📚📚 Read every day challenge - Fall/Autumn 2021 🍁🍂🦝

Japanese Language Reading
#129

TL;DR Thanks for the inspiration and reminder!

Longer:
I read this the other night before bed and it made me so excited! I realised that my 1 year mark would be coming up soon. Then laying in bed I kept thinking about it to the point that I got out of bed and dug through my books to try figure out the best approximation of my anniversary =D

I have stopped & started a few times before this, but this is the longest I’ve been able to keep it up consistently and by far the most progress I’ve made (I can actually stumble my way through manga ?!?!). When I started this time I had to re-learn hiragana so I don’t think my earlier attempts helped that much except for the dozen or so words.

The closest date I’ve been able to find is that in 2020-10-xx I started thinking about wanting to visit Japan again and that reignited my interest in learning the language, and then at the end of 2021-11-xx I started learning again. 2021-11-27 a friend convinced me to try WK and 2021-11-29 I restarted Genki.

I’m not sure what my goals for it are or how I should celebrate. Naively I am on track to have finished my second manga a bit before then, maybe I could squeeze in a 3rd. OTOH I have been on this level of WK for 128 days so maybe I should prioritise WK.

16 Likes
#130

Summary Post

Day 5: September 5th
Satori Reader: Secret, episode 33.

Random words
  • 交差 = こうさ crossing, intersection.
  • きつい = tough, hard, severe (implies severity and suffering).
  • 引き返す = ひきかえす to go back (to where you came from).
  • 基地 = きち base (military).

Today’s episode was a nice one. Blurring this for potential spoilers for someone reading or planning to read Secret on Satori Reader:

One of the protagonists 日本語お上手ですね 'ed an american in their climbing group when he talked to them in completely perfect Japanese :joy: . Then he went on to explain that he had been 4 years on duty in an american military base in Okinawa. But the reaction, priceless. Never fails.

15 Likes
#131

@sycamore and @chrisosaurus Aahh! Your first year anniversary, and already reading manga/books… You two are really awesome. I hope you each get to meet your goals! Congratulations in advance for a full year of blood, sweat and kanji (why does that sound gross instead of cute?)!!

13 Likes
#132

Summary post

Day 5: September 5
What did I read?: ハイ☆スピード! and ふらいんぐうぃっち Vol. 10 (finished the volume)
How much did I read?: 6 pages and 17 pages
How long did it take me?: 1 hour 21 min and 22 min

Makoto being late because he needed to clean his goldfish bowl is too precious :pleading_face: Sweet baby angel. And Nagisa’s here! Being an annoying child, why is that not a surprise xD

Gushing about the writing of Haru + water/swimming (not really spoilery, I just felt like putting it under a cut because I put an image to explain my feelings and it felt large just sitting out there lmao)

I love the way that Haru thinks about and relates to the water/swimming. Like…I just love the way it’s written. It’s not stated in so many words, but it feels like he’s got a better “relationship” with water/swimming than he does with most humans. Like they understand each other, and respect/accept each other as they are. There’s something I find so bittersweet about that, in the context of his not being that good with human relationships. I don’t know if I’m conveying what I mean very well right now lmao but this window into Haru’s thoughts about swimming just got me like

Pacha_When_the_sun_hits_that_ridge_just_right

I feel like I haven’t really noticed writing styles that much in Japanese before, but there’s something about this novel’s writing style that I really really like. It feels so pretty sometimes. :3 It’s really helping me enjoy the story even more, I think, especially now that I’ve had a chance to settle into it.

Finally finished off the last volume of Flying Witch today also - I was reading it with the book club during the summer challenge and just…sort of…didn’t finish it after the last challenge ended. :sweat_smile: Whoopsss

Good words/phrases from today (mostly from High Speed, but one from Flying Witch too):

  • 認め合う (みとめあう) - to mutually recognize; to accept
  • かすめる - to appear and quickly disappear (a thought, a smile, etc.); to flit (through one’s mind, across one’s face)
  • 手を抜く(てをぬく) - to cut corners; to be shoddy
  • 御免だ - might be more of a grammar point than a word per se, but apparently means “do not want/want to avoid,” which I did not know (and the author of High Speed clearly likes to use this construction, it’s shown up at least 3 times already)
  • 齧る (かじる) - to dabble in; to have a smattering of (but also means to gnaw; to nibble; to bite; to munch; to crunch - this was written in hiragana in Flying Witch but I love this kanji, it just looks so appropriate for that meaning. Like, doesn’t it just look like crunching? It does to me anyway xD)
17 Likes
#133

I have to echo what someone else said about loving to hear you gush about the book. ^^

It makes me smile because your excitement is just so palpable that it’s infectious. :purple_heart:

16 Likes
#134

:house_with_garden:

:white_check_mark: 5日目 9月6日

Today’s NHK News Web article: コロナウイルスで親が入院 子どもの世話をする人がいない

14 Likes
#135

Thanks =D

I feel like what I do is much better described as stumbling than reading, it feels like I have to look up pretty much everything >.>

Sometimes I feel like I’m not making enough progress as my speaking and listening are so rubbish, but when my anxious brain isn’t running the show, I try to reflect on how even being in remotely the ballpark of ‘reading’ is such a huge deal to me - and was previously a dream of mine.

