Totally agree. It sets people’s expectations as well as sets them up for failure. Then there is the $ investment. If you plan on paying subscription fees for a year, then you are pressed to finish in a year.
I’ve been reading other study logs where the WK team has responded to emails regarding feature requests. The responses seem to be accusatory regarding speed running. It feels so hypocritical.
7 Likes
It just happened today to me, I believe lol. I have nothing on them having this selling point (because I like that tools I use get more money) but at least, allow me to make it real 
6 Likes
Sunday, October 19, 2025 week 42
level 33- four kanji until level up to 34; 81 vocab pending; will work on those before the kanji.
Contex- underlined sentences are my errors.
I like all the novels by that author. 私はその著者の小説は全部好きだ。 私はその著者の全部小説は好きだ.
彼女なら信用できる You can trust her.
彼の落ち着いた態度に私の恐怖心は消えた。 My fear disappeared thanks to his relaxed disposition.
そんなに消極的になるな Don’t be so negative.
彼女は都会生活を好まなかった. She did not care for city life.
色の好みはありますか？ Do you have a color preference?
屋根の上の男性が助けを求めて叫んだ。 The man on the roof shouted in search of help. 屋根の上男性が助けを求めて叫んだ
Even brushing my teeth is a pain. 歯を磨くのも面倒くさい .
I’m ridiculously excited! めちゃくちゃわくわくしている
I held back a sneeze. くしゃみを抑えた
I have been enduring intense practice in emulation of my respectable mentor.
尊敬する先輩を目標に激しい練習に耐えてきました
Vocab
| 6.35 | FEELINGS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| refreshing | さっぱり | feeling refreshed, frank, open-hearted, | |||
| To be depressed | 落ち込む | お ち こ む | |||
| 47 | pathetic, pitiful | かわいそう | poor- usually kana alone | ||
| 37 | to bless | 恵む | め ぐ む | to show mercy to | |
| 33 | to cheat | 裏切る | う ら ぎ る | to go back on, to be unfaithful (to) | |
| 48 | regret | 後悔 | こ う か い | ||
| preference, style | 好み | こ の み | compare WK 15 好む | ||
| 43 | to comfort | 慰める | な ぐ さ め る | ||
| kiss | キス | ||||
| 38 | to hold down, contain | 抑える | お さ え る | to keep within limits (e.g. spending), to restrain (e.g. emotions); compare 押さえる | |
| exciting | わくわく | see Mango Language | |||
| negative, passive | 消極的 | しょ う きょ く て き | half-hearted, unmotivated | ||
| positive, active | 積極的 | せ っ きょ く て き | proactive, aggressive | ||
| sneeze, “achoo” | く しゃ み | ||||
| 44 | to shout, scream | 叫ぶ | さ け ぶ | ||
| 44 | to scold | 叱る | し か る | usually written using kana alone | |
| 40 | to praise | 褒める | ほ め る | ||
| 16 | smiling face | 笑顔 | え が お | compare 笑い | |
| 44 | greeting, courtesy visit | 挨拶 | あ い さ つ | polite set phrase used when meeting or parting from someone | |
| to put up with | 耐える | た え る |
Kanji is used for the whole unit! OMG
| mango languages | |
|---|---|
| mumble-mumble | ブツブツ |
| whisper-whisper | ヒソヒソ |
| nag-nag | ガミガミ |
| in a shrill voice | キンキン声で |
| are fidgeting | ソワソワしてる |
| to rush around | バタバタする |
| to sneak around | コソコソする |
| to dart one’s eyes around | キョロキョロする |
| to stroll | ブラブラする |
| to have tea | お茶する |
| to lounge around | ゴロゴロする |
| slow pace, idly | ダラダラ |
| is pouring down (precipitation) | ザーザー降ってる |
| is drizzling | シトシト降ってる |
| is sprinkling | パラパラ降ってる |
| to get excited | ワクワクする |
| to suffer from a splitting headache | ガンガンする |
| to burn (when referring to a pain) | ヒリヒリする |
| to feel faint | フラフラする |
| state of being full | お腹パンパン |
| to worry | クヨクヨする |
| to feel nervous | ハラハラする |
| nervous excitement | ハラハラドキドキ |
Notes
Japanese usually add mimetic words to generic verbs to give them unique characters. Let’s take the basic verb 泣く (to cry) as an example. You may choose “to bawl” (ワアワア泣く), blubber (オイオイ泣く), weep (メソメソ泣く), or whimper (シクシク泣く).
