Same. Although I do appreciate the speech bubble types I see in newer manga where instead of the tail coming out of the bubble it’s inside of the bubble to show that the speaker is not in the panel. That does help a teeny bit.
3 Likes
A slightly early update:
Kanji: I am going through level 32, as well as the cards from other levels I added. I thought it’d slow me down but it increases my motivation for going though the deck each day, so I will continue to add cards from further ahead periodically.
Reading: Only one volume of manga finished. This is somewhat dissapointing, as I really fell in love with manga last year and I want to read more. I read more of marimite and am about 75 percent through. Maybe I can finish it next week.
Listening: I caught up with また同じ夢 on audio and listened to the rest of the book on audio only. Meaning I finished it. I actually put it at 1.75x speed at one point because I grew bored of the book and wanted it to be done. I don’t think I lost too much comprehension wise (I’m used to listening to things at high speed). Anyway, thats one book down. Also watched 10 eps of hunter x hunter, which got a bit harder this arc with a lot of fantasy power explanations.
Goal stats
wkdeck: 32/45
anime eps: 20+10/???
manga vols: 2+1/75
books: 1/6
days studied 1 hour min: 12/12
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Finished level 32 of wk, now I will add cards from ahead to “reward” myself.
I never mentioned it here I think but I suppose I should since it’s my learning log, I have several other decks as well. 2nd in priority to my wk deck is phonetic components deck. I find knowing them very useful, and it takes like 1-2 min a day. I used to write these down on a notebook, and honestly it was probably mor eeffective to actually remembering them when I see, but it was too time consuming. 3rd in priority is my actual mined vocab deck. I do find it useful when I use it consistently, but can’t be bothered more often than not. I think I will start going through this one consistently again, but have stricter standards with minin and mute any cards that don’t fit (all sentences should be i+1, no unknown kanji, no cards without audio).
Reading: finished marimite! Started 明日の世界 along with audio. Reading with audio is too easy, it almost feelsl ike cheating. I really wonder how useful it is in practice, I can’t tell. My instinct is to say reading without audio is more useful but it might just be that it’s harder and I assume it’s more useful because of it.
Listening: I put in a 10 hour goal in the monthly challenge thread, but I mostly just wanted to see how tracking goes. At some point I realized I was definitely way past 10 hours, and stopped tracking. I don’t think tracking is worthwhile for me, it just stresses me out 
Anyway, I am currently listening to the first arc of higurashi drama adaptation. It’s mostly comprehensible. The tricky parts are specific vocab like explaining the games they play or murder investigation-related vocab. The former I don’t mind knowing but the latter will keep popping up in stuff I read. At any rate this is a story I am very familiar with so I didn’t mind being lost at those parts since I knew what was said anyway.
Goal stats
wkdeck: 32/45
anime eps: stopped tracking
manga vols:3+1/75
books: 1+1/6
days studied 1 hour min: 20/20
6 Likes
Do you mind sharing an example card? I’m trying to think of what exactly you’re studying. 
Sure, it’s a mix of a pre-made deck and my own aditions (based on book the kanji code which I own)
Frontside and back
you can find the deck here Kanji Phonetics - TheMoeWay
Some people think you naturally pick up on phonetic components, I guess. But it hasn’t been my experience, I need something to point them out to me. Honestly most ideally I would have phonetic components indicated on my main kanji deck but, I would have to edit them manually and I don’t want to.
4 Likes
Oh interesting. I also like that there’s a bunch of fonts (although there aren’t super scripty fonts and that’s what I struggle the most with).
I’m probably 50/50 on this. I definitely have some that I can guess at based on other words, but it’s not always right. But I’d probably prefer drilling words instead and try to get a wider “vocabulary” of sounds. Not because I don’t think it’s valuable, but because I think I have more fun learning vocab over just readings.
3 Likes
Kanji
midway through level 33.
also doing other srs I mentioned before
reading
I read a bit of にせものロマンス but it didn’t really hold my interest. I dropped it a day or two ago and picked up 竜が呼んだ娘. I am not far into it yet.
I also read a bunch of manga, mostly 加瀬さん. They’re really simple (possibly the easiest manga I read?), so I flew through a few volumes.
Listening
Finished the higurashi radio drama, my comprehension got worse as I went on, and I mostly got by because I already know the story. Since I’m planning to read the physical manga I own, I will relisten to it again afterwards.
I also listened a bit to the marimite radiodrama. Probably too early to say but, for the portion I did listen to I like it better than the anime adaptation so far.
