Shinobis' Study Log🥷

[ShinobiMaster556]

Exchange Year and Korean

Hello and welcome back to my weekly study log, although its not weekly anymore at this point . Last two weeks were unusually busy and I had some weird cold, but I still made efforts into learning Japanese. I also had to adjust some learning Goals, more on that later in this post

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SRS

I am not completely back to my old SRS routine yet, I’ll reach 5000 Words in the next two weeks or so, but I’m putting in as much effort as possible into WaniKani and Migaku. I’ve gotten a bit slower on WaniKani, but there’s also less of a vocab backlog because of that. And I’ve also reached Level 19, and am looking forward to the 死Death Stage .

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Immersion

The second volume of ルリドラゴン finally arrived, but I haven’t found the motivation to start it yet😄. Manga Republic always include some small gifts like Manga Book Covers, Sweets from Japan and in this Case even an おみくじ Fortune Slip. I can definitely recommend them (not sponsored or anything)! I’ve only taken a look at the first couple pages of ルリドラゴン 2 and it doesn’t seem very difficult, I’ve already encountered most vocab in other Netflix Shows. I’ve also finally started really enjoying ダンジョン飯, because the club finally reached the episodes I haven’t watched yet. The second season of Squid Game is also great in Japanese, the subtitles match the audio in the second season and its one of the series on Netflix I enjoy most. I’ve still got a huge mountain of Manga in Japanese to read now, but haven’t found the time yet. I would also love to start a Watch Club or something in the WK Community for House of Ninjas, idk how creating such Clubs works though.

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JLPT

I’ve originally wanted to take the JLPT N2 this year, but I will probably have to take the N3, as I don’t have enough time for heavily studying Japanese, as I’m still trying to learn a bit of Korean and Mandarin at the same time. But I’ll try to go through Quartet 1 and Bunpro to prepare myself for the N3. And another ugly thing is, that I’ll have to travel multiple hours by train to the nearest University that holds the JLPT in July.

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Korean

I’ve studied Hangeul and most Batchim Rules now, and the Migaku Korean Course released into Early Access yesterday! I’ve used their Japanese Course before and they’re always well explained and go into depth. Can definitely recommend them. I’ve also subscribed to Talk to Me in Korean to get through the early stages of Korean.

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Exchange Year and Mandarin

I’ve applied for an exchange year to China today! If I get the scholarship, I’ll go to China this August! But It’s still unsure wether I will actually recieve the scholarship since only 30 Students in Bavaria can actually get it. I will now also have to study Mandarin, I’ve actually planned to study Mandarin before, but was too occupied with Japanese, now I’ve actually got a pretty good reason for it. I’ll try the Migaku Course for Mandarin first and also use HanziHero for reading Hanzi and a mobile App called Super Chinese which I’ve found through a Youtube recommendation. I’ve also heard of HSK Textbooks with Online Courses, but haven’t bought any of them yet.

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Other random stuff

I’ve once heard [危ないですから] in a YT Video at a Japanese Train Station and can’t get it out of my head since a week or so xD. I’ve also practiced how to do this Squid Game Dance for no reason lol.

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That’s it for this week! I have to get back studying for an exam tomorrow, so see y’all soon.

[ShinobiMaster556]

Reaching 死 stage and new Update Interval

Hi, 皆さん！Time for another update! I actually haven’t died yet, but I reached Death Stage on WaniKani the week before last! I’ve decided to stop putting out updates at regular intervals. I’ll probably give updates from time to time when I’ve made good enough progress. Trying to learn three languages at the same time is a bit challenging, so I actually had to cut back on Japanese a bit. I stopped following Migaku’s course for Japanese since I reached N4 long ago anyway. I’m still doing all my regular reviews and lessons on WaniKani, but my focus right now is to get to an intermediate Korean and Mandarin level as fast as possible, and I’m trying to learn Japanese mainly through immersion and WaniKani.

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Japanese

I’ve reached the Death Stage! Looking forward to seeing you all in Death! I’ve also noticed that a lot of the kanji I regularly see in Japanese TV shows have started to appear on WaniKani. I’ve also reached 5,500 words on Migaku, so I’m still making good progress. For me, one of the biggest motivational factors for leveling up in WaniKani is Koichi’s emails you get when you level up lol, they’ve always got nice little quotes or jokes. I’ve still got a mountain of Japanese manga that I haven’t read yet lying around. I’m kinda unsure whether to sentence mine these or just go through them with a dictionary. Sentence mining makes reading them take twice as much time, and it’s also way more exhausting because it’s not nearly as simple as scanning subtitles on Netflix shows. I’m still waiting for the continuation of Squid Game season 2⏲️. I stopped following the ダンジョン飯 club because I don’t really enjoy the series that much, but I’ll definitely get back to it someday and finish the last couple of episodes.

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Korean

I’ve moved on to using Migaku’s Academy Course! It explains all the basic grammar rules in detail and neatly without being overwhelming. And I also love their non-textbook-like approach. They don’t teach you the formal way of talking first like textbooks do, they start with casual speech and teach formal speech later, unlike most language textbooks.

Mandarin

Using Hanzihero regularly has become a habit and I really like it, it uses mnemonics like WaniKani for teaching Hanzi, but their mnemonics are a bit different. They let you imagine different places for the finals of the Pinyin syllables and Actors for the Pinyin Initials and the tone is being thaught as a spot outside or inside the place where the story for the mnemonics takes place. And this works surprisingly well! I can not only remember the inital and final of the corresponding Hanzi but also the correct tone! I’ve studied Japanese Pitch Accent a bit before , so my ears are already pretty used to recognizing different pitches in speech, it’s not too difficult for me to hear the 4 tones in speech as long as it’s spoken slowly. I really like simplified chinese characters, they are easier to remember and recognize than Kanji and Traditional Characters, at least most of the time. I’ve studied about 60 Hanzi and their Stroke Order as of right now, but I don’t think that’s too bad for having started with HanziHero 3 weeks ago.

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Immersion

I’ve had to cut back on regular immersion a bit, but I’ve found an interesting new series called The Hot Spot, which uses more everyday vocabulary. I’ll start immersing in Korean too once I’ve completed most of the Academy Course. I might even get the chance to watch Squid Game in Korean (how exciting).

I’ve started watching Solo Leveling in Japanese with a VPN and Migaku, and it’s gotten surprisingly easy to watch content in Japanese. When I started out with Migaku, I had to stop the video at every single sentence and look up words all the time. But now, my brain has gotten much more used to comprehending Japanese sentences, and my vocabulary has grown a lot. When I started with Migaku four months ago, I barely knew 2,500 words, and I was able to double that.

For everyone who hasn’t started with immersion yet: I can guarantee you that it’s going to be very difficult at first, but once you get the hang of it, things will start falling into place, and struggling through early immersion is so worth it!

I’ve also read a couple of N2-graded articles on yomujp, and I didn’t struggle as much as expected! I had to look up some words, but my reading speed was pretty okayish. I’m impressed with how far I’ve been able to take my Japanese in just under eight months or so. It took me five years of English classes in school to reach this kind of language comprehension in English.

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I wish y’all a great week! I’ll update once I’ve made more progress again. And keep doing your daily lessons and reviews, 皆さん頑張て下さい.
読んでくれてありがとう！

Meme from Reddit

[ShinobiMaster556]

It’s been a while since my last entry, but I’m still studying as always. I’ve just been really busy with school and everything and logging started feeling like a chore, so I haven’t had the energy to write a new update. I think I’ll do a big one once I hit Level 30.