In general, voiceless consonants (such as “k” or “s”) imply lightness or sharpness, and voiced consonants (such as “g” and “z”) convey the feel of heaviness or dullness.
For later:
Graded readers continue:
夢十夜 10 nights of dreams
-
6 pages man waits 100 years
-
6 pages haunted by guilt?
まだらの紐 6 of 31 pages sherlock holmes
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I thought it was funny that
to lounge around ゴロゴロする
It makes one think of the really chill, laid-back characters from Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, the Gorons…
7 Likes
Week 43
Thoughts on new UI patch: You Can Now Prioritize Your Reviews by "Apprentice First" (plus, Kanji Hoverpocalypse™ updates)
Once again we get statements from the Dev Team that contradict what the website actually does. [quote=“koichi, post:1, topic:72226”]
- All apprentice items are priority — i.e. they are more likely to be forgotten, more quickly.
- I also didn’t want to say “current level items” are more important than previous level items. When you level up, those vocabulary items from the previous level that appear are important to continue to add some more of that varied context to your kanji understanding.
- I don’t want to discourage people from learning or spending time in the vocabulary. An option to only indicate radicals / kanji would imply that vocab isn’t important when really it’s probably the most important of the three item categories we have right now.
- I don’t want to encourage people to level up quickly for the sake of leveling up.
[/quote]
What’s this new focus on vocabulary? If it were that important, why don’t users have to complete any part of those in order to level up?
Context
I’m almost at the limit of my patience. もうそろそろ我慢の限界だ．expression the limits of one’s patience, the last straw, the end of one’s tether
I have to lose weight. 体重を減らさなければならない．
Strike while the iron is hot. 鉄は熱いうちに打て。
He has an allure that attracts people. 彼には人を引き付ける魅力がある。
The transparency of this lake has improved recently. この湖は最近透明度が増してきた。
Through what sort of mechanism does this process start? どういつ仕組みでこの過程は始まるのだろうか？
The process is even more important than the result. 結果よりも過程が大事だ．
I would like to ask for your honest opinion regarding this matter. この件について率直なご意見を何いたく存じます。I would appreciate your honest opinion on this matter.
It will take some time before the effects appear. 効果が現れるまでにしばらく時間がかかる。
Vocabulary
| DUO | WK | EN | KANJI | KANA | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.36 | SCIENCE | ||||
| formula e.g math | 公式 | こ う し き | official, formal compare WK 15 ALT 式 | ||
| 52, 26 | patience | 我慢 | が ま ん | self-restraint | |
| 40 | transparent | 透明 | と う め い | clear | |
| 54, 28, 13 | microscope | 顕微鏡 | け ん び きょ う | ||
| chart | 図表 | ず ひょ う | diagram, graph compare WK 5 図 | ||
| 7 | mechanism | 仕組み | し く み | workings, structure | |
| 34 | magnet | 磁石 | じ しゃ く | じせき compass | |
| introduction | 導入 | ど う にゅ う | bringing in, installation | ||
| to attract | 引き付ける | ひ き つ け る | to entice | ||
| 28 | process | 過程 | か て い | course, mechanism | |
| emphasis | 重視 | じゅ う し | regarding as important compare WK 10 強調 |
Started B1-2. Close reading of the course description reveals that B1-2 is not B1 to B2 but actually just the second part of B1. This is the last course offered, therefore I will kind of not make my goal of B2 by end of year.
Graded readers continue:
まだらの紐 9 of 31 pages sherlock holmes
Challenge: rumade’s 42 try I started and failed on day 2. Restarted today with better results.
8 Likes
Good luck with the challenge! Seems like a good one to do.
5 Likes
The only way to fail is to give up entirely. As long as you keep giving it a go, you have not failed 
I’ve been doing WK on and off for years and years (glad I bought that lifetime membership!), and I really don’t like how vocab is being handled now. The number of items is getting out of hand, and it’s very hard to tell which ones might actually be useful. Furthermore, in the past, the items would assume that you had a sense of logic. For example, there would be a word like 西口. There wasn’t the need to make the other cardinal direction exits into review items, because the user could apply logic. “Ah, this word uses にし, so I can surmise that the other directions will use kun’yomi” But now they seem to be making items for all of them?
