I feel like I’ve been in a weird rut with Japanese for a while, so I reset my WK and restarted Duolingo. This challenge is just what I need to find some motivation—I feel like this challenge is the new approach and accountability I’ve been looking for! Thank you!
- Joined challenge: Jan 8, 2022
- Last updated: Jan 26, 2022
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| 28☐ |
What I'm reading
I’ll be reading articles and other things online:
- Graded readers and other books on Natively
- Articles from Easy NHK/TOKAI
- Posts on my Japanese Twitter feed, blogs I follow
- Signs in Google Maps Street View and GeoGuessr
- Articles I’m using for research our future move to Japan
- Translations of the documentation I produce at work
- Slowly working through よつばと! Dropped because I can’t read the font that Yotsuba speaks in and I was getting frustrated…
One day I want to be able to read:
- Naruto (manga)
- No. 6 (novels and manga)
- Novels by Shion Miura (I highly suggest the Great Passage if you haven’t read it yet!)
- しまなみ誰そ彼 (manga)
- High Speed! (novel)
But I’m definitely not there yet 
My progress so far
January 8, 2022
- 10 news posts in my Japanese Twitter feed
- Several apartment rental listings, including research on new apartment rental sites with pet-friendly and LGBT-friendly search options
- Choya Yuzu soda can (lol)
- Information on the packaging of various items in my Bokksu
- I’ve just started reading よつばと！ After browsing through this thread, I decided to try it out.
It’s so cute!! – Vol 1, Chapter 1, pages 1-7
- もうすぐだぞー ----- We’re almost there…
January 9, 2022
- よつばと！ – Vol 1, Chapter 1, pages 8-9 (I wish there were more kanji; meaning would be clearer)
- Twitter – posts about the Sapporo bear attack last year, other posts about life in Hokkaido (current hyperfocus)
- Duolingo Stories – Completed the story “The Passport”
- Graded reader on Natively – カラスと水さし, Level 0.
- Not purely reading, but I’m having a duel for first place in my league on Duolingo, so I’m reading lots of new vocabulary today
January 10, 2022
- Graded reader on Natively – シュモーハウス, Level 1 — pages 1-7 {Recommended here by sosanlx}. Vocab and notes:
- 原子爆弾 - げんしばくだん - Atomic Bomb
- 広島 - Hiroshima
- 長崎 - Nagasaki
- どうしてでしょうか。- Could I ask the reason? / What is the reason? / Why do you think that is?
- 落としました - おとしました - dropped
- 死にました - しにました - died
- 何もありません。- There is nothing. / Nothing was there.
- 顔 - かお - face
- になりました - had/became (had dark faces or faces became dark) [from ash and also grief]
- ごめんなさいと言(い)いたい。- I want to say I’m sorry.
- いります - need
- 出しました - to give/put out (in context of sending money to someone’s effort)
- や particle - and/or connecting particle ---- It is very similar to the grammar と (to), which also means “and”. The main difference being と only lists the actual items listed, and や implies the listed items are not complete.
- など - etc./and such, can add at the end of a list
- 重い - おもい - heavy
- 置きました - おきました - put something somewhere (past tense)
- から - after a phrase can mean “because of X, Y happened”
- 大きく開けて - おおきくあけて - to open it wide (example: mouth - 口を大きく開けて)
January 11, 2022
- Graded reader on Natively – シュモーハウス, Level 1 — page 8 {Recommended here by sosanlx}. Vocab and notes:
- 新しい家を見て言いました - Looked at the new house and said… - Question: Why is there no connection between the two verbs? [見て(ました) and 言いました] They’re side-by-side without a connection particle and it’s unclear it’s supposed to be “X and X”. To research later.
- 住みたい - want to live
January 12, 2022
- Graded reader on Natively – シュモーハウス, Level 1 — page 9-13 {Recommended here by sosanlx}. Vocab and notes:
- The sentence introducing dialog ends with a period, not a comma or other punctuation. Example: 私たちは言いました。「やった！」
- [家 versus 住宅 (HiNative thread)] (What is the difference between "住宅" and "家" ? "住宅" vs "家" ? | HiNative). My understanding:
- 家 = いえ - A house, such as the house you live in, a single home
- 住宅 = じゅうたく - A residential area, a set of hinges, a housing complex, a place where multiple people’s homes are together
- いつも - Always, everytime (in all my years of learning Japanese, I have NEVER been able to remember this word! It must be fossilized weirdly.
