📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 ☃❄

Let's collapse this a bit

Yeah, sorry, I did not mean to shock you :joy_cat: And I am by no means trying to push you in any direction! It’s just, I thought maybe you’d be interested to have your current status be put into perspective a little bit. [omg is this even an english sentence lol]

You can’t imagine how much this helps :joy_cat:
Also, being young helps a lot as well as you can simply learn/remember much faster.

That’s not going to go away for a looong time…

WK is great for teaching you kanji but it helps you next to nothing when it comes to learning relevant vocab for reading. The easiest way to learn enough relevant vocab would be through mining the unknown words from what you’re reading (because that’s what will give you the words you are still missing after all). And if you like to read books from different genres, then the process starts all over again with each genre :woman_shrugging:

Can totally relate to that! But you’ll get used to that quickly, and many words appear over and over again and also across many different books. Plus there are of course some stepping stones, e.g. starting with a shorter and/or somewhat easier book, pre-learning the most frequent vocab words (from koohi or from the book’s vocab sheet - whichever is available) or only reading until you hit a certain number of new vocab words, then only continue reading once you learned those words, etc.

Well, you said yourself that you’re not studying Japanese for that long, and listening probably requires as much work as reading, I guess, so it’s no surprise that some areas of your skillset are not yet up to par with some other areas :woman_shrugging: Luckily studying vocab also helps with listening and speaking, so it’s not totally independent after all, but they are different cognitive skills. They will develop when it’s their time, I’m sure.

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January 22 :snowflake: Home Post

…Well. I may have gone chaos mode again :joy: Being busy has left me pretty mentally exhausted for 錆喰(さびく)いビスコ lately, so today I decided to take a break (lmao) and check out (かぜ)(つよ)()いている again, see how it felt. And… wow. Like seriously, it feels SO much more readable than the last time I messed with it, and definitely more than 錆喰(さびく)いビスコ has, even as I’ve gotten a bit more comfortable with it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still looking up a bunch of stuff, but like… so much less. It’s honestly wild. (かぜ)つよ always felt like some far-off thing; a 600-something page novel?? Terrifying :joy: So for it to be comparatively “easy”… wild.

So I read like 18 pages :joy: That’s farther than I’ve ever gotten in the past (which is also really crazy to realize, I spent ages on it then haha) and I definitely felt much more comfortable with it than I ever had before. I thought I understood what was going on when I read it before… not so lmao. It’s really just a huge wake-up call; I remember thinking that the sentences in (かぜ)つよ were all so long, but now 錆喰(さびく)いビスコ has ruined me and they mostly feel short. Perspective is everything huh?

Anyway today’s reading was a really cool experience, and now I have more options for prose! Mushroom boys and running boys, what more could I need :joy:

Fun words

渦巻(うずま)く - to whirl, to jumble together
(みみ)()ます - to strain one’s ears
()けずり(まわ)る - to run around, to busy oneself
重力(じゅうりょく) - gravity

Ooh okay, I’ll have to keep an eye out :eyes:

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Collapsing my response because I feel like I'm monopolizing the thread a bit

Oh I love the perspective on it; it’s nothing but positive!

Depends on how young almost 30 is on that spectrum, heh. Having this amount of time probably made me sound a little younger than I am but… just particular life circumstances right now. I think I at least got pretty efficient at rote memorization in school so that’s helping, heh.

That’s all very true, and I am mining! Have been ever since I started Satori Reader. I just want to expand, that part of the reason I referenced that is because my personal approach here is to let what I’ve learned on WK for the most part gate what I try to learn. Some words are picked up by exposure alone because I might see them so often, and I certainly make exceptions, but by and large the vocab I mine is kana-only (or “usually,” for now, though I know how that can be a lie…), using the kanji I already know on WK, or using kanji WK doesn’t teach at all. So it sets a bit of a ceiling in what I study right now. I’ve mostly been comfortable that way, but yeah, it does preclude me from learning certain words I’d probably be better off having right now.

Yeah the plan has mostly been to just ramp up the difficulty however feels comfortable, but I may find myself in a book club eventually and that’s always super helpful, too. Haven’t felt the need for pre-learning so far when I read things only in environments where it’s easy to look things up, but it’s nice to know it’s an option.

Yeah, for sure. My weakness is a combination of speed and being too reliant on kanji to trigger my memories of meanings. I try to at least watch an episode of something most days, but because reading builds vocab more painlessly, it’s been my focus so far. It’ll all come together eventually!