7 Likes
Have you seen the new content update? They added 23 new items (4 are kanji; the rest vocabulary).
I’ve been here (off/on) since Dec 2018 and still don’t understand why they added kana only words. Now that I am reading more on my own, I’m also noticing they are teaching kanji vocabulary that is actually usually written with kana alone. It’s baffling.
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Sunday, November 2, 2025
WEEK 44
Level 34 has 26 vocabulary and thanks to content update Level 26 has 2 vocabulary pending; Level 35 unlocked 5/5 R, 30/35 K, 31/110 V.
Context
She used the opportunity to start a new business. 彼女はその機会を利用して新しい事業uを始めた。
Britain used to be the world’s largest commercial center. イギリスはかつて世界最大の商業中心地だった。
費用は巨大な金額に達した。 The cost came to an enormous sum.
彼女は稼ぐ以上にお金を使う。 She spends more money than she earns.
あなたと取引できることは喜びです。 It’s a pleasure to be able to do business with you.
It’s a pleasure to do business with you.
彼女はなかなか節約家だ．She is quite thrifty
生産要素は土地、労働、資本である。 The factors of production are land, labor, and capital.
We provided fundraising for the new business. 新業態の資金集めをした。
She made a fortune on the deal 取引で彼女は一財産を作った
These goods are made in factories. これらの品物は工場で作られる。これら品物は工場で作られる.
We are doing business with her store. うちは彼女の店と取引している.
Vocabulary
| DUO | WK | EN | KANJI | KANA | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.37 | BUSINESS | ||||
| enterprise | 企業 | き ぎょ う | business, company, corporation | ||
| 21 | funds, capital | 資金 | し き ん | ||
| 23 | currently | 現在 | げ ん ざ い | present time, now | |
| 21 | funds, capital | 資本 | し ほ ん | ||
| 24 | supplying | 提供 | て い きょ う | ||
| invoice | 請求書 | せ い きゅ う しょ | bill, account | ||
| commerce | 商業 | しょ う ぎょ う | trade, business | ||
| 45 | to earn (income) | 稼ぐ | か せ ぐ | to make (money) | |
| amount of money | 金額 | き ん が く | sum | ||
| economizing | 節約 | せ つ や く | saving | ||
| thrifty person, saver | 節約家 | せつやくか | |||
| transactions | 取引 | と り ひ き | dealings, business | ||
| 5 | price | 代金 | だ い き ん | charge, payment, bill | |
| unemployment | 失業 | し つ ぎょ う | losing one’s job | ||
| capitalism | 資本主義 | し ほ ん しゅ ぎ |
Graded readers continue:
まだらの紐 15 of 31 pages sherlock holmes
10 Likes
Yeah, those directional exit/gate ones do seem pretty pointless. I am noticing that occasionally on MaruMori I’ll get vocab that has readings of a kanji that don’t even appear in WK (that is, there’s no vocab for that kanji with that reading here). I think that’s probably where I’d prefer vocab focus be spent, personally, but I suppose someday I’ll need to know how to say “Upper Midwest Exit” and won’t I feel silly then?
5 Likes
A Japanese friend once told me that non-Japanese write kanji-heavy sentences and so what they write is uncomfortable to read. There seems to be an optimum balance in terms of kana combined with kanji.
And yeah, I’m not happy either with the newly added vocabulary adding to my review queues
6 Likes
Sunday 11/09/25 Week 45
My apprentice count is low enough for new lessons but tomorrow’s review count looks stressful
They’ve also changed the icons to just colors … the green one below is for unit 6.38 Opinions.
I’m seeing several WK vocabulary in active context now. Some are familiar while others are just fuzzy. It’s nice to see that they are useful IRL.
