📚📚 Read every day challenge - Summer 2021 🏖🏖

Japanese Language Reading
#526

Starting later than most, but better late than never, right?

Goals:

June

週 月 火 水 木 金 土 日
14 :heavy_check_mark:︎ :heavy_check_mark:︎ :heavy_check_mark:︎ :heavy_check_mark:︎ :heavy_check_mark:︎ :heavy_check_mark:︎ :heavy_check_mark:︎
21 :heavy_check_mark:︎ :heavy_check_mark:︎ :heavy_check_mark:︎ :heavy_check_mark:︎ :heavy_check_mark:︎ :heavy_check_mark:︎
28

July

週 月 火 水 木 金 土 日
1 ・ ・ ・ :heavy_check_mark:︎
5
12
19
26

Updates

June 14/15: Finished reading and commenting on Week 7 of the 殺人出産 club. I think we finally reached the point where things are going to take a turn in the titular story. :open_mouth:
June 16~20: nothing but 殺人出産
June 21: coming up on the last few pages of 殺人
June 22: started クビキリサイクル; intimidated by the character list :sweat:
June 23~26: read bits of ヒトゴト and a 野崎くん fan book
June 27~30: missed reading anything in Japanese :sob:

13 Likes
#527

Main post

Day 15 :ballot_box_with_check:
Satori Reader: Kiki-Mimi Radio, Episode 20.

Another chill day. I’m enjoying this series so far. It only has 7 episodes left, then I will start another one but I don’t know which one yet.

I don’t log them here, but I might as well start logging video games. I’m kinda reluctant to log them as “reading”, and it is reading but they feel different than reading a book or other reading material somehow to me. But anyway, it’s absolutely crazy how fast and efficiently you can learn with something that you like a lot. I’m enjoyiing these Satori Reader stories but I’m not particularly crazy about them. But I’ve been thinking recently that the few times I’ve put Final Fantasy XIV in Japanese, I’ve already almost instantly learned some vocabulary because I’m really into the game and the words stick crazy fast. It’s been a couple weeks since I don’t play it in Japanese but I still remember the words that I learned those few days. Because of this I might consider starting to include video games as one of my main ways of studying through immersion, even though I only play just a very few of them at the moment.

I knew that learning through things you like a lot was recommended, but I would never have thought that it would be this much effective to the point that I can recall many of those words perfectly without the need of SRS after seeing them a couple times and remembering their kanji. Not to say that I’ve also learned some new kanji. If this keeps being the case over time I will definitely think of dropping SRSs for the time being. Although it’s very unrealistic to be this much interested in everything you come across so I’ll probably still keep it around for that. In fact I’ll probably mix both methods.

14 Likes
#528

June 15. Time: 30 min. Children book, 2 pages
What: 霧のむこうのふしぎな町, pages 29-30, old pick of BC

Being done with this week book club assignment, I decide to try something else.

This was the first ever Japanese book I got, it was read by BC in 2020, and back then I only had about 5 levels of WK and zero grammar experience, so I dropped my attempts very quickly. It’s a lovely children fantasy book (I read English translation). What I like is that

  • I definetely more comfortable reading aloud furigana and few kanji that this book has now as cvompared to a year ago.
  • I knew all kanji (屋敷would be the most levelup ones).
  • When sounding of furigana, I recognized a lot of vocab, including recenttly learned しばらく and 花柄のソファ.

What I’m missing most is the knowledge of plain kana-only words, and verb conjugations, which is not a surprise.

I think this book would be great for me to read now, not a year ago. But I’d rather read something with the club, and also not this particular story again.

9 Likes
#529

Summary post

Day 15: June 15th
What did I read?: 不可解なぼくのすべてを Vol. 3
How much did I read?: 2 chapters (50 pages)
How long did it take me?: 1 hour and 5 min (felt fast :flushed:)

Felt very motivated to read today, much more than I expected - I credit the insanely delicious dinner I had for giving me life (gyudon + souffle pancakes with berries and custard :drooling_face: Courtesy of a Japanese café that I didn’t know existed until today but now it’s low-key my favorite restaurant). Lots of happy good feelings in these chapters. Tetsu’s friends are great :3

Oh, and I got my manga xD

Choices mostly inspired by the forums~ (with a cameo appearance by my marimos)

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Kind of a hodgepodge of things, now that I look at it lol

Now it’s time to slip into a food coma and fall asleep

14 Likes
#530

Can’t agree with this more! I find (1)liking what I’m reading combined with (2)having context and emotion around the new vocab/grammer is what makes it stick for me. Still, I came to the same conclusion as you about mixing methods… I don’t enjoy reading about politics or accounting, so it’s probably better to have the SRS for that :sweat_smile:

It’s such an amazing feeling, to finally be able to read something from long before :’) I’m planning on doing this here, after I finish カラフル, with Matsumoto Taiyo’s book ルーヴルの猫. Fingers crossed that I’m finally at the right level for it haha

9 Likes
#531

Wiki post

June 15 Update

This is a very late night update. I had work stuff pop up yesterday all day, so I didn’t get a chance to read (or eat, or sleep - don’t be too hard on myself, future me!). I made up for that today by tackling chapter 3 of 進撃の巨人 all in one go. Boy was this a doozy. 123 unknown words over 46 pages which took approximately 3 hours to cover. This chapter was extremely text heavy as everyone seemed to have something to say (and wanted to squish their entire conversations into one page), and only about 10 low/no-text pages. This has been the most difficult manga I’ve read in a while – while my stamina is greater now, it took me back to when I first started reading ハイキュー！！ and how difficult and exhausting that was.

