šŸ“ššŸ“š Read every day challenge - Fall/Autumn 2021 šŸšŸ‚šŸ¦

I also prefer for the reading challenge to continue to be about reading. I agree that itā€™s totally okay for people to interpret that in creative ways, but at its core what drew me to this group was the fact that it was a sort of book club. Seeing screenshots of cute manga, reading other peopleā€™s thoughts on books I someday might like to read, talking about weird scary stories and learning fun facts about the prefectures were the most fun parts for me. I feel like broadening the challenge would make things too general. But having a sister ā€œlisten to Japaneseā€ challenge could be interesting!

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lol, given the very uneven way Iā€™ve approached my Japanese studies (ie most of it being reading) I feel the exact opposite to this haha. Iā€™ve recently been trying to do more watching of things in Japanese (without just relying on the subs) and itā€™s haaard.

That said, I totally understand the views of those who would prefer the challenge to stay as it is. I honestly donā€™t really care either way - it wouldnā€™t bother me if it was widened, but Iā€™m also very happy with it as it is. I think (as others have mentioned) itā€™s already all done in a pretty forgiving spirit, so if someone wants to count games etc etc etc I donā€™t think anyone is going to get mad about that even within the framing of the current challenge. Iā€™m wondering if that might even be a middle ground that could be taken, something like just adding another line to the description of the next challenge along the lines of ā€˜This is primarily a reading challenge, but if you want to build a habit of something else Japanese related and want to join in for the community spirit then feel free!ā€™ :thinking:

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Home post

TL;DR:

  1. I hit my 100 day reading goal, still going? oops.
  2. I can barely read, I canā€™t do anything else.
  3. +1 to a bunch of recent posts on reading direction
  4. just a huge thank you to everyone in this challenge

Longer:

My reading update

Phraw, still going, hit my goal of 100 days. Not sure what this means yet, but I havenā€™t felt a huge urge to stop although I definitely have less in the tank than I did when I started.
Finished Demon Slayer volume 2 in ~ 21 days (2021-11-22 to 2021-12-14) compared to volume 1 (2021-10-12 to 2021-11-11).

  • Dec 04 - 9 pages
  • Dec 05 - 4 pages (finished ch. 14, started ch. 15)
  • Dec 06 - 2 pages
  • Dec 07 - 1 page
  • Dec 08 - 1 page
  • Dec 09 - 10 pages - day 100 of reading \o/
  • Dec 10 - 4 pages (finished ch. 15, started ch. 16)
  • Dec 11 - revisiting 2 pages (168, 169)
  • Dec 12 - 22 pages (finished ch. 16 and volume 2) + 10 pages (started volume 3)

Iā€™m feeling progressively more guilty about continuing to post my updates in this thread >.>

@NicoleIsEnough Iā€™ve finished Demon Slayer volume 2 and ā€˜sneakilyā€™ started volume 3 <.<

Hehe I wanted to say the same thing, but without it being seen as me debating the point, as I mostly found it kind of mind blowing that some people would find listening easier =O

reading is hard, but everything else is way harder (for me)

Reading is by far my strongest skill, given that Iā€™m really only 1 ish years in, it is all I really can do.
Playing a video game only works if its a very simple game, likely one which I could 99% play without reading anything. Watching anime without subs is effectively impossible.
I want to eventually improve and extend to wider video games and listening, but in the meantime I am seeing so much growth from reading manga that I donā€™t really want to drag myself away from it.

more thoughts on this challenge

I 100% understand the sentiment of us all being in it together and I too wouldnā€™t want to lose that.
I also love being able to call this a book club as that sounds adorable, but that isnā€™t very important.

I do have a slight preference for keeping this challenge focused on reading or at least reading-adjacent things, but it isnā€™t very strong.

Eventually in the far off distance future I do want to take more of a whack at video games, but I expect that to be text heavy so that the primary task is still reading. This is how Iā€™ve been playing the Demon Slayer video game for example, trying to read every sentence and understand it as much as I can before progressing (and taking lots of screenshots to save text for later) - despite it nominally being a fighting game.

Iā€™ve been somewhat/quite/very uncomfortable counting that as reading for this challenge, but I think in the past there might have been some days I was too tired and counted (maybe Professor Layton / Ace Attorney), but in general my discomfort meant I tried to make up by adding in a token amount of ā€œproper readingā€ .

