I’m not 100% sure why since so far as I know none of my friends are studying Chinese, but I seem to have fallen into the ‘Chinese learners’ algorithm on Instagram reels and honestly that learning community seems awesome. Great humor, very positive.
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The algorithm being like “oh hey you like squiggles? Here’s some more! A lot more actually!”
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Have you heard of Heavenly Path? It’s a really neat site put together by more advanced learners grading webnovels, TV, etc. It’s basically a Chinese Natively, haha. I believe there’s a focus on BL stuff on there as well. (Or there was when they set up; not sure how they’ve diversified since.)
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I had not! Thanks, that looks really useful! 
You know me so well… 
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That site makes me want to learn Mandarin. Do what I do not have time to and open up an additional universe of BL. 
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December 
Book Clubs
| 언어 | Book | Nov 27 | Dec 4 | Dec 11 | Dec 18 | Dec 25 |
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소리를 보는 소년 | |||||
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美しい彼 아름다운 그 |
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今日からマ王! |
Taking a break over the holiday season 
Advent Challenge
The 2023 Advent Reading Club(s)! 🎄 ⛄ ❄
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21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
I thought it would be fun to just pick things randomly each day, so there will be a mixture of media (and languages)!
Japanese
福娘童話集
Manga Library Z
Korean
디즈니 그림 명작
Chinese
Little Fox Chinese
Level 1
- Single Stories: 71/71
- 凯丽老师的课堂: 36/36
- 我是谁？: 6/44
- 我在哪里？ /20
- 绿色的大森林: 2/24
- 小蝙蝠和朋友们 1/72
- 汽车学校 1/72
- 小恐龙朋友们 1/72
Level 2
- Single Stories: 3/51
- 太空巡逻队，蓝月亮任务 1/42
Level 3
- Single Stories: 3/25
- 魔法师和猫咪 2/72
Rainbow Bridge Graded Readers
- A Phoenix Egg
- A Young Girl Versus the Giant Snake
- An Old Horse Makes the Best Guide
- River Snail Girl
- Yexian, A Cinderella Story from China
Thai
- Thai Notes ๏ Thai Typing Trainer lesson 8/52
Finished This Month
Legend
includes a written review
read along with audiobook
audiobook only
podcast
drama CD
condensed audio
re-read/watch/listen
만화경 webtoon
waiting to be added to Natively
adult content; not currently on Natively
There are a lot of items that aren’t on Natively for various reasons (unsupported language / format, not listed on Amazon / Yes24, etc). Rather than mark them individually, anything that doesn’t have a Natively link (which includes the level) can be assumed to be excluded from Natively.
Textbook · 교과서 · 教科書 · 课本 · หนังสือเรียน
Graded Reader · 수준별 독본 · 語彙制限本 · 分级读物
- A Phoenix Egg
- A Young Girl Versus the Giant Snake
- An Old Horse Makes the Best Guide
- River Snail Girl
- Yexian, A Cinderella Story from China
Anna, Berlin: Deutsch als Fremdsprache / Leseheft (Hueber Lese-Novelas) | L5?? - Claudia, Mallorca: Deutsch als Fremdsprache / Leseheft (Hueber Lese-Novelas) | L5??
- David, Dresden: Deutsch als Fremdsprache / Leseheft (Hueber Lese-Novelas) | L5??
Children’s Book · 동화책 · 児童書 · 儿童书 · หนังสือเด็ก
- 행복한 퐁고와 퍼디
- 로빈 후드와 욕심쟁이 왕자
- 신데렐라
- 레이디와 트램프
- 길 잃은 밤비
- Das magische Baumhaus (Band 1) - Im Tal der Dinosaurier: Entdecke die spannende Welt der Dinos - Kinderbuch ab 8 Jahren | L22??
- Sternenschweif, 1, Geheimnisvolle Verwandlung | L22??
