Ddochii’s Learning Log

ddochii · July 9, 2025, 6:27pm

More stuff about Spanish

Okay stuff I’ve listened to for Spanish up to this point:

Cuentame eps 1-184. Might try to catch all the way up to the current 199 if I can stand it lol. She was great as a start, but I find it hard to focus when it is so slow for the first run through of the content. ~~I also don’t really enjoy the student recordings but I understand why she does it. Also the quizzes in English are meh to me. I have probably grown out of this one.~~
Chill Spanish eps 1-267. V slow which is nice for beginners. Still some words I don’t know in this one but it’s a little boring topic wise, and I don’t like that the eps are only like 5 minutes. Idk if I’ll bother catching up more later…
Learn Spanish and Go eps 1-175. My king and queen, I love May and Jim so much. Idek what they look like but I know their whole life situations LOL had to tell my mom when they announced the baby and everything. The episodes are culturally interesting, and relevant (Mexico). The eps are longer, 20-50 min., which is perfect to me. ~~Jim’s accent is good but also not going to be confused for a native so that is one point I have to consider.~~ I have a lot more to listen with them, so I’ll continue listening in order. I found this easier than some of the others recommended for CI, I think the conversation style made it more accessible personally. And while they might talk about expressions and grammar, they don’t teach in their episodes.

I’m considering now listening to Español a la Mexicana (idk why it felt so difficult when I listened back in December, it seems easy now). But the eps are sooo short which makes it hard to binge. Another I started is How to Spanish– another couple, but I think both are Mexican. ~~The guy sounds diff to me but could just be his regional accent.~~ This def feels harder than Learn Spanish and Go-- one ep I gave up bc I had no idea what was happening. Another felt good but it was just fast enough that my brain couldn’t rest trying to process everything haha. I think that can be good sometimes tho.

I am watching Spanish Boost gaming as background to my endless scrolling. I heard he has a podcast too, but haven’t gotten around to that one. I have a really bad habit of falling asleep to gaming content (I kind of trained myself to do that LOL I’d watch Korean gamers as a lullaby… but now I suffer bc of that habit) so I rewatch a lot and only log it once…

As for Dreaming Spanish, I log everything there even if I don’t use DS that much (mostly bc I usually end up needing visuals and I don’t sit and watch that often). I am in level 3 w 223 hours-- about halfway to level 4. Would love to hit level 4 before Mexico but I don’t think I can do 70 hrs this month LOL. I am sooo curious about my comprehension while there-- but I’m also scared to open my mouth and try to say anything speaking is sooo hard but I should be ok since I’ll be with people who can translate. Just a little disappointing that I can’t utilize the opportunity of being there (for speaking)…

Also I keep picking up dominican words from my environment and then realizing later we do not say that in Mexican Spanish oops. I’ll sort that out all later when I can actually produce language I guess.

OH I also am going to try and get back into (attempting) reading in Spanish LMAO idk if I’ll get to it this month or if I’ll wait to return from Mexico…
I have some graded readers downloaded, but would really love some easy YA too…magic tree house was painful tho…why aren’t books in present tense lololo

shitsurei · July 9, 2025, 8:37pm

I’m not sure what graded readers you’re doing but I’ve found the Theresa Marrama books to be decent. I think she’s technically a French teacher, but they’ve all been translated into Spanish (and a bunch of other European languages). They’re for language learning classrooms, and so while they’re for kids, they aren’t for very little kids and are probably for an older age range than Magic Treehouse (but with easier grammar!)

I also didn’t hate Alicia la Lista by Cécile Lainé (also technically a French book that’s been translated to Spanish ).