I really canā€™t thank you all enough, it has been so lovely to be part of such a lovely and supportive community, combined with reading being such a huge boon to my Japanese - even more so with the ā€œnudgesā€ to read things I actually enjoy =D

Infinite <3

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I noticed on Bookmeter - very sneaky indeed!
This week I need to finish another book Iā€˜m currently reading, but from Monday or so I will come and get you
:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::japanese_goblin:

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Nooo, never feel guilty!! Itā€™s awesome that youā€™re still going ^^

Iā€™ve been ostensibly learning Japanese for much longer than a year and reading is still pretty much all I can do :sob::joy: I think some of my reading ability is starting to seep over and become listening ability, but uhhh not very much lol

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I just had a random thought and I figured Iā€™d throw it out here ā€¦ What if we had a ā€œhabit buildingā€ book club? @windupbird felt disappointed that the every day challenge didnā€™t translate into a sustainable habit after it ended, so what if instead we did a ā€œdevelop a sustainable reading habitā€ challenge/club?

Pros

  • less likely to trigger everyoneā€™s perfectionism as missing a day (or a few days, even) doesnā€™t ā€œbreakā€ a habit the way it breaks a streak
  • less pressure to post every single day
  • the whole point is sustainability so you never have to stop! and new folks could jump in whenever

Again, just food for thought. :slight_smile:

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Some more books arrived yesterday. :eyes:

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Doing what you enjoy doing is the way to progress! A lot of people on insta and youtube say that you have to come out of your comfort zone to learn something, but recently I read a book that suggested otherwise. By expanding your comfort zone (what you are doing right now with reading), you could expand it even further when you are more comfortable reading by listening with subtitles for example. And when you get comfortable doing that, you can start listening without reading along.

It is not really the same topic as you were talking about but it reminded me of this. I donā€™t think you need to worry about improving in all directions at once. If you feel that you are growing reading manga and have fun with it, just do it. Having fun is the best way to improve :tada:

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You make good points in favour of not changing the nature of the challenge, and IĀ“m fine with it being focused just in reading.

My personal little issue with the challenge (or any) in general, and somehow why I had the thought of broadening it, is that I get very complacent as long as IĀ“m checking days. What I mean by this is that I will read something one day that lets me check that day, and call it done until the next, stopping my Japanese study almost completely. Which is not bad per se because Iā€™m still doing something, but I feel like IĀ“m stagnating in other important areas of the language, i.e., listening, writing and the forever-forsaken speaking.

So I asked myself if this challenge is helping me achieve my goals faster (proficiency in all four areas of the language), or if itā€™s ā€œprocrastination in disguiseā€. Now, I do think itā€™s positively affecting my reading skills overall, and Iā€™ve managed to increase the amount I was reading before by a lot. But at the same time I think I need to reconsider how I want to frame my study going forward. I think reading is a very important aspect of any language and I want to keep doing it, but Iā€™m not sure if I want to put the entirety of my study time into reading.

Perhaps I could make it work nicely if I reduced the amount of reading that I do for this challenge (which, to be honest, wasnā€™t a lot to begin with, compared to what some of you beasts do :D) while adding other resources in the mix. Iā€™m just worried about not being able to keep up with the challenge every single day, and become progressively demotivated as I see myself skipping days.

Iā€™m so lost ;-; Iā€™m not sure what would work best for myself. Ultimately I want things to work and push me to keep improving, but regardless I think I will join the next challenge. It actually feels selfish of me to try to mold it into what would work for me; I thought it was worth a discussion nonetheless! :slightly_smiling_face:

One thing is clear though and itā€™s that I had a lot of fun with video games. Itā€™s probably one of the most important drives for my interest in Japanese currently. Some can be very text-heavy and itā€™s awesome when theyā€™re also voice acted.

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If you know you canā€™t read every day, set aside days where it is okay not to read. Weekends for example. Then you can spend time doing the other things you want to focus on instead.

This challenge really isnā€™t about keeping a streak, but accumulating days where youā€™ve done something rather than not doing the something. In this thread we just happen to focus on reading. I personally donā€™t feel like I have to practice writing and speaking, so I just focus on reading. But thatā€™s not to say you have to do the same. You do you :slight_smile:

I try to take vitamin and omega-3 supplements every day, but sometimes I forget or just skip even if I know I should take them. And thatā€™s okay. Itā€™s better to take them some days than stopping altogether.