I think I turned to Japanese as something to kind of pour myself into to help cope with everything going on around us at the moment, something that I could better within myself so that when this is all over I can look back and not feel like it was a write off, I just really really hope it won’t slip away once things return closer to normal.

14 Likes
#136

Summary post

First week of September done :slight_smile: though not first full week of the challenge, but any excuse for a summary as I’m too lazy for daily updates and avoiding starting work. I’d been searching for a while to try to find a reading/time tracker app that made it as easy as possible to time reading sessions and update progress and a few weeks ago I found the [Read more] (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shunan.readmore) app (I’m on android, not sure whether it’s on iOS too). I’ve mainly just been using it to track reading novels because that’s where I’m most interested to see if over time my reading speed improves so it doesn’t cover a few manga chapters I read this week (1 chapter each of ハイキュー & よつばと, 2 chapters 鬼滅の刃) but still gives some fun charts and stuff of the month so far :slight_smile:

要約

Screenshot_20210906-080943_Read More
Screenshot_20210906-080943_Read More1080×2280 196 KB

(the time by the pages shows 0 because the pages is just a conversion from percentages based on the page number of the physical book given that I read everything on Kindle)

So far this month I have read another 18% of ハリーポッター賢者の石 (plus the manga mentioned above)- not too bad for me! mainly that was through reading for about 20 mins at lunch and then meaning to read for another half an hour before bed and then not stopping for more like an hour/an hour and a half depending on tiredness :sweat_smile: my partner is through this week and then the following week I’m on holiday so will probably make slower progress but I think if I can find even just half an hour to read a day I should hopefully be able to reach my goal of finishing HP by mid October, given I’m 49% of the way through now (I really wanted to stop at 50% last night but too…tired…)

yay! It’s nice to kind of take stock at these kinds of anniversaries I think! I’m a person that quite often tends to get really into something and then drop it after a few months so sticking with something for a full year feels big enough in itself hahha. I also relate to speaking and listening (mainly speaking, oh I’m so bad at speaking) lagging waaaay behind but that’s okay! I’m sure it will come in time/if we chose to prioritise it in the future :slight_smile:

aw thanks :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: I’m 100% only reading manga and books at this point because of the WK forums, cos the first ハイキュー!! bookclub started up a few months into me starting Japanese and I went through a path of “oh wow, I love haikyuu, I really want to read the manga with the club but it will be way too hard” to deciding to take part anyway and being like “yep, this is way way too hard but it’s also so much fun!”. Looking back, it was way past my ability at the time but struggling through that first volume gave me the motivation I needed to haphazardly blitz through the rest of N5 & N4 grammar & so I could join back in for 3rd volume of ハイキュー on (actually vaguely able to understand it this time lol) and then branching out to read more through the previous one of these challenges which was what made me think that I could maybe try a novel! So yeah, always a combo of folks on the WK forums (and my own stubbornness) pushing me out of my comfort zone haha.

17 Likes
#137

Studying Japanese has been hugely beneficial for my mental health over the last year, so it doesn’t just feel like wasted time. I think it’s easy to get caught up on what you can’t do than what you can. You’re litereally reading in another language with a different character set, that’s awesome!

15 Likes
#138

Home post

Read in the garden before work this morning, curled up in a blanket which was pretty cosy but I’m not sure realistically how long that’s going to be viable for!

Really noticing how weak I am on onomatopoeia at the moment. With the exception of the odd word that’s actually sound related, most of them don’t seem to bear any relation to the meaning to me, so I am constantly looking them up. I’ve learnt around 80 so far that have come up in other books, but this author seems to like using ones I’ve never come across before.

16 Likes
#139

Streak Count: 4

Read 12 pages today, and I’m now on chapter 5 of 8. As you can tell, it’s a short book. The only reason why it has 220 pages is because the book itself is diminutive. Not as small as the other LN, though! That one’s just ちっちゃい.