My very favorite of this kind of book is actually German but I don’t think I’ve seen it translated, unfortunately.

ddochii · July 9, 2025, 10:04pm

I haven’t heard of those, so I’ll definitely look around for them!! Thank you

I’m kind of shocked at the lack of Spanish books at my local library and on libby. Tho Maybe this means I’ll need to look for books while on vacation…goal books

NihongoLearner19 · July 10, 2025, 4:24am

For easy YA, I recommend Strawberry Moon La hija de la luna or Poet X! The first one is a duology that follows a mermaid who falls in love with a human boy while attending college on land. The author is also an illustrator and it has occasional comic-style pictures along with the text. These pictures kind of re-state the scene that happened iirc so it’s easy to check your understanding. It’s a light, fun YA read with pretty pictures (and a diverse cast of characters, too!)

Poet X is a novel in verse and I highly recommend it! My more detailed review is linked above, but the tldr is that it wasn’t super hard to read while also being highly rewarding.

ddochii · July 11, 2025, 2:49am

These both look great!! thanks

ddochii · October 25, 2025, 5:17pm

October:

I am SHOCKED I don’t have any updates since July. What happened to me Jk I know what happened it’s called a JOB hahahahaha.

I also never updated about my trip to Mexico Spanish wise but now it’s been so long idk what to say lolol. Basically-- I could understand more stuff than a year ago but was way to scare to talk to anyone lol. Also made some embarassing mistakes when I did try to speak heh but it is what it is. I wish I was more confident but I’m not surprised. Buuuut I did get a lot of input while there and I could kind of keep up with the convos happening around me. So def much better than last time where I was sitting and letting sounds wash over me without being able to pick anything out besides obvious cognates haha.

I realllly fell off on my Spanish after Mexico-- I needed a break lol. And then also Life Stuff happened at the same time so I needed to just not think about anything ahhahah. But now it is October and I’m trying to get back on track a bit and do ~30 min. of podcast listening on my commute. I’m too lazy to log each day so the tracking is all over the place haha so the daily log isn’t accurate.

Big update-- I just about finished “Learn Spanish and Go” which is devastating news for my input lol. I have about 20 more episodes to go before I catch up to their most recent episode. I have chosen How to Spanish as my next podcast, but theres so many eps (and the old ones arent always numbered…) I’m not going to listen in order like I usually do. Will pick a spot and go in order from there.
Fun: I said this in my last Spanish post “This def feels harder than Learn Spanish and Go-- one ep I gave up bc I had no idea what was happening. Another felt good but it was just fast enough that my brain couldn’t rest trying to process everything haha. I think that can be good sometimes tho.”

But now I listen and can keep up! It’s def faster than Learn Spanish and Go, them both being native speakers, but the topics are more interesting (not just about culture stuff lol) and they are funnier (sorry Jaime).

OH! And I can actually watch some Youtube channels in Spanish. I have only really watched language learning videos, but it’s fun to see that I can understand natives talk about a topic I know about lol.

On my list of Spanish podcasts to try:

Spanish al Vuelo
Spanish que chivo
Spanish Boost
Slow Dominican Spanish
Languatalk
Español con Juan

I also tried but didn’t really like

Charlas hispanas: prob too hard for me lol tho I only listened to one ep and it was about coffee so I also didn’t really care abt it
Blanca to go: solo presenter and short episodes. Also Spanish accent I think so meh
Español a la Mexicana: solo presenter and v short episodes

Also now I’m back at work and talking a bit in Spanish when needed.

Work stuff

It’s nice that I can understand the Spanish speakers, because I can help them say what they are trying to say in English or I can answer their question in English. Some natural crosstalk ends up happening lol.
Some people who I talk to are brand new to the country. And while I can ask someone else to translate for me, sometimes it’s just faster/more clear if I use my baby spanish to communicate (since the people I’m asking to translate are also English learners, things sometimes get miscontrued…). Though my concern is that since June I have a ton more Spanish input, but the sentences I make sound the same to me…and I never know if what I am saying is correct, bc obviously the listeners just get my point and follow my instruction/say okay to the information I’m giving them. So it’s good that they get my point, but I’d like to be a little more accurate ahhaha.
Didn’t really happen before, but now I’m getting people not wanting to try in English…since they’ve realized the level of Spanish I can understand (also rlly cute how I’ve noticed some people I can understand more than others-- so the people I can understand more I’ve interacted with more…they must be leveling their language for me heh). Since my goal is for them to actually use English, it’s kind of a problem. So now I’ve had to just be like ok…try asking me again in English, please? to them which is kinda eugh to have to say.
Wait this language log has gone off the rails LMAO oop

