8月3日(月)
Ticked off my 12 (non-manga) books for 2026 back in May, and now can tick off my 12 audiobooks.
Time for a mid year review! Mixed results.
Speaking: my most consistent aspect. I have weekly sessions with a Japanese teacher.
Reading: I finished the 1st volume of Dino and Gal with the beginner bookclub. I read afterwards the whole series. I joined the book club afterwards, but did not stick with it. I think I prefer reading physical copies.
Listening: I included it for a long time in my gym routine until it became too difficult to multitask.
Kanji: I was not able to maintain a daily 5 new words streak. Sometimes life became too busy and stressful. Catching up on a reviews was always tough.
Vocabulary: very inconsistent. Anki does not stick for me as routine. It’s probably the standard settings. I would need it more like Wanikani instead of the typical 1/6/10mins setting.
I have taken the JPLT N5, nut honestly no idea if I passed it. It was more difficult than I expected, notably a grammar section (with the 4 blanks) and the listening.
Let’s see what happens. My study pace went down progressively after my study trip on Japan. I have bought a bunch of beginner level mangas. And I have bought the full series of MyHeroAcademia, so I have something fun to look forward to.
It’s interesting looking back at what I wrote last year, some of these goals I ddn’t even remembered 
Time to do a little pass to see where I stand.
WK: I ended up not prioritizing other parts (at least in the first half of the year) so I got to 30 quite fast (currently lvl 44 on Sept 1). I did slow down a bit after level 40, and I’m thinking of slowing down a little bit more once I get to lvl 50, because the words are starting to become fairly specialized.
Anki: I finished Kaishi, but I haven’t really done a lot of mining, mostly because I haven’t read a lot, so I haven’t added a lot of words. I want to change this trimester by increasing my reading.
Bunpro: At some point I realized that 3-4 grammar points per day is a little too much so I slowed down a little on this front. Still, I already did a first pass through all of the N4 grammar, and I’m now tackling N3. While I don’t think I’ll finish N3 by the end of the year, I want to at least season the N4 points and get ot around half of N3.
Reading: I think this is the one thing I decreased the most. I’ve only read 1 series in Satori, and I’m still 2 chapters off from finishing the Gal and Dino ABBC (this post actually reminded me of that). I recently joined the yotsubato ABBC, so that a point in favor. I think I’ll go back and finish the first volume of GnD, and start Ruri dragon around November.
Listening: I think this is the part I focused the most after the first trimester, because I really want to improve my comprehension. I put 20 chapters of nihongo con teppei, but I ended up switching to Japanese with Shun, and I’m currently on chapter 157 I can’t say I understand 90% of each podcast, but at least I think my comprehension is around 60-70%.
I need to go back to the yuyu podcast, I listened to the first 2 parts but haven’t listened to it since.
In the anime deparment, I ended up picking Shikimori-san is not just a cutie. Currently, I’d say I understand around 30-40% of the first 2 chapters, I really have troubles when people start speaking at a faster pace. There’s still some time before the end of the year, so I’ll keep the pace for now.
Also, I tried to watch a chapter of Spy X Family, and it was horrible 
And that’s it (no writing or speaking, I’m probably leaving them for 2027)