Vocabulary
| DUO | WK | EN | KANJI | KANA | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.38 | OPINIONS | ||||
| 19 | improvement | 改善 | かいぜん | ||
| competent | 有能な | ゆ う の う | |||
| 35 | action, deed | 行為 | こ う い | ||
| attention | 注目 | ちゅうもく | notice, observation | ||
| how to do it | やり方 | や り か た | method compare WK 仕方, 方法, 〜道 | ||
| to consolidate | 纏める | まとめる | to put it all together | ||
| 22 | intentionally | わざと | compare WK 故意, 意図的 | ||
| conclusion | 結論 | け つ ろ ん | (of an argument, discussion, study, etc.) | ||
| clever | 利口な | り こ う | |||
| 38 | consideration | 考慮 | こ う りょ | ||
| same | 同様 | ど う よ う | as, like | ||
| 49 | To swear | 誓う | ちかう | to vow, take an oath | |
| 15 | Roger | 了解 | りょうかい | understood, okay | |
| standard | 水準 | すいじゅん | water level | ||
| 13 | expectation | 予想 | よそう | prediction | |
| simultaneously | 同時に | どうじに | |||
| just like, exact | まるで | as though, at all | |||
| 24 | target | 対象 | たいしょう | ||
| almost | ほぼ | approximately | |||
| 38 | To avoid | 避ける | さ け る | ||
| worst case scenario | 最悪の事態 | さいあくのじたい | |||
| DUO | WK | EN | KANJI | KANA | NOTES |
| 6.39 | NATURE | ||||
| 37 | Collapse | 崩壊 | ほうかい | ||
| 44 | On the verge of | 寸前 | すんぜん | Just before | |
| What others think | 周囲の目 | しゅういのめ | |||
| takeoff | 離陸 | り り く | |||
| 23 | Oneself | 自ら | みすら | recently added to WK | |
| the tropical zone, the tropics | 熱帯 | ねったい | |||
| 47 | rainbow | 虹 | にじ | ||
| weed | 雑草 | ざっそう | |||
| 39, 37 | To collapse | 崩れる | くずれる | ||
| 41 | Mineral | 鉱物 | こうぶつ | ||
| Fossil | 化石 | かせき |
Context
What you’re saying is not logical. 君の言っていることは論理的ではない.
話し始める前に考えをまとめなさい。Gather your thoughts before you start speaking. (no please.)
What is the logic backing up your argument？ 君の議論を裏つける論理は何ですか？
I swear to tell the truth. 真実を述べることを誓います。
彼女は真実を語ることを誓った。 She swore to tell the truth.
まるで映画のようだった。 It was just like a movie.
The results were completely different from my expectations. 結果は予想とは全く異なっていた。
It’s about the same as before. ほぼ前と同じだ.
彼女が十時までに戻るのは確実だ。It is certain that she will come back by 10:00.
二つのことを同時にするのは難しい。 It is hard to do two things at once (same time).
They reached the conclusion that a virus is the cause of the disease.
その病気はウイルスが原因だとの結論に達した.
He is always the center of attention at parties. 彼はパーティーでいつも注目の的だ。
彼女はまだ決心しない。
彼女はまだ決心していない。
She hasn’t made up her mind yet.
She still hasn’t made a decision.
Cake is delicious, but it is fattening at the same time ケーキはおいしいが同時に太る原因になる。causes weight gain
You did it on purpose. 君がわざとそれをしたのだ。（This one is confusing me)
人類は自らの絶滅を招くかもしれない。optional の
My mother wrote that herself. 私の母が自らそれを書いたのです. Not optional の
He admitted his wrongdoing himself. 彼 は 自ら 罪 を 認め た.
春になると木々の葉が茂り始める。The leaves on the trees begin to flourish in the springtime.
商売の調子はどう？How is your business doing?
庭の雑草を取りました。 I removed the weeds from the garden. Not optional の
The rain cleared and a rainbow appeared. 雨が晴れて虹が出た。
We sat around the table. テーブルを囲んで座りました.
Graded readers continue: まだらの紐 23 of 31 pages sherlock holmes
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Week 46
2 kanji away from levelling up
context
The defendant was given the death penalty. 被告 に 死刑 判決 が 下さ れ た
彼女 は 彼 と共に 働い た She worked alongside him.
Lawyers represent their clients. 弁護士は依頼人の代理をする。Another correct solution: 弁護士は依頼人を代理する。
Morality changes along with the times. 道徳 は 時代 と共に 変化 する
My older brother is a gullible person. 兄 は だまさ れ やすい 人 だ よ
That’s just like professing your own ignorance. それ は 自分 の 無知 を 告白 する よう な もの だ
仕事を終えてくつろいだ。 I finished work and relaxed.
彼はその光景を見て怖がった。 He was frightened by the sight.
