本当にありがとう！！! 
For me it’s actually the opposite, I’ve been using the Shadowing audios a lot more than the Anki decks (but for some reason I’m just not a big fan of Anki at all, no matter how much I try to be 
).
4 Likes
I just finished my second ever manga in Japanese: よつばと (Yotsuba&) vol. 1 (which means I’m also closer to fulfilling my goal of reading 5 manga in Japanese by the end of the year).
Some of the chapters I read through with the just keep reading mindset, similar to the 多読-way, not minding that there were words and phrases along the way that I didn’t understand and instead focusing on the context of the story as a whole. Some of the chapters I read through using Bilingual Manga and reading each page first in Japanese, then reading the same page with the English translation. While reading the first two chapters I also did some repetitions of a Yotsuba&-vocab Memrise course and combining this with the just keep reading strategy. I loved the story and I loved how the flow of reading got better and better for each chapter. I encountered many of the WK kanji (lvl 1-8) and WK vocab along the way, which also made comprehension easier (and I think it makes the kanji and vocab stick even better, seen in context). I still only own the first volume of よつばと and would love to buy the physical copies of the coming volumes before continuing reading the story, but I might succumb to temptation before then and continue reading the story on Bilingual Manga. We’ll see! The plan is now to finish reading vol. 2 of チーズスイートホーム (Chi’s Sweet Home) and then moving on the the おじさまと猫 (Ojisama to neko) series (as I already own the physical copies of vol. 1-3). I feel totally hooked on reading manga now and I’m glad that I already have built a small library of physical copies to delve right into! 
9 Likes
Progress tracking (17 aug-23 aug):
| 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WK lessons & reviews | |||||||
| Speak Japanese | |||||||
| Read manga (Chi’s Sweet Home vol.2) | |||||||
| Italki lesson | |||||||
| GENKI II (ch. 14) | |||||||
| Watch anime/TV-show | |||||||
| Practice shadowing (Miku sensei) | |||||||
| Watch grammar lesson in Japanese | |||||||
| Play Ghost of Tsushima | |||||||
| Listen to Japanese podcast | |||||||
| HelloTalk moment voice recording | |||||||
| Listen to Japanese music | |||||||
| Vocab SRS (Anki/Memrise) | |||||||
| Bunpro lessons & reviews | |||||||
| Nativshark lessons & reviews | |||||||
| Watch Youtube videos in Japanese w/o subtitles |
6 Likes
Today I finished my third ever manga read in Japanese. やったね！
チーズスイートホーム (Chi’s Sweet Home vol. 2). The cute story of a kitten who gets lost, after she’s been separated from her mother and siblings, and then gets adopted by a family who happen to live in an apartment where cats are strictly forbidden. Chi and the little boy in the family become friends from first sight and play a lot together. Chi and the father of the family have a bit of a falling out after a visit to the veterinarian. The story of Chi is a really cute (and humorous) tale with short, easy sentences in fairly basic Japanese and a story that is easy to understand and follow as a whole, even without understanding every single word and phrase. A great first manga to read! I was very happy to notice that my reading speed has greatly increased compared to when I read through vol. 1 of the same manga series (which was also my very first manga read in Japanese) recently. Also, after reading よつばと (Yotsuba&), Chi’s Sweet Home actually felt very easy in comparison. I will continue my cat adventure read by revisiting おじさまと猫 Ojisama to neko vol. 1 (which I found a bit too difficult the first time I attempted it, so I switched to Chi’s Sweet Home after a few pages). I’m very excited to see if おじさまと猫 will feel a little bit easier this time around, or not. I’m also planning on starting a おじさまと猫 book club here on WK before I start my read, so if you’re interested in joining in, give me a shout!
6 Likes
It looks like your bookclub is going to be a great success! I can see that loads of people are signing up and expressing an interest in reading along! Thank you so much for getting this going!
Well done on completing the first volume of Yotsuba! And though you are busy now of course, when you do get around to reading more, don’t forget the Yotsuba bookclub here on WK, and our weekly live readings too!
3 Likes
Aw, thank you!! 
