:books::books: Welcome to the “Read Japanese Every Day” Challenge, Winter 2024 Edition! :bamboo::snowman_with_snow::evergreen_tree: Hello! Up here in the Northern Hemisphere, we’re experiencing winter. It’s the perfect time of year to curl up under some blankets and read. For folks in the Southern Hemisphere… well you need something to take your mind off the heat, don’t you? So let’s get reading! This Season's Emoji Explanation In Japan, one of the most important holidays is New Years. Families gather together to celebrate the coming spring. One of the decorations you can find at many homes is a barrel or wooden bucket of bamboo with some other winter greenery. They represent the longevity that people hope for. The second emoji is a snowman and if you’re from a country with snow, it’s a common winter sight. However, have you noticed this emoji is a Japanese snowman? In comparison with Western snowmen that are made of 3 balls, Japanese snowmen are typically built with only 2 balls. Lastly, the final emoji is a pine tree. Across various cultures in the Northern hemisphere, pines and evergreens have stood out to ancient peoples as one of the few plants that stay green in winter. It’s a symbol of life in many cultures. Where does this challenge come from? Back in the summer of 2021, @Redglare had the great idea of a “Read Every Day” challenge, in which participants challenged themselves to read something in Japanese every day for 2 whole months. Since then and until now, @Redglare and @windupbird have hosted this challenge every season. Thanks to them, many of us have improved our Japanese and lifestyles! You might notice that I am neither a bird nor glare. I offered to take over the challenge since they’re quite busy (お疲れ様！), but of course they’re welcome to take it back at any time if they want to. I’ll do my best to keep up the encouragement! Please help us keep this a positive, encouraging, and fun space! Please feel free to bribe encourage fellow participants with cute pet and animal photos or recipes even. Archive of Past Challenge Threads Read every day challenge - Summer 2021 :beach_umbrella::beach_umbrella: Read every day challenge - Fall 2021 :maple_leaf::fallen_leaf::raccoon: Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 :snowman_with_snow::snowflake: Read every day challenge - Spring 2022 :cherry_blossom: :seedling: Read every day challenge - Summer 2022 :beach_umbrella: :sunny: Read every day challenge - Fall 2022 :maple_leaf::fallen_leaf: Read every day challenge - Winter 2023 :snowman_with_snow::snowflake: Read every day challenge - Spring 2023 :cherry_blossom::tulip::blossom: Read every day challenge - Summer 2023 :sunglasses::sunny: Read every day challenge - Fall 2023 :scarf: :fallen_leaf: :maple_leaf: While the name of the challenge is “Read Every Day,” you may have noticed that it also has a season attached. That’s because each challenge only lasts 2 months. Forever would be a long commitment. By having clear start and end dates, it becomes a much more manageable goal. At the end of the challenge, please consider what worked or didn’t work for you. Did you have fun? Then you can take a break or decide to keep going. Also, please don’t worry about starting late or not completing the challenge! Life happens. This is an open opportunity for everyone who wants to set some reading goals. Everyone is welcome. Some participants have even started tracking their reading in other languages. As @Redglare has said: This is a thread for people who: :bookmark: want to spend time reading a bunch this winter :bookmark: want to improve their reading speed and comprehension :bookmark: want to hold themselves accountable and have a place to document their progress :bookmark: simply want to join in on the challenge of reading every day for two or so months :books: :books: To add onto that, this is also a thread for people who want to track or talk about their reading too. If you’d like a computer to do most of your tracking, please check out Natively. Time frame: January 1 - February 29 Again, late starts are totally welcome! Usually people will continue posting through March and some may give some updates even later. It’s all good! You can start and finish your personal challenge at any point during that time, and shorten or lengthen the challenge to the time period that works best for you. Personally, I usually extend my reading into the 3rd month since I find these challenges have been great at helping me reach my annual reading goals. As @windupbird has said Your reading materials can be whatever you want, be it manga, light novels, books, visual novels, magazines, graded readers, satori reader, Japanese webpages/blogs, or Japanese games - you name it, anything goes as long as it is something in Japanese :jp: :durtle_the_explorer: “Reading” can be interpreted creatively, if that helps keep you motivated - for example, some people have counted reading Japanese subtitles as reading some days. In general, we are a pretty flexible and forgiving bunch :wink: Need help finding something to read? Check these threads out! The News Reading Challenge - folks typically read the easy NHK article of the day or other similar articles from various apps The "news reading" challenge 🗞 The Immersion portion of this thread has a lot of great resources The Ultimate Additional Japanese Resources List! Reading the same book with others can be pretty motivating. It’s also easier to ask about grammar or vocab, so how about joining a book club? If you don’t want to join, you could always take it as a recommended book instead. A list of book clubs can be found here: Master List of Book Clubs poll Happy reading!

