every card, or you can mark certain cards as memorised and it won’t show you them anymore. There’s also a kanji section and another random question thing but everything is divided up by the chapters (and the two readings within the chapters) which I think is quite nice
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We’re both studying today! I just finished Andy’s first video for the chapter, which was my goal for this week. 
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I got the app too. Getting ready to really start on Monday!
What are your plans for the speaking sections? Do you have a tutor or will you talk to yourself?
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Yay! Me too, my book arrived today!
impressions
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I flicked through it, and refined my check-lists. It’s quite pretty without the dust jacket. I… gasp … stowed it away and am using the book without!
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Difficulty level - A-OK - my plan looks realistic! I am enjoying having much much less English in the book compared to Genki. It makes it more interesting and I find myself getting drawn in rather than bored, so instant win.
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Kanji - I’ll just knock them out as I go and focus on the ones that look most useful. It seems I can recognise a lot in context even though I haven’t studied them, so that will not be a barrier
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I looked at the first kanji challenge section (just a list of similar-looking kanji you’re meant to think up vocab to say aloud). Good grief, how do people learn kanji with these textbooks without an organised method with mnemonics like WK or KKLC (kodansha kanji learners course)? For now I’ll just use these pages as an opportunity to review any kanji I’m shaky on. Maybe I’ll study a couple of the new ones that look useful. I won’t bother to intensively study all kanji that they present, especially for those that are totally new to me and don’t have context.
As for studying
- The first brush up section was actually fascinating, it describes distinctions between written and spoken plain form I didn’t know about
- I did the first reading section - extensive reading I could understand most of it. I’ll read it intensively tomorrow
I have a Japanese friend I talk with so if it fits in I’ll use it there, otherwise talk to myself 
how about you?
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A Japanese friend sounds good! I’m not sure. I might just talk to myself 
I have had a tutor before (through iTalki), I might do that again. Or maybe just do the speaking exercises as writing exercises. Not sure yet.
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I haven’t gotten there yet so haven’t really decided. May just speak to myself out loud rather than getting a tutor. A tutor is nice but adds extra mental barrier for working through the material (now i have to go on italki, find a tutor, find a time that works for me, register, pay money, attend the class, etc).
Woaaaahhh, some wild and crazy behavior over here!!
I’m excited by the book too. Genki was feeling too easy/boring.
I feel the same way. The strategies in these textbooks is just like, good luck! I remember I briefly tried learning kanji from Genki before I found WK and one of the first ones they teach is 曜 for the days of the week. Writing it out took so many strokes that I just gave up.
The brush up sections are really interesting, I’ve glanced at them as well. There are a lot of good at-a-glance references there, too.
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Same I was surprised when I read it but very good to know 
I have a study buddy I might try with, or I’ll just talk to myself
Same its great, and genki to me felt like it went on forever sometimes but Quartet feels like it tells you enough for you to get nuances, then move straight on to practice that isn’t too repetitive either
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Ok I decided to go super slow and do quartet whenever I have time.
Since I’m speeding to finish wanikani right now. I can’t take quartet on top of this.
So maybe I’ll focus on quartet after I reach level 60.
Today I went through 300 or so reviews.
pray for me 
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Woah!! You only have a few levels left though, you can do it!
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Almost there you got this! We’ll be cheering you on 
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Just an update where I got to with the end of my first week. I’m working on unit 1 obviously 
I’m in my honeymoon phase with this textbook… I’m not expecting to keep up this level of engagement. But who knows. Having my homepost bookmarked in my browser has made it so easy to just see at a glance what I want to do next, I’m picking this up a lot just to do a little. Also it’s really fun to check off the boxes in the weekly quartet threads 
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I reread the first reading intensively and then again a couple days later after having studied some of the target vocab and kanji. It was easier to get more nuance out of it. That was interesting, since I did understand it the first time, I guess what I mean is longer passages could stay in my mind so it felt like I more easily got more meaning out of it. I wasn’t expecting it to feel that different, so I’m happy there’s a great rereading potential in this book.
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I read the reading strategy sections on noun modification and identifying the target of demostrative pronouns, which were not new to me, but it’s nice that there is so much Japanese - it’s good reading practice and I picked up a couple of new words.
