📚📚 Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 🌸 🌱

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I have to second this! @Zakarius You’ve read (and shared) some pretty wild stories, and I always appreciate that. :grin:

Yes, it’s the best!

I cannot.

:joy:

Personal experience, sometimes reading the easy book improves your skills faster, and when you go back to the harder book, it then feels a little easier and takes less time. So it won’t necessarily delay you that much to take a detour. Plus, it could increase your enjoyment of the harder book too. :slight_smile: That’s how it went for me last night reading 霧のむこうのふしぎな町 again after finishing 夜カフェ at least.

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Well, I ended up missing two days last week. Been good ever since, though. :open_mouth: I’m definitely going to keep going with the challenge; if anything missing the days has really motivated me to not just “daily read”, but “read”, if that makes sense. I feel like I’ve been slipping more and more into the mindset of “gotta check this off for the day” rather than actively choosing to read Japanese as my leisure activity for a night, which lead to my missing days.

I’ve been keeping up with my 薬屋のひとりごと reading; we’re getting real close to the end of the book! Just a couple more weeks! I don’t think I’ll be participating in the next ABC book, so I definitely want to push myself to immediately start 薬屋2 after finishing 1. A good chunk of the specialized vocab from book 1 should still be fresh in mind, so I want to take advantage of that to have as smooth a start as possible.

I’ve also recently started another book, Alicemare (アリスメア), one that’s been on my shelf for a while. It’s a novelization of an indie game of the same name (made by △○□× / みわしいば for those who know them; vgperson translated the game, and it’s available on Steam). Compared to 薬屋, it’s a much easier read for me, so it’s relaxing to have a book to turn to that’s both interesting and doesn’t required looking up a new word every other sentence. :stuck_out_tongue: I remember the game being light on story, so I’m really interested to see what happens in the book.

I’m hoping to focus on these two books for the most part, at least until I finish one.

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this was my experience too, actually with かがみの孤城! I paused about half way through the first volume and read 世界から猫が消えたなら - which only took about a week (it’s a short book) and then when I went back to かがみ it somehow seemed way easier (that might be coincidence in that I was just far through enough to have got used to it). It was a nice little break though!

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I love seeing that this challenge is still running a whole year after the first one last summer!!!

I don’t have time to commit to this challenge yet/during the year when I work two jobs, but I’m eagerly awaiting the summer challenge. Keep up the great work you guys!!

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Day 27

Today I read chapter 6 of 佐賀のがばいばあちゃん, and a little article on the side as a supplement to my kanji studies!

Some recent words I learned:

• 間髪入れず = (かんぱついれず) immediately
• 急須 = (きゅうす) small teapot
• 手持ち無沙汰 = (てもちぶさた) being bored, 無沙汰 was printed in hiragana
• 和気藹々 = (わきあいあい) peaceful, harmonious

:cherry_blossom::house_with_garden: My Home Post :house_with_garden::cherry_blossom:

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:tiger2: :books: Tanuki Den (aka Homepost): Date 20220427 :cherry_blossom: :raccoon:

Tanuki Scroll XXVII: 赤ん坊と泥棒(どろぼう) :moneybag:

Only have time for a short one today, but read today’s folktale from Okayama prefecture!

About a thief who breaks into a house, the family is all asleep but the baby sees him and begins to murmur. To calm the baby he pulls some silly faces, the baby giggles so he pulls some more. The baby is too cute that he forgets all about robbing the house and plays with the baby until morning.


:seedling: Japanese found in the tall grass :seedling:

Lonely New Word

ペロリ「ぺろり」ー sticking out your tongue quickly, can also mean to gobble something up quickly


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If you ever need a small read then I very much recommend Hukumusume!
This is probably like the 50th time I’m recommending it but… :laughing:

Though come Autumn I’ll have been using that site for a year and will be running out of stories, it feels odd to say as well that the stories are getting a little too easy (I mean, me, being able to read Japanese… what??), but that goes to show at least how good these threads are! Still, gonna miss reading all these out-there tales.

I second this too! :rofl:

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That is so pretty when it happens.

Also so much cuteness!

I looked at the first few panels and stuff you posted and I was: that looks gorgeous.
Then looked at cartoon gore ones: that looks terrifying, I think I’m gonna be sick.
I can’t handle gore. :sweat_smile:

But I hope you enjoy it. :blush:


Continued 坊ちゃん yesterday and today. It is getting easier, thankfully. Or maybe I’m just getting used to the voice. I can’t tell. Still left with some question marks, one of them related to dialect.

Here goes the difficulties

First the dialect one. The dialect is related to 四国 (not sure that is much of a spoiler, but anyway) since that is the boondocks we are hanging out in.