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Good call to collapse this

That’s still young! :joy_cat: To put it another way, both our current WK levels seem to closely match our respective ages :wink:

And no, I didn’t try to infer your age from the amount of free time you have but rather guessed based on your learning speed :rofl: (and a little bit based on what interests you, but I know that this can vary wildly and does not say anything about age)

It’s a bit tricky to keep the balance between mining too few unknown kanji and confusing yourself with the incredible amount of unknown kanji that are out there, I know that as well… Luckily it gets a bit easier the more kanji you know because you will recognize the phonetic parts which help you guess readings and so on.

Ah, you know, whenever you think you should learn a word, just learn it! No need to worry about that really.

Book clubs are really fun! Not only for helping each other along, but also for speculating wildly about criminal cases and such :smiley:

I realized pretty early on that this is a big issue for me and therefore I studied all my vocab in 3 directions for a long time (from Kanji - for reading, from Kana - for listening and from English - for speaking). The “from Kana” direction gets more and more painful the more homonyms you have in your deck, that’s why I mostly stopped doing this direction, in the hope that I will still be able to make the connection now that I know more vocab. Let’s see! :crossed_fingers:

Or, like a probably very wise person once said, “In the end everything will be alright; and if it’s not alright yet, then it’s not yet the end.” :rofl:

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One last bit

Just want to say, overall, I really appreciate you going on this tangent with me! It’s been a nice confidence boost, a way to recalibrate and recognize where my progress actually is (it’s so hard to see it when it happens sometimes!), and full of nice advice. Only one part I wanted to directly say something to:

I might’ve implied too much that this was a problem for me, but it’s a method I’m really liking actually! WK kanji has overall stuck in my head super well, and I find it immensely helpful, even if a word doesn’t use the same readings or general meaning as WK gave its kanji, just to have that data point to hang it onto. Despite the constraints it causes; I think it’s been really beneficial for my learning, and it’s an issue I’ll be bringing to an end by level 60 anyway! And I make the occasional exception – there are some words I knew I’d be seeing a bunch in Ace Attorney that I just sort of crammed prior to learning the kanji here because there was no getting around needing to know them. 凶器 comes to mind, as a level 45, haha.

If anything is an actual problem, it’s that I seem to be the rare person who actually likes WK mnemonics and all, and despite some attempts, I still don’t think I’ve totally worked out how to best memorize words with totally new kanji on my own. I can break down the radicals easily, but struggle to get a mnemonic or other strategy that really ingrains them as well, just yet. A lot are coming up hazy, but I’ll figure it out.

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Summary post

Day 22: January 22nd

365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 11 min
Today’s color: 空五倍子色 (うつぶしいろ) - the book and weblio both put this on the black spectrum (薄墨色, 黒色) but I have to say that this looks very brown to me? I guess I can see it as a very, very, very light 墨色, like faded ink maybe.

Named for 五倍子 (ふし) - sumac gallnuts (which are not nuts at all, I found out, but pods made by bugs - the bugs lay their eggs in them, and then once the bugs are hatched, they become hollow and are used to make this color). Apparently it was used as a cheaper substitute or mix-in for 檳榔子 in dyeing (because unlike 檳榔子, it didn’t need to be imported).

Some good words
  • 白膠木 (ぬるで) - Chinese sumac
  • こぶ - bump; lump; protuberance; swelling​

まいにち暦生活 日本の暮らしを楽しむ365のコツ
Time spent: 11 min

Today’s reading talked about フグ! :tofugu: Apparently, a colloquial nickname for puffer fish is 鉄砲 (てっぽう) - which also means gun, I guess 'cause if you get the wrong part, the poison can kill you? xD But that nickname gives rise to some names for some フグ dishes, such as てっさ (fugu sashimi) and てっちり (a boiled fugu dish with ponzu dipping sauce).

What else did I read?
お前、タヌキにならねーか? Vol 1
Amount read: 13 pages
Time spent: 32 min

Read chapter 3 today. Apparently こがね丸 really likes eating grasshoppers - he is also not opposed to eating dog kibble, even in his human form xD I was a bit surprised that we came back to the girl from the first chapter, since the end of the first chapter seemed like a pretty clean wrap-up and the second chapter featured a completely unrelated man/tanuki candidate - I wonder if their stories will intersect at some point :thinking: But I guess the girl went back to being a human for a bit to properly quit her job and get her affairs in order before running off into the mountains permanently lol - what a responsible bean