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I studied the きっかけ grammar point which was enlightening as I’ve stumbled on this a couple times recently!
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I started making my own list of the grammar points to make my output bingo card. For example, for といえば I’m making two squares: one for the NといえばX (when thinking of N, X is the first thing that comes to mind) and another for using it to change the topic to something new but related. This is an example of a super easy grammar point I feel like I know 100% but never or rarely use in my conversion.
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Inspired by the 1st reading before and after questions, I wrote 150 words. Much tougher than expected! With some encouragement I posted it on my log and got some comments and corrections
I’m inspired to write more in Japanese -
Kanji progress: +2 Genki II kanji (39 remaining), +8 Quartet unit 1 kanji (32 new to me remaining)
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Next steps: extensive read of unit 1 reading #2
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continue: reading grammar points, making my grammar bingo, kanji study
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My vacation is over, and it’s time to start studying again!
I just went through both readings and all the listening materials. Nothing too difficult there. I haven’t decided what I want to do with the writing prompts. I want to write, but I also want to get corrections on what I write. Have any of you tried to use ChatGPT to get corrections on Japanese grammar? I might look for a tutor too. Hmm…
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Welcome back! I hope you had a good vacation
I haven’t tried chatgpt for that, but langcorrect is amazing. You create a free account and correct the English in Japanese speaker’s entries, and naive Japanese speakers correct yours.
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Langcorrect does look great! Thanks!
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I revived my langcorrect account for the first time in years and got four corrections right away! It was super useful for my 150 characters of effort
Quartet Unit 1 reading 1 questions
original
教科書で宮崎駿さんについて読みました。とても厳しい監督で芸術的なフィルムを作るそうです。そのアニメの中で、「となりのトトロ」や「ハウルの動く城」を見ました。美しくておもしろい、 私にとって理解は難しいでした。他のアメリカ人もそうだかもしれないと思います。
私は、昔、ディズニーとかピクサーのアニメをたくさん見ましたが、今アニメをあまり見ません。読むのほうが楽しんでいます。
Corrected
教科書で宮崎駿さんについて読みました。とても厳しい監督で芸術的なアニメを作るそうです。その作品の中で、「となりのトトロ」や「ハウルの動く城」を見ました。美しくておもしろかったのですが、 私にとって理解することは難しかったです。他のアメリカ人もそうかもしれないと思います。
私は、昔、ディズニーとかピクサーのアニメをたくさん見ましたが、今はアニメをあまり見ません。読書を楽しんでいます。
lessons learned
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When I wrote this, I was unsure about the particle for “in” eg: “I read about x in my textbook”. Note to self - write these questions down in advance as it seems I guessed で correctly and since it was the only sentence to get zero corrections I nearly forgot I wasn’t sure and then almost failed to notice it!
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Langcorrect relies on colour coding which is super helpful but means dark mode needs to be turned off (at least for my eyes)
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There were some stylistic corrections that I thought were very helpful.
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There was a great question I’ll try to turn into another writing exercise!
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Plain forms go before かもしれない, but no だ！I’ll try to remember that like this: そうか and そうですか work but I know すうだか (!) is wrong!
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In an attempt to write “I enjoy reading more (than watching anime)” I used 読むのほうが (!) and all four people corrected that! Three people suggested something like 読むほうが which sounds so weird to me. I figured out it’s because I normally use a noun with a のほうが pattern, but since the ほう is acting like a noun 読む should precede it in plain form without の.
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Ahoy
I’ve officially finished chapter 1 (yay)
Speaking I just spoke to myself and I assume it went fine, my speaking partner certainly thought so. Then listening was a little tricky since I’m used to the listening audios where they talk snails pace like “女の人と。。。男の人が。。。話しています。。。 
”
But I managed to catch most of the main details after a second listen. Got the true false correct and for the first question where you select, I DID HAVE THE RIGHT ANSWER then I went and changed it cause I was like nahhhh they didn’t say that time and they absolutely did 
But good overall, I kind of wish the listening was a little longer, looking forward to chapter 2!
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