📚📚 Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 🌸 🌱

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\huge\color{#F599C7}\mathrm{🍀Day 5🍀}
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\small \color{ #FFC391}\mathrm{★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★}

Today I translated 1 page of よつばと!I got really tired and cold after being suddenly accosted by bad weather when out on a long walk, so I barely had the energy to do even this much :sweat_smile: I’m just heading to bed now, I’ll read everyone’s updates tomorrow :ok_hand::+1:

\small \color{ #FFC391}\mathrm{★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★}

Tooltip

The flowers above the “Day #” links to my post for the previous day, and the flowers below link to the next day, except for the latest day ofc, they link somewhere special :wink:

33 Likes

Summary post :bookmark:

April 5th :cherry_blossom:

・Honzuki no Gekokujou 9 (95% → 100%)

Yay, I finished the book :3 :sparkles: I went through the highlights I’ve marked through the ebook and found the answer to mysterious 4-particle combo. Turns out it was its own word/grammar structure:

…君ならではの[noun]…

Yeah, at first I thought it was なら+で+は+の and couldn’t make sense of it, but is actually ならでは+の, which I’ve learned on BunPro recently, so that’s awesome. ならでは - Japanese Grammar Explained | Bunpro

In other news, I had to fight the urge of starting Honzuki 10. I did open the book to take a peek at illustrations and characters pages, but I didn’t start reading the prologue. Good job me >:3 Gotta stay focused on the book club books. :sparkles: Celebrates one tiny piece of self-control :sparkles:

・Honzuki no Gekokujou 10 (0% → 2%)

35 Likes

Day 3 :apple: :apple:

Finished the first chapter of Death Note today. Was really caught off guard when I was able to recognize most of the kanji in 国際刑事警察機構会議. A year ago I presume such a wall of kanji would’ve scared me nuts.

Speaking of the plot, a lot of time had passed since I watched the anime so I totally forgot how much of a psycho Light truly is.

Also, had to make a little hack when looking through the thread. Present to you a mandatory love dispenser (copy-pastable in F12 console):

window.onscroll = function(){$("button[title='like this post']:not(.likedtomyhearthscontent)").each(function(){$(this).click();$(this).addClass("likedtomyhearthscontent")});}

:pleading_face::point_right: :point_left:

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This explains this:
image
I found the combo of 大嫌い and likes on my post amusing :joy:

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Argh, I spent all of my likes for today, so can’t like this one, the most important one.

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Day 5

Today I read half of the 4th chapter of 透明カメレオン! Today is just a short update, since it’s late and I am very sleepy :sleeping:

I’m noticing a pattern in this book: the author likes to inject random dark mystery. So far it isn’t really effecting the plot… but the fact that the author keeps putting scary/weird vibes out there makes me wonder if he’s preparing us for horror, or simply just trying to keep us readers on our toes?

Not a spoiler, but related to the book, every section ends with the main character introducing the next song for his radio show. I’ve been thinking in addition to my reading that I’d take time to listen to the song afterwards. :notes:

I’ll add my words here later!

:face_with_monocle::closed_book:

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

This is exactly I’ve started to feel! The only additional feeling is that I know I’m unintentionally “setting a standard” that I’ll feel awful not reaching later- actually today, since it was a half a chapter. I’m going to try and take it a little easier too :sob:

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Become a Regular again so you get more likes to spend! :D

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Day 5 / Calendar
Today I’ve read a couple of pages of Takagi-san again, because that’s more convenient to read on the go, than Yoru Café. I love these kinds of stories, they are always so heartwarming.

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A light reading day today, very busy day and while I had some commuting time I was TIRED. However! What’s fun is that すべてがfになるis an easy enough read now that I can apparently read it as an exhausted brain day chill pastime. I’m at 76% now and I’m so impatient to find out what’s going on!

No :cat2: today as too tired. Hopefully will be able to get back to it tomorrow!

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It pretty much requires you to participate in the polls thread which I am yet to become acquainted with. I had the Regular for a bit once when I was trying out that sweet thing called total escape from irl stuff and was really lurking in every recent thread.