Grammar
new section! I bought a random test book of japanese grammar, I had no idea what level of stuff to expect since the listing of the page did not give any details, and the reviews only said “not for beginners”. So far I’m making a decent amount of mistakes Although if I had made none I would feel I bought it for nothing, so it’s all good. It’s a good way to test myself for any grammar blind spots or forgotten things. I have a loose goal of one test a day which would mean I would finish the book in just over 2 months.
Goal stats
wkdeck: 32/45
manga vols: 5+4/75 (i think i skipped a volume in prev weeks, fixed now)
books: 2/6
days studied 1 hour min: all of them. I should probably track the days I didn’t do this instead, which I’m sure will inevitably come.
Bonus rare german update: I am in fact listening to A Night of Promises and Blood as was recommended here. About 20 percent in roughtly.
6 Likes
Kanji/srs
finished level 33, started 34. reviews are starting to pile up which isn’t a problem now since I am weirdly in a srs mood. But by experience I know it is not sustainable. So I’ll stop adding new cards from 34 for a few days.
Reading: read a bit of 竜が呼んだ娘 as well as 54字の物語. Because of the tiny chapters of the latter, it’s a good choice when I don’t feel in the mood for reading. The structure is pretty fun for language learning since it’s always telling a story with a limited character which has some sort of twist/joke. So working to figure out is like a puzzle for me.
Also finished a volume of manga.
Also read a little bit of code_18 again and it felt much more approachable. I finished a few boooks since I put it down, and I imagine that had an effect as well as the wk levels I finished since then as I was able to recognize a lot of newly learned kanji. It was nice to see a clear proof of improvement like this. …I might also just have gotten lucky with an easier section though lol. In any case I think I will make code_18 my vn for my year goal .I was thinking of choosing a simpler one and had some candidates in mind, but this seems doable after all and i don’t want to leave it unfinished.
Listening:
watched a few (2-3…didn’t track so idk) anime eps. Listened to some intermediate podcast in an effort to find something to listen as background noise. Finished the maria-sama drama cds first volume (had only 40 mins left in it anyway). Thankfully it only covered the first half of the book, I was afraid it was going to be rushed. I will start the 2nd half as soon as I can be bothered to put it on my phone. I think it’s a really good adaptation. This and higurashi are making me want to seek out more radio dramas for things I like.
Grammar: going through the book I mentioned last post. I feel like it’s very useful so far. I am not going thorough it as fast as I thought, but that doesn’t really matter.
Goal stats.
wk deck: 33/45
manga vols: 9+1/75
books: 2/6
Days studied 1 hour min: I almost didn’t in the weekend as I wasn’t in the mood to read but I finished up the 1 hour via listening in both cases so still in the green.
My Maria-sama vol 1 book arrived that I found by pure chance. It’s pristine so I’m not even sure it’s 2nd hand after all…All the 2nd hand books I got from japan were pristine, but this was local…
8 Likes
That book structure sounds interesting. Are those separated short stories with different characters each time or are they somehow connected?
Nonetheless playing detective or working on an imaginary puzzle while reading is so much fun. I also like that kind of stories and felt something similar with the Maria-sama volume I finished today
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I have this debate with myself all the time 
Ooh cool!! I’ve only listened to the first track so far, cuz I’ve just been in reading mode. Probably I’ll finish the series first before listening to more tho - cuz I’m so far in (22/37) that it might feel weird/lackluster to go back to that early. I do appreciate that (at least the first track) it didn’t directly match the anime or the novels - so it was like a fresh (but still faithful) approach
I’ve gotten some that were slightly less than pristine, but still really great quality before. As well as some older ones (like from the 90s) that just weren’t taken good care of. But for the most part, I’m amazed by the condition of 2nd hand books there!
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They’re completely unrelated. The book is set up as one of those 54 letter stories and afterwards an explanation (and an illustration).
Most of those stories are actually pretty easy as long as you can read everything. There are some trickier ones thoguh like one I read today had an upside down 王 (the font made it clearer than here), to indicate it’s the opponents shogi piece and they were using the 54 character board as a shogi board. Or another one that was a wordplay on 着る vs 切る.
I do need the explnation for most stories, but it’s less to do with the stories being hard to get and more to do with being a learner
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Kanji/srs
I didn’t listen to my own advice from last week and went full steam ahead with 34 which tanked my retention rate. This week I’m not adding anything new for real…
Reading: still reading 竜が呼んだ娘 and 54字の物語, as well as 明日の世界で星は煌めくwith the book club.
Finished only one volume of manga, さくらと加瀬さん and with that the highschool portion of the story is complete. I’m reading other manga too but have not finished any of those.
Listening: a few anime eps, half of the first umineko stage show. I definitely wouldn’t have been understand this if I wasn’t already familiar with the story, and I still got lost during the talks about the inheritance. The audio also isn’t super clear at times. Still, really good adaptation and I look forward to watching more.