One more chapter left for this volume, and based on where I am in the story, I expect the next chapter to be slightly lighter in text (and heavier in concept). I seem to be running through my list of books to read fairly quickly at this point. Which is a weird thing to say. I usually find myself in the position of having too many books and not enough time to read any of them, but reading every day seems to actually create progress.

12 Likes
#532

My mirror: yikes, confinement hasn’t been great on your waistline.
Fact sphere: you could stand to lose a few pounds

かくりよの宿飯 4: I shall sing you the song of my people

8 Likes
#533

Today I’ve read:

  • Today’s NHK Easy News.
  • Some more はたらく細胞 light novel. Reached page 50.
13 Likes
#534

:ballot_box_with_check: Day 16

カラフル is getting too good to put down!! I finished all of chapter 7, which puts me at a little over 50% finished. I have never read so much Japanese in my life.

I don’t want to give the story away. But I will say that this book is SO DRAMATIC. We’re talking sins, retribution, life and death. If you like dark drama with a hint of mystery, this is your book.

Interesting words from today:

These had unusual readings:

  • 去さる = to leave, go away
  • 胸むなぐら = shirt collar, lapels
  • 様子ようす = state of affairs
  • 事情聴取じじょうちょうしゅ = formal inquiry, police interview

Just extra cool words:

  • 文明人ぶんめいじん = civilized person
  • (する)はめになる = to get stuck with (being/doing something)
16 Likes
#535

Day 15. In two weeks formula “Current day -1” will no longer work.

Read way more pages of Forbidden Scrollery than I anticipated, I’m at page 24 now which means 15% of the story is complete.

Word of the day

緑起 【えんぎ】Pratītyasamutpāda, commonly translated as dependent origination, or dependent arising, is a key doctrine in Buddhism shared by all schools of Buddhism. It states that all dharmas arise in dependence upon other dharmas: “if this exists, that exists; if this ceases to exist, that also ceases to exist”

Just noticed I replied to @Redglare. Might as well ask.

How many reviews/lesson you do per day?

10 Likes
#536

I haven’t added any lessons yet, but will do when reviews have calmed down a bit. Did 18 on the first day, then 36 yesterday, and 24 today, I think. Too many for one single day imo, but I can’t help but wanting to do all of them.

I think the first kanji supposed to be 縁 (edge) instead of 緑 (green). I can never tell them apart, wouldn’t have noticed if not for yomichan xD

9 Likes
#537

@rikaiwisdom As per the original post, video games totally count in this challenge, so keep on adding these to your posts! Would love to read about the words you learned from FFXIV. :slight_smile: When it comes to learning vocabulary from videogames I’m certain I’ll never forget 悲鳴( ひめい; shriek, scream) after watching the FF7 remake in Japanese. :sweat_smile:

Since we’re already on the topic of videogames, @cineebon, reading about you playing はーとふる彼氏 always brings a smile to my face. :bird::sparkling_heart: I guess I can add this game to my “I want to play this in Japanese one day” list.

Aaand now for my reading update:
Main

June 15
The first time I decided to time myself was of course the moment where there was zero dialogue in the book - only long descriptive passages of the interior of a mansion, its’ garden, narrow corridors, the basement etc. Six pages ended up taking 1h and 15 minutes. I took a small break after that. :upside_down_face: Read 15 pages of 名探偵コナン total in the end though.

June 16
Read 12 pages of 名探偵コナン. 96 pages read out of 222. So close to being half way through. :fire: Won’t read anything else before I finish this so need to push myself to read 10+ pages every day.

