today’s ouran chapter (the last one before the extras) was a really tough one for some reason, there were bits of it i straight up didn’t understand. i got most of it but it took me a very long time to read, so didn’t bother with ドラゴン.
ouran questions
i have no idea what to do with this middle panel, the 私など妄想… one. i just don’t know what it’s trying to express full context in second image. haruhi was asked to take the (very desired) leading lady role in a play these other characters are putting on, she refused, and now they’re trying to shame her about it
and what does this say in the middle? the aside just to the left of the right hand dialogue bubble. it kind of looks like 黒◯尾 and is the middle kanji 燕? but then i can’t work out what that would mean??? the character they’re talking about calls her fans 小鳥ちゃんたち if that’s relevant
did read thesetwo nhk articles (the first one was very short, looks like it’s updated since), the last bit of the granblue bnha collab before the second half on the 18th plus a chapter of plot, and the entry on に従って in aDoIJG
words that stood out
桜蘭
セリ - stage lift
イワシ - sardine
貞淑 - chastity, feminine modesty
also think it’s the first time i’ve ever seen 彼女ら as opposed to たち
Last night I extensively read 4 more pages of Goosebumps, joining in on testing extensive reading. I really like it for the reasons already outlined- it forces me to actually look at words and recall them, feels more like ‘reading,’ and is enjoyable. However, the comprehension is too low for me to guess every unknown word from context, so it feels like sometimes my guess is completely off. Also, characters tend to teleport to different locations because I miss a movement word. So today I think I’ll go back and intensively reread the whole chapter (8 pgs) with lookups. It’s possible once I have a higher vocabulary overall I might be able to completely read Goosebumps extensively, but I’m not at that 95% sweet spot yet, so I think a combo method might work well. (Or possibly just looking up a few important words per page, but not ~every~ unknown word.)
Off work because of the snow so plenty of time for Japanese today
If you might be interested in reading a Visual Novel, come and vote for the next pick: [Now voting!] Visual Novel Book Club // Now reading: 徒花異譚 - #605 by AzusaChan (disclaimer: the suggested pace is quite high, almost like the advanced book club, but you can always read at your own pace / reading in English is also an option, that’s how I started!)
Today was busy, but still got one hour for reading. Decided to skip a day of listening challenge. As long as I don’t get two empty days in a row, that’s fine.
船を漕ぐ = to row a boat; to nod off/to doze off (expression)
So I definitely got into 放浪息子 a lot, and ended up reading a bunch of it in bed last night rather than picking something easier like I had intended. Also when I should probably have been sleeping to prep for all today’s travel but who needs sleep when there’s manga to be read? (I did, I needed sleep, I regretted it in the morning)
Also did some reading on one of my train rides. Ireland is generally a little more accepting than somewhere like the US, but I wasn’t really comfortable busting out “trans kids, the manga” on a crowded train either, so that’s when I started volume 2 of 老女的少女ひなたちゃん.
January 15th!
Chapter 152 of Shadows House. Only one more chapter in this volume now so I was very tempted to keep reading, but since each chapter takes me quite a long time to read I managed to talk myself out of it.
January 16th!
Chapter 5 of This Art Club Has a Problem! today. I wasn’t sure about this manga at first, but its starting to grow on me now. I’ll probably pause reading it at the end of this volume, but just because I need to stop trying to read so many things at once and I want to have enough time to join the next BBC too.
Today’s Dungeon Meshi chapter. I’ll be up to date with last week’s episode by tomorrow… at which point a new anime ep will release and I’ll be behind again. Ah well.
@ChristopherFritz thanks for the english panels! they were very helpful that blood line still doesn’t make a great deal of sense but it’s not really supposed to so i guess it’s fine
@polv pixiv dictionary coming through for me, thanks for the link! i think i got confused cos the character they’re talking about isn’t a wearing a tailcoat in any of the scenes she’s in before this
I’m a little embarrassed that when I was going through my shelf of unread english books last month, I missed that I already owned a book that includes selected readings for political/cultural/philosophical context in ancient china, and includes excerpts from the analects of confucius oh well, having the full text is still useful! But that sorts out some of the other readings I wanted to do…
Short reads because I was busy with social stuff, but we’re supposed to get quite a bit of snow tonight. Assuming I have power tomorrow, should have plenty of time to read
Read:
コンビニ人間 pg 6 → 8 - returning for my vengeance, and for the “Award Winning” tile on my bingo board. I was a little worried that I was gonna start reading this and feel like I’d made no progress from my previous attempt, but that is definitely not the case. Things that I remember understanding but kinda fuzzily are much more clear to me now. I’m also pretty happy that quite a few words that I looked up when reading last time stuck completely even without a need for SRS or multiple exposures!
I forgot to update the last couple days here whoops.
Jan 15 & 16 I just read some graded readers on Tadoku. This cold snap is really sapping my energy. I want to read more but I’m just too tired. oh well. I did hit Wanikani level 8 yesterday though, which is a small milestone to celebrate.
went through all the extras and finished ouran vol 7! not sure i’d recommend that for the club though, it was kinda long. i remember the twins story from the anime, so that was fine, but there was also a love egoist chapter (unrelated to ouran, there’ve been three so far) which followed on from the last one which means the student/teacher romance is back and worse than ever! really hope that was the last of it. also finished ドラゴン、家を買う vol 2 which is the last one i have. not super interested in continuing, tho the last few chapters felt more confident than vol 1 did.
today’s nhk article was this one, plus another granblue chapter, and the entries on に過ぎない and に対して in aDoIJG
words that stood out
ドラゴン：
水増し - dilution, watering down, inflation (of a budget, etc.)
ジャグジー - jacuzzi. somehow not what i thought the pronunciation would be
full context in second image. haruhi was asked to take the (very desired) leading lady role in a play these other characters are putting on, she refused, and now they’re trying to shame her about it
So today I think I’ll go back and intensively reread the whole chapter (8 pgs) with lookups. It’s possible once I have a higher vocabulary overall I might be able to completely read Goosebumps extensively, but I’m not at that 95% sweet spot yet, so I think a combo method might work well. (Or possibly just looking up a few important words per page, but not ~every~ unknown word.)
2024年1月16日 
Previous
放浪息子 2
Manga
Chapter 9-12
116 pages
老女的少女ひなたちゃん2
January 16 
that blood line still doesn’t make a great deal of sense but it’s not really supposed to so i guess it’s fine
１日１６月 
oh well, having the full text is still useful! But that sorts out some of the other readings I wanted to do… 
I want to read more but I’m just too tired. oh well. I did hit Wanikani level 8 yesterday though, which is a small milestone to celebrate. 