- 戦争で - せんそうで - In the war/During the war
- すると - Then…
- それからもう - Then there was/There was already
- また戦争 - another war
- 井戸 - いど - a well
- その時 - そのとき - at that time
- 願っていました - ねがっていました - hoped for, such as “平和をねがていました” - hoped for peace
- 亡くなりました - なくなりました - died
January 13, 2022
- Tweets from LGBT Japanese people and organizations about same-sex marriage and the new same-sex partnership system coming to Tokyo.
- Japanese subtitles for Asagi’s video “My Experience of the Japan Earthquake 2011” (Japanese voiceover and subtitles)
- Duolingo Stories – Completed the story “Doctor Eddy”
- べつの - different - example: “べつの{noun}”
- とても具合が悪そう - とてもぐあいがわるそう - looks very sick
- むこうに - over there, send best to use when something is on the opposite side of something, for example, the opposite side of the school; HiNative thread
- 病気の人 - びょうきのひと - sick person
- うりば - section, like a section or aisle in a grocery store
- 近く- ちかく - near
January 14, 2022
- “Obey Me!” anime end-credit group chat messages
- Tweets from LGBT Japanese people and organizations about same-sex marriage and marriage equality in Japan
January 15, 2022
- Tweets - NHK headlines about national college entrance exams
- Graded reader on Natively – チワワの花すけ~影とお散歩, Level 0. Vocab and notes:
- 紹介 - しょうかい - Introduction
- ご - your - before a noun like “parents” or “master” is possessive; ご主人
- これから - from now, starting now
- 2匹 - にひき (GoogTrans says “にびき”?) - 2 animals; 匹 is the counter for animals
- 笑いました - わらいました - laughed
- 門 - もん - gate
- シマウマ - しまうま - zebra
- 葉っぱ - はつぱ - leaves
- 服 - ふく - clothes
- マリアの服は、葉っぱの服ね - マリアのふくは、はっぱのふくね - This sentence structure is interesting. There’s no indicator at the end like “-imasu”; I assume this is a casual structure where you leave off bits because the meaning is clear - “Maria’s clothes are leaf clothes” literally or “Maria is wearing clothes with leaves on them.”
- 建物 - たてもの - building; often see this replaced by ビル instead
- 寺 - てら - temple (IIRC, this will show up in WK soon)
- いた - “is there” or similar - At the end of a sentence, seems to take the place of more formal wording, followed format of “{noun}いた” meaning “{noun} is here/there”.
- 夕方 - ゆうがた - evening
- “No. 6” manga (Vol 1, Chap 1, Page 1) on Bookwalker (made an account!) — the next pages get considerably harder and Natively rates it at Level 29, so not quite there yet. Vocab and notes from first page:
- 寒い - さむい - cold; I know the word, but didn’t recognize the kanji in the wild
- 眠い - ねむい - sleepy; I know the word, but didn’t recognize the kanji in the wild
- 痛い - いたい - pain/it hurts; I know the word, but didn’t recognize the kanji in the wild
- 動けない - うごけない - can’t move
- それでも - nevertheless, even so
- 進む - すすむ - move, move onward
- しかない - there is only, the only option is to, there is no choice other than to - example: “{verb}しかない” meaning “no choice but to {verb}”
January 16, 2022
- Graded reader on Natively – どっち？, Level 0. Vocab and notes:
- どっちが いい？- Which one do you like/Which one is good?
- こっちのほうがいい。- This is better. / This one is better.
- こっちのほうが{adjective}。- This is {adjective}. / This one is {adjective}.
- 骨 - ほね - bone
- どっちも {adjective}. - They are both {adjective}.
January 17, 2022
- Graded reader on Natively – あんこちゃん, pages 1-7. Vocab and notes:
- お菓子 - おかし - snack
January 19, 2022
Graded reader on Natively – あんこちゃん, pages 8-14. Vocab and notes:
- 冷たい。- つめたい - cold (applies to objects/food?)
- 栗蒸し - くりむし - steamed chestnuts
- 羊羹 - ようかん - youkan
- 栗がいっぱい。- くりがいっぱい - A lot of chestnuts.
January 21, 2022
- Duolingo Stories – Completed the story “A New Coat”
- 手伝ってくれませんか? - てつだってくれませんか？- Can you help me?
- {noun}どうですか？- How about a {noun}?
- それか - or; example: それか、{noun}はどうですか？
- ぴったりですよ！- It’s perfect!
January 26, 2022
Lost some days because of RL stress/sick. So I picked a really cute Level 0 (L4) book to ease back in.
- Graded reader on Natively – いっぱい, pages 1-18.