OH and I said I’d read Esperanza Renace as part of the book club and have not…yet…but I still want to!! I suck at reading (even reading the transcripts of the podcasts I understand 98% of is a struggle) and kind of want to knock out a few graded readers first.
Tho!! I did start Strawberry Moon La hija de la luna and it’s a great level for me!! So my plan is to pick at that for a bit and see how it feels. I have sooo many books I want to read in Spanish but my primary goal is listening/speaking so we’ll see. I also kind of want to try a diff method than I learned Korean with (textbooks, classes) for the sake of science heh.

As for Korean…we don’t talk about Korean ok I’m just barely holding things together with Spanish. I refuse to think about my bingo nor do the 2025 goal check in update thingy. If I ignore it, it’ll go away, right?

monace · October 25, 2025, 7:25pm

So exciting to hear you were able to understand more Spanish in Mexico! All the hard work pays off
And also very nice of you to speak Spanish at work to help out, I’m sure they appreciate it. Surely with that kind of practice, the next time you go to Mexico speaking won’t feel as scary!

That has been my strategy for listening practice for the past 2 months or so. I can confirm it does go away, but then it comes back. A fickle thing, really. I might have to ignore it again soon…

NihongoLearner19 · October 25, 2025, 8:07pm

I’m glad to hear that Strawberry Moon is working for you! I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it

ddochii · October 25, 2025, 10:26pm

Haha I hope so! It’s so weird that I have really no shame at work, but when I’m around my family I’m sooo embarassed. Maybe because some members of my family (just Mom and Uncle) are fully bilingual? Or because the workers will expect me to also be Mexican like my ‘group’ is-- at least until I open my mouth? I did actually order my food myself this time instead of making my family speak for me like I was a small child lolol

We really have to do something about that ‘coming back to bite us’ part ;;;

ddochii · October 25, 2025, 10:30pm

Yesss I was even showing my mom even though it’s probably no better than the three little pigs to her hahahaha. Easy language but a real story! (I did only read like 6% of it and it took…such a long time I’m afraid. I forgot how painful reading is when you have to look up 10 words a page…) I don’t actually know past tense so this has been a fun journey in recognizing it (One day I’ll open my textbook up again lol)

I also ended up following the artist on insta because her art is soooo cute. I immediately saw fan art of kpop demon hunters, inuyasha, exo, and jujutsu kaisen so I knew I had to be her fan

ddochii · November 9, 2025, 11:40pm

October pt 2

I kept meaning to edit my last point but I think I’ll just do an add-on. I ended up having a pretty good listening month (by my standards lol). It’s so weird it’s like…updating my log makes me more motivated? Who knew!

Idk how November will go but I’d be happy with at least 10 hours!

Work is still killing me so I really haven’t had time to read or listen beyond my commute. And then when I do have time, my brain is just mush haha. I’ve picked at a couple Korean books but I just end up falling asleep…I’m hoping to catch up on work and then actually have time during lunch to read again. Right now, lunch isn’t even happening haha. I have so many books I want to read but might just need to go with whatever is easiest as a good way to ease back into reading.

Oh I did go to NYC and spoke Korean hehe always fun. Not perfect but functional I guess. Aaaand I also bought some Spanish books at the used book store despite never having read any books in Spanish LMAO they were just too cute! I should take pics and upload later.