Also found this channel called Japanese super immersion, which I actually like. It’s a learner aimed podcast but it doesn’t feel too boring. I like how the two hosts try to make eachother laugh. The structure of first showing different scenarios where to use a certain word, and then a more free talk section, is pretty useful. Overall it’s easy enough to not require my full attention, but also not so boring I lose interest or feel pointless.
Grammar: forgot about my test book until the weekend and did two tests then.
Goal stats.
wk deck: 34/45
manga vols: 10+1/75
books: 2/6
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Kanji/srs
Once again didn’t listen to my own advice of not studying new cards. I thought it’d be fine to add new vocab only and no kanji but I have around 200 reviews still This time I won’t add new cards until I’m around 150 reviews.
Reading:
- Finished 54字の物語. There are a lot of books in this series so I might pick another one up eventually.
- I picked up 変な絵. I think it has gotten a translation recently, I kept seeing it mentioned. So I decided to try it in japanese. I read around 100 pages during the weekend, which is the quickest I read so far. It’s also the most immersed I’ve been in reading, feeling like I’m just reading rather than “studying Japanese”. I haven’t read a mystery in a while, so I think I forgot how much I liked them. The vocab also felt weirdly tailored to me, a lot of words I recently learned popped up. Great experience with this so far.
- Also read some 竜が呼んだ娘 between those two but my focus has shifted to 変な絵.
- 明日の世界で星は煌めく I’m reading at pace with the book club
- 幻獣調査員 I voted for this in the book club but the first page scared me I probably could keep up with the weekly pace if I tried but with the other things I already have on my plate and already being behind, I think I will tackle this later.
- Wasn’t a great week for manga but read the first chapter of ラブ・バレット
Listening
I really wanted to finish the umineko stageplay this week but things just didn’t align. I hope to start CANAAN soon, I just finished the related vn 428 (in english) and want to watch it while my memories are fresh. This is most likely going to be above my comprehension level but I watched it before, though my memory is not very good it might be some help. I might not be able to get to it this week as I am still reading some extras in 428 though
Grammar: completely forgot about my book 
Goal stats.
wk deck: 34/45
manga vols: 11/75
books: 2+1/6
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Kanji/srs
kept to my word and didn’t add new cards. Reviews back down to around 150 so I’ll start adding cards again this week.
Reading
- Finished 変な絵 on Friday which means I took a week to read it, this is really fast for me in Japanese. In the end, I wouldn’t even say it’s an amazing book, but it was the right thing at the right time I guess. I have no expectations this speed will directly translate to other reading
- Kind of lost interest in 竜が呼んだ娘 but I have around 20 percent of the ebook left so I’ll finish it.
- 明日の世界で星は煌めくI continue with the bookclub
- Read a bunch of manga but no finished volume
Listening
Didn’t start CANAAN but I watched a lot of jp booktube content. Which made my want to read list balloon, but it’s fun to find out about books this way.
Grammar Book
nothing. Well technically I did a few questions when I was bored and the book was before me. I did find it useful when I worked on it though so I should get back to it.
Goal stats.
wk deck: 34/45
manga vols: 11/75
books: 3+1/6
I actually haven’t posted about german in a bit, I am not doing much with it, though recently I discovered a site I can’t link here with a lot of german dubbed shows for streaming. I might watch some shows people keep reccing me in german dub.
5 Likes
Quick update today since I’m short on time
- halfway done with level 35 of kanji deck
- Finished 竜が呼んだ娘 and wrote a review.
- read 4 volumes of manga. Wrote a review for でこぼこガーリッシュ
- watching yet more japanese book vlogging content and wishing I could read all that
Goal stats.
wk deck: 35/45
manga vols: 11+4/75
books: 4+1/6
also I don’t say it each time but I have done at least 1 hour of japanese study (minus time spent on srs) every day so far in this year.
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Wrote this down but forgot to click send yesterday:
- kanji deck level 35 done. not sure if ill start level 36 this week or wait for reviews to dwindle a bit.
- Read a bit of marimite 2 but wasn’t my focus
- Finished 4 vols of manga, including all available volumes of 変な家 manga (wrote a review).
- more japanese booktube, also a few anime eps here and there. Started the canaan rewatch.
- reading more of code_18 after almost dropping it again. Not because it is hard but because I was so bored. But I pushed myself to finish the first route and I enjoy the one I’m on now much more…for now
Goal stats.
wk deck: 35/45
manga vols: 15+4/75
books: 5/6
Also tiny german update: I am indeed watching random shows now and then in german. I haven’t found anything I’m super in love with yet, but that’s to be expected as I just don’t prefer the medium.
