🎙 📝 Speak/Write Every Day Challenge (Winter 2023) 🏂 ❄

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2月16日

今日はピリピンへ十八時に着いた。友達は空港へ私にむかえてくれた。


Had this in my drafts and failed to finish the post that night. I guess it still counts though. I overestimated myself and couldn’t do any of the challenges while I was home. Back now and will post one for the 22nd a bit later!

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Home post

2月22日

木曜日から火曜日までふるさとにいた。とても忙しかったけど楽しかった。休みの間に約束多すぎたので毎日三か四時間だけねた。友達と家族と食事したり飲み会へ行ったりカラオケをした。最終の日従兄弟と話しをたくさんしたら寝ないで空港へ行った。

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2月22日

日記

今日、新しいイベントのテーマを選ぶために、たくさんのミーティングがあった。
まず、一人のデザイナーとシニア・アーティストと話した。
テーマの提案が多かった。
その後で全部のアーティストと全部のデザイナーとミーテイングがあった。
一人のデザイナーはみんなに色々なテーマを説明して、皆は意見交換した。
そして、いくつか好きなテーマを選んだ。

最後、一人のデザイナーとシニア・アーティストとアーティストの社長とミーテイングがあった。
デザイナーはチームのいくつか好きなテーマのプレゼンテーションをして、社長が意見を言った。
やっと、テーマは決まった。
安心だよなぁ

There were many meetings today to choose a theme for a new event.
First, I spoke with one designer and a senior artist.
There were many suggestions for the theme.
Then there was a meeting with all the artists and all the designers.
One designer explained the various themes to everyone, and everyone exchanged ideas.
Then they chose some of their favorite themes.

Finally, there was a meeting with one designer, a senior artist, and the bosses of the artists.
The designer gave a presentation of some of the teams favourite themes and the bosses gave their opinions.
Finally, a theme was chosen.
That’s a relief!

(Home Post)

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Home post

2月23日
今日は休日だけど働かなきゃいけなかった。最近仕事の契約が思いすぎている。実は契約の終了が4月だ。extend??することができるけど、したくない。

My mind is too slow now… I can’t make sentences.

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2月23日

日記

明日、有給休暇があるので喜んでいる。
でも、たくさんの作業を終わらないといけなかったので終わるために今日ちょっと残業をした。
だから今夜、本当に疲れて、勉強していた時に眠ちゃった。

晩御飯は美味しいビーン・バーガーを食べた。
その後で、ジャム・ローリー・ポーリーも食べた。
ジャム・ローリー・ポーリーは私の好きなデザートの一つだ。

I have a holiday day tomorrow, so I am happy.
But I had to finish a lot of work so I worked a bit of overtime today to get it done.
So tonight I was really tired and fell asleep while I was studying.

I had a nice bean burger for dinner.
Then I also had a jam roly-poly.
Jam roly-poly is one of my favourite desserts.

(Home Post)

:studio_microphone: :snowboarder: softlyraining’s snowy mountain of output :memo: :mountain_snow:

February 22nd

I wrote something quick in my notes app before falling asleep last night to keep the streak alive.

宿題

今朝5時頃起きちゃった。まだ宿題が終わらないし、スマホでゲームを少ししてからお湯を沸かして宿題を集中した。10時間以上かかっちゃった!

February 23rd

Recording for February 23rd

Replies

@alygator おかえり!My mind can be slow, too, so you’re not alone. :sweat_smile: 延長する would be extend. (Not sure if you didn’t know the word for it or had a brain fart. Heaven knows all the times I’ve had them.)
@lucylavelle 作家は皆、「書くのが下手だ」と思うでしょう。私もそういうことよく思いますが、上手になりたいのなら、かけなくちゃなりませんね。時間があれば、ぜひ書きます!

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Home post

2月23日
昨日は一ヶ月まえ私が応募した会社は私に連絡した。試験を受けなきゃいけないと言った。
そして今晩試験を受けた。難しくなかったと思った。合格したらいい。

Replies

I think it was a combination of both! Hahaha. Thanks for the help! I didn’t know the word for extend and I just couldn’t get myself to think of how to say that sentence with my limited grammar. So I ended up giving up midway! :melting_face:

Regarding your last question, the topic is kind of niche so it’s hard to come by jobs that are related in Japan that doesn’t require Japanese. The one I applied to a month ago wasn’t in Japan unfortunately. :frowning: My other option is studying again like a masters degree or doctorate here… But I haven’t really thought about that route yet. Not that keen to study again.

