📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 ☃❄

Glad to have you aboard! Also:

Husky Welcome

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If you wear green and poke his hair/face if think you’ll be safe! :'D Daichi’s super cute though, I’ll look forward to your comments on it - you’re a stronger person than me to brave all that kansai-ben!

@anon33985902 Nice to be on board! :blush:

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Summary Post

January 17
君の名は , 7 pages.


Being very lazy with adding words to my posts lately, gomen ne.

Super long response to Zakarius

Honestly that actually sounds terrific! I know nothing about Nioh, but it’s definitely something I’d like to play eventually. I really enjoy Dark Souls-esque games. Sekiro is also in my wishlist.

Yeah you don’t know how much I relate to this. It’s something I’ve been integrating these past few months and still am. I think it’s natural to feel prressured to think that after a long time doing something, you would expect a much higher level if you haven’t achieved it by then, and the more time passes the bigger this feeling gets.

I started learning Japanese in late 2014. Anyone would say that after so long I must be very proficient already, but no, that’s sadly not the truth. To be fair, since I started until today, there have been different periods with varying degrees of motivation and commitment, periods when I was diligent studying, and periods when I did so litle I got nowhere. My first three years until 2018 I did them in a language school, and that accounted for only N5 and N4 content. After that, unhappy with the school’s slow pace, I went with the self-study route with Tobira, which I never finished ーI only did 3 or 4 lessons. It wasn’t until I commited to WK that I started taking it more seriously, and even then it wasn’t after finishing WK last year that I started studying properly again… and even then! It wasn’t until recently that I’m happy with my current pace and plan. So one could even say I have barely just resumed the Japanese journey I left back in 2018 when I left the language school.

Having said that, I’m happy I never quit. I barely improved my level, other than learning a lot of kanji, but I kept the interest in the background and refreshing what I knew. Of course I’m just a tiny bit sad that I had gotten nowhere after so many years, but also I don’t think I (or we) should care about past time, because that time is simply gone. What’s important IMO is how we approach things right now. And I think you and I both, and everyone in this challenge, are doing a serious and diligent effort to improving our language knowledge. And I think it’s also worth saying that, despite the pervasive hardcore aura you typically get from Japanese learning communities especially, when it comes to hobbies or interests, there is no deadline at all. Whether someone gets to their destination in 5 years or in 25, it does not matter to anyone else than to the person that enjoys that activity. As long as you enjoy the process and what you do, or get any satisfaction from your efforts, who cares how fast or slow you go? I think it’s important to not lose track of what you are already able to do ーwe’re reading in a compleeeetely different language. But yeah, just know that I understand your feelings a lot, as I feel this way frequently too.

As a last note, video games are just plain hard. Not all of them, of course, but these ones we seem to like playing are a special kind of hard (have I already talked about how ridiculously hard FFXIV can get?). I think it’s natural that we struggle with fiction that is intended for an audience that already has a lot of cultural background and well, obviously, vocabulary. We are in the process of acquiring that cultural background, and especially you much quicker than me, judging by all the things you like to read and talk about in this thread ^^.

If you are ever bored (and with 40 minutes of free time, oof), I watched this video today that talks exactly about learning through playing video games. I liked it quite a bit, it’s a pretty relaxed approach. The channel seems also pretty cool, though I can’t personally vouch for it. I know I discovered it last year when he was releasing the first videos of a playthrough of FF7 Remake, and I redescovered it today. But many people love it, so might be worth to give it a try!

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Day 17 :slight_smile:
Today I read Chapter 13 of レンタルおにいちゃん. It was another really sweet chapter today. I’m enjoying having a few more uplifting chapters in a row, but I suspect that its all going to build up to a sad final chapter for the volume…

(Home Post)

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Summary post

January 17 update:
Read 3 pages of 時をかける少女 today. Weekdays make me feel like I’m not doing anything with my Japanese (even though I know I am, at least judging by the time spent reading and doing WK/Anki, and the resulting consistency, for whatever it’s worth). Today was especially wearisome, so by the time I got to reading I was barely functioning. The story is currently at a slower paced scene, thankfully, so I managed to mostly understand it. I hope that this consistency pays off eventually and that tomorrow is a better day.

I really should try to somehow fit my reading earlier in the day – this weekend’s success speaks for itself loud and clear.

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Nothing pays off better than consistency. :smiley:

I think it’s normal to not feel progress for a long time, then a rush of understanding…and then nothing for a while again. I’m several years into learning now so the hills and valleys are very familiar and when I find myself doubting progress I look back at my learning notes I’ve taken (saying X was hard or I couldn’t understand Y) or read some of a book I read before and go, “oh, this is easier now.”.

So long as you’re showing up and putting in the hours of reading you cannot help but progress. You brain is making connections, even if you don’t feel it. :brain: :muscle:

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First I read 80 more pages of ゴールデンゴールド this manga is weird. It takes place on an island, where according to local legends the seven luck gods live. A girl finds a statue and cleans it. Later the statue comes to life and ends up living at the girl’s place, an inn. Only the girl and two guests staying at the inn see that’s it’s a statue all other people see it as just a normal human. Strange things happen, it seems like the statue brings luck.