The spring thread is live! [image] booksbooks Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Spring 2024 cherry_blossomdangoseedling Reading booksbooks Welcome to the “Read Japanese Every Day” Challenge, Spring 2024 Edition! cherry_blossom dango seedling It’s a time of beginnings and flower blossoms in much of the world! For those of us with hay fever, it’s the perfect time to curl up with a book indoors. Or for the lucky, you can relax at a park and read in the sunlight. play_button This Season's Emoji Explanation Where does this challenge come from? Back in the summer of 2021, @Redglare had the great idea of a “Read Every Day” c…

[image] Redglare: Today was so tiring I dropped my phone in the freezer while doing grocery… Screen protector got a bit cracked. But the screen underneath is fine? Then I guess it did its job? :slight_smile: But still, ugh.

:house: home post :house: :calendar: 2024年3月15日 :calendar: :question: Title Read today Currently at Notes :kimono: 舞妓さんちのまかないさん 23 chapters 272/272 Finished! :desert_island: ISLAND 5k 305.000 char 0 new word (reread) :orange_book: Secret 2 episodes 20/98 — Finished 舞妓さんちのまかないさん :partying_face: longest series I have finished so far, 25 volumes (well the series is not complete so there will be more volumes at some point). Next target: :desert_island: :eyes:

:bookmark: Home post // March 15 :snowman_with_snow: :books: ・薬屋のひとりごと 11 (71% → 76%) Sudden increase in new characters :eyes: [image] Book9: But the screen underneath is fine? Then I guess it did its job? :slight_smile: But still, ugh. Hopefully this won’t jinx it, but my phone is still like new even after 6 years. I changed the screen protector just a few months ago and you’d think I bought the whole phone just the other day. I keep dropping it on the floor and it’s still daijoubu after all this time. めっちゃ強いな。 I must admit I was surprised when I noticed the new crack, but I guess it can’t win against a freezer filled with frozen foods.

2024-03-15 :previous_track_button: Previous | :house: Home post | Next :next_track_button: Date Name Type Amount Time 2024-03-15 :books: 本好きの下剋上第一部５ :green_book: Manga :arrow_forward: Chapter 20 :page_facing_up: 28 pages :hourglass: 20m And for today’s reading, it’s the return of 本好きの下剋上 as I read the first chapter of part 1 volume 5 of the manga. Someone rated this as “similar in difficulty” to 少女終末旅行 which I read last week, and as I think the comparative reading pace will show, I don’t really agree :slight_smile: (And I have 4 volumes of 本好きの下剋上 and the Jr Novel under my belt already, so pretty primed on relevant vocab). It’s still a lot easier for me though than the volumes of the 本好きの下剋上 manga I read before the novel :slight_smile:

:cherry_blossom: March 15 :frog: :cat: Book Pages :vampire: 心臓に杭を打ちつけて 3 31 pages (chapters 25 and 26) :horse: ララの結婚 4 55 - 69 I read more Stake :vampire: since I’m so close to being done with it. Once I’m totally done, I can read more ongoing stuff or read STEEL BALL RUN digitally I hate read a bit more of LaLa :horse:. I realized that it’s published by the same company that does Finder :mag: and even has the same story beats post unique intro. I have no faith in them letting the series finish when it’s natural as opposed to milking it for cash. I’ll finish the vols I have of it and then sell them back if my predictions are right.

