Goals & Plans 2025 + Review 2024

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Interested in your thoughts on this from a learner’s perspective! BokuNatsu 1 & 2 are two of the games I bought back in 2020 that I’d like to tackle sooner than later, but IIRC when I started up the first one, the dialogue wasn’t push-to-continue and I couldn’t read fast enough to follow it, so I was kind of scared away from playing. They’re currently sitting in my “waiting until I’m confident enough in my reading speed / listening ability to fully enjoy it” pile… which will probably never get touched because I have no confidence on either of those things :sob:

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102

Andddd my 2025 goals first quarter update:

  • 1/3 chapter books, 2/6 manga – on track!
  • 2/1 games finished – GOAL PASSED! :tada:
  • 49/100 days read – on track!
  • 0/1 bingo – uhhhh
  • 2/5 TV series - on track!

Last year I read on average just over once a week, so this year the goal was to double that – and right now I’m sitting at around triple! I credit that mostly to being unemployed the past 2 months, but I’ve been consistent with reading at least twice a week even on work weeks, so I’m happy to take it as a win. I’m also at around half of my 2024 page count already, so even though I’m reading harder/denser/longer books this year, I may end up having read twice as much by the end of the year.

The way my bingo card turned out, I should almost have a bingo just by using my goal books for this year, so that goal still looks possible, but I’m not even going to think about other books to read to fill my card with until those books are done.

The first game I tried this year, ときめきメモリアル Girl’s Side, was way easier to read than I was anticipating, so I blitzed through both it and the sequel in no time at all. I’m thinking of making a stretch goal of also finishing the Playstation サモンナイト games and maybe also the PS2 ones, but I have no idea how long these games are and how far I can aim to get through the series while staying realistic, so I’m just taking anything else I finish as a bonus.

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First 1/4 of 2025. Not all of these goals feel quite so relevant anymore.

340/760 - this goal is unachievable, but anyway my used count went up by 84 now :slight_smile:

32/42 - safe to say ill meet this goal.

Series progress:

Little direct progress, but comprehension has greatly improved. Main barrier is domain vocab now.

Doing these with jpdb, they’re pretty achievable. Again, the issue here is a lot of specific, domain vocab

  • I translated a bunch in lessons
  • No progress, but most of my watching lately has been audio-only

Some new goals:

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So overall, this year is already starting well language learning wise! I did have a few setbacks, mainly with listening, because listening is harder than reading when my brain is mush, but that did mean I spend more time reading instead. Ah, and let’s not mention my writing goal that has been pushed aside once again, I really am delusional every December, thinking I’m actually gonna practice writing in the following year.

So, that being said, lots of progress for reading in Korean in particular, I even read 당신을 기다리고 있어 | L32, finally reaching the low thirties in terms of level.

As for Japanese, progress there as well, I started actually reading! I expect I’ll have finished both my first manga, 玉藻の恋 | L17, and 10分で読めるこわい話 1年生 | L16?? for the ABBC soon, so I can’t wait to get into more complicated stuff!

And an honorable mention to Italian for somehow getting most of my listening practice? I don’t know how that happened, but it did :sweat_smile:

Not much happening for Spanish, but I can only blame myself, I wanted to read El juego del alma | L30?? before reading anything else and somehow I forgot to bring it with me. I should get it again next week though, so I’m looking forward to that.

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I ended up having to play them via a PSP emulator and set it to where if I clicked off of the emulator, that the game would pause. This way I could take my time reading sentences.
You CAN change it in the settings within the game itself to be basically be push to continue, but then you don’t have the voice acting, which is a big loss imo. (it’s in the menu where you can choose, voice, text, or both. Choose text only.)

You can also run something like Kamui while emulating and it’s great at auto picking up the text on the PSP versions. I started using it towards the end of my playthrough of the second game, by that point I didn’t really need it, but I’ll definitely be using it for other games.

I played the first game in December 2023 and I found it pretty difficult. The text was hard for me to read and everyone seemed like they were talking way too fast. I avoided talking to people whenever possible and could only play for about an hour at a time before burning out.

Playing the second game over a year later went waaaay better. I got to the point where I could generally follow along with a conversation without even having to “pause” the game to decipher that crunchy looking text. I didn’t understand everything, but I would say I was at at least a solid 80%.

I’d say give it a shot anyway and just accept that you’ll probably have trouble. (that’s how I handle pretty much everything with japanese at this point :joy:) If you physically own the games, don’t be afraid of downloading them and playing through an emulator, whether you own the PS1/PS2 or PSP versions. You’re perfectly within your right to do so. If it makes playing them more enjoyable then it’s worth it.