13 Likes
#538

Sure! Thanks for the encouragement, I’ll start logging them from now on ^^

Some of the words I learned are mostly related to classes and jobs. I’m going to suppose you or anybody else don’t know anything of the game so bear with me if you do :slight_smile: :

  • 呪術士じゅじゅつし: Translated as Thaumaturge, later on becomes 黒魔導士くろまどうし , good old Black Mage. I like that 呪術 is a word itself but the kanji pretty much give away its meaning so it’s intuitive to understand: curse + arts + specialist (ish). Many other classes with 術士, like 槍術士そうじゅつし (lancer), 弓術士きゅうじゅつし (archer), etc. All of these are probably not very useful words but it has taught me why they would choose the kanji 士 over something like 師 or 者; according to Kanjipedia’s second meaning, it also can mean samurai or soldier, so it makes sense when all of these classes are directly related to war. It also made me think about the difference in martial arts of 術じゅつ and 道どう, where for example 剣術けんじゅつ refers to the techniques of the sword, in opposition to 剣道けんどう that refers not only to the techniques but to the spiritual and moral development of oneself through the study of the sword. Same for 弓術きゅうじゅつ and 弓道きゅうどう ; 柔術じゅうじゅつ and 柔道じゅうどう ; and so on and on.

  • 格闘士かくとうし: Translated as Puglist.This one taught me that 格闘 is something like, as jisho puts it, hand-to-hand combat. Becomes a モンク, good old Monk. A quick YouTube search showed me that this one is apparently also used for MMA fighters and the like, and the word used for martial arts / combat sports is apparently 格闘技かくとうぎ.

  • I learned 採集さいしゅう (gathering/recollection) and also 採掘さいくつ (mining).

  • I also learned other kanji for 1, 2 and 3 that apparently are used in documents but I learned them because the monk katas in FFXIV are divided into three. Those are 壱 , 弐 and 参 respectively (the last one I already knew but not for that meaning). I learned 洞窟どうくつ (cavern) from FF III and the second kanji too which was new for me.

Nothing else comes to mind at this moment but I’m sure there’s more. I learned 旅立つ（たびだつ）from FF III as well, which means to begin a trip / set out on a journey. I’m sure there are more words but I don’t want to overwhelm everyone with a longer post!

10 Likes
#539

Summary post
June 16

・Honzuki 5 (21% → 26%)
・Subete ga F ni Naru (88% → 90%) I think I read 2 subchapters, so now I have 3 left of this chapter. Soon ready to check out book club thread.
・Finished Yagate Kimi ni Naru 5. Good volume :fish: :eyes: :sparkles:

Looking at my goals, I wonder if I can read all of the books before Aug 1. I feel like I’m focusing on Honzuki a lot, and probably won’t get around to Re:Zero for another while. A clash between continuing a series I’ve started and enjoy VS starting a new series that I’ve already watched the entire anime adaptation of and enjoyed. It’s conflicting for me because I’ve been wanting to read Re:Zero for over a year and just couldn’t find the right time to start reading it. …Well, I’ll get around to it eventually even if it takes me another year xD I hope that won’t be the case, though! Could take a break from reading SAO after book 8 and switch to Re:Zero :eyes: …ah, かんがえすぎ xD

Almost forgot that I’m planning to read Ningen Shikkaku with the advanced book club, and also the next in the series of Subete ga F ni Naru with the offshoot club (both at the same time!), but I haven’t added those to my goals… やばい :durtle_durtverted_lvl1:

13 Likes
#540

Main post

Day 16 :ballot_box_with_check:
Satori Reader: Kiki-Mimi Radio, Episodes 21 and 22.

I was only going to read one episode but it got quite interesting and I had to read the next one. Happens.

10 Likes
#541

Summary post

Day 16: June 16th
What did I read?: サメーズ -サメとアザラシ- :shark:
How much did I read?: 21 pages - finished the manga
How long did it take me?: 31 min

I’ve felt low-key like crap all day today :pensive: I’ve had this weird sinusy headache all day, and I frequently feel cold even though I’m not running a fever whatsoever (I checked)? Idk man. Anyway, this headache is really not very conducive to reading, so I finished off the sharks today instead of doing the 囀る鳥 reading for the week like I’d originally planned. Today we met the ノコギリザメ, aka saw shark, who goes together well with my favorite shark シュモク :heart:

Look at how cute they are

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Also learned a fun expression: てやんでい - what the hell are you saying!? :joy:

13 Likes
#542

Hope you feel better soon! :pleading_face: I’m really impressed you put time into reading, even though you aren’t feeling well. By the way, the sharks are always so cute.

8 Likes
#543

Home post

June 16th からかい上手の高木さん chapter 4 page 7.
June 17th からかい上手の高木さん chapter 4 started page 8, only a few panels as it was one of those mornings.

Tomorrow I’ll be going in for surgery on my dominant arm and I think I’m not meant to use it much for a few days, so I might not be up for much reading.

11 Likes
#544

You have completely sold me on カラフル, although my Japanese isn’t yet up to the task, so I’ve added it to my hopeful backlog. I kind of want to watch the anime movie as it might help me with reading, but OTOH it will most likely spoil the book =/

3 Likes
#545

June 16. Time: 30 min. Manga Pages: 4
What: Manga からかい上手の高木さん (Volume 1), current pick of ABBC. Chapter 8, Page 1-4.
Get to it too late, very tired. An important thing better be done the first thing in the morning, why there are other important things besides reading japanese books

9 Likes