Comics · 만화 · 漫画 · 漫画 · การ์ตูน
Novel · 소설 · 小説 · 小说 · นวนิยาย
Non-fiction · 논픽션 · ノンフィクション · 非小说类 · หนังสือสารคดี
Other Books · 다른 책 · 他書 · 别的书 · หนังสืออื่นๆ
TV Show · 텔레비전 프로그램 · テレビ番組 · 电视节目 · รายการโทรทัศน์
Movie · 영화 · 映画 · 电影 · ภาพยนตร์
Listening · 듣기 · 聞く · 听力 · การฟัง
Visual Novel · 비주얼 노벨 · ビジュアルノベル · 视觉小说 · วิชวลโนเวล
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May I present to you:
That’s good to know… I’ve considered making Korean a “next on the list” language, since it seems like there’s so many good dramas and stuff. Wouldn’t be for a few years tho probably
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Really enjoying getting into Chinese again! I dipped into it a few years ago, learned a couple of hundred words and read one or two graded readers, then didn’t touch it again. Surprisingly, I’ve remembered most of the vocabulary and grammar, so I’m just working my way through graded readers. Would love to eventually read some 耽美 - I’ve read several 漫画 based on web novels, so I’ll keep a note here of which ones I’d like to read.
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If you’re determined to read these in the original then just ignore me, but several of these are translated/planned to be officially translated in English and Japanese at least, so you could pick them up whenever if you just wanted to consume the story.
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A lot of people I know really enjoyed 撒野! I want to try it out eventually. Right now I’m trying to read 200K more characters (~500 pages) to make my reading goal for this year, so I’m continuing to read 影帝影后今天又撒糖了, which is a cute, fluffy BG 娱乐圈 web novel.
If you don’t mind ghosts + transmigration + 娱乐圈, I really recommend 我家艺人满级重生! It’s a 耽美 with a cute couple and a very fun, interesting storyline. The English translation is on Novel Updates.
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There are some I’m planning to read in English, like Heaven Official’s Blessing, because they seem like they’d be way too difficult in Chinese. 
Although I recently bought the Korean translation of The Husky and His White Cat Shizun!
Good to know! This is actually first on my list because I happened to pick up the set really cheap second-hand. 
And it’s a modern setting without sci-fi/fantasy/other difficult elements, so it should be more accessible.
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As someone stuck on the intermediate plateau who has struggled to find interesting-but-not-too-difficult content to read in Chinese, I’m going to watch this thread for recs 
I tried a couple of the easier stuff from Heavenly Path but couldn’t really get into the childrens’ books. Then again, I was mostly reading on my phone, so maybe it’s time to pull out the popup dictionary…
Lol, I picked up the first book in Chinese earlier this year, but I fully expect it to gather dust for that reason
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I’ve already made some goals for next year, so this is more of a look at where I’m at and how I’d like to continue with various languages. 
Multi
Anki
I’ve been pretty inconsistent with my Anki use so far, so I’m going to try to make it a daily habit to finish all the reviews at least. 
The vocab I’m learning is usually either from exam lists or the vocab from whatever book I’m currently/planning on reading; the sentences are generally to learn grammar, although I’d like to move on to sentence mining native material once I’m past textbook stuff.
I’ve (reluctantly) started using https://jpdb.io/ to learn vocab for specific books I’m planning to read, but I’m hoping for a good export option to appear at some point, since I don’t want to use it long-term.
Audiobooks
Since my focus is on reading, I feel like this is the easiest way to incorporate listening into my routine. I’ve got audible for Japanese, and my Storytel subscription includes books in Korean and Chinese. Storytel also offers Thai books, but I guess you’d have to have a separate subscription for that. 
Audiovisual
My focus is on reading, so I don’t have specific plans regarding TV shows. Still, it would be good to watch some Korean and Japanese TV series, possibly some Chinese, too (with subs where possible).
I’m not sure I’d get much out of watching Thai shows at this point unless I prepped using frequency lists, subs2srs, or something similar. 