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Which version of these games did you play? Not because I think maybe I could try these out, even though I probably can’t even finish the games I already intended to this year. :eyes:

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I don’t think I commented here but my goals are in my mind so I’ll just write them here from memory :slight_smile:

Japanese
the basic goals I’ve been tracking on my personal log are…

  • reach level 45 on wanikani deck : on track. I’m on level 37 currently
  • read 6 novels: done
  • read 75 manga volumes: on track
  • finish 1 vn. I am on the third route out of 5 of code_18. If I gave up on it and picked up something else I’d probably be done with this but I feel stubborn.

Other goals I have but no idea if I wrote them down anywhere

  • read the pyhsical manga volumes I have of the first 4 arcs of higurashi: not started at all. I probably won’t soon since I will likely move in a few months. And packing unpacking manga is a hassle.
  • More listening practice: I tracked my listening for a month and decided I do enough of it “naturally”. I don’t feel like my listening is far behind my reading. I don’t think I need to make a concentrated effort for listening specifcally anymore because of this and also that the primary reason I learn japanese is reading. As long as there isn’t a huge gulf in skill, I think I will continue as is.

I’m not going to update any goals now because a lot of weird things going in my life and hard to predict what I will have time for. Maybe at the midway point of the year.

German
I wanted to read 12 books in german this year. And specifically I wanted to read books from my physical library.
I read…1…and it was an audiobook not from my owned books. :grimacing:
I did start watching osme tv in german. But that wasn’t a goal.
I’m going to set new goals for german only since it feels a bit dire:

  • 100 hours of listening until the halfway point of the year
  • 12 books. They don’t have to be from my owned books but if they are, they count for 2 books.

Mandarin
surprise entry! My goal for this year was just to dip my toes in mandarin. And I did. I used several sources but most often I use an app called superchinese. I don’t do more than 5 mins a day, but that’s all I want for this year. This won’t be a serious focus for quite a while I’m happy to just slowly build some foundation.

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Can’t believe we’re at the 1/4 mark already. :cold_sweat: Let’s see how I’m doing…

  • Translate: I actually did do some good translating back in January for a room escape game, but ever since finishing the initial draft, I haven’t had a dedicated project to work on. I’m thinking I just need to go out and find a scanlator group or something to volunteer on, just to keep a little momentum going. So-so so far.
  • 50 physical manga from TBR: 9/50. I’m a little behind, but this should be easy to catch up with; I just need to set aside the time.
  • 15 books from TBR: 8/15 :bangbang: I’m doing so good you guys! :eyes: One of my goals this year was to read more novels, and I’ve heavily shuffled how I allocate my reading habits because of it, which seems to be doing some good. (In a nutshell, I’m participating in far fewer book clubs, for better or worse.) I have two more books I’m actively working on now, and one should be done this weekend if I keep my pace on par.
  • Spanish Fiction Club: we’re going good. We’re starting our next read this coming week, in fact, if anyone would like to join.
  • Whittle down TBR: eh, no real news on this one. Spanish is, as ever, taking a backseat to everything else. I would like to be a little more active on this, though…
  • Familiar Romana: I have started it, but I think I’m only on chapter 3 right now? It’s on temporary pause, mostly because of…
  • Mandarin: I’ve re-started my studies yet again. :S The bug keeps biting, what can I say. I’m still mostly reviewing what I had studied last year, so no great progress yet. I have a few plans in mind for my path forward if I continue with things, but I’m trying not to get too ahead of myself. One thing I’ve been trying to more proactive about is working on my listening super early so I don’t have to go through a similar painful and boring cycle as in Japanese.
  • French: :sleeping:

Things are going surprisingly well this year so far. I apparently didn’t feel confident enough jotting it down then, but early on I decided to do one hour of listening to Japanese every day, and I’ve managed to miraculously stay with that. (Note to self: add this to mid-year checkup.)

I’m a bit concerned that progress will heavily slow down over the next 2-3 months, as work is going to steadily ramp up in that time period. Hopefully the good habits I’ve built up to now will keep me steady, and if not, hopefully I’m not too hard on myself. :disappointed:

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I am doing OK on the physical TBR reduction - 3 books so far have been physical and I am set to finish a 4th tomorrow.

My book club participation is rather lacking, but I haven’t joined anything that I didn’t already have the book for.

I have restarted kanji study, but not made that much progress.

Not even looked at a textbook and the stretch goals are already no longer possible. :see_no_evil:

In other news, I have started learning Thai and having a blast but oh boy is that one difficult language. Everything but the grammar is difficult. :face_holding_back_tears:

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Despite what my initial post said, I’ve been focusing more on Japanese more than Irish. So not a whole lot of progress here.

