WonderWitch’s Study Log

Japanese Language Study Logs (Public)
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Hi, I saw some people do this and I thought I’d give it a try! I love writing things like this. I’m new to this wanikani community, (only used the main site) but I wish I checked it out sooner! I’m a quiet person who loves to babble, so I’m more than okay if no one reads this. I want to share some things, but I’ll try to not to share overly TMI :sweat_smile:

I started learning japanese 11 years ago when I started high school and I was absolutely obsessed with Japan. I loved anime, manga, learning about the culture and the like. In 2016 I was an exchange student in Japan for 9 months, and I had experienced some trauma just before and during my exchange, so I was dissociated the whole time. When I got home, I immediately dropped learning japanese, anime, manga, etc. I couldn’t even think about anything japanese because it was linked to trauma, and things got really hard. A lot of stuff happened and after a 7 year hiatus I finally feel healed enough to start learning japanese again and connect with what I loved that’s related to it!

It took a lot to get to this point and I’m really proud of myself for opening myself to all of this again. I started with creating a new wanikani account a year ago, (even without learning anything else, I love this pictorial writing system as a visual learner) and sadly I dropped it, but I also eased myself into watching studio Ghibli films again, then pokemon and the sailor moon anime. I absolutely love Junji Ito’s manga, which led to other manga.

Less than a week ago I decided that I will truly start learning japanese again. I’m using things I used years ago: Genki I, textfugu, anki and japanesepod101. I’ve started from the start again, and I’m glad I am doing that, because even though it’s really easy, I still get things out of cementing the basics. Because it’s so easy at the moment, I’m really excited about learning everyday - it’s getting me up in the morning. I’m looking forward to content that challenges me a bit more, and I know when I get to that, my motivation might go down a bit. But I have promised myself to continue learning, no matter what. Let’s hope this time I don’t burn out.

I found an app called Bear for writing my notes each day about my studying that day and I love it, so I know I will love this. After reading some of the forum posts here, I have joined the Read and Listen everyday autumn challenge, which led to me starting the Tadoku graded readers. It’s been really fun so far! They recommend starting from scratch, so that’s what I’m doing. I’m also watching ghibli films in japanese with japanese subtitles, (seeing the japanese written helps so much) and I love that as well. And finally I’ve been using wanikani of course! I love this website.

So that’s about it! I’ll let you know my progress! Here’s to new beginnings. :slight_smile:

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Welcome to the community! Glad you were able to reconnect with Japanese in a healthy way.

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Thank you! And I’m glad too. :slight_smile:

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Congrats on starting the journey once more! You’re already off to a great start. がんばれ. :yellow_heart:

I just watched The Boy and The Heron, yesterday. Very good new addition to the Ghibli lineup if you haven’t seen it yet.

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Thank you! I have a feeling that this time will be different. I wanted to watch that! I’m glad that it’s good, I’ll watch it soon. :smile:

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I also enjoy Junji Ito!
Good luck with your studies and may Remina guide your way. :grin:

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Thank you! And aren’t his works amazing? I never came across such creative horror before! Would love any recommendations for any other horror manga or anime!

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Welcome! Glad you’re here!

I did the same thing a year ago, and it has really helped me. Going over the basics and re-learning them after a long hiatus is a great idea. It feels easy, which is a great motivation to keep studying, and it helps you really learn the fundamentals.

I burned out (which is part of the reason why I restarted!) and it’s no fun. For me the main thing is to go slowly enough. For me, that’s 10 lessons per day, never more. For you it might be a different number. But don’t be afraid to slow down! And keep reading and reading and reading more. That’s where you’ll learn the most.

Again, welcome, and good luck with your studies!

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I’m glad you think that too, because starting from the start has been surprisingly useful! When I started learning I was just focused on being able to repeat what was taught as fast as possible. Now I can focus on the parts that I didn’t think was as important back then. Plus like you said, it’s really motivating. :slight_smile:

Really good advice about slowing down! A small amount of progress is so much better than working so hard you get overwhelmed and quit. I’ve been spending as much time possible studying this last week because of how motivated I am and I think I need to slow down.

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Okay, update time! I had a tiring and partly bad day today, so I am really happy I still got to do both the reading and listening challenges!

Wanikani has been great! I’ve noticed that by default they give you 15 lessons per day nowadays, which is different to how they used to do it - all the lessons available at once. When did that change? I assume that by clicking advanced you can choose to do more?

Anyway, I think it’s great, because I used to get so overwhelmed by all the lessons piling up! I think that’s partly why I had such a huge hiatus again. 15 lessons is realistic for me and it saying “that’s all for today!” doesn’t make me think I haven’t done enough. Does this mean that it’ll take me longer to get through wanikani though? I don’t mind, I’m in no rush.

I’ve also been using anki which has been good, but on top of my other decks, I downloaded the 2.3k core deck and honestly, all the new cards each day has been a lot. Taking advice from @Marifly on taking things slowly, I changed it so I only get one new card a day from that deck. I don’t care how long it takes for me to learn this language, I just don’t want to give up. :slight_smile:

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Yes! Slow and steady wins the race!

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Did some stuff to check the boxes for the reading and listening challenges, plus the usual anki and wanikani. I might work on a textbook later (it’s the evening for me - I’m australian) but right now I’m going to see if I can cheer myself up. I hope it’s okay to talk about how I’m feeling, I don’t want to be annoying or TMI :sweat_smile:

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Not annoying, plenty of people use their study logs as a place to vent or talk about their feelings.

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Thank you, that’s reassuring. :slightly_smiling_face: I really like this forum so far!

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I watched the Boy and the Heron, recommended by @Jira2406 ! Thank you, it was really really good. I was not expecting it to be so adult, it made an impact on me. I might use it for study material, so thank you! :smile:

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I feel so much better today. :smile: I had a fun day of learning, which is a bit odd to say since most of my resources are not at my current level since I decided to start from scratch. But you do get stuff from going back to the fundamentals and basics! I wonder how long it will take me to get to a point where I’m learning brand new content. For now I’m mainly just learning new/forgotten vocab that comes up and cementing my understanding of basic grammar.

I’m trying to remember what level of japanese I got to by the end of my exchange in japan. I was dissociating so much that it’s hard to remember certain things. Anyway, I bring that up because I’m extremely excited to one day get to a point where I have passed the language ability I once had! That’ll be such a huge achievement.

My favourite part of the studying I did today was reading the graded readers! They were right about learning through context, it’s such a cool feeling! I look forward to continue reading tomorrow, but for now I need to do other non-japanese related stuff. :slight_smile:

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Listening in general is a skill where volume matters more than intensive study, in my opinion. If you do some every day while continuing other study you’ll eventually find yourself understanding things. Especially since you have past experience with the language, I bet your brain will catch up faster than you think.

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That’s really good to know, thank you! I have forgotten so so much that it surprises me when my brain picks up things I thought I’ve forgotten. Sometimes I get that feeling when I listen to things, and I love it when that happens. Anyway, I’ll keep up with as much listening practice as possible then! Thank you for your response :slight_smile:

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I used textfugu today - does anybody remember that website? It was my very first introduction to learning japanese 11ish years ago so I will always think of it fondly. I know it’s old and unfinished, so maybe that’s why I haven’t seen anyone talk about it for a long time? I really enjoy it and it really works for my learning style. I’m curious if anyone else has used it :slight_smile:

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Similar study day as yesterday! I also finished watching the boy and the heron subbed in english for the second time, so now I’m going to watch it in only japanese at some point. :slight_smile: Not sure how great it is for study to watch it with english subtitles so much, but I enjoy being able to see what japanese is used for the dialog I remember!

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