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2月24日

日記

今日は休みだったのでゆっくりした。
今朝、先生とレッスンをした。
聴解練習をして、「〜うちに」を使い方を練習した。
また、楽しい会話をした。
毎週のレッスンが大好きだよ。

明日、前の住んだ町に行く。
そこに娘は幼なじみの誕生日のパーティーに行く。
彼女がパーティにいる間、私は夫とエスケープ・ルームをしたり、昔よく行ったレストランに行ったりする。
楽しみにしているよ。

Today was a day off, so I relaxed.
I had a lesson with my teacher this morning.
We practised listening comprehension and practised how to use ‘〜うちに’.
We also had fun conversations.
I love our weekly lessons.

Tomorrow I’m going to a town where I used to live.
My daughter is going to a birthday party there for a childhood friend.
While she is at the party, I will do an escape room with my husband and go to a restaurant we used to go to often.
I’m looking forward to it.

(Home Post)

2 Likes

:studio_microphone: :snowboarder: softlyraining’s snowy mountain of output :memo: :mountain_snow:

February 24th

今晩は母に電話をしてもらった。停電について聞かれて、それからおじさんたちの家の訪問を話した。後で、姉の結婚準備を喋った。今まで、会場を予約して、ドレスを買った。

2月25日と2月26日

I was on a trip with my husband this weekend, so while I did manage to write on both days, I didn’t manage to post an update yesterday so I’m doing a double one today!

2月25日の日記

今日娘は幼なじみの誕生日のパーティに行きたかったので私たちはオックスフォードシャーに行った。
前の住んだ町を見るのが懐かしいなぁ。
それから私と夫はスウィンドンに行った。
チョップスティックスというレストランに食べに行った。
それから美味しいワッフルを食べて、買い物した。

そのあとでエスケープ・ルームをした。
テーマは幽霊屋敷だったのでちょっと怖かったよ。
でも本当に楽しかった。
色々なパズルは本当に面白いと思った。
残り四十五秒だけあったら、私たちは逃げた。

夕方、ホテルでプールに泳いだ。
久しぶりに泳がなかったので楽しんだ。

Today my daughter wanted to go to a birthday party for her childhood friend so we went to Oxfordshire.
Seeing the town we used to live in was nostalgic. (Pretty sure I’ve butchered this line :sweat_smile:)
Then my husband and I went to Swindon.
We went to eat at a restaurant called Chopsticks.
Then we had some nice waffles and did some shopping.

After that we did an escape room.
It was a bit scary because the theme was a haunted house.
But it was really fun.
I thought the different puzzles were really interesting.
We escaped when there were only 45 seconds remaining.

In the evening, we swam in the pool at the hotel.
I enjoyed it because I haven’t been swimming for a long time.

2月26日の日記

今日、タコ・ベルを初めて行った。
私はクリスピー・チキン・ブリトーを選んだ。
夫はボルケーノ・ブリトーを食べた。
そして、二人ともはシナモン・ツイストもたべた。

その後で買い物をした。
新しい靴やデイジー柄のドレスやTシャツを買った。

午後に前の住んだ町に行った。
私たちの前の家を見に行って、フォリー・タワーに行った。
ウサギやモグラやリスやトロールの像を見て、景色を楽しんだ。

Today I went to Taco Bell for the first time.
I chose the crispy chicken burrito.
My husband had the Volcano Burrito.
And we both had cinnamon twists.

Afterwards, we went shopping.
I bought new shoes, a daisy print dress and T-shirts.

In the afternoon we went to the town where we used to live.
We went to see our old house and went to the Folly Tower.
We saw the statues of the rabbit, mole, squirrel and troll and enjoyed the view.