It’s also so weird to me to see alllll these options for used Spanish books in the city and then like. 2 books on the economy in Korean lmao. Oh the owner also found me a bob Marley biography in Korean but I passed on that. Sigh. My love of physical books is too strong, but my wallet is too weak for new books….i may need a separate luggage for aladin orders when I next visit Korea heh.

ddochii · November 27, 2025, 2:48am

November!

Spanish: 19.4 hours

Korean: …

Just hit 300 hours logged for my Spanish input. Still working on “How to Spanish” podcast for most of my listening. Getting a lot more comfortable with their pacing and way of speaking now.

According to the “level 3” on dreaming Spanish, I should be able to…

You can follow topics that are adapted for learners. You can now understand people if they stay within certain topics. They still need to talk to you in a way that’s appropriate for you, but you know many words, and you don’t rely exclusively on visual information. You still aren’t completely used to the sounds of the language. You have a good intuition for basic grammar, like sentence order.

Seems pretty accurate. Though I don’t think I have trouble with Spanish sounds… we’ll see when I start outputting for real lol. I also haven’t relied on visuals for a while since I pretty quickly moved on to podcasts. But I really should start watching game plays or anime in Spanish in order to get more hours.

I am at the start of “level 4” (for my own future reference, I can watch DS videos comfortably at level 53) and here are some relevant parts from their summary:

You can understand a person speaking to you patiently. You still miss some words, but the speaker can explain their meaning to you without resorting to translation. The sounds of the language are becoming clearer now, and you are getting used to how the sounds are likely to be combined.

By now you could understand slightly more difficult books, but still mostly just graded readers.

Surprisingly, in this phase you learn many common function words that are taught right at the beginning of most language courses. These words are used very frequently, but carry very little meaning. For example: the verb “to be” (or equivalent), prepositions (in, at, on), conjunctions (therefore, so, and), and even some pronouns.

Interesting that this doesn’t seem that different from what I can do now (except I def don’t know ser/estar despite having read the rules for it…mas input, amirite?). I do need to ask Spanish speakers to speak more slowly to me. I still always respond in English haha but it works. I can make basic sentences in Spanish, but I prefer not to.

So! just going to keep on getting input, maybe I’ll pick up a Spanish book again now that I have a holiday break from work Oh also I now have got my instagram algorithm caught up with the Spanish memes I like, so it’s extra input lolol a lot of stand up comedians and cat memes. Obviously, I don’t log any of the time I talk with Spanish speakers at work nor my instagram scrolling lol. Did ask my mom what a word in a meme was and it was “(I) shit” LMAO oop. We made a note that you can say “I shit” to mean I made a mistake and how it can possibly be like saying “I shit the bed” in English. But I feel like “I shit the bed” is a little more nuanced…like, I failed at something at just the wrong moment maybe? Or I failed when all expectations were on me? Not sure. But love the times where we do say things so similarly in Spanish and English, and then in Korean it’s all just so different haha. It does feel kind of surreal when I notice things can be so equivalent. Like, wait, it’s just that easy? I see why people say Spanish is like language learning easy mode (though I am barely putting any effort to learn and idk if I know enough to say whether it’s easy or not lolol conjugations scare me).

As for Korean, I obviously haven’t been reading much still. I was talking to someone and was like “I just got so tired of reading bad books” and lol idk how else to express it. I took a break and read some English books. Then, I started a book I wanted to read ignoring the “comprehension percentage” based on word coverage through Kimchi Reader.

I’m only 10-15% in but 종의 기원 | L33 is soooo good. I can feel such a big difference in my enjoyment, even if there are at times multiple words in a sentence that I don’t know. Then, with the thread on ‘reading books you own’ I am hoping to get some motivation to just read extensively my physical books.

I started reading in Korean by reading physical books while on the subway, in a cafe, etc. with my phone open to naver dict when I couldn’t get some important word from context. But inevitably, I’d grow lazy and get absorbed in the story enough to not want to stop to search that word. Sometimes I’d go back later and check out those words to ensure I understood correctly, but many times I didn’t. I think I’d like to get back these vibes lolol. No thoughts, just reading.