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Yeah, I totally think that text heavy games count as reading for things like this challenge (I say as someone several days into a ćØćć‚ććƒ”ćƒ¢ćƒŖć‚¢ćƒ«Girls side 4 addiction hahaha). It is so nice having the voice acting as well :slight_smile:

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Still reading every day, at least a bit. Midway through Volume 10 of ē„”č·č»¢ē”Ÿ. Itā€™s been kind of a slog ever since volume 8, but 10 in particular has been uninteresting for the most part other than a couple of tidbits here and there. Some things were just plain dumb, to the point of annoyance.
Iā€™ll keep it up though, Iā€™ve been going at it nonstop for 31 days so far according to Kindle! And thatā€™s because I read the paperbacks of volumes 1-8, so itā€™s probably been around 2-3 months so far.

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So howā€™s everyone feeling for the Winter challenge? Itā€™s almost here, with the new year and all! I was thinking we could set up the thread a few days before starting just to give time for potentially new participants to see, what do you peeps think?

Also, Iā€™ve been giving it a bit of thought lately, about my last few posts. Iā€™ve been going through a rough couple of weeks and I think that conditioned me heavily into trying to retreat again to the safe bubble. And itā€™s not that thatā€™s bad or anything, in fact I need to take it very easy right now, but nonetheless I would also like to keep the nature of the challenge as a reading space. Iā€™ll need to make sure not to neglect other aspects that I find important, but I would like to make reading a big part of my study again. Well, immersion in general, but still. I would like for this coming year to push my Japanese knowledge up a bit, especially my vocabulary.

Iā€™ve been reading this thread recently, and it made me reflect. I have trouble with finding a purpose for my Japanese at the moment, and have for a while. I donā€™t really have any specific drive per se, not a specific goal I would like to achieve, no specific game or movie or anything I would like to comprehend. And while that is perfectly fine, I sometimes find myself lost in terms of direction. While I donā€™t really believe in motivation as a reliable force to achieve things, Itā€™s hard to keep oneself motivated with no goals in mind. I believe in healthy discipline and habit as more reliable, but itā€™s also very significant for me when I break either, and when that happens I find that having motivation is beneficial to get back on the horse again and push through. Iā€™m not exactly sure at times of what drives me to learn Japanese, to be perfectly honest, other than a general sense of genuine curiosity and interest for Japanese culture as a whole. But thereā€™s always this lingering feeling of wanting to learn and understand more of it, and frustration when I sense a lack of progress. And I think itā€™s easy to feel a lack of progress when you have no ground to make comparisons, no clear ā€œbefore and afterā€. I think completing goals in that regard is nice to see that you are indeed moving forward. I think thatā€™s a big part of why I like this challenge.

So yeah, all of this is to say, I think Iā€™m in one of those lows at the moment, so forgive my venting for a bit :sweat_smile: . Iā€™m looking forward to next challenge, hopefully I start feeling a bit better soon and I have more energy to give my Japanese a nice bump this year.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and ate many tasty dishes! :heart:

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Yeah! Letā€™s get ready and set it up soon so more people can join :grin:

@windupbird Would you like to post the winter challenge thread? :snowman_with_snow: :sparkles: :eyes: If not, I could post it, or someone else if theyā€™d like to go for it :grin:

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I got a pile of stuff to read, so I definitely need to commit again next year. :eyes:

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Iā€™ve missed this place, so Iā€™m looking forward to starting the Winter Challenge! :raccoon:

This time Iā€™m gonna try and keep better notes of my reading so, hopefully, I can learn better. I felt that quite often in the past challenge Iā€™d sometimes glance by a kanji if I wasnā€™t sure on the reading and just went with what I thought the reading was rather than looking it up and confirming. Iā€™ll try and be more diligent with my reading this time around!

Also, gonna take a note from your book and try gaming in Japanese. I finished Nioh 2 awhile back with Japanese audio but all the text in English, and Iā€™ve been wanting to play it on some of the higher difficulties so gonna try it with JP audio & text because obviously I enjoy suffering. (I donā€™t think Iā€™ll do this every day like the reading though because I think my brain might explode).

Donā€™t worry about venting, it sounds like youā€™ve got a plan though, Iā€™ve found going back to the Safe-Zone helps a lot, like it recements your foundations.

Weā€™ll be here to give you ganbarremotivation!
With large amounts of Tanuki of course :raccoon:

Hope you (and everyone here) had a great holiday!! :christmas_tree:

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I am already looking forward to the new thread. This month I was pretty busy and didnā€™t manage to read every day. But 2022 I will go all out and read much more than this year. I need to bring my backlog down a little bit.

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Iā€™m happy to do it again! :grin: Iā€™ll try to post it a bit later today so we can have a few days for people to see it before it starts

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Yay! :durtle_noice: Iā€™ll leave it to you :bowing_woman: yoroshiku!

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Winter challenge thread is live!

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