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This week I fixed an issue I had wtih japanese IME for years. I found someone complaining about the same issue on discord and the shared solution worked for me (though not for op)
The issue is that the IME doesn’t match my underlying non-english keyboard.
In case anyone else has this issue, here is the solution
solution by discord user Gecko
You can change the underlying keyboard layout windows uses for the Japanese IME. That makes the IMEs direct input your language of choice and you can just switch to kana input for Japanese.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layouts\00000411]
"Layout File"="<KB_DLL>"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters]
"LayerDriver JPN"="<KB_DLL>"
Whereas <KB_DLL> corresponds to your desired layouts DLL as specified in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layouts<LAYOUT_ID>:
(You might have to search through the IDs, or just use CTRL + F)
I have changed it to German and can type everything (ö,ä,ß, etc) as normal. The only thing that stops working is typing chars with ^ the old way (you now have to CTRL+^+e for example for ê).
Actual updates
- Still at level 35, added some cards from ahead because I grew bored but didn’t want to start 36 yet.
- Read 4 volumes of manga, and a bit of code_18. In the weekend I suddenly had the urge to focus on marimite2 and I’m about 60 percent through. It still feels hard, but since I can read more at once I assume there is some improvement.
- Finished the 2nd cd of marimite audiodrama
- Watching jp booktube has become routine at this point, though I found a book I want to read that isn’t available in kobo and I can’t buy from amazon or bw
most books ARE on kobo, at least. - Also did a few questions from my test book but I mostly spent time researching why something was wrong as the book gives me no clue.
Stats
wk deck:35/45
manga: 19+4/75
books:5/6
I’ve also still do 1 hour a day at least, everyday so far, though some day might be cutting it close, but there are probably more days I study for longer than 1 hour so I think it makes up for it. Honestly, 1 hour is starting to feel like not enough even as a minimum to see progress.
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- level 36 of the kanji deck. I dropped my desired retention from 90 to 85 as well. I would prefer less time on review = more time on reading
- finished marimite 2, started 変な家2. I am in the third story right now.
- read more of code_18.
- only 1 volume of manga this week
- watched a few eps of anime, marimite, canaan, diy. As well as more youtube.
I think yesterday might have been the first day I didn’t spend an hour on some sort of immersion? I did read around half an hour, and then had youtube on for a while but I wasn’t really paying any attention to it. Well I don’t really mind, as long as it doesn’t become a pattern.
Stats
wk deck:35/45
manga: 23+1/75
books:5+1/6
Well, I reached my book goal. I was aiming low, but I won’t update my goal. The reason for it being on the low side in the first place was so I don’t feel tempted to force myself to finish things I’m in the middle of if I don’t like it, or be more inclined to read easier books. I might do an update in the middle of the year but for now I’ll continue reading at my own pace for fun.
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- wk deck: still in level 36, though mostly done with it
- most of this week I focused on reading 変な家2. Something that I didn’t realize when I started it: it’s almost double the length of any other jp book I read with 440 pages. I’m glad I didn’t realize this because it probably would have stopped me from reading. But since I’m not having too much trouble with it, hopefully that’s one mental block that won’t be an issue anymore. I’m done with all 11 stories in it, and now in the solution chapter which is the last third of the book. It’s harder than other works by the author but not by too much. I still think it’s easier than Marimite.
- Finished the 2nd route of code_18. I started the third route but I started wanting to skim again as I don’t feel particularly interested in the third routes character (it’s set order, so I can’t go for someone different)
- One volume of manga.
- I watched one episode of canaan , and a bunch of youtube.
Stats
wk deck:36/45
manga: 24+1/75
books:6/6
also
I spent 2.5 hours on reading yesterday, and while it was fine and I enjoyed myself. It def felt like I spent most of the day reading. It’s not something that is sustainable for me in the long term even on days I don’t work. I’ll never be one of those people who spend 7 hours a day in japanese Not that I ever expected to. I’ll keep aiming for 1 hour, and if I surpass that, great.
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- wk deck: halfway through level 37
- finished 変な家2 shortly after my last post. I mostly focused on manga this week but I started 時をかける少女 because I was studying in a noisy environment and I had both audiobook and ebook for that so reading it with both once blocked out the noise. The book isn’t terribly interesting to me so far but it’s short and I’ll probably finish it just because I often have to study in noisy places. I also started the first 変な家 as audio only to see how much I’d understand it as I already am familiar with the story.
- 7 vols of manga
- I think I’m about halfway through the latest code_18 route but that’s just a guess
Stats
wk deck:36/45
manga: 25+7/75
books:6+1/6
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