Sure, I’ll join in once I continue reading the Yotsuba&-series. I definitively want to continue it, loved the first volume!
3 Likes
Omg you’re playing Ghost of Tsushima?! Is it…playable?
I want to play that so much but somewhere along the line I got it in my head that it is waaayyyyy too difficult for me… (are you a hardcore gamer?)
3 Likes
It’s playable for sure! You can play it in the easy mode, if you want to play it mostly for the story. I’m definitively not a hardcore gamer, so I’m sure you can play it and enjoy it too! It’s an absolutely stunning game!
2 Likes
Awesome!!! Thank you! Ohboyohboyohboy
3 Likes
Summary of last week
Last week was a busy week, so I didn’t have the time to join my language exchange conversation club (for speaking practice) or to do many of the other tasks in my study regime. I prioritized doing my daily WK lessons & reviews, my Nativshark lessons & reviews and daily listening to Nihongo con Teppei podcast for lots of Japanese language input. I did have time for some other activities some of the days, but these three tasks were my main tasks during last week. I go by the motto better to do a little every day, than to do a lot each time but not very often. I think that slow and steady wins the race (sooner or later, haha).
Looking forward to this new week and today is also the first day of reading Ojisama to neko in my very own book club. Yay!
4 Likes
Progress tracking (24 aug-30 aug):
| 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WK lessons & reviews | |||||||
| Speak Japanese | |||||||
| Read manga (Ojisama to neko vol. 1, Karigurashi no Arrietty vol. 1 & 2, Death Note vol. 1) | |||||||
| Italki lesson | |||||||
| GENKI II (ch. 14) | |||||||
| Watch anime/TV-show | |||||||
| Practice shadowing (Miku sensei) | |||||||
| Watch grammar lesson in Japanese | |||||||
| Play Ghost of Tsushima | |||||||
| Listen to Japanese podcast | |||||||
| HelloTalk moment diary entry (voice recording/text) | |||||||
| Listen to Japanese music | |||||||
| Vocab SRS (Anki/Memrise) | |||||||
| Bunpro lessons & reviews | |||||||
| Nativshark lessons & reviews | |||||||
| Watch Youtube videos in Japanese w/o subtitles |
5 Likes
Yesterday I finished Karigurashi no Arrietty, the Ghibli Film Comic, vol. 1. I actually read through the entire manga in just one sitting. Granted, there are many pages with only pictures and the text really isn’t that advanced, but I remember the first time I tried to read it, not too many months ago, thinking it was still a bit too difficult. At that time I even watched the entire Ghibli movie, using the Language Learning with Netflix plug-in, to get acquainted with the story and hopefully make it easier to read the manga. I noticed that it did help quite a lot, having watched the movie and already knowing the story, but was still happily surprised that my comprehension has improved!
7 Likes
Milestone achieved!
Today I started and finished reading Karigurashi no Arrietty vol. 2, which also means that I’ve achieved one of my goals for 2020, to read 5 manga in Japanese, yay!!
I also started reading Death Note vol. 1. A manga that I thought would be waaaay over my current level, but I was very, very surprised to find out that I actually understood quite a lot (probably a lot thanks to having watched the entire anime and knowing the story) in the first chapter. But, my strategy isn’t to understand every single new word of grammar that I encounter. Rather to get the gist of the story and to get a good overall comprehension of what’s going on. I believe that this really helps to increase my reading speed and to keep my motivation going strong (I’ve already noticed clear results, after every new manga that I’ve finished so far) and that it will also help me learn new words and concepts along the way. Making my brain “think” more and more in Japanese, instead of always having to translate everything into my native languages (Swedish and English). I want to wire my brain into thinking in Japanese, not about Japanese in my native languages.
Don’t you agree that I had a fantastic view today, while reading Karigurashi no Arrietty?
