📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 ☃❄

Japanese Language Reading
#324

:tiger2: :books: Homepost - Tigerdate: 20220107 :books: :raccoon:

Tanuki Scroll VII: 七草がゆ :herb:

Today is 七草の節句「ななくさのせっく」!!
A festival in which the porridge “七草がゆ” is traditionally eaten on the 7th day of the new year. Because there’s little greenery in January it contains the seven plants of spring to help with your health.

ー 七草がゆ！！ ー
一草！ ・ 芹「セリ」ー Java waterdropwort / Japanese parsley
It has a lot of iron so it’s good for your blood and circulation.

二草！・薺「ナズナ」ー Shepherd’s Purse
It’s supposed to help with lowering fevers.

三草！・御形「ゴギョウ」ー Jersey Cudweed
Helps with coughs and stuffyness.

四草！・繁縷「ハコベラ」ー Chickweed
It’s rather high in protein and other minerals and nutrients.

伍草！・仏の座「ホトケノザ」ー Henbit / Nipplewort
Generally good for you.

六草！・菘「スズナ」ー Turnip (Might just be me but I find スズナ to be a cute name for a vegetable)
Improves digestion / helps with indigestion.

七草！・蘿蔔「スズシロ」ー A kind of raddish / daikon.
Helps with digestion.

☆ Learnings ☆

All the plant names were new but here's the extra stuff

お粥「かゆ」ー Rice porridge.
母子草「ははこぐさ」ー This seems to be another way of writing Jersey Cudweed 「御形 - ゴギョウ」
田平子「たびらこ」ー Another way of writing Nipplewort 「仏の座 - ホトケノザ」

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#325

Thanks, yeah my body was telling me to rest. I did get some side effects from the previous shots, but that was a bit of soreness or a minor headache that went away after a day or two. Now I felt like I witnessed multipe stages of being sick and every day was something different. Today was the first day I didn’t feel meh. Guessing my immune system was weakened due to the season, so if I got covid it could have been much worse even. :sweat:

It wasn’t even that bad, as I was able to do my reviews and reading, but yeah makes you feel more vulnerable and useless.

It being cute and a Jump+ series can definitely throw people off that is on the easier side. These challenges last a while, so you can always try again later when you’re more up for it.

Back to reading, I’ll post the next regular update on sunday I think.

16 Likes
#326

Well I’m quite proud of myself! I went over the first 17 pages of よつばと! and put all the vocab into a flash card system! It took forever, and I would say it counts for my reading for the day :slight_smile: However, because I just connected with someone today who is going to be my Yotsubato reading pal, I am putting it on pause so they can catch up to me! In the meantime I have example sentences galore in my particles and verb books, and I got Minna no Nihongo today - although the English study guide has been delayed for over 2 more weeks for some reason! Either way I can use these resources to keep up my Japanese reading!

22 Likes
#327

Summary post :bookmark:

January 7
・かがみの孤城. I finished week six of the book club schedule, it was a short one.

Progress: (34% → 38%)

Very unrelated: I have the urge to read Spy x Family and One Piece. I own neither of them :see_no_evil:

23 Likes
#328

I read crazy much this week (about 100 pages) and managed to read the prologue of Pillars of the Earth (while collecting more than 300 unknown vocab from just 10 pages :crazy_face: I hope this will improve at some point!) and then started the Honjin murder case. This is going a bit slow and so I could not get through all of this week’s assignment. Also, I went to the sauna today and had to take a paperback book with me as digital books are not allowed (or more precisely, my devices for reading digital books, as they have a camera). I picked The Little Prince (I had bought it a long time ago in Japan but never got around to actually reading it…) The language is amazingly beautiful, I really like what the translator did here. I will continue taking it to the sauna from now on.

