Today I finally finished the Grammar Term Section of “A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar”, which was last week’s section of the book club. I am a little behind, because reading a physical book is difficult at the moment (I have a 16 month old toddler here, and when I want to read a book it becomes the most interesting thing in the world for her - which most of the time results in me not being able to read at all ).
Then I finished this week’s reading of ルリドラゴン (p. 80 → p. 86)
And I continued with this week’s reading of the Visual Novel 999. Which is by far the most difficult thing I am reading at the moment. I have to look up many words/kanji. But thanks to various tools it is easy to do
I am still not finished with this week’s section though, and I hope I will get the chance to continue tomorrow.
Hi, I join Thanks to @windupbird for hosting yet another reaching challenge!
March was quite a challenge for me, mainly because the book I was reading did not strike a chord with me. So I decided to drop it and read something I know I’ll like.
二ノ国白き聖灰の女王：滝の回廊 A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar: Grammatical Terms
Getting through the beginning of 二ノ国, which is a lot of tutorial dialogue still. I plan to read 本好きの下剋上 on slower days later on when I’m inevitably going to have to grind levels and have gone through unlocked マジックマスター pages.
Read last week’s assigned reading for DoBJG. Thankfully, I’m not too far behind and can easily catch up at this point. My main focus is getting through 二ノ国 as I want to actually go through a game from start to finish in Japanese and life has been getting in the way. Thankfully, it’s easy to look up things with all the furigana.
Joining casually again. Going to have to bump book goals out to one every two months–work never let up (it’s getting worse ) and with everything else I just don’t have the time.
My plan is still 30min of reading on work days, with longer on off-days. Still one manga a week, a book every 2 months, and a game as long as it takes (P3P on back burner during the 999 VN club reading)
Day 1: April 1st
What did I read?: ペンギン・ハイウェイ
How much did I read?: 8 pages
How long did it take me?: 37 min
Woooo first day of the challenge! Welcome everyone old and new
I inadvertently started off the challenge by…finishing a book in English, because of course I did Although it wasn’t really what I was supposed to be doing, it marks the first time I’ve finished an English-language book in…a while, so that’s good at least If anyone’s wondering, it was called The Attic Child and I thought it was pretty good - the writing style was just ok imo but the story was intriguing and I definitely teared up a few times near the end
I did eventually pull it together and read some of Penguin Highway, too And I learned a neat word/expression: 万が一, meaning “(if) by some chance; by some possibility; in the unlikely event that; 10000 to 1”
i gotta confess, i always get really nervous about diving into native materials because i get so scared that i won’t understand anything and end up reaching way beyond my ability. naruto has been a longtime favorite series of mine, since i was a wee pre-teen watching three-part episode uploads on youtube every week, so for some reason I’ve always held it up as this suuuper advanced language goal, that maybe someday i might be able to understand it without subtitles or translation… so imagine my surprise when i tested the waters today only to find out that, not only could i read it easily, but also laugh along with the jokes and cry at the sad parts all without needing to stop to look up vocab words
i did jot down a few words in my notebook to look up later, so I’m excited to add those terms to my SRS app. but I’m just incredibly jazzed that i get to read something I’ve always seen as this nebulous future fluency goal
@lady_nelle I’m so excited to see that you’re playing 二ノ国! it’s one of my favorite immersion activities for the language level and chill vibe, but i never have time to play lately i look forward to your updates!!
both volumes of 先生もネット世代 The Net Generation Teacher! It’s so good. This is definitely easier to read on paper than pixiv lol. Anyway, Ueda-sensei looks a lot like Mima. I think Nata-sensei might have a type. It’s soo weird though reading a normal b&w manga by Nata Kokone, I’m so used to the full-color クールドジ男子.
5 pages of 透き通った風が吹いて, leaving off on pg 43
Some vocab of note:
木苺 (きいちご) [n.] raspberry. They don’t even grow on trees…
拍車がかかる (はくしゃがかかる) [expression, ラ五] to spur on; to expedite; to encourage
未然に防ぐ (みぜんにふせぐ) [expression, ガ五] to prevent; to take precautions. Lit. “to prevent before it happens” —a bit redundant lol
ガチ恋 (ガチこい) [slang, n.] being in love with an actor, idol, etc.; a person who is so
ダダ漏れ (ダダもれ) [colloq., n.] big leak; uncontained leak
真っ只中 (まっただなか) [n.] right in the midst of; right at the height of
チクる [colloq., ラ五] to tattle; to tell on; to inform a superior of someone’s actions
寡黙 (かもく) [n., な-adj.] taciturn; untalkative; quiet; reticent; uncommunicative
I read most of this week’s レベル7 reading and only have a couple of pages to knock out tomorrow. Might get to dive back into one of my non bookclub books after!
Pretty good start to the challenge today! I started looking into next week’s potential Zero Escape reading, and also read some more BU$TAFELLOWS which has continued to be wild but now I must go to bed, tragically
Solid advice, thanks! While I was grumbling to myself that she sure took her time and left way too long pauses for effect, it somehow never occurred to me to try and speed up. It’s going much better now (and she sounds much less timid, finally!).
NANA was one of the first manga I ever read at a probably-too-young age. Diving into it again has been interesting so far. In general, I feel like I’m more judgmental of the characters: I recall being somewhat judgy, but I think my judgments now are more critical. For example, we meet Main Character A Nana Komatsu as her “boyfriend” dumps her. I know I thought it was weird that she dated an older man (29) while she was in high school, but reading it now has me going, "Oh, this is a man who needs to be taken to the authorities PRONTO. While Nana does have a tendency to crush on older men, she’s a) still in high school (and therefore a child in my eyes) and b) is kind of a naive character, so I don’t really have a problem with how she acts or views things.
I kind of like that I get to read this more critically. It gives me the chance to reevaluate these characters, which is fun for me.
I felt the same thing rereading Fruits Basket! When I first read at age 12 or so I thought the age gap of Toru’s parents was a little weird and Toru’s dad is portrayed as such a huge hero but rereading it he just feels like a huge predator
Redglare’s home post 
“A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar”, which was last week’s section of the book club. I am a little behind, because reading a physical book is difficult at the moment (I have a 16 month old toddler 
here, and when I want to read a book it becomes the most interesting thing in the world for her - which most of the time results in me not being able to read at all 
).
ルリドラゴン (p. 80 → p. 86)
999. Which is by far the most difficult thing I am reading at the moment. I have to look up many words/kanji. But thanks to various tools it is easy to do 
Thanks to 
April 1
二ノ国白き聖灰の女王：滝の回廊
) and with everything else I just don’t have the time.
Although it wasn’t really what I was supposed to be doing, it marks the first time I’ve finished an English-language book in…a while, so that’s good at least 
If anyone’s wondering, it was called The Attic Child and I thought it was pretty good - the writing style was just ok imo but the story was intriguing and I definitely teared up a few times near the end
all without needing to stop to look up vocab words
i look forward to your updates!!
but now I must go to bed, tragically 
NANA 1 (21% → 32%)