写真で私の馬がいます。ルークちゃんとコーヒちゃんです。かわいいですよね。
10 Likes
Progress tracking (31 aug-6 september):
| 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WK lessons & reviews | |||||||
| Speak Japanese | |||||||
| Read manga (Ojisama to neko vol. 1, Death Note vol. 1) | |||||||
| Italki lesson | |||||||
| GENKI II (ch. 14) | |||||||
| Watch anime/TV-show | |||||||
| Practice shadowing (Miku sensei) | |||||||
| Watch grammar lesson in Japanese | |||||||
| Play Ghost of Tsushima | |||||||
| Listen to Japanese podcast | |||||||
| HelloTalk moment diary entry (voice recording/text) | |||||||
| Listen to Japanese music | |||||||
| Vocab SRS (Anki/Memrise) | |||||||
| Bunpro lessons & reviews | |||||||
| Nativshark lessons & reviews | |||||||
| Watch Youtube videos in Japanese w/o subtitles |
4 Likes
Summary of last week
I feel like I did get some studying in last week (with my main focus being language input type immersion: listening and reading). I did have another very busy week, especially busy weekend, since I spent the entire weekend with a couple of friends. I could keep up with the daily NativShark lessons and reviews but, for the first time ever, skipped a day of WK. I caught up and finished my review pile and put a few lessons in the day after and am back on track again. I also had one conversation over HelloTalk with a native Japanese speaker, so I did get some speaking practice in despite not being able to join my conversation club. This coming weekend I’ll be busy again, but I hope to be able to start joining the conversation club again the weekend after that! I really miss actually speaking Japanese, which is my main reason for learning the language in the first place. But I must say that I’ve really started to enjoy reading Japanese aswell, since I started WK.
4 Likes
Just burned my first two items on WK. BURN BABY BURN!!
8 Likes
Yesterday I leveled up to level 9 on WK, woop woop!
I didn’t rush last level at all, I took my sweet time working through it and will probably do the same for this level. I’ve been busy, as usual, lately and will continue to be for the next few weeks so I’ve noticed that my retention accuracy has gone down (since I often do my reviews when I’m tired after a day of work and then working my horses and doing some other farm chores after work). Also, I will have to work with some wedding photo editing over the coming days so that I can deliver them to the customer. Lots of work, in other words, haha! This weekend I’ll also be away. So, I’m really lowering my expectations regarding my Japanese studies at the moment. Focusing on daily WK reviews, working through the grammar lessons on NativShark, listening to at least a couple episodes of the Nihongo con Teppei podcast daily and also keeping up with some reading (focusing on おじさまと猫 for my book club). I think it’s important to slow down the pace, when needed, to avoid burnout. As long as I keep swimming, which means that there will be progress still, I’m satisfied!
7 Likes
Summary of last week
Last week was another very busy week and I actually even lost my study streak (ouch!) on NativShark because I didn’t have time to do my reviews yesterday. Also, the review pile on WK built up to nearly 300 reviews (I’ve managed to do 100 of the reviews now and will do the other 200 later during the day, but I don’t mind doing many reviews at once on WK). I did get some studying in during the week, despite being so busy, so I’m proud over myself for that (and also for not pushing myself too hard, allowing myself to also relax and slow down when needed). Again this was another week with my main focus being on language immersion (mostly through listening and also some reading). This week should be a little bit calmer, so hopefully I’ll be able to get some more Japanese studying (and immersion) done. Wish me luck! 
7 Likes
Progress tracking (7 september-13 september):
| 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WK lessons & reviews | |||||||
| Speak Japanese | |||||||
| Read manga (Ojisama to neko vol. 1, Death Note vol. 1) | |||||||
| Italki lesson | |||||||
| GENKI II (ch. 14) | |||||||
| Watch anime/TV-show | |||||||
| Practice shadowing (Miku sensei) | |||||||
| Watch grammar lesson in Japanese | |||||||
| Play Ghost of Tsushima | |||||||
| Listen to Japanese podcast | |||||||
| HelloTalk moment diary entry (voice recording/text) | |||||||
| Listen to Japanese music | |||||||
| Vocab SRS (Anki/Memrise) | |||||||
| Bunpro lessons & reviews | |||||||
| Nativshark lessons & reviews | |||||||
| Watch Youtube videos in Japanese w/o subtitles |
7 Likes