I know in some dialects there’s a gender-neutral わ which is spoken with a falling intonation, which is different from the feminine わ which is spoken with a rising intonation (not that you get that in text though lmao), so when you see men who aren’t effeminate or otherwise queer-coded, then that’s probably it
Off the top of my head there’s Fukuiben, though I can’t remember if Kansaiben also has it? There’s quite a bit of overlap between them, so it might. I just know I’ve seen male characters in multiple manga use this gender-neutral わ whom I know weren’t speaking Fukuiben (lol and I was just reading a series where some of the characters speak Kansaiben, I feel like I should remember if any of them used わ)
Update: It does, multiple male Kansaiben-speakers have used it.
Yesterday, my friends unexpectedly showed up at my door and whisked me away before I could write my post - so this will be my update for both yesterday and today.
I finished reading the second half of chapter 10, and read most of chapter 11 of 海辺のカフカ. Today, I finished the last three pages of chapter 11, but felt too tired to continue any further. I can’t believe I am almost halfway through the first part of the book! Currently at 20%.
I didn’t read any Russian yesterday, but today I finished the last short story in the collection - Конец бульки и Мильтона (The end of Bulka and Milton). To be honest, I am excited to be moving onto reading something else (and hopefully more interesting)! I think I may start with Bulgakov’s Morphine. Until very recently I wasn’t aware that Bulgakov also wrote more realistic fiction - so I am curious to see how it will compare to his other works.
Today was an oddly satisfying day. Woke up way too early, but then fell back to sleep after eating breakfast, so in the end I got enough sleep. Was very productive doing chores/errands and a bit of studying. Ended up not having much time for reading, but I enjoyed the tiny read nonetheless :3
I’ll try reading Saikawa and Moe tomorrow, haven’t done so this whole week.
Today I started チュベローズで待ってる AGE22 with the informal club, and read the first three chapters. The books is off to a great start, curious to see where it goes.
Finished ユージニア just barely in time for the next assignment and started チュベローズ which is just…a hilarious name to me. I wonder if it sounds cute or sexy or nice to Japanese people? Because while the English name is ‘tuberose’ too, the feeling I have is neutral at best.
That said I’ve only read the first chapter and I’m already excited about it, hoping I can read more tonight.
I hear men say わ all the time when watching youtube or listening to podcasts and stuff, but I feel like I rarely see it in writing unless it’s women speaking.
Okay, so, I glanced at the timer while I read the first story, and I was on the second page when it said roughly 1 minute and 45 seconds had passed…I honestly don’t think I could read 8 pages in 3 minutes in English, let alone Japanese! I also felt myself rushing, though after maybe 5 pages in just decided to read normally. My total reading time for this story (花を抱いた人) was 14 minutes and 48 seconds. The story itself was fine; I don’t really have anything positive or negative to say about it.
The second story (抜け道), which was also 8 pages long, took me 20 minutes and 57 seconds to read. This one had a lot of vocabulary that I didn’t understand, and I’m not even entirely sure I’m clear on what the premise was. Granted, I generally don’t look up words when reading from this book. I guess it’s nice that my method’s worked out pretty well up until this story, at least.
Today I read a chapter of Happiness.
I also did some reading practise with my tutor today, we were practising writing polite emails so we read an example.
Day 6: January 6th
What did I read?: 夜の名前を呼んで Vol 3
How much did I read?: 24 pages
How long did it take me?: 19 min
Pretty easy breezy chapter today, but we got to see how far Mira has come since she first came to live with Rei She had a nice day home alone, getting all the chores done with her little shadow buddies.
One of the changes in my reading routine was utilizing Satori Reader because some people I know kept raving about it.
Satori Reader: コナの大冒険 (21/45)
While reading this series, I translate sentences in my head or try to explain grammar points and check them against Satori’s. I also adjusted the settings to include all joyo kanji. It’s been a good activity for intensive reading so far because the scaffolded stories help reduce cognitive overload.
Book 2:夜市 (7%)
Out of the three books I previewed, this one appealed to me the most because it was the easiest! The others have been tabled for another day. How do you choose the books you read? What happens when you find them to be too difficult? I’d love to know.