Somewhat kept up with audio diaries for a bit, but haven’t recorded one for about a month. Only at 80/2000 Anki cards :melting_face: mostly work-related vocab and common adjectives. Colloquial Irish is really good, but I’ve only read 2 chapters.

Doing better with Japanese than Irish. Making my way through the Comprehensible Japanese videos and 366. Haven’t resumed Irodori yet though.

So far I’m following along with the Intermediate Manga Club! (I’m actually running the current book’s club, come join us reading Silver Spoon!). Although I did drop the last IMC book because I didn’t really like it. It’s hard jumping into this difficulty of books after taking a break from Japanese, but I’m enjoying the book and the conversations

I think for now I’m going to continue focusing on Japanese, especially since I’m running that club so I want to make sure I’m actually understanding the content lol. But I think I’d like to make sure I’m at least doing Anki for Irish and continuing to add words. I have a whole list of words to be added that I just need to, you know, add.

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Thanks for the input on BokuNatsu! I’m unfortunately the type that has an extremely low tolerance for things I don’t understand (I need like 95%+ comprehension or I give up lol), and I don’t have a particularly good PC setup for emulating, so I’ll continue to put it off for the time being, but hearing about your experience and strategies for it is really valuable!

It must have felt so good to feel the growth between playing the first & second games!

I played the original PS2 versions, ときめきメモリアル Girl’s Side & ときめきメモリアル Girl’s Side 2nd Kiss. Those ones have furigana (only on some stuff, not on everything), which seems like it was cut for space in the DS remakes, and thus is also absent in the Switch remasters of the DS games. I’m not sure if the Switch version has any nice extra features like replayable audio or a message log, but if not, the PS2 versions are solid enough.

I was expecting them to be more dense and visual-novel-ish, but the language is mostly very simple conversational stuff with a lot of repetition, so they’re really approachable for learning and have a lot of useful, everyday language. I’m still sorting through the files, but I did rip the text out of the DS versions for studying with if that helps you play along (though using something like Kamui should work fine if you’re emulating).

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Nice update from everyone!
For me -

Japanese

:white_check_mark: reading daily
:rocket: started an adult novel, oops, not paperback but there’s still time, I’m planning that reattempt for Q4
:arrows_clockwise: draw down to 3-4 reads, well… that didn’t happen because I got obsessed by Harta’s manga magazine and well… this draw down is no longer a goal although I’m refraining from joining new manga clubs

:rocket: 200 kanji to go, I just upended my routine and quit srs but this is still theoretically on track

:arrows_clockwise: well it is energy intense and not currently a high priority, perhaps later in the year

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Well, cutting my TBR has been going terribly as it is longer than ever.
On the plus side, though, I have read the two oldest books in there. Only 8 to go, I guess :sweat_smile: (*goes back to reading something else*)

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So far no progress on this as I’ve instead been focusing on completing my bingo reads but plan to head back to these as my “between calls at work” reads once I finish 坊っちゃん.

Well, I’ve continued with lessons and language exchanges but didn’t take Dogen’s course yet, that may become a 2026 goal instead. :sweat_smile:

I did review a lot of the grammar for N5 & N4 then started working through N3 stuff though I haven’t really reviewed that yet. I’m currently slowly working through a20 point basic grammar book as well as Quartet with Tobira on hold for the moment. Will be getting back to the text books next week since I’ve been busy outside of the home the last while and when at home have been more focused on writing the last few weeks which will shortly taper off.

I have managed to listen more, including listening to and mostly understanding また、同じ夢を見ていた which was a pleasant surprise how much I actually did understand this time round. I also re-listened to rental robot and am currently working through 彗星とさいごの竜 before I go back to the Zenitendo audiobooks.

I’ve kept up with Wanikani for reviewing, have improved my kanji recognition through reading and also managed more writing while doing daily sentences, though the last week these have fallen by the way side a bit so I need to get back to that.

I had started managing that but again, it’s fallen back a bit the last 2 weeks as I’ve focused on writing so this will be something I re-visit shortly.

I ended up setting a goal of reading all 16 of my bingo reads, even swapping out one of my picks that turned out to be too difficult and also set a goal of being able to read both Zoo book 1 & 2 (a re read of 1 since I read this a few years ago) and 本好き book 1 by end of December. That’s my ultimate goals now for this year, complete those and I’ll be happy.

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If you’re up for yuri, I’d be thrilled not to be the sole translator in mine.

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I’m going to be traveling for the next week, so I’ll have to get back to you on that later, but for the moment it sounds interesting!

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