Goals for December: girl just read in Spanish a lil bit. You can do it. Get 10+ hours of listening input. maybe touch a Korean book if the vibes are right.

I usually buy myself books from Korea for my birthday present to myself in January, but I have literally read one (1) of the books I bought from last year ahhahah. So no. I can’t until I actually read a paper book !! but I will be making a list of books for my cart just in case hehe.

cat · November 27, 2025, 4:10am

This is such a mood. Bad books send me into reading slumps sometimes. A string of bad books? The horror.

My preferred way to read as well

There is a time and place for studying, but ‘when trying to get out of a reading slump’ is not one of em.

ddochii · December 10, 2025, 4:43pm

The hardest part for me being a reader and a language learner. I have to give up time from one hobby to work on the other ;;;

While I still read a lot, my ‘top reads’ from this year and last year are much less than previous. I used to make a top 10 and now it’s more like a top 2

monace · December 10, 2025, 5:16pm

Care to share your top 2?

ddochii · December 11, 2025, 10:26pm

Finally read a book I liked ( 종의 기원 | L33 ). I wrote a review, but there was so much more I wanted to say that I have now kind of forgotten lol. I tried to sit with the book to gather my thoughts but ended up forgetting all the feels I was feeling lolol.

In summary…the tension was great AND it wasn’t as graphic or horror like I was expecting…the bookstagram I saw it on had said they wouldn’t let 청소년 read it. So that made me expect some level of real horror that didn’t really happen lolol. So I wish I didn’t read that because I kept expecting/imagining more than what happened. Anyways. It was a fun read that also made me think a lot. Esp with the whole title and author’s note hehe. I do also think this is one I could reread once I have more vocab– I am at 95% in it before mining. There were also words there not recognized by Kimchi Reader which sucked bc I def had other things I could’ve mined.

I learned some idioms I feel like I should already know lol.

여자는 흘끔 어머니를 보더니 호들갑스러운 목소리로 비행기를 태우기 시작했다.

남을 지나치게 칭찬하거나 높이 추켜세우다.

안에 무엇이 있는지 확신하고 있는 것 같았다. 하기는 우리 집안에서 가장 가방끈이 긴 박사님인데 그만한 상상력도 없을까.

학력이 높거나, 교육을 많이 받아 지식이나 경험이 풍부하다는 뜻

But yeah this book is like the opposite of a 추리 or ~twist~ thrillers since it starts at the main event. I recommend, but it’s not a ‘fun’ book in the normal sense I guess.

But what with me actually having read something in Korean, my Spanish input dwindled hard. Only 2.5 hours done 10 days into December. I am still sad I finished my last podcast and I don’t find How to Spanish super bingeable. They explain a lot of grammar or phrases in episodes, and those kind of fly over my head. I much more enjoy their interviews, storytimes, or ‘games’ they play. But I can’t skip any episodes because I am me lololol maybe the grammar explanations will start to stick at some point.

I should also start thinking about my end of the year wrap up. I know I did not complete so many of my goals ): so I don’t really want to think about it hahaha. So maybe I will just review what I did achieve this year:

Spanish
January - November: 197 hours

1 graded reader LMAO

Korean

19 books

I’ll do a full review in January but this is year I’m at so far. Oh, I also totally bailed on the book bingo…didn’t update since like July maybe? Even though I def added books after that…woops…

I like the bingo because I like to keep up with what people are reading, but I found I didn’t really change much of my usual reading habits for it. So it was just not really helpful in that way. Also, maybe I just don’t want to explore new books lolol I am such a mood reader and no bingo card will change that. Like I said earlier, I am just so tired of bad books I don’t want to force myself to read any more books I’m not 95% sure I will like just for the satisfaction of the card ;;;; with that said I’ll prob still make a card for fun but with the understanding that it’s not likely to be marked up that much.