Here’s the sentence:
「あまり早くてわからんけれ、もちっと、ゆるゆるやっておくれんかなもし」と田舎の言葉で言った。

So I know of the negative dialect thing of わからない becoming わからん, maybe that is just slurring and not dialect—I’m no expert.

I assume けれ is partial けれども.

But what is もちっと? I honestly have no idea, and neither did a couple of places I checked.

おくれん=おくれない (I’m assuming, as in お+くれない

かなもし though? I know かな by itself is “I wonder” or similar translation. But もし on the end? Is that adding “if” to the whole thing somehow? Or just dialect stuff I don’t know.

Next:
わからなければ、わかるまで待て。(This is part of a longer speech, but I do believe this sentence stands on its own.)
So the first part is easy: If you don’t understand, …
Then I’m not sure. Or maybe the sentence just doesn’t make any sense to me. I often feel like まで stumps me a bit, when used outside strict timeline stuff.
Is this actually: If you don’t understand, until you (?) understand wait. (That sentence makes no sense.)
Or maybe he (this is 坊ちゃん talking) is saying: If I don’t understand, wait until I do?
Maybe I need to give more context for you awesome folks to help me, but maybe I’m just lost? (I can’t tell which.)

Last:
授業は思ったよりうまくいったが、帰る時、生徒の一人が、「ちょっとこれを説明しておくらんかなもし」と、難しい数学の問題を持ってきたのには困った。
I’m interested in the “授業は思ったより” and/or really all of the first part (授業は思ったよりうまくいった). I understand everything that comes after that (except the exact nature of the dialect stuff I mentioned above). I also assume the last bit “は困った” is perhaps related to the very first part.

What exactly does " ‘lesson’ I thought " mean? It is the direct translation, and then comes a より and I guess I’m not entirely sure what is being compare to what.

If I had to take a guess, I would say that 坊ちゃん thought the lesson went well, but a student coming with a hard math problem means it didn’t? See, even my guess makes me confused. :joy:

Even with the difficulties, it feels nice to be able to read several pages without feeling like I’m missing something hugely important in the sentences I did have trouble with. But who knows, maybe I am. Wouldn’t be the first time with this story. :joy:

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Day 27 / Calendar

Today I’ve got Takagi-san from 58% to 85%. This manga is probably the perfect difficulty for me to both enjoy but still struggle at somewhat, which is quite fun. If I continue like this (I won’t I’ll be mostly busy tomorrow), I should finish it quite soon. After which I’ll need to pick a new book to read (ngl, Spy x Family is great as an anime, so it will probably be that, considering how it was free)

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April 27th!

I was a bit tired so I decided to read something short today, and chose ふしぎねこのきゅーちゃん since every page is a self-contained story.
But then I was enjoying reading it so much that I ended up reading 25 pages which wasn’t much less than I’d have read if I’d picked something with chapters :grin:
It’s just so sweet and wholesome.

(Home Post)

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I read 100 characters in 9 lines lol. On a technicality I read every day still. So today my addon to use yomichan with Anki updated, and apparently changed to now only supporting new versions of Anki. I’ve been using an old one for the sake of some of my other addons and just cause it’s been familiar and stable… but I can’t find any way to downgrade this single addon. Since it’s the most important one to me I had to upgrade Anki itself. Along with breaking some things it also is enough of a UI change that I am getting lost trying to do a few things I could easily before, and in some ways it’s just objectively worse. Like I used to have my added cards list automatically update the moment I added them and now I have to change tabs to refresh it, lots of little things like that.

I’m too tired for all this right now.

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Summary post :bookmark:

April 27th :cherry_blossom:

・薬屋のひとりごと (63% → 64%)

Okie, finished ch 22. You know you’re tired when a character yawns and you start yawning too. I know yawns can be contagious? infectious? but to such a degree… :eyes:

How to English? wakaranai

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What if you read about somebody reading about a character yawning, and that urges you to yawn as well? :eyes:

kk, I’m off to bed :joy:

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Continued my pirate quest. So we get a new character who is being described as being extremely handsome (あまりにも印象的で、ときに本人が不都合を感じるほどに。) :eyes: are we getting closer to some interesting action parts? but then we learn ALLLL about that character’s background, which means another rundown on European history :rofl:

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Summary Post

April 27
Final Fantasy VII

Vocabulary
  • ほんの = only, mere, just.
  • 占う = うらなう to tell someone’s fortune, to predict, to divine.
  • 炭坑 = たんこう a coal mine.
  • 逆らう = さからう to go against, to oppose.
  • わずか = little, small, trifling.
  • のどか = calm, tranquil, peaceful.
  • 所有 = しょゆう possessing, possession.