Plans for next week:

  • 笑わない数学者 chapter 3
  • The Pillars of the Earth chapter 1.1
  • 本陣殺人事件 catch up on this week and read next week’s assignment

I will try to up my reading speed a bit so that I can manage to read all of this… If not, I decided that I will slow down on Honjin, sad as it is :frowning:

23 Likes
#329

January 7 :snowflake: Home Post

I finished the prologue-type section of 錆喰(さびく)いビスコ today! So that’s some sort of accomplishment in and of itself; I’ll be on to actual chapters with numbers! :tada: I feel like my “reading” speed was slower today, but I think that’s just me not actually realizing how long it usually takes and also being endlessly easily distracted. It didn’t feel super rough though? Like I definitely looked up a lot and had to take time parsing things, but it wasn’t overly mentally exhausting so that’s good.

I’m still really enjoying it! I think it’s starting to get easier as I’m getting used to the book and how the author writes and such; looking back at my first post where I was like “I read one page and my brain is DEAD” I feel like I’m in a better place with it now :joy: so hey, progress, somehow, some way!

Fun words of the day

一般人(いっぱんじん) - ordinary person
胞子(ほうし) - spore; so many mushroom and plant words in 錆喰(さびく)いビスコ (for obvious reasons)
緩慢(かんまん) - sluggish, lax, sloppy
稀(まれ) - rare, seldom

19 Likes
#330

:snowflake: Main Tracking Hub :snowflake:

1月6日〜7日

Materials:
:white_large_square: TODAI
:red_square: 地球星人

I fit in a little reading on Thursday before bed by reading an article on TODAI. It was about a company in 埼玉県 using the frozen water from a lake on a mountain in 長瀞町 (ながとろまち) to make かき氷. They cut the ice out and slide them down wooden boards into trucks. They plan on doing this until the end of the month. Then, it will go in storage until the summer, when the local stores will be able to use it to make and sell かき氷. :yum: :shaved_ice:

Today I read four pages from 地球星人. 奈月 finally made it to her grandparents’ house, where she’s bombarded by a lot of different relatives. She doesn’t quite remember a lot of these people.

I thought this line was so relatable:

いとこたちはいつも夏休みには一緒に過ごし、親友のように仲良くなるのに、一年間会わずに次の夏になると、また少し距離ができている。

It really reminded me of visiting my mom’s friends and being around their kids. We got along pretty well, but there was always that awkwardness at the start. Honestly, I still feel this when I meet up with friends I haven’t seen in a while. :sweat_smile:

Vocab 地球星人

見覚え [みおぼえ]: remembrance; recollection; recognition​

見覚えがあるような、ないような年配の女性だ。

いまいち: not quite (right); not very good

年に一度しか来ないこの場所で、私は大人の顔をいまいち見分けることができない。

やっちまう: to screw up, to do (esp. something one regrets)

「なつこさんはね、腰やっちまってね、今年は来ねえっつうんよ」

ぴくりと: with a twitch (e.g. an eyebrow); with a dip/a bob/a flutter

てるよしおじさんの言葉に、思わずリュックを背負った背中をぴくりと動かしてしまった。

しがみつく: to cling​

サキさんの足元にしがみついている女の子は、去年赤ちゃんだった美和ちゃんだろう。

ならう: to imitate; to follow; to emulate

私は母にならって、新しい人物が登場するたびに深く頭を下げた。​

22 Likes
#331

Let’s try this!

Jan
月 火 水 木 金 土 日
- - - -
- - - - - - - - 07 08 09[-]
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
Feb
月 火 水 木 金 土 日
01 02 03 04 05 06
07 08 09 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28

Since I’m just getting back into this whole spiel I am going to count a short (very short) story on duolingo as my reading for today. But I still have the Harry Potter books waiting for me so let’s see…

21 Likes
#332

Summary Post

Day 7: Today I finished chapter 9 of 極主夫道, oh my goodness this chapter was so cute ;o;

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#333

Oh, that’s cool! I remember learning about that from a visual novel I read a little while back, though, as weird as it sounds, if I even say the name of it, I think associating it with this lottery could be a really big spoiler.