It was a lonely night. ひとり ぼっ ちの 夜 だっ た
He has a bad habit of telling lies. 彼 は 嘘 を つく 癖 が ある
The town has many entertainment venues. その町には娯楽場がたくさんある。その 町 は たくさん 娯楽 場 が ある
People who can do the least brag the most.一番 でき ない 人 が 一番 自慢 する
It will entail considerable danger. それはかなりの危険を伴うでしょう。Another correct solution: かなり危険を伴う。
You and I are the same generation, so I understand your feelings well. 私はあなたと世代が同じだからあなたの気持ちがよくわかる。
I cannot relax when I am with strangers. Another correct solution: 知らない人といるとくつろげない。
vocabulary
| DUO | WK | EN | KANJI | KANA | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.40 | NEWS | ||||
| 31 | Moral | 道徳 | どうとく | ||
| Gullible | だまされ ( だまされやすい ) | ||||
| 52 | ethics | 倫理 | り ん り | ||
| Witnessing | 目撃 | もくげき | |||
| 36 | Hire, rely | 依頼 | いらい | request, commission, entrusting (with a matter) | |
| Representative | 代理 | だいり | |||
| to vouch for | 引き受ける | ||||
| 23 | protection | 保護 | |||
| both | 共に | ほ ご | |||
| 38 | client | 依頼人 | いらいにん | ||
| DUO | WK | EN | KANJI | KANA | NOTES |
| 6.41 | FEELINGS | ||||
| 55 | enjoyable, amusing | 愉快 | ゆ か い | cheerful, | |
| 14 | mean, nasty | 意地悪 | い じ わ る | ||
| 53 | to relax | 寛ぐ | く つ ろ ぐ | usually written using kana alone ；to feel at home | |
| aloneness | ぼっち | abbreviation 独りぼっち （一人ぼっち） | |||
| 46 | habit (usu. a bad one) | 癖 | くせ | ||
| 38 | to rely on | 頼る | た よ る | ||
| with a feeling of relief | ほっと | Onomatopoeic , deeply | |||
| to overcome (a difficulty, obstacle, etc.), | 乗り越える | の り こ え る | |||
| 52 | pride | 自慢 | じ ま ん | boast | |
| motivation | やる気 | や る き | |||
| 11 | taking sides (with) | 味方 | み か た | ally, supporter | |
| (my) respect, (my) admiration | 敬意 | け い い |
did not touch this
finished holmes I love a mystery story even when I already know whodunnit, with what, where and why. Reading it in Japanese made it feel like the first time.
start x/50 pages 美知子の星空 This is a Christmas romance…yuck. I’m gonna skip it even though it is the last available free story.
Next? Check Japan Foundation library, Azoro or Internet Archive for mysteries by Edogawa Rampo (江戸川乱歩) or Akagawa Jirou (赤川次郎)
8 Likes
Week 47
Completed the main course at the beginning of the week; the daily refresh is a random mix of vocab, stories, sentences etc. I have been doing the minimum daily to jump start my reading and WK sessions.
Context
梅雨が明けた 。The rainy season has ended.
新しい年が明けた。The new year has begun.
These two sentences are timely considering the recent WK update. From context, I can tell how the second sentence means “begun” but the first could go either way.
私たちは夜が明けるのを待ちました。
DUO We waited for dawn. GOOGLE We waited for the night to break. JAPANDICT 夜が明ける expression Ichidan verb dawn breaks, day dawns
花より団子．Dango over flowers. See notes on the manga 花より男子
I cannot wait for the blooming of the cherry blossoms. 桜 が 咲く の が 待ち遠しい 。I can’t wait for the cherry blossoms to bloom.
Of all the seasons, I like spring the most. 四季の中では春が一番好きです。四季 の 中 で 春 は 一番 が 好き です. See notes on particles
When I come here, I remember my grandmother nostalgically. ここへ来ると祖母のことを懐かしく思い出す。See notes on particles
Ueno Park was filled with cherry blossom viewers. 上野公園は花見客でいっぱいだった。 上野公園は花見客がいっぱいだった。See notes on particles
今年は去年より花粉症がひどい。 DUO: My hay fever is worse this year than last year.
My hay fever this year is worse than last year.
The DUO translation sounds unnatural. This may be a regional thing… I’m one of those people who say “different than”.
お盆のときは実家に帰った。 I returned to my parent’s house for the Bon festival.