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Summary post

Well, things aren’t great. I feel bad about kinda falling into a lot of complaining leaking into the reading topic but it’s usually relevant to why I’m not reading or struggling to, heh. I dragged through about 1000 characters and feel like I’m gonna go have a migraine so I guess this is where this post ends. I still read today, so that counts. If I manage to not have that migraine, I do want to read more later, maybe…

33 Likes

Day 5

こぐまのクーク物語: はじめての海とキャンプ: 48% → 64%

I was hoping to push through and finish the book today, but ended up spending a lot of time deciphering a couple of pages, where a conflict between characters happened. One sentence was particularly hard to decipher:

ひょっとしたら、はじめっから 母ちゃんいなくて、こいつが、一ぴきだけで 来たの かもしれないぞ。だから、ムダかもしれないぞ.

I think it means: possibly, there is no mother and this animal is just one animal, so there’s no point in continuing to look for her. I’m still not sure what grammatical constructions are used in はじめっから and 来たの. I’d be grateful if anyone could confirm if this is correct meaning and what those grammar points are :bowing_woman:.
For context: characters saw a baby crab on the beach and started looking for its mother, saying how the mother is also certainly looking for her child.

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I think you got it mostly on the head. はじめっから looks to me like a casual form of 始めから which would be a combo of because and from the start. こいつが、一ぴきだけで 来たの かもしれないぞ。to me is ~this crab, it probably came alone. I don’t think 来たの is anything special by itself, this explanation here seems relevant and how I interpret it as well. Ctrl+F for , I was referring to the の in ないのかもしれないね if that doesn’t take you right to the comment.

So altogether something like Possibly he never had a mother. This crab, it probably came alone. So (looking for mom) might be a waste of time

9 Likes

April 2 - April 5

New book time :eyes: :books:
I started 死神の精度 - a book made up of a bunch of connected short stories and really short chapters, seemed like a decent idea as a 2nd book on the side. I kind of forgot to check the difficulty level before buying it so was glad to see that it seems to be okay for my level.
I keep running into word play things these days - in this one scene 死神しにがみ dude is talking to this woman who doesn’t think much of herself and this conversation happens:
:woman::「わたし、醜いんです」 とぽつりと言った。
:skull::「みにくい?」 私は本当に、聞き間違えた。目を細め、顔を遠ざけて、「いや、見やすい」 と答えた。
:see_no_evil:

I also played some 999!
First of all (@natarin), everything in this post about that section with Santa and the bookmark was just 100% also my reaction?? :laughing: Relatable. :joy: That whole thing was really funny. Santa really is something else huh

More 999

Can you quote things from other topics?? Really not sure, I suppose I’m about to find out

I did the exact same :joy: I honestly saw an elephant in that picture but that wasn’t an option :woman_shrugging:

I don’t think anyone would be with that outfit!! :laughing: Poor guy, at least 紫 has, like, clothes


Current adventures: Finding my way out of a kitchen and almost freezing to death.

The actual puzzles in this section were really easy, the hard part was trying to follow 紫 on her strange pseudo scientific tangent about the crystallization of glycerin?? Was honestly a little lost sometimes, but I think I got the gist. Who doesn’t wanna learn words like sublimation, graphite and melting point in Japanese? (昇華, 黒鉛 and 融点 if anyone was wondering :laughing:)

I also came across a decent amount of N2 vocab in that kitchen. Actually very useful, thank you 999


I settled on something else for now but it’s likely I’ll still read かがみの孤城 at some point. I’m sure the book club threads will still be there waiting to be read :eyes:

32 Likes

Thank you! The article itself is also useful :bowing_woman:

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I’ve been reading about the many uses of soy beans and how to make different foods (natto, soy sauce, miso, etc.) from them. Amazing how level 0 graded readers can make this interesting! I’m learning some new vocabulary, too.

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April 5th :cherry_blossom: :cat2: :cherry_blossom: (Day 5)

Home post

Another busy day - almost ended before I had the opportunity to do WK or read. sigh :smiling_face_with_tear: The streak must be kept alive at any cost.

Had a quick read of the English version of 夜中の汽笛について, あるいは物語の効用について during my morning commute. It gave me a slightly different impression of the story - the story just didn’t feel the same. Though, it did help me navigate some grammatical points that were hazy previously :3 But contributing this alone for the challenge felt like cheating, so I did some actual Japanese reading with the little time I had left in the evening.