Next I read some more lines from the Demonbane visual novel.

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Home post :house_with_garden:
New week, so I should probably write down what I read the past days :sweat_smile:

14/1: 歴史366, 35min, read several entries.

15/1: 暁のヨナ, chapter 60, just went once through the chapter, then word lookup and later that day with bookclub
• also various googling here and there, mostly only 花言葉 if I recall correct

16/1: 歴史366, 28min.

17/1: こよみ📅 app, 40ish min
The 69th week season is Minor Cold-The Pheasant first calls

小寒ー雉始雊

New Words

雉 きじ green pheasant (Phasianus versicolor), Japanese pheasant

it’s this bird

羽毛 うもう feathers
尊ぶ とうとぶ to value, to prize
重宝 じゅうほう priceless treasure; valuing highly
祥瑞 しょうずい good omen
献上 けんじょう presenting toー献上物: gifts given to or received by a shogun or daimyo (Edo period
甲高い かんだかい high-pitched, shrill
挙動 きょどう conduct, behaviour
求愛 きゅうあい courting, wooing,
頻繁 ひんぱん frequent, incessant

SOUL IS HEALED :sob::pleading_face::sparkling_heart:
AAAAAHHH this tanuki cuteness brigade member is at your service

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Summary post

Today has been pretty decent! I’ve done a little less than I’d like because my friends distracted me with playing Risk of Rain 2, but that’s ok, haha.

Ace Attorney: Still managed an hour at least. Working on getting the flow down for managing English and Japanese definitions, but I did make a few more cards out of particularly simple definitions I think I can handle. I only talked to one character in this time, so I’m noticeably slowing down, but I dunno. New words are everywhere. Might just be a thing with this case, because this one conversation got me loads of sentences of mine. It was reasonably easy to read at the least, but I haven’t gone back to the particularly difficult characters just yet.

Today’s case introduced the Blue Badger, who is my friend. I love how much this dumb, eternally dancing mascot features around this case. Turns out in Japanese it’s just called タイホくん, which unless I’m missing another joke, is arrest-kun. Not quite as welcoming as Blue Badger.

Loads of cool words today, the one I want to share is 自信作 (じしんさく), “work of art the creator has confidence in.” Very literally self confidence work.

Zoo 1: Having a great time reading this, but it’s harder to talk about without spoiling things. Ace Attorney has much more fluff. Suffice to say, though I’m slow, I’m 39% through, which isn’t bad for less than a month on my first book, no matter how relatively simple said book is. I’ll have a lot of thoughts when I’ve finished it for sure.

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Because I’m reading your posts and you seem to be enjoying Sabikui Bisco, when I saw the anime on Crunchyroll, I decided to watch it. Only the 1st episode is out so far and I’m already pulled in. I’m curious about the mushrooms but I want to continue watching to figure it out so I haven’t read any synopses online.

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Summary Post

Day 17: Today I read 3 chapters of からかい上手の高木さん with @valkow! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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Home post

Day 16:

日本語: I read a lot of 伯爵と妖精 31 and a bit of 冷たい密室と博士たち.

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 some of 孩子最爱读的中国民间故事.

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Oh awesome, I’m glad you’re enjoying it so far! Yeah I totally picked it up on a whim looking for random stuff to fill out a mandarake order and I was like “oh an upcoming anime based on a light novel? sure why not” and now I’m very invested :joy: I just checked out the first episode and it’s cool seeing what I’ve been puzzling out brought to life (and reassuring that I’m not completely lost on what’s going on lmao). The ongoing mysteries of mushrooms, who knew

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Summary post

Day 17: January 17th

365日にっぽんのいろ図鑑
Time spent: 18 min
Today’s color: 鉛色 (なまりいろ) - lead color (a bluish gray)

So this is really unrelated to anything said in the reading today, but when you google image search “鉛色” you get so many pictures of this smol birb and I wanted to share him with you all xD

In Chinese, it is known as the 鉛色水鴝 (in English, it appears to be called a plumbeous water redstart).

I did actually learn some words from today's reading, promise
  • 広まる (ひろまる) - to spread; to be propagated
  • 西欧化 (せいおうか) - westernization
  • 垂れ込める (たれこめる) - to hang low over (e.g. clouds)
  • 暗鬱 (あんうつ) - gloom; melancholy
  • 降り出す (ふりだす) - to begin to rain; to begin to snow

まいにち暦生活 日本の暮らしを楽しむ365のコツ
Time spent: 9 min

Today’s reading talked about コマイ, saffron cod (in kanji, it is literally 氷下魚 - as the name implies, it is caught while ice-fishing xD). It can be used to make ルイベ, an Ainu dish of fish cut into thin slices while frozen. I also learned the word 出回る (でまわる) - to appear on the market; to be in season (e.g. of fruit).