Summary post

I’m impressed by all your all’s progress! I kept going with my two reading projects today:

Ace Attorney: Finished day 2 of the 4th trial today! With some lookup assistance, my reading speed is inching upwards. Only took me the session yesterday and ~70 more minutes today for this whole trial segment. Just more facing off against Von Karma, and getting called a lot of awful things, as you do. By this point the case is very heavily repeating its core vocabulary as we argue the same points back and forth, so it’s pretty comfortable overall. Of the words I mined, I guess 行方 (ゆくえ, one’s wherabouts) stood out to me the most, if only because I’m annoyed at that reading.

Some implied Ace Attorney 1 spoilers under here

20220107153949_1
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I came across THAT section. There’s no real single line in Japanese with quite the same meme capacity as “Almost Christmas means it wasn’t Christmas,” but there you have it.

Zoo 1: I’ll probably read a few more pages as I get the chance later today, but I read a few more of these as well, enough to finish up the first section of this new story. It’s all mystery so far, and even though the “kidnapped into a mysterious locked room” concept has been done to death, it always intrigues me to see where they can go with it. Overall I’ve found this story slightly tougher than the first at times I think – the first story was entirely about interpersonal relationships and memories and the like. Otsuichi is still a little sparse in his writing style (if he wasn’t, I wouldn’t be managing to read this, heh), but this story necessitates more time spent being descriptive about the room and the circumstances. That kind of writing has been slightly trickier, though overall it’s manageable enough to keep going.

Pretty good progress I think!

20 Likes
#334

Summary post

January 7 update:
Barely managed to read a single page of 時をかける少女 today… I feel like I’m probably not ready for this book yet – lookups take more time that the actual reading, and three pages in, I’m already feeling a bit overwhelmed – while the story hasn’t really even started yet :joy: I might try to keep at it for another day or two (perhaps I just stumbled upon a harder segment? wishful thinking at its finest…), but if it doesn’t get any better, I’ll likely switch to something else for the time being.

21 Likes
#335

Home Post

January 7th Update

Today I read a chapter of ティアムーン帝国物語 Volume 2, making it a whole 1% further :joy: It was easier than I expected it to be, since sometimes the chapters vary widely depending on if they focus on Mia, the main character, or someone else (in this case, one of the villains). Anyway, it was fun! Maybe I’ll read some manga later today as well.

20 Likes
#336

I can’t say for sure with that book, but people usually do say the beginning of reading a new thing is the hardest part, for whatever that’s worth. I think you’re right to give it slightly longer and see if you can stick it out at all, once you’ve seen the writing style and some of the most important words a little more. Good luck!

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#337

Home post

Day 6:

日本語: I read a lot of 伯爵と妖精 29 and finished it! Then I poked at two things that I’ve been in-progress on for a while: 機動強襲型令嬢アリシア物語１ (I read about 3%) and 小川未明童話集 (I read one story).
Read-aloud: We read a chapter of ふしぎの国のバード.

中国語

中国語: I read a beginner entry on Mandarin Bean and one page of 擅长捉弄的高木同学. Where did my reading motivation go…

21 Likes
#338

Four more pages of 本陣殺人事件, nothing actually happened just the description of some people. Last year I would have given up by now but this year I go all out and try to actually finish a book.

20 Likes
#339

Summary post

Today I read chapter 52 of ハイキュー as I’ll be out tomorrow daytime but am hoping to be able to join the read-aloud in the evening. Nothing special to report really, ハイキュー was ハイキュー, it’s always fun! After that I read some more of 鏡の孤城- 8%-10%. Bit annoyed that I couldn’t read more as I really want to but I could really feel my brain getting exhausted even though I’d been reading it for less than an hour. I think this is a combo of -

  • I’m just generally tired, I’ve been having that fun thing recently where I’m exhausted and then when I go to bed I can’t sleep :sob:
  • I’m still just not as used to reading big blocks of text/prose. I remember getting this tired after reading a chapter of manga when I started reading that - which is hopeful because I can now read about a volume at a go without my brain exploding so hopefully I’ll get there in time.
  • I do think that I find also doing the dictionary lookups in japanese more tiring BUT at the same time I’m really enjoying it. It feels easier to stay in the flow of reading for me, and not to get quite as worried about translating things word for word which is a habit I think I need to get out of in general.