(Home Post)

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2月27日

日記

今日はゆっくりした。
夫とロイヤル・ホースに行った。
私はハルーミ・シズラーを食べた。
アントニーはコリアン・バーベキュー・バーガーを食べて、私に分けた。

午後にセヴェランスというテレビ番組を見終わった。
本当に面白い物語と思うけど終わりはクリフハンガーのでそれはちょっと惜しかった。
次のシリーズもいいといいね

I relaxed today.
I went to the Royal Horse with my husband.
I had the halloumi sizzler.
My husband had a Korean BBQ burger and shared it with me.

I finished watching a TV programme called Severance in the afternoon.
I think it’s a really interesting story but the end is a cliffhanger so that was a bit disappointing.
I hope the next series is also good.

(Home Post)

2 Likes

:studio_microphone: :snowboarder: softlyraining’s snowy mountain of output :memo: :mountain_snow:

Fell behind on my posts, but I’m going to try to end on a (somewhat) strong note! My first entry was written over two days; I wrote one sentence before passing out for the night (:sweat_smile:) and finished it the following day.

February 25th・26th

最近の天気

近く住んでる所は、雪が降る。その他に、サンディエゴにも雪が降るそうだ。天気予報から聞いた。雪を見て以来は一年以上だと思う。少し見たいけど、一番近い所までは交通が激しそうだ。

February 27th

日々のこと

今日は一日中雨が降った。ジョギングは一週間2回するのが好きだけど、明日も雨が降るそうだ。水曜日は晴れになるといいね。

昨日、「チーズスイートホーム」を読み始めた。可愛いけど、ちょっと読みやすいね。でも、寝る前読んだから気楽な読み物の方がいいと思う。チーの話し方は面白くて、どうやって翻訳するか考えて、後で英語版も読むかもしれない。

Replies

@lucylavelle エスケープ・ルームをよくしますね。 :grin: 時々もうやったエスケープ・ルームを繰り返すことがありますか。その場合はまだやりがいのあるんですか。つまり、簡単過ぎますか。

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Future of Output Challenge

With today marking the last day of both the month and this challenge, I thought I’d reassess where the challenge goes from here. I’m still interested in hosting it, but I also want to keep improving it. This time I switched up the scheduling, and I’d love to hear from others how they felt about that. So, if you have the time, please consider voting in the following polls. :slightly_smiling_face:

Scheduling

When should the output challenge take place and for how long?
  • Keep it a two month challenge in line with the others (reading/listening)
  • Go back to being in the off-months of other challenges
  • Try a different schedule (ex. every other month, regardless of other challenges)

0 voters

Improvements

What changes would you like to see from future challenges?
  • A list of mini challenges I can freely choose from
  • Daily prompts so I don’t have to choose what to speak/write about
  • Other ideas (leave a comment with suggestion)
  • I don’t think changes are necessary

0 voters

Thank you so much for the feedback! I hope to see you in the next output challenge!

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2月28日

日記

今日、歯科衛生士に行った。
彼は歯間ブラシをお勧めした。
歯医者にいくのがあまり好きじゃないけど大事と思う。

仕事は本当に忙しかった。
金曜日と昨日は有休をしたので今日たくさんのタスクをしないといけなかった。
今週の残りも忙しいと思う。

I went to a dental hygienist today.
He recommended an interdental brush.
I don’t really like going to the dentist but I think it’s important.

Work has been really busy.
I took Friday and yesterday off so I had to do a lot of tasks today.
I think the rest of the week will be busy too.

Replies

今まで、私たちは各エスケープ・ルームを一回だけしました。
私にとって、二回したら、パズルの解き方を多分思い起こすことできるので初めてするより楽しくないと思います。
でも、時々他の人の逃げる時は本当に早そうです。
時々「彼らはもうそのエスケープ・ルームをしたのだろうか 。」と思います。

Last day of the challenge already! Despite February being short every year, it always manages to surprise me somehow. :sweat_smile:
I managed to write every day, and stuck to my usual routine of 1-2 lessons per week to practise speaking, so I think I can count this challenge as a success!
Big thanks to everyone who took part, especially @softlyraining and @alygator I hope to see you both again for the next challenge!

Next challenge thoughts

I haven’t voted in the polls yet because I’m not sure what my answers are.
As far as scheduling goes, I’m going to carry on joining in whatever gets decided so I don’t want to end up swaying the vote!
I think I have a slight preference for it being in the off-months of the other challenges, because I usually carry on with the read every day challenge throughout the off months, but take a break from doing daily posts for the listen every day challenge - so doing this challenge on the off-months meant I was always doing 2 challenges at any given time rather than 3 for two months and then only reading for the off months.
But this is very flimsy reasoning :grin: I’m really happy to go with the flow so whatever gets decided, I’ll be happy.

