13th of June to the 19th of June
Japanese progress
Didn’t do too badly this week. Honestly, my main goal was to do at least some of my habitual tasks without it feeling like a huge drag. I remember back in 2020 I enjoyed grammar work more than almost anything else, because hand writing answers to the exercise questions while listening to music was oddly relaxing. Doing Kamesame was even more enjoyable, because it was easy and fun to handwrite the kanji. (When I finish Wanikani, I’ll continue with Kamesame at a much slower pace, as output and hand writing practice.) Basically, I want studying Japanese daily to feel as fun as it did back then — I’m working on it.
This time last week, I had a review pile of about 400 items. This morning it was at 41, though now it’s risen back to 125. I’ll be able to get it back down to 0 tomorrow morning.
Leeches are at 39 at the moment. Throughout the week it ranged from 40-60, which is… not good. I noticed that the more consistent I am, the less leeches I have and the easier it is to keep up with WK. Good thing I went fast early on, because it was a lot less difficult to be consistent back then than it is now.
I completed a few sections of Tobira on Tuesday and Thursday, but the rest of the week I didn’t manage to make time. I think I’ll be able to finish the workbook exercises for Chapter 2 by the end of next week, so let’s make that a goal.
With reading, I progressed a fair bit — finally picked up かがみの孤城 and read it for more than fifteen minutes for the first time in a long while. I think I read for about an hour on Thursday and another hour today. I was at 6% before; now I’m at 10%, which is pretty good considering it’s a long book (384 pages according to the WK book club).
It didn’t feel like a drag, either. This is probably partly due to me changing my reading method. I used to simultaneously have the Bookwalker app open on my phone and DeepL on my laptop, so I could search up anything I needed to. The problem with this was it got annoying having to put my phone down every single time I wanted to check something or look up some unknown word/phrase/kanji.
I don’t know how I never thought about using split-screen on my laptop instead… it is a ton less bothersome and time-wasting. Anyway, hopefully the added ease of use will cause my ‘mental block’ towards reading in Japanese to be reduced. Seems to be working so far.
My immersion for the past week or so has been entirely unscripted and unsubtitled, so I’ve been focusing a lot more on trying to understand. I can already notice things I’m picking up!
How studying has been going
I haven’t begun revising at all yet, but I went through my exercise books as well as several textbooks and noted down all the topics I need to master for next term’s big exams in Google Sheets. So far I’ve done that for maths, physics and half of psychology.
This is to create the retrospective timetable I talked about a couple of posts back. I meant to begin using it at the start of this term, but never found the time to sit down and create it properly. It takes a surprising amount of time to write a list of topics that aren’t too specific so that the giant list is overwhelming, and isn’t too general and vague.
Anyway, I’m doing most of the work before the term begins, so that to keep up with it and use it, all I need to do is consistently update newly learned topics and the date. Not too difficult. I’ll see whether it helps me with studying efficiently and effectively next term or not!
GOAL REFLECTING/SETTING
- Honestly, my sleep schedule has been messed up this week. Even with the sunrise challenge, most days this week I woke up to take a picture, share it then simply went back to sleep
. Or I just didn’t sleep enough. Oops… right after I write this I’ll be turning off my devices and winding down before bed, so I’ll be able to sleep at 10pm, get enough sleep and also wake up early. - I’ll say this has mostly been a success, though reading is not yet a daily habit!
- Didn’t quite manage to start, but I’ve been (fairly) consistently making progress to do that.
My goals for next week will be the same thing, but I’m adding another: finishing Tobira Chapter 2 workbook exercises, so I can finally move onto Chapter 3.
. After I return home, I’ll try to start implementing setting aside half an hour each day to revise a few topics.