Good words/expressions
  • これと言って - not worth mentioning (with neg. verb); nothing special
  • いい意味で - in a positive sense of the word; in the best sense of the word; in a good way
  • 人たらし (ひとたらし) - flirt, player
  • 三昧 (さんまい) - being immersed in; being absorbed in; indulging in; doing to one’s heart’s content​
  • カタツムリ - snail
  • 思いのほか - unexpectedly; surprisingly

On an unrelated note, the manga that I preordered has shipped I’m very excited about this manga, can you tell you’ll see why when it gets here

Doesn’t look like it :o It looks like it’s not its own page, at least assuming I was using the index correctly, which…maybe should not be assumed xD I wonder if it’s too “general” of a term to be a page :thinking: I bet it will show up somewhere though

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Update January 22

  • Read the Hyakumonogatari that @Zakarius linked to today. Have been liking those.
  • This weeks Death Note book club assignment. 29 pages.
  • First chapter of volume 4 それでも歩寄せてくる
  • Animal Crossing
    • Found an 落とし物 手帳 and thought, “how appropriate, just like Death Note”
    • Remembered to make a song request to KK
    • Went villager shopping and found a decent replacement for the Okapi (named オカピ) that moved out. Some kind of intense looking frog named タイシ. Very pronounced mustache and eyebrows. Reminds me of characters from old Chinese Kungfu movies.
  • ~1.25hrs On もじぴったん. Cleared the remaining two puzzles in the practice category and the first in the かんたんキッズ category. Soo many more word puzzles left! Really enjoying this games dictionary.
practice category puzzle 20

もじぴったん_めがねばし
This is the last puzzle of the practice category and is called 眼鏡橋. It wrecked me over the last couple days. The light grey (bridge) squares are normal but the light blue (water) squares take one giant character each. At first I couldn’t figure out how an 8 chain would even be possible. Eventually, armed with しおあじ and かおつき, I completed.


Inspired by the bridge built in Nagasaki in 1634 by a Chinese monk.

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Just chiming in to say that I’ve also had pretty good luck with this method! It’s a nice way to sort of gate the flash cards I have coming in so that the number doesn’t get too high (since as a beginner, there is a lot of unknown vocabulary!). It’s also effective because it lets me build on knowledge I’ve already established, which makes those words easier to remember (and also reinforces the kanji I’ve already learned!). It just feels like a more efficient use of my time to build on knowledge that I already have scaffolding for. Besides, the most common words with late WK kanji in them tend to get beat into my brain by sheer repetition, anyway, so I feel like I don’t lose as much by not SRS-ing them yet, because I’m subjecting them to natural SRS, haha.

Also, the only strategy that has really worked for me to learn words with totally new kanji in them is to memorize how to write the kanji in addition to their reading(s)/meaning(s). You might not be interested in pursuing writing, though :sweat_smile:. But it’s a good way to really learn kanji that are particularly troublesome (which for me includes any kanji that I haven’t endlessly drilled in WK).

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Home post

Day 21:

日本語: I read a lot of 伯爵と妖精 31.

中国語

中国語: I read an intermediate entry on Mandarin Bean, one page of 擅长捉弄的高木同学, and a bit of 孩子最爱读的中国民间故事.

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Summary Post

Day 22: Today I read 6 pages of よつば&!

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My listening level is I recognize this. This is Japanese. :confounded:

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Yesterday I read four pages of キャラぱふぇ and tonight I read 29 pages of ちゃお. Here are some words I learnt.

雨宿り------あまやどり------taking shelter from rain

料理上手------りょうりじょうず------being good at cooking; good cook

調理実習------ちょうりじっしゅう------cooking practice; (school) cooking class

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:house:

Day 23: Read pages 192-194 of Kiki today. My mental block against reading in Japanese is still there, for some reason. Of course once I start reading it’s fine, but today I procrastinated for at least one hour before finally picking up Kiki. Could have slept pretty early, but now it’s after midnight again…

But I do find it a lot easier to read now than a few months ago, so that’s progress I suppose.

On a lighter note, I think I should be able to reach page 200 — also the end of Chapter 8 — tomorrow! Since I’m not working until Friday and will likely be spending most of the day at home, hopefully I’ll be able to binge read and see what I can get up to before the end of January.

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Summary Post

January 23
君の名は , 7 pages.


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:tiger2: :books: Homepost - Tigerdate: 20220123 :books: :raccoon:


Tanuki Scroll XXIII: ほらふきの竹 :bamboo:

Read today’s folktale from Gunma Prefecture!