Re: Improvements - I really like the idea of daily prompts, but I would probably mostly stick to writing my diary entries and only occasionally join in with a prompt if one really caught my interest.
Some people are less willing to be boring and announce that they went to work and had dinner every day than I am :laughing: so I think it might be helpful for people who struggle to think of a topic, or are only just getting started with doing regular output to have a prompt, or some mini-challenges to help them.

(Home Post)

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:studio_microphone: :snowboarder: softlyraining’s snowy mountain of output :memo: :mountain_snow:

February 28th

Recording for February 28th

Well, I certainly had my days where I did the bare minimum, but I still somehow spoke or wrote every day these last two months! My coursework kept me so busy, and frankly I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off. I’m happy I pushed through!

Thank you so much to all who participated, including @lucylavelle and @alygator. It’s always a treat to read your posts. I hope you’ll stick around for the next challenge (whenever that may be)!

Replies

@lucylavelle Thank you so much for your thoughts! I admit, doing all three challenges was incredibly tough for me. At first I posted in all three pretty regularly, but by the end of January or so I really only posted my updates here. I’ll of course wait and see if anyone votes in the polls or responds before making a decision, but I’m glad you’re on board either way! :grin: I’ll get to work on a prompt list (which would honestly be a help to myself, anyway). Your posts aren’t boring! I learned the word for dental hygienist in your last one. :laughing:

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Speaking/Writing Winter Challenge Q1 2023 Summary

Thanks to 5-min freestyle recordings I have done at the end of last year, then now Anki quiz on listening (vocab + sentence) to handwriting; writing in Hobonichi everyday is now doable. I simply wrote whatever I thought about at the particular time, and dropping down to Kana if I have to.

Nonetheless, I didn’t write about a topic, or focused writing. Actually, electronic writing altogether, so I have nothing to be checked by online persons.

I also missed conversations and chats.

Practically, I also wrote some very short book reviews, so that might be a real world use of production skills. I haven’t really participated in Japanese social media. Anyway, correctness and comprehensibility would need to be improved.

tl;dr. It’s always bare minimum for me.

Improvements = 1+2 (not multiple choices?)

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Thanks for pointing that out! Changing the poll type reset the results, but I made a note of your preference.

The bare minimum is still something! I agree with you about book reviews: I try to write a mini-review on bookmeter whenever I finish something, even if it’s a simple comment. Improving one’s abilities for that would likely make for a more engaging experience on the site, so it’s a nice goal to aim for.

Glad you were able to get in some regular practice during the challenge!

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Hello folks! I’m sorry I haven’t been able to update since last week.

Although I did quite well for January (29/31), my real life and mental condition got in the way in February (15/28). See home post here.

I just wanted to say this was a really good exercise for me to have some sort of output everyday (or at least attempt to do that). I think a gained a lot more confidence in applying the kanji and grammar I’ve been learning from WK, Bunpro and Minna no Nihongo because of this.

And of course, I really enjoyed reading (and sometimes listening) to outputs from @lucylavelle and @softlyraining . Thank you for the company throughout this challenge and I’m sorry I was missing in action almost half of the time in February!

I would still like to join the next challenges! I did vote in the polls but honestly like @lucylavelle . I will just go with the flow with whatever gets decided! :stuck_out_tongue: I will be in a major life transition as I take a break from work while looking for other opportunities so I’m hoping I will have more time. :slight_smile:

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Hi, everyone! With the start of challenge season just around the corner, I wanted to give an update for the next output challenge.

While the winter challenge pushed me to consistently output in Japanese more than I had in some time, my engagement in the concurrent reading and listening challenges fell to zero. Since the regulars here seem pretty flexible, I’ve decided to start this challenge back up again in June, after the other two challenges reach their designated ends. This also will give me time to put together some changes for the June challenge (March was considerably hectic for me).

Thank you for continuing to follow along during all of this experimentation! I look forward to continuing this challenge with everyone in a few months!

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