Book Clubs
Try to keep up! 
Korean
Novels
The intensive reading I’ve been doing with Week 5 of 소리를 보는 소년 👁👂 Korean Fiction Book Club 🇰🇷 has been really rewarding, so I’d like to continue with that method, at least for book clubs.
I’d like to read (non-book club books) more regularly, and actually finish the books that I’ve started… Especially the ones with audiobooks available on Storytel. I’d also like to try web novels, since I’ve never really read any before.
Manhwa
Although I have been reading some manhwa/webtoons in Korean, I still read a lot of them in English out of habit and convenience. I’d like to change my reading habits and tip the scales in favour of Korean.
There’s also all the 만화경 series which I have barely made a dent in. This one even has a time limit, so I need to start reading in earnest!
Grammar
I made an anki deck of all the example sentences and conversations from the intermediate and advanced volumes of Korean Grammar in Use (series) | L0-27, so I’ve started working through that. It should take about 3 months to do the intermediate cards - I’m fairly comfortable with most of the intermediate grammar points, so this is just to solidify my knowledge. Advanced may take longer, since I’m studying most of the grammar for the first time. It would be nice to complete the series in 2024. 
Japanese
Graded Readers
My goal is to finish all the tadoku series (I’ve read most of them):
- Tadoku - Free (series) | L0-19??
- Tadoku - Japanese Graded Readers (series) | L4-22
- Taishukan Japanese Readers (series) | L7-22
After that I can take a break from graded readers for a while and just focus on native content.
Novels
I’d like to read some children’s novels in the L20-26 range; some with the 🥳 Children's Book Club 📚 Next: ふしぎ駄菓子屋 銭天堂, but also some on my own. I’m sure I’ll also attempt other types of novels - BC or not - but I’d at least like to become comfortable reading children’s novels.
Manga
I’d like to read through more of my physical manga (I have plenty, after all! 
), as well as reading the freebies on BookWalker and MangaZ. Like Korean, I just need to shift the balance so I’m reading a greater percentage of manga in Japanese.
Grammar
Working my way through an anki deck of grammar sentences pulled from various sources. I’m almost done with N4, so I’ll just keep chugging along…
Chinese
Graded Readers
I’m enjoying the Rainbow Bridge Graded Readers, so I’m planning to read all the ones I’ve purchased… And then buy some more? I’ll also continue making my way through the free stories on Little Fox Chinese and Mandarin Bean.
Novels
I’ve started 撒野, and although there are a lot of lookups, it has been enjoyable so far. I’m learning the vocab by frequency using anki, so hopefully it’ll get easier as time goes on. I’m quite happy to just slowly make my way through the story, however long that will take.
Handwriting
I don’t plan on writing in Chinese, but I think learning to write the characters will help with memorisation and recognition. I’ve got grooved copybooks which cover the characters learned in grades 1-6 (and, of course, pens with disappearing ink 
).
I’ve started working through the characters: the rules of stroke orders make it easy to guess how a character is written (I check on http://www.strokeorder.info/) and out of the couple of hundred characters I’ve learned so far, I’ve only needed to double check a handful to remind me of the stroke order (I say “learned”; I’m not writing them from memory yet).
So the plan is to just continue through the books, which cover about 2800 characters. Sadly I couldn’t find something similar for traditional characters, so I may have to make my own reference sheets for those.
Grammar
I’ve got an anki deck of example sentences from the Chinese Grammar Wiki, which should cover most HSK grammar. Once I’ve made my way through most of the deck, I’m planning to get a good reference book, possibly Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar or 博客來-當代中文語法點全集（二版）.
Thai
Maanee
The Maanee books helped children learn to read and write back in the 70s-90s, and covers the first six years of education. The PDFs are available online for free.
I’ve started the first book, and I’m really loving it so far! Each chapter introduces a few letters, followed by words made using those letters (and ones you’ve learned in previous chapters), then a short story, again using only the letters that have been learned so far. The first half of the first book also uses spaces between words so it’s easier to read.