So far I’ve been mostly coasting by either picking books already read by WK book clubs (mainly Beginner Book club), or picking books currently being read. xD
I did read a couple of things last year that wasn’t either. One was a manga I could read without doing look ups (except for maybe 1-3 each volume when I really needed to understand the word), because there were so few unknowns. The other one was zenitendou, and I struggled through the first short story, feeling like I was having trouble the whole way and not quite figuring out why (something to do with grammar, sentence structure/syntax more than anything else). And I ended up dropping it for now, and haven’t had a let up in book club reads since then to consider going back to it.
But I’m also reading the VN Loopers (I read it with the club for a little while but then fell behind and now I try to get to it whenever I’m caught up with book clubs), and I find I lack a ton of vocabulary for it, but I keep reading it anyway, doing tons of lookups. But I find it entertaining enough to be worth it.
So maybe the answer is that if I’m struggling too much with grammar I find it easier to drop for later, but if the amount of lookups don’t push me over the edge, then I will keep reading.
January 6th
What did I read?: にわにはににん
How much did I read?: 8 pages
(Started 4th Story: にわにはににん )
How long did it take me?: 1 hour 7 min
I like this story so far~ It has a strange house that you can lose your way in, passing through the same rooms again and again. And the main character’s laidback personality is a nice change. Although it means dealing with some slang and contracted words! (Never would I have guessed that こえー was supposed to be こわい!)
I will admit to not really following the first article. The first paragraph or so was fine and then the further I read the more lost I got until I gave up halfway through. Maybe I’m tired. I think it had something to do with now having electronic prescriptions and maybe something about avoiding medicine that clash with each other? Since I didn’t read to the end, I don’t fully know.
Second one was easier. For one thing, I think I’ve read a graded reader non-fiction booklet on that particular earthquake, and also it came up while at Japanese language school in one of the textbooks. So the fact that there is a website now to give a better idea of the damage done is pretty cool. Horrible thing that happened, just to be clear. Being able to get a better idea of just how devastating is both interesting and horrifying. The second of those is the reason I didn’t go check out the website yet. Not the kind of thing I want to put in my brain right before I go to sleep.
Edit: Upon a quick read of the NHK easy version of the medicine article, I did understand the gist of it correctly. Electronic prescriptions are very good, we have them in Sweden since several years.
Additionally, I picked the articles by going to the easy version to more easily find something interesting from a small selection, then I jumped to the regular version. I think I will continue like that for now because it gives me the option of going to an easier version if I need it.
I finished my first full manga today! I completed よつばと! v2 (I skipped volume 1 because the bookstore didn’t have any copies.)
Over the last year or so I’ve started and stopped this book multiple times; so I’m especially excited and proud to have finally reached my goal of finishing it.
And though I’ve read a couple volumes of Crystal Hunters, I consider this to be the first official manga I’ve finished because Crystal Hunters was written specifically for Japanese language learners.
(I’d still highly recommend Crystal Hunters to any beginner readers and I plan on reading the rest of the series during this challenge.)
What I read:
よつばと! v2 p.168-190
New Words
限定「げんてい」: limit; restriction
ゴーヤー : bitter melon (Okinawan specialty)
喜ぶ「よろこぶ」: to be delighted; to be glad; to be pleased
Some more 山猫 today! Again not as big of a read because I got distracted by Slime Rancher other things, but still like 6% of the book so nothing to scoff at. I think my lowkey goal is to finish it before the next BU$TAFELLOWS assignment starts on the 13th which should be feasible if I’m reasonably consistent, so we’ll see if I can do it!
ラストで君は「まさか！」と言う 冬の物語 (40% → 48%)
This one had a lot of vocabulary that I didn’t understand, and I’m not even entirely sure I’m clear on what the premise was. Granted, I generally don’t look up words when reading from this book. I guess it’s nice that my method’s worked out pretty well up until this story, at least.
She had a nice day home alone, getting all the chores done with her little shadow buddies.
I think they would definitely get along 
The others have been tabled for another day. How do you choose the books you read? What happens when you find them to be too difficult? I’d love to know. 
(Never would I have guessed that こえー was supposed to be こわい!)
夢みる太陽 Volume 2 (59% ➨ 100%)
からかい上手の高木さん Volume 10 (13% ➨ 33%)
名探偵コナン Volume 13 (30% ➨ 39%)
I completed よつばと! v2 (I skipped volume 1 because the bookstore didn’t have any copies.)