I’ve been quite tired today, and, as always, reading Japanese that’s anything other than very easy while I’m tired makes me go

external-content.duckduckgo.com

Tired enough that I had to edit 701 obvious errors out of this short post. D:<

18 Likes
#140

Summary

September 4
:maple_leaf: 4
total: 71/100

  • メタモルフォーゼの縁側5 (0 → 52%)

September 5
:maple_leaf: 5
total: 72/100

  • メタモルフォーゼの縁側5 (52 → 86%)

September 6
:maple_leaf: 6
total: 73/100

  • メタモルフォーゼの縁側5 (86-> 100%)

Finished メタモルフォーゼの縁側! It was a nice series, even if I got a little disappointed later on.
I summarized the premise already, but it was back in the summer thread, so.
It’s about the 75-years-old lady, who gets into yaoi manga during her retirement.
But that is set up really quickly, and then manga changes into typical slice of life, and I guess I’m really not compatible with typical slice of life. There are manga-cons and such, which make for a nice background, but I guess I wanted more about the process of the development of her new hobby?
And she makes friends with a highschool girl, who has a character design I really liked, but that results in yet another series about high school life, even if said high school life isn’t 100% of the plot.
And at the start it looked like it would be very easy & quick read, but even if there are many pages with nearly 0 text, there is also a lot of moments where we are thrown into some random conversation. And there a lot of things that are handwritten and I admit I sometimes just gave up trying to decipher small handwritten characters.
Still, it was nice to see some representation of the older people and the relationship between the old lady and the highschooler was really sweet and supportive. It would be great to have such person in my life when I was younger, eh.

Japanese vs mental health (ranting, a little heavy)

In my case achievements are of course good for my self-esteem, but I have a really hard time accepting daily struggle. As in when I don’t understand a sentence, or it takes long time before I understand it, or I have to check up a lot of words, or I make a mistake in textbooks tests, or I make a mistake in SRS… During childhood, perfection was always expected of me, and even perfection could be not enough, because I could always do two things perfectly, not just one. It quickly backfired and I started to struggle in school instead, which resulted in more pressure, and so on.
I love Japanese and for me it is my most precious, most cherished activity, but learning Japanese can easily activate these unpleasant memories, and managing them is really exhausting on top of retaining new info. So eh. :confused:

17 Likes
#141

Feeling inspired by this idea - though I’m working my way through some VERY simple texts ATM;

It all counts though, right?

18 Likes
#142

That’s where we all started out, though my simple texts were textbooks with scintillating sentences like 「これはえんぴつです。」

12 Likes
#143

Handwritten Japanese is still my nemesis. shakes fist

About the Japanese and mental health stuff

I’m really sorry to hear that. I wish I had some advice, but I’m afraid I don’t really. When my wife’s perfectionism is causing her distress, I have started to list all the amazing accomplishments in her life and career. Then I ask her, “if it was your best friend who did all those things, how would you feel for her? Isn’t it all すごい？Well, surprise! YOU’RE the one who’s すごい！”

You read a 178 page book in three days. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be impressive. And if it matters in any way: I am certainly mighty impressed by that. :robot: You’re すごい.

I can somewhat relate, since I struggle celebrating any victories of my own. I thought I’d be proud of myself when I reached level 60, but I felt nothing. I thought I’d be proud of myself when I read my first VN, but I felt nothing. Maybe someday. :joy:

Sorry, I don’t know why I’m rambling at you. Just wanted to let you know that I hear you and I’m commiserating with you.

Most certainly counts! :muscle:

Oooh, えんぴつ - fancy! You had already graduated up from ペン :open_mouth:

Trying to find something halfway engaging to read at low levels is such a pain.

14 Likes
#144

Is it the one by 東野圭吾? I know he has written a book with that title, and it being a crime novel fits as well. :eyes:

4.9.
I thought I’d read some more of 授乳 early that day, but I ended up reading a (very short) chapter of 赤毛のアン instead. 久しぶりだなぁ!

5.9.
Full day of lots of driving (all by myself sadly. I love co driving because it means I get to read :eyes:) followed by a family gathering. I read a tiny bit of 授乳 before bed only to have read something. Will check the actual breakpoints today so I don’t miss where to stop reading this week.

13 Likes
#145

I find this a big struggle too! I can get very frustrated if I make mistakes or struggle and be like “ugh! I don’t understand anything I’m terrible at this!”. Actually had to miss a week of the ハイキュー bookclub recently where I had a day like that because I decided that I wasn’t able to understand the chapter and didn’t feel like I could go along to the readalong and show how bad at Japanese I was. Buuuut, I think reading most if not all days has kind of helped with this cos rather than having a day like that and then not reading again until the next week I will read again the next day and realise that it was less about the Japanese itself and more just having a bad brain day. After all, the struggle is how you learn! It’s just hard to remember sometimes especially for people (like me) who were always ‘good students’ and can fall into that ‘this is an exam that I must ace’ mentality.

11 Likes
#146

tiny progress per day, big results within weeks.

I think I’ll read up on Polar Bear Café Today’s Special first. Gives me time to order new stuff :upside_down_face:

11 Likes
#147

@Omun @sycamore Thank you for your support :pleading_face: :revolving_hearts:

If I’m not mistaken, we’re supposed to finish the 1st story this week, so it’s a great stopping point :upside_down_face:

11 Likes
#148

It definitely all counts. Last April I was reading picture books for pre-schoolers, with a dictionary, and a lot of help from HelloTalk friends. This summer I read my first adult novel. Just not being terrified when you look at a page of japanese text is an achievement.

12 Likes