Vocabulary
| DUO | WK | EN | KANJI | KANA | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.42 | SEASONS | ||||
| 39 | rainy season | 梅雨 | つ ゆ | ||
| pollen | 花粉 | か ふ ん | WK 31 花粉症 | ||
| longed-for | 待ち遠しく | ま ち ど お し い | anxiously awaited, compare WK 憧れる | ||
| 46 | Obon | 盆 | ぼ ん | see WK notes on meaning | |
| food stall | 屋台 | や た い | |||
| 34 | leaves turning red (in autumn) | 紅葉 | こ う よ う | ||
| 34 | red leaves (of autumn) | 紅葉 | も み じ | ||
| autumn-leaf viewing | 紅葉狩り | も み じ が り | |||
| dango | 団子 | だ ん ご | dumpling (usu. sweet) | ||
| 16 | cheerfully | 陽気に | よ う き | ||
| 16 | weather, season | 陽気 | よ う き | ||
| nice and warm | ぽかぽか | ||||
| Sapporo | 札幌 | さ っ ぽ ろ | |||
| New Year’s Eve | 大晦日 | お お み そ か | |||
| 42 | grab bag | 福袋 | ふ く ぶ く ろ | ||
| New Year’s Day | 元日 | が ん じ つ | |||
| opening, gap | 開き | ひ ら き | |||
| 7.xx | DAILY REFRESH | ||||
| 37 | insubordination, defiance | 反抗 | は ん こ う | ||
| 26 | to obey (an order, law, etc.) | 従う | し た が う |
Finished topic 8 and may start 9 tonight.
After reviewing almost a year of context sentence errors, I see that I have been using particles all willy-nilly. This part of my log will be the start of my deep dive into the dusty romaji-filled book: A DICTIONARY OF JAPANESE PARTICLES
started reading 江戸川乱歩’s story 怪人二十面相 and got excited to see that the Intermediate Book Club will be reading it in January 2026. I considered waiting for then but noticed that they are reading a different version. There are in fact three or four versions listed on aozora’s index.
- かいじん二十めんそう （新字新仮名、作品ID：57227）
- 怪人二十面相 （新字新仮名、作品ID：57228）
- かいじん二十めんそう （新字新仮名、作品ID：57226）
and possibly は二十面相だ （新字新仮名、作品ID：56690）
I’m reading the first one which has a lot of hiragana where kanji would be useful.
Despite that obstacle, I have read the first three of six installments of The Golden Mask.
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Week # 48
Sentences 1 and 4 English translations could use some editing.
- ば I always assumed this was just the way the conditional form was made for verbs. It turns out there are many more ways for this particle to be used. Tofugu and an English grammar primer were especially helpful in fleshing out the details.
- ばかり While reviewing this one, I could not think of an instance where this has appeared in my consciousness. Then, it showed up three times in a children’s book that I am reading. Coincidence? Or that thing where you notice something more once you are aware that it exists?
- お前は、ちょうちょのようにきれいなものより、青虫のように、気味の悪いものばかりに夢中になっていろ。You’re more interested in creepy things like caterpillars than beautiful things like butterflies.
- 虫かごの中では、たった今、さなぎからかえったばかりのちょうちょが、ひらひらと舞っていました。In the insect cage, a butterfly that had just hatched from its chrysalis was fluttering about.
- この後、(proper name)有馬の佐 は、姫君に何度も恋文を書いて送りましたが、姫君は (proper name)有馬の佐 の気持ちにはちょっとも気づかずに、なんとも話しのかみ合わない、そっけない文を返すばかりでした. Afterward, Umanosuke, to capture the princess’s attention, began writing countless love letters to her. However, dsepite his efforts, the princess remained unaware of his feelings and continued to reply with indifferent responses.
(My translation) After this, (proper name) repeatedly wrote and sent love letters to the princess, but the princess did not even notice (proper name) feelings a little and only replied with curt unrelated letters.
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This, certainly
I love when that happens!
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What kind of birds are these?
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The ones in the photo are sandhill cranes. The ones on the sign may be crowned cranes (they don’t live here). I guess the sign maker wanted to make sure no one thought they were big chickens.
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My Thoughts after Completing Mango Languages Japanese Course.