Home Thread // March 12th - 15th, 2024 Name Progress State Finished Markus’ Ascent (Part 3) 14/19 chapters (74%) Currently Reading — Markus’ Ascent (Part 2) 19/19 chapters (100%) :white_check_mark: Finished 9th Mar, 2024 Markus’ Ascent (Part 1) 22/22 chapters (100%) :white_check_mark: Finished 29th Feb, 2024 The King’s Birthday 7/7 chapters (100%) :white_check_mark: Finished 19th Feb, 2024 Aryn’s wonderful world 6/6 chapters (100%) :white_check_mark: Finished 12th Feb, 2024 Aryn’s rescue 24/24 chapters (100%) :white_check_mark: Finished 9th Feb, 2024 The streak continues :fire: March 12th: Two more chapters from Markus’ Ascent, 7 NHK Easy articles March 13th: Two more chapters from Markus’ Ascent, 4 NHK Easy articles March 14th: Two more chapters from Markus’ Ascent, 4 NHK Easy articles March 15th: Two more chapters from Markus’ Ascent, 4 NHK Easy articles (Nope, I didn’t just copy paste lol)

:notebook: :computer: :snowman_with_snow: :snowflake: March 12 Not a bad day for reading, read 1 chapter of ハイキュー!! and a bunch of 傲慢と善良 (7% → 11%) :notebook: :computer: :snowman_with_snow: :snowflake: March 13 Just some 傲慢と善良 (11% → 12%) :notebook: :computer: :snowman_with_snow: :snowflake: March 14 Was barely home so read <1% of 傲慢と善良 No reading on the 15th since I had zero time. And this concludes this challenge for me! It was a rocky start but in the end I managed to get some things done. Now a little break before the spring one, but I’ll probably keep reading almost every day even if I don’t track it.

16 March | Home :question: Title Type Natively Progress :dragon: ダンジョン飯4 manga 29 78% → 100% (complete) :white_check_mark: :guitar: 気になってる人が男じゃなかった VOL.2 manga 22 pg63 / 160 (no change) :candy: 不思議駄菓子屋1 book 24 53% (no change) :cat2: また、同じ夢を見ていた book 25 33% (no change) Finished Dungeon Meshi 4, was distracted by a video game all day, hopefully the madness will leave me and I can at least do my book club readings next week. Last few pages were pretty difficult with a non-functioning brain, I had to compare against the english translation.

Mar 16, Sat of Week 11 of Q1 2024 ぼぎわんが来る (75-80%) DIJG : ～て, ～て初めて逆転裁判 1 Case 2 end Words of the day うってつけ = most suited; ideal (for the job) = 打(う)って付(つ)け (not in IME) 似(に)ても似(に)つかない = not bearing the slightest resemblance. Maybe, even if something similar, can’t find one. いかがなもの… か = something one finds questionable. That is, 如何(いかが)わしい.

3月10-15日 | Home post 夜カフェ 1 (58.05% → 73.66%) This week was a little better, I read almost double the amount when compared to last week. I finished 夜カフェ Chapters 9 and 10. I’ll definitely finish this book by the end of the month!

📚📚 Read Every Day Challenge - Winter 2024 🎍☃🌲

Japanese Language Reading

DIO-Berry March 16, 2024, 3:32am 1647

The spring thread is live!

Topic		Replies	Views
:books::books: Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Spring 2024 :cherry_blossom::dango::seedling: Reading	1246	23916	July 2, 2024
:books::books: Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Summer 2024 :beach_umbrella::watermelon::cricket_bat_and_ball: Reading	1065	16400	October 3, 2024
:books::books: Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Fall 2024 :maple_leaf::chestnut::apple: Reading	1072	15283	January 1, 2025
:books::books: Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Spring 2025 :snake::frog: Reading	1426	19333	September 30, 2025
:books::books: Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Winter 2025 :snowflake::rabbit: Reading	1680	21746	June 30, 2025

📚📚 Read Every Day Challenge - Winter 2024 🎍☃🌲

Related topics