To continue with the cat theme (that I am generally attempting here), I went for: 大工と三毛猫. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but I definitely didn’t see the eye ball licking coming… Well, more like eye licking, but even then - that was one heck of an uncomfortable read. Anyways, I did get some cute new cat vocab out of it, so I guess it was worth it.

Cute cat vocab

:cat2: :cherry_blossom: :cat2:
三毛 (みけ) - calico
からねこ - cat (archaic)???

The not so cute vocab

舐める (なめる) - to lick


This calico is coming for your eyeballs

26 Likes

April 5th

I read Chapter 45 of Yotsuba today, which had a lot of cute moments. Yotsuba was adorable in her chef’s outfit :blush:
I hardly had to look anything up in this chapter, and the things I did need to look up were fairly cooking specific words like 泡立てる (to whisk)

(Home Post)

32 Likes

Home post

Day 4:

日本語: I read some of ミニスカ宇宙海賊 and a fair amount of 三毛猫ホームズの推理.
Read-aloud: We read a chapter of ハイキュー. (:volleyball: @tiny_river_otter :volleyball:)

中国語: I read an intermediate entry on Mandarin Bean, two pages of 骑士幻想夜, and a bit of 孩子最爱读的中国民间故事.

@basilsauce Yes, I’m also reading 三毛猫ホームズの推理! I don’t think I’m as far in as you guys and I might get distracted by other things I’m reading, but it’s on my to-read list for this year and I’m pushing along so far. :+1: I think I just finished the second part of the first chapter.

28 Likes

Summary Post

April 5
Final Fantasy VII

Vocabulary
  • 無愛想 = ぶあいそう unsociable, unfriendly, blunt.
  • 一遍に = いっぺんに all at once, at the same time.
  • かつら = wig.
  • うろつく = to loiter, to walk around without a purpose.
  • しゃがむ = to squat.
  • 消毒 = しょうどく sterilisation, disinfection.
  • 悪党 = あくとう villain, scoundrel (or a group of).
  • 維持 = いじ maintenance, preservation (of a situation, etc).
  • 部門 = ぶもん divison (of a larger group), branch, department.

I wanted to keep playing today but I had already played for like 2h and, even though I don’t really want to limit myself, I feel like it might lead to burnout eventually, so I preferred to save at a convenient spot and call it a day. I’d like to reach a point where I can consume Japanese without it draining my brain like I can do with English, but I’m definitely not in that spot yet, and I don’t think I will be there either any soon. Perhaps when I reach a point where I don’t encounter as many new words any more, so like I said, it will take a long while xd.

Also I keep encountering words that I think I should have absorbed by now but definitely have not. I suppose these are my leeches, words or grammatical constructions that I keep coming across over and over every now and again that I just can’t simply assimilate. I try to always look up things in the J-J dictionary, but if I don’t understand the definition for lack of vocabulary/grammar, well then it’s no use. I consult the J-E dictionary in those cases, and in some, I still can’t seem to grasp the meaning or how it’s used. I suppose it’s just a matter of coming back to them at some point with more overall knowledge until it unlocks to you and it makes sense. It’s not the first time this has happened and it’s sometimes over simple words or constructions too. I struggled with the different types of よう grammar constructions for the longest time, until they sort of clicked finally.

I suppose it’s just time, but sometimes it’s like: seriously, brain? We’ve gone through this waaaaaay too many times ;-; pls learn. I know I will eventually learn a lot and always try to enjoy the process, but the process is sometimes so frustrating and I want to run too fast at times :sob: :joy: . Sometimes it’s hard to remember that learning a language to a high level takes a very long time. I guess I forgot what it feels like ever since I reached that point in English, even if ultimately you never stop learning, but it definitely slows down a lot. Although at the same time, I think it’s inevitable to grow impatient sometimes when there’s just so much that unlocks to you the more language you know. I think enjoying the process is a very important aspect so it doesn’t become a chore or an overwhelming thing to do, but when I think of how many things simply became possible just from knowing English, it makes me want it even more.

It’s funny that the more you work towards something, the faster you want to reach it. And in terms of language acquisition, most of the time you don’t even notice you are improving, so it feels like you are wasting more and more time. I just want to have something “physical” that lets me know that I’m indeed improving in some way, and that’s why I decided a while back to keep doing SRS, not only for its benefits but also because of that. It’s silly, but seeing the number of vocabulary grow somehow eases that uncertainty. It’s also kinda fun, too.

34 Likes