About three merchants who get talking in an inn, and try to wow each other with impressive feats of their hometowns. One of them tells a lie that massive bamboo grows in his hometown (to make a huge bath for Buddha too), the other two, intrigued, insist that they go see it, and he rushes back to his wife for help.

Also attempted Nioh 2 in Japanese again last night, just to check that it was indeed difficult reading… and yep, still beyond me. I’ll see if I have any other games that let me play in Japanese.

This was on a different story, but please enjoy this image of a fox and a cat enjoying a kotatsu together:


I think this is intended for you to colour in, I just love how happy they are

☆ Learnings ☆

New Words

それぞれ「夫れ夫れ」ー Each; Respectively
国自慢「くにじまん」ー National or local pride; pride in the place you’re from (province; village etc.)
天下「てんか」ー The whole world; the whole country; society / the public
(though the meaning in this story is “Shogun” but its use in that way is an archaism and will probably only show up in olde-timey stories like these)
愛想よく「あいそよく」ー hospitality, to greet someone in a warm friendly way
風呂桶のタガ「ふろおけのたが」ー the ring that goes around a bathtub (traditional Japanese bathub)

Alt Meanings
「り」ー An old unit of measurement 1里 = 3.9km (approx.)

Places
越後「えちご」ー Echigo, former province in present-day Niigata Prefecture.
蔵前「くらまえ」ー Kuramae (Town)

Forgotten Meanings

たまたま「偶々」ー Occasionally; Unexpectedly; By Chance

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Main Post

Thought I would make a new summary post, as it’s been a while. It’s been a cozy read everyday with dekiru neko and it get surprisingly tricky whenever work is involved. Today I read a chapter more as the first chapter was so short and all the cute stuff was coming up, plus it was a sunday chapter so it fit well. I definitely don’t regret that and need to share some of the screens of todays read. :black_cat:

chapter 8 & 9

The context is that the protagonist once got drunk so much, her superior carried her home and met her kitten. Plus saw her nasty room (she’s very carefree in casual setting). So to make up for that embarrasing look, her superior asked her to come to the aquarium for a live event as a sort of date. She mentally prepares for it… and well has to babysit his adorable niece and also her cat followed her :joy:

Desperately looking for an outfit suitable to wear, only to find it doesn’t fit anymore. Luckily her cat whips something up in a sec.

Instant love.

Cat spotted.

Screenshot_20220123-173314_Kindle

Worked so hard he fell asleep. Yukichi’s sleeping face is super cute.

If you want to read this series as well, then you’re in good luck. At the moment the digital version is free to purchase and read on bookwalker/kindle/etc. I’ll be finishing up the rest of the chapters next week and then read something new. Look forward to it :eyes:

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Finding time to read and write a post is proving challenging so super short, easy 違い article today: 「パン」と「ブレッド」「トースト」の違いは? | 1分で読める!! [ 違いは? ]

It feels so low effort and barely worth it but I’m keeping the habit. ;_;

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Day 23 :slight_smile:
I finished the second half of chapter 6 of ミッツ星カラーズ。

I also saw a friend today, for the first time since my birthday. So I got presents :blush:
Namely the Kadokawa Tsubasa Bunko editions of 君の名は and 天気のこ - excellent gifts at the best of times, but especially perfect while I’m in the middle of a read every day challenge!
I’m going to be disciplined and finish レンタルおにいちゃん before starting either of them though since I only have 4 more chapters.

(Home Post)

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Summary post :bookmark:

January 23

I did it. I started Honzuki 8 :see_no_evil: And I’m loving it, the prologue was hilarious!
Progress: 0% → 12%

This was not according to keikaku, I wanted to read more Saikawa & Moe, but the Honzuki book on my digital bookshelf was staring at me, I couldn’t stop myself from opening the book, and then I got so excited I ended up reading all morning. Hopefully I can balance reading the other books too? :caught_durtling:

[Translator’s note: “keikaku” means “plan”]

Also randomly had the realization that one of the characters has a pretty similar hair style as Kuroo from Haikyuu.

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Summary post

January 23 update:
Read 5 pages of 時をかける少女 today, i.e. chapter 16. The story took a somewhat unexpected turn. I was almost sure that Kazuo was somehow involved in this, but the explanation he provided was much more elaborate than anything before had been hinting at, especially coupled with his newly introduced device. The conversation started in the previous chapter is still ongoing, so I guess there are more details to follow. (I had no time to read another chapter, but couldn’t resist peeking at the title, and it looks even fancier than the explanation so far :joy:)

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