I feel like there’s a pun here that I’m not getting…
Summary post
June 15 Almost forgot to post an update
As I promised myself yesterday, I focused on reading Subete ga F ni Naru today. (85% → 88%) Read 3 subchapters, so now I only have 4 left of this chapter. Had a hard time getting into reading mode today, I think it might be because re-subscribing to BunPro gave me extra stuff on my plate. Reviews take energy, grammar reviews even more so. Will be mindful and proceed with caution, reviewsを ほどほどに, so I don’t burn out
(posting late)
June 15th からかい上手の高木さん chapter 4 page 6. A pretty simple page so really just a single panel which worked out well as I was pretty exhausted.
Starting later than most, but better late than never, right?
Goals:
- Keep up with 殺人出産 Book Club schedule
- Participate in Informal Nisio Isin Book Club
- Finally finish reading ヒトゴトですから!
June
週 | 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
14 | ︎ | ︎ | ︎ | ︎ | ︎ | ︎ | ︎ |
21 | ︎ | ︎ | ︎ | ︎ | ︎ | ︎ | |
28 |
July
週 | 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ・ | ・ | ・ | ︎ | |||
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.
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
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
Day 15
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.
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.
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 )
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 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)
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
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
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
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.
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
Today I’ve read:
- Today’s NHK Easy News.
- Some more はたらく細胞 light novel. Reached page 50.
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:
- 去る = to leave, go away
- 胸ぐら = shirt collar, lapels
- 様子 = state of affairs
- 事情聴取 = formal inquiry, police interview
Just extra cool words:
- 文明人 = civilized person
- (する)はめになる = to get stuck with (being/doing something)
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?
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
@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. 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.
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. 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. 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. Won’t read anything else before I finish this so need to push myself to read 10+ pages every day.
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 :
-
呪術士: Translated as Thaumaturge, later on becomes 黒魔導士 , 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 (lancer), 弓術士 (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 and 道, where for example 剣術 refers to the techniques of the sword, in opposition to 剣道 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 and 弓道 ; 柔術 and 柔道 ; and so on and on.
-
格闘士: 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.
-
I learned 採集 (gathering/recollection) and also 採掘 (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 (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!
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
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 …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
Day 16
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.
Day 16: June 16th
What did I read?: サメーズ -サメとアザラシ-
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 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
Also learned a fun expression: てやんでい - what the hell are you saying!?
Hope you feel better soon! 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.