Anyways…no update besides that. I starting reading 내게 무해한 사람 | L29 again since I never finished it and I’d like to squeeze in another book for 2025. It’s just soooo boring. The 97% word coverage feels so nice on my brain but the short stories are so meh. I thought I’d get queer romance stories!!! I feel lied to!!! I have no idea where I got that idea from bc it’s not that…RIP…But at least I’m not reading another thriller mystery for once I guess heh (see!! I have range!!).

ddochii · December 11, 2025, 10:28pm

Of course! In no particular order…

He who drowned the world
I who have never known men
Pet sematary
종의 기원 (The origin of species)

Don’t point out that this is not a list of 2 lolol but these are my only 5 star reads this year.

ddochii · January 1, 2026, 11:03pm

2025 Wrap-up / 2026 Goals

Spanish
Listening: 208.2 hours recorded on Dreaming Spanish

Reading: 1 graded reader

Total Spanish input so far: 314 hours

I don’t count ‘real-life’ input so this may not be 100% accurate.

Korean

Reading: 20 books

Vocab according to Kimchi Reader: 16,000

(I would like to get to 20,000 as I feel I will be able to read most of what I want comfortably at that point. But idk if I’ll bother making it a goal.)

Total books in Korean so far: 49

(Natively lists 63, Storygraph lists 64, my journal lists 49…)

I know Natively can’t import all books, so there is some discrepancy there. and I did possibly leave out manhwa when recording in my journal…oh and idk if I should count short stories– I like to add them on Natively just to remember what I read, but I’m sure I didn’t bother to add short stories to storygraph…so uh…the answer is somewhere in the middle I’m sure.

Goal Review for 2025:

I had wanted to keep my reading 50/50 Korean and English. –> I achieved this, with a couple more reads in Korean than English by the end.
Finish a Korean textbook. –> Eh, kind of disregarded this goal as I quickly got bored. Maybe I’ll revisit things and practice some grammar/writing, but I’m not too worried about it.
Reach 13,000 total pages read in Korean. –> Hit 14,000 total pages read (according to LearnNatively stats)
200 hours of input on Dreaming Spanish. –> Yep.
Read in Spanish. –> Yeah didn’t do this at all lol.
Watch Korean stuff without subtitles. –> Honestly kind of forgot about this tho I did watch some drama/variety. Since I don’t feel ‘gains’ when listening in Korean I always forget about it. I end up watching a lot without subtitles just organically, but maybe a drama could be a good challenge since it’'ll def have new vocab. Reading just feels a lot better for gaining vocab…

Goals for 2026:
I immediately forgot about checking in on my 2025 goals until it was too late lol. So I will keep it simple:

Spanish

Listening: 300 hours listening (25 hrs/month to stay on track) (I would also be happy with 286 hours more as that will get me to ~level 5~ on DS)

Reading: Please try to read something ;;;;

Korean

Listening: You should prob do more intentional listening in Korean

Reading: 20 books (maybe no 청소년? Or less. In 2025 I had 6 청소년 reads)

Extra: Read your physical books, Don’t forget about Korean bingo (1 bingo)

ddochii · January 28, 2026, 4:16pm

January:

Korean

Not much going on here– I am slowly reading 비밀 | L31 when I remember to. My main read is probably 고양이와 사막의 자매들 | L34?? which follows 3 older women who were previously mercenaries. They had been abdandoned on what used to be the battlefield, so the story is their journey to make it to a safe place and to survive. I find the world pretty interesting even if I am confused by this future society lol. It also jumps back and forth between their memories and the present, which sometimes trips me up. I am excited to get to the kitty part hahahaha. Animals have been long extinct, apparently, so I’m curious as to what this cat actually is…

번외 | L28 is a physical read I’m working on. It’s not long, but it also slips seamlessly from the present, to memories, to the musings of the MC. I bought it last year because it was YA and I found the cover interesting but it is more difficult for me than I imagined. The way the story is told is really interesting. The “번외” is that the MC is the sole survivor of a school shooting (yes, set in Korea). The story seems to be the 1 year anniversary and how he aimlessly spends this day. He meets someone who said they did the moment of silence with the whole country to respect those who died and his question is just “why?”