The plan for this is pretty simple: just keep working through the Maanee textbooks. I don’t really have plans for after that because I’m sure it’ll take me a while, although I do have a few textbooks (in Korean! ) and some novels I picked up second-hand for later.
Novels
It’s a bit premature, but I had a look for the well-known BL author JittiRain’s works and it looks like I would be able to listen and read concurrently quite easily. Technology is great. 
Handwriting
I don’t plan to write in Thai, it’s just an aid for memorisation. Although it is fun!
I’ve been using a grooved copybook + pen with disappearing ink to practice individual letters, and writing out the sentences from the Maanee stories.
Typing
I would love to actually finish learning to touch type in Thai! 
It would make dictionary lookups and google searches so much easier. I’ll make the effort to practice daily until I’ve finished the lessons, then I’ll work on bringing my typing speed up to the same level as Korean and English (~70wpm).
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Man, you’ve got quite a bit lined up for yourself, thecary (it’s a terrible nickname, I know). Do you have anything in particular planned as easy unrelated non-burnout activities? I’m rooting for you, though!
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Not many of these plans have a time limit, so it’s more like I’ll be doing things as and when I feel like it. I’ve noticed that when I get stuck or bored in one language, I’m suddenly really motivated in another, so I’m planning to use it to my advantage and just switch between them!
I do want to do Anki every day and keep up with book clubs, but other than that, it’s just gonna be “what do I feel like doing”?
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Goal: catch up on book clubs before the end of the year!
I’ve made progress with Chinese and Thai (yay!) since the content is in nice, bite-sized chunks, but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to sit down and actually do some Korean and Japanese reading over the next couple of weeks - I want to go into the new year on track with book clubs! 
I’m trying out https://lingotrack.com/ to keep track of my Chinese reading: you can track any type of media (in any language! 
), but it’s really focused on tracking time spent on the language - understandable, but I’ve tried that before with https://toggl.com/ and it’s just not for me. Things like TV shows, movies, podcasts, or even audiobooks are fine since they’re easy to add time info for, but having to remember to time yourself reading books, articles or webtoons is just annoying (and I don’t like the feeling of being timed anyway). It’ll do until Natively Chinese appears!
The ability to add whatever content you like will be useful since - apart from graded readers - I’ll be mostly reading webnovels. I came across an amazing resource that provides info on Chinese webnovel difficulty: 乾坤袋 Qian Kun Dai. There’s almost 2k completed 耽美 JJWXC webnovels listed, so I could just work my way through them starting from the lowest number of unique words…
Anyway, the next few weeks should be nice and relaxed, so I can spend more time on Korean & Japanese reading.
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Your opinion on toggl and time tracking in general is really interesting. For the past month and a half, I’ve been tracking every language related thing I do and it’s been super motivating getting to see the number of hours at the end of every week. It’s also a great way to see what I should really dedicate more time to (and it’s not something I hadn’t realized before, but now I can’t pretend I don’t see it).
However I also get how it could be annoying, especially if you’re tracking several languages at the same time.
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I’ve also had bad luck with timing myself (primarily with audio). I end up getting annoyed or frustrated using apps on my phone to time (why do none of them have all the features I want?) but since I also want to skip scenes occasionally or space out during commercials I can’t just take a raw time of the whole episode and be done.
Next year I’m trying a physical stopwatch and just logging my times daily to see how that goes…
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I can definitely see the benefits and why people like it, but I’d often forget to start/stop the timer and I’d be very conscious of being timed, which made me uncomfortable and I couldn’t just read/watch/listen naturally. 
I’ll try Webtime Tracker since it’ll just work in the background, and maybe I’ll have a look for an app tracker.
That looks really useful! How did you come across it?
Also, I just sorted by # of unique words and the “easiest” one on JJWXC seems to have chapters that are just spamming 1-2 characters lol
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