Preface
First and foremost, there is no one True Way™ to learn a language. The methods, tools and resource allocation used in the process is dictated by the learner’s intentions and circumstances.
As a corollary, there is no one language learning resource that does everything for every learner. Developers of online programs have their own intentions (including making a profit) and resources to manage. Nothing exists in a vacuum.
To that end, the comments that follow are based on objective information from the resources’ marketing material and my subjective experiences as an older, employed, American/ English as first language woman studying on her own as a hobby. P.S. I also like a good bargain so my resources lean toward the free-ish side unless I see good value for the money.
SUMMARY
I was introduced to Mango Languages by my local librarian when I informed her that their Pimsleur CD collection was broken/incomplete. I found it to be basically the same as those classic CDs. Bonus: it was free to use via my library’s subscription. Users are set up to reach a B1 level in conversational Japanese. Reading and writing lag behind at ~A1 in my opinion.
The web and mobile versions have different features. I recommend exploiting both for the optimum experience.
I used the web version 1.178.3.0 and the app version 8.57.0. They synced without any problems once I was back online. Yes, the app can be used offline. There haven’t been any earth shattering updates during the years that I have been re-visiting the program.
Would recommend for beginners in a hurry to speak. Would use it again for another language.
Long winded word vomit peppered with screen shots
What is Mango Languages?
That’s a lot of languages. Not all of them are treated equally.
Japanese has 5 main units, 41 chapters and 656 lessons plus supplementary listening and reading exercises.
English is taught in the user’s “mother tongue” as they call it. A Japanese speaker is provided with 1 main unit composed of 10 chapters and 103 lessons.
I’m tempted to take the course just to see how much of the Japanese I understand.
Some of this is marketing hyperbole but it’s good to see they do use actual humans.
For the Japanese course, I felt the narrator speaks English with Romper Room host enthusiasm (maybe she is the AI?) while the Japanese is spoken by a male and female native.
The female has a nasally intonation and her volume can get loud suddenly. The male either swallows the end of his phrases or the audio was poorly edited in the sound booth.
Interactive lessons use repetition and color-coded translations. The user interface is as basic as it comes. There are no bells, whistles, or gamification. People who need to be entertained while learning or are motivated by streaks will not find Mango particularly engaging. I enjoyed the lack of distractions.
That being said: The repetitions and the narrator’s voice sometimes put me to sleep which was dangerous while driving. The quiz timer was fine in the beginning but seemed to get faster in the later units.
The app has an auto-play feature that allows for hands-free progression through the units. I used this a lot during commutes and while exercising for passive learning. Later, I would sit down and take notes based on the goals.
Another feature allows users to record their pronunciation and compare an image of its waveform to a native speaker’s.
I never got the voice comparison to work on my PC most likely due to firewalls etc. rather than the program being defective. Although it works fine on the app, I still did not use it because speaking does not align with my intentions for learning Japanese.
While the course is a comprehensive progression of Can-Do objectives, you can learn the units in any order. There is no index or way to search for a particular grammar point. If I could do it again, I would have started taking grammar notes by hand and making my own index.
When I started, there was no placement test. It was probably implemented to accommodate people who were not absolute beginners.
They recently added kana lessons which gives me hope that they may eventually work up to kanji too.
The number of lessons increases substantially toward the end.
Grammar progresses slowly and emphasizes polite speech until the last unit. Since I was using other resources, the pace seemed slow. For example, transitive and intransitive verbs were among the last concepts covered but I had seen it already here and in Genki videos. On the other hand, this does seem to be the end point for B1 level learning on Marugoto.
READING: This is where the program falters There is no kanji at all in the main units. I could not bring myself to do these exercises.
There is a chance that I would go back and try to convert the kana to kanji where appropriate just for fun.
The specialty units actually use kanji but are very short.
Features I did not use:
Daily review of vocabulary and sentences because I could not handle another set of flashcards. It does seem to be more customizable than Quizlet and easier to on board than Anki though. This may be a good option for vocab/grammar deckbuilding from my intensive reading.
The “movies”. The Japanese course only has one so I did not bother. I might look into it at some point.
The “translator” i.e. built-in Google extension. To be fair, it does say that it does not replace the human element.
Overall, I am glad to have had access to this program. It was definitely more of a supplemental than a primary resource which I regret now because it has a lot to offer. The “unsophisticated” nature of the UI made me value it less than it deserved.
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