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もうちょっと

It’s なもし I think, which means “ですね” (so ですかね here).

That’s the one (well, “wait until you do”). What’s the problem with that sentence?

The class went better than I expected

No, it’s about the one student asking questions about (unrelated I assume) hard math questions :joy:

No you got it! The math question(s) doesn’t mean that the class didn’t go well, just that the character was 困った… Somehow I can’t find a way to express that feeling in English at the moment, but anyway. (edit: embarrassed?)

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April 27th :cherry_blossom: :cat2: :cherry_blossom: (Day 27)

Home post

Another smol update: quickly skimmed through some news articles. Honestly gotta find something else to read on these tiring days - I hate news reading with a passion (unless it’s kitty related)… Learned the word 肝臓 (かんぞう) - liver though, which is kinda cool I guess

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Ok well, this is enough of a habit that I feel bad for not doing it so eventually I summoned up what energy I could to keep reading. Wasn’t going to update any further after venting earlier, but I came across something that absolutely must be shared.

猫の額 (ねこのひたい) - an idiom meaning tiny area, literally “cat’s forehead.” I find all of the cat related terms adorable and couldn’t go without sharing it with someone. :cat:

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Day 28 / Calendar

So when I said that I probably won’t finish Takagi-san today… Well, knowing my busy schedule tomorrow, I did some night reading and I actually finished it. This is mostly thanks to the 6 or so pages at the end that were irrelevant.

This makes the first book I’ve ever completed in Japanese, feels nice. I need to update my home post with my next reading.

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Summary Post

Day 27: April 27th
What did I read?: ダイロクセンス Vol 1
How much did I read?: 16 pages
How long did it take me?: 28 min

Decided to pick this up, literally because I saw that it had furigana and I didn’t feel like trying that hard for kanji today :joy: I bought this originally because something else I bought had a little flyer for it and I liked the art. Do I remember what the premise of it is? No. Do I remember literally anything about it? No. Could I figure this out by reading the back or a synopsis or something? Probably, but I’m just going to let myself be surprised :joy: So far, it’s pretty fun.

The story so far

The main character, Sumire, is a detective - she broke her colleague’s extremely expensive camera during a police chase, so now she’s on the hook for replacing it. Luckily, wouldn’t you know it, the mall is having a 知恵の輪 contest that day where the prize is the exact camera she’s looking for! So she enters that, and she starts accidentally winning it because she’s just breaking the puzzles apart with her freaking man strength instead of solving them :joy: (For some reason, the competition decides that this is a valid way to win) Her mysterious kid rival (Rui) is not happy about this because he wants the pretty purple camera that matches his eyes. Who will win the extremely expensive camera? :o I’ll find out…tomorrow, because I’m tired xD

Good words
  • 係長 (かかりちょう) - subsection head; assistant manager; chief clerk
  • 引ったくり (ひったくり) - purse snatching; handbag snatching; purse snatcher; handbag snatcher
  • 気軽 (きがる) - carefree; buoyant; lighthearted; sprightly
  • 思い出作り (おもいでづくり) - memory-making; making memories
  • 知恵の輪 (ちえのわ) - puzzle ring; wire puzzle
  • 相応しい (ふさわしい) - appropriate; adequate; suitable; fitting; worthy
  • 遭逢 (そうほう) - meeting by chance; running into; coming upon; encounter

I read this a couple challenges ago and I freaking loved it, would recommend.
I actually have 星だけが知ってる sitting on my shelf as well so glad to hear it’s good :smile:

I literally yawned while reading this sentence, what is this sorcery :rofl:

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April 27

Tonight’s graded reader is a folktale from the Phillippines. A mother asks her slothful (怠け者)son to sell pots in the marketplace and buy some crabs with the profits :crabigator: The son is able to buy the crabs but on the way home, he stops to play in a nearby lake. He tells the crabs to go the rest of the way home, but of course they never arrive. His mother cries 笑

I also met with my tutor and we were able to revise the rest of my essay. It feels good to be done with that. Now if only this year’s application would come out so I can apply!

In an incredible coincidence, when I mentioned that it’s almost Golden Week as a lead-in for saying my birthday is on Friday (the start of Golden Week), my tutor says her birthday is on Friday!!! I couldn’t believe it. Out of all the teachers on iTalki, I pick the one with the same birthday as me :laughing: 何という愚然

Progress on Tadoku graded readers
44 / 44 level-zeros
12 / 12 level-ones
6 /10 level-twos
x / 18 level-threes

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