What else did I read?
タヌキとキツネ
Amount read: 33 pages
Time spent: 20 min

Honestly I had kind of a stupid day today so I needed tanuki cuteness. Luckily there was no shortage of that xD

If you too are in need of a pick-me-up, please enjoy these bouncing tanuki


This makes me giggle every time I look at it

And these squishy sleeping tanuki

I did learn some words too I swear
  • 割り込む (わりこむ) - to cut into (a line, conversation, etc.); to force oneself into (e.g. a crowd); to wedge oneself into; to squeeze oneself into; to intrude on; to interrupt
  • 飛び石 (とびいし) - stepping stones
  • 寝冷え (ねびえ) - indisposition (e.g. a cold) caused by getting chilled while sleeping
  • 証拠隠滅 (しょうこいんめつ) - destruction of evidence (didn’t expect to learn that one from a tanuki manga, did ya)
  • 翻弄 (ほんろう) - trifling with; toying with; playing with; making sport of; making fun of; leading around by the nose
  • 暗号解読 (あんごうかいどく) - cryptanalysis (yet another unexpected word for a tanuki manga xD)
  • 飛び跳ねる (とびはねる) - to jump up and down; to hop
  • 寝ピク - hypnagogic jerk (aka that moment when you’re about to fall asleep and your whole body freaks out and you feel like you’re falling)

Ohh, I saw this manga on Amazon and was thinking of checking it out at some point! Glad to hear it’s good so far, maybe I’ll pick it up the next time I order from Amazon.

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January 17 :snowflake: Home Post

Whew, more 錆喰(さびく)いビスコ! I actually had to do other productive things today (what a concept huh) so I only read about 4 pages to finish up chapter 3 (!!), but I think that only took me like an hour? I’m bad at tracking that sort of thing, but that’s definitely a speed improvement :joy:

I think basically what’s happened is I’ve read enough that I know the specific set of somewhat-weird words 錆喰(さびく)いビスコ uses a lot, so when I run into a sentence that just uses those, it’s easy! Whereas a couple chapters ago, those sentences would’ve been just as difficult as one that uses words that uncommon even within the book, so having those be totally comprehensible at this point makes the whole experience wayyy smoother (I hope that made some semblance of sense lmao)

Anyway I’m still really enjoying it! Some of the descriptions are just… man I love them. At one point ビスコ was described as 「()()けた(あか)(あらし)のような少年(しょうねん)」 and I think that’s just wonderful, very accurate :joy: Three chapters down; I’m looking forward to continuing on!

Some ~words~

即死(そくし) - instant death
攪乱(かくらん) - disturbance, perturbation
童顔(どうがん) - baby face
にこり - smile sweetly
逡巡(しゅんじゅん) - hesitation, indecision
ぶっきらぼう - curt, blunt, brusque

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Summary post :bookmark:

January 17

かがみの孤城 (下)
Progress: (2% → 16%)

I did a read yesterday :slight_smile: Just didn’t log on to post.

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Today’s article was 太ったかも……と気付く瞬間あるある9選 because I’m very tired and just clicked the first article on the first page I had loaded in my tabs of articles.

Some words I looked up

突如 - suddenly. I’m not sure how this differs from 突然, will look up nuance later
かんがみて - to bear in mind
引力 - gravitational pull
遠心力 - centrifugal force
臨月 - final month of pregnancy

The title is like “Have I gotten fat?..9 moments that make you realize it”. Can’t say I found it terribly interesting or engaging, I have but the cold comfort of new vocab, and this creepy avatar the writer used:
image

I need to search for more articles this evening.

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:house:

Day 18! Today I only read page 185 and 186 of Kiki, although I’m still very confused by what the lady is saying, so I’ll need to go through page 186 again tomorrow. I was going to read more, but I think I’ll leave puzzling things out when I’ve slept, haha.

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Day 17: January 17

  • 君の名は。page 125-126

Day 18: January 18

  • 君の名は。page 127-130

Yesterday was not my day… Stil managed to read two pages and today as well. Will rest for the rest of the day :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

The part about the meteorite was really hard… Glad I’m past it now xD

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:four_leaf_clover:

Here's my よつばと! attempt for today! Pages 25, 26, 27, 28

Page 25 - 1/18/22

あははは!

Ahahaha!

かわった子だなあ…

An unusual child…

ベランコれめくなのかあ (I don’t even know if I identified all the kana right… I could not figure this out at all!)

あそういえばうちの隣の空き家に

Ah, now that I think of it, there’s a vacant house next to ours.

新しい人がくるつて

New people are moving in…

もしかして

Possibly…

くる

Could it come to be?

Page 26 - 1/18/22

うあつ

Ah, hey!

うあーっ!!

Ah!!

手!手!

Hands! Hands!

手はなしちゃだメよ!!

Release your hands!!

て?

Hands?

ぽっ (some sort of happy sound??)

Page 27 - 1/18/22

(No text - Yotsuba goes flying off the swing!)

Page 28 - 1/18/22

(could not figure out the sound of her landing on her feet)

ぺた

(?) Kind of like her saying “oi” ?

だ大丈夫!?

Are you okay!?

大丈夫だった!?

Are you okay!? (couldn’t figure out the difference between this sentence and the sentence above?)

:slight_smile:

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