It doesn’t have a tragic or depressed tone, but as more is revealed about the MC’s thoughts and memories I can feel the listlessness and confusion he must. Not sure where the story is going to go, but I hope to read what Koreans think after I finish since it is something this situation is a foreign concept, surely. Though…anyone else remember all those knife attacks in Seoul a couple years ago? Crazy. Anyways.

In contrast, I have read two other (English) books about school shootings. One is Only Child, which is also narrated by a survivor– though in that case it is a very young boy. I cried a lot reading that book (even if the voice was totally not some first grader lol) as we got deep descriptions of the confusion and lonliness this kid felt in the aftermath as his family fought the courts and grieved…kind of without him. However, in 번외, the MC is a teen who hasn’t really questioned why this happened. He seems to be more questioning why everyone’s reaction is what it is…so I’m wondering if he knows more than what we do, or if he is just feeling numb to life/death.

The other book I read (pretty terrible lol) was Bloomland which includes the perspectives of the killer, a survivor, and the family of a victim. It more dealt with the events leading up to the killing and then the aftermath– the actual event wasn’t the main focus. It just focused on each character as a person and you could kind of see moments where things could have perhaps affected the outcome, or perhaps not. I know we were supposed to understand the killer but uh. It just felt very pretentious, although the writing was p good.

I’m pretty sure 번외 will also be leading up to the MC’s memories of that day and we will get some ‘reveal’ about what actually happened…as we also don’t know what happened to the killer at this time (43% of the way through).

Absolutely no listening or speaking practice has happened lolol though the english subtitles for the Manipulated 조각도시(?) on Hulu annoy me so much.

Spanish

Just listening to my podcasts: How to Spanish, Learn Spanish and Go, Spanish Boost Podcast.

No reading or studying

Korean: 2 books read

I realize I forgot to write about the *first book I finished in January, 미제레레 | L32 , lol. I will come back and update/review. Probably.

Edit: I finished 번외 so I should update about that at some point too :0

Spanish: 31.6 hrs listening

Monthly listening goal is ~25 hrs so I’m glad I was able to beat that this month! I hope I can get ahead while possible, cause I know I’m going to lose steam at some point this year lolol and I do want to meet my yearly goal

ddochii · March 15, 2026, 10:22pm

February:

Korean

Read https://learnnatively.com/book/493eea41d4/ and 만화 화산귀환 2 | L28 for funsies and it’s just…fine. I’ll prob read to ch. 23 since that’s when volume 3 ends and decide if its worth it to continue. Sometimes you just need a turn off brain teen adventure story– but I do need things to start happening lmfao.

I also continued reading 비밀 | L31 and finished it in February– read the last 150 pages in like 2 days bc WTF.

Basically, I’m not okay. This will def be high up on my list of Higashino books– though I feel like I’d need to reread my first couple to properly rate them against recent ones I read…

I feel like I’ve talked about this book with others so much that I have nothing left to say lmao but LOOK. 또치…reading a book longer than 300 pages??? We thought it’d never happen

Spanish

Pretty terrible month! Not much listening– though I have been reading a fanfic in Spanish…perhaps a new avenue for my learning? LOL drop recs if you have

Korean: 3 books read

2 manhwa, 1 novel. Glad I got into 비밀, because I felt so meh about my other current reads.

New Kimchi Reader stats:

비밀 528 pages - 12h 46m

종의 기원 384 pages - 20h 36m

Spanish: 9.8 hrs listening

Monthly listening goal is ~25 hrs so really dropped the ball here LOL let’s hope March goes better