I also read the text and the little ‘tips’ section (I forget what they call it) that comes up at the end of each session in ring fit adventure which I’m playing in japanese, does that count lol?

Yay! reading pals are the best. Are you going to read it out loud with each other? Yotsubato is great for that, in the little read alongs I’m part of each chapter always makes me laugh at least once in the read-aloud :slight_smile:

eeeeep! that sounds bad :’( But yeah, that’s what I was telling myself as well, just more reason to be thankful to be having the booster rather than the real thing. Glad you are starting to feel better :slight_smile:

Oooooh! I really need to get back to Ace Attorney - think I was just at the start of the 4th trial before I got distracted by whatever shiny thing caught my attention at the time (I think tokimeki memorial GS4). You are reminding me what a fun game it is though. I really want to play the great ace attorney too eventually, but I feel like the vocab is likely to be much trickier with the setting.

Welcome back (or well…to this new thread I guess haha)! And yeah, it pretty approachable to me so far (dangerous to say this early in), other than the just general reading blocks of text stamina issue I’ve mentioned. Vocab (and probably also grammar wise but that’s rare enough to not really matter) I’m actually having to look up way less in it than I was reading 呪術廻戦 - which is another shonen jump series like 鬼滅の刃 and seems a bit more difficult but not wildly so (checking natively it’s also lvl 27). So yeah, I guess this long ramble is me saying that it’s probably not too far off from things you are reading :slight_smile:

20 Likes
#340

Day 7 Complete!
Today I read からかい上手の高木さん, Volume 4, Chapter 4.
I was pleased to see “言い直す” while I was reading today, since that was one of my new Bunpro grammar points this week :slight_smile:
I was hoping to do a little more reading today, but I worked later than I was planning so I wasn’t able to start reading as early as I planned and now it’s already 23:30 here so I don’t really have time to read much more before it starts being tomorrow… :grin:

I’m hoping to get lots of reading done over this weekend, but I’m really pleased with how much I’ve managed to read in this first week.

(Home Post)

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#341

Haha, totally counts! I’ve been playing that recently as well, though I figured exercising is enough of a struggle for me so I didn’t mix Japanese in with it, haha.

You really should get back to it! Have you played the game(s) previously? I’ve read almost the whole series already in English, it just happened to catch my eye that the game looked pretty readable at my level, so I’m doing a replay of 1 in Japanese. Unsure if I want to go straight to 2 or play something I’ve never played, after.

I’m currently playing Great Ace Attorney as well (in English), and it is fantastic. Looking like it’ll be my favorite in the series if it doesn’t fumble things later. That said, yeah, I think I could see this game’s writing being trickier. Honestly, parts of the English are difficult to read in a way practically no videogame I’ve ever played before has been, but that’s because they went really hard in various authentic accents. Been learning lots of cockney slang, heh. I know that’s a separate matter from how the Japanese writing is going to work, but nonetheless, I think the challenge is likely to be higher than the original trilogy.

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#342

HAHA that would be so much fun! But we just connected today on the forums about this, so I don’t think that’s a possibility :laughing:

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#343

No, I’ve never played them before! They’d been on my ‘want to play but never got round to it’ list for ages but I when I saw that I could easily play them in japanese on the switch that gave me the final push. I’m not planning on reading much more manga this month other than things for book clubs I’m in so perhaps I can pick it back up :slight_smile:

Hahaha…I’m very curious as to whether they will use some particular dialogue for this in the Japanese hahaha. What’s the Japanese cockney…osaka ben maybe? got that same kind of slightly rough around the edges cheeky vibe to it I feel…not that I have any idea :rofl:

5 Likes