This is random but I hate it when I go to look up song lyrics and the websites show them in romaji instead of the normal script. I have zero romaji reading experience so it might as well be a different language. But maybe that’s a sign that I rely too much on kanji for comprehension.
Do you mean an IME? Or digital handwriting input? I have recently started using both and it is a game-changer for me. I have low patience for messing up the small っ and double vowels in romaji, so the little IME dropdown that suggests Kanji as you type is perfect for me, and then digital handwriting is my fallback.
But I guess if romaji is your intended output of transcription then IME would not be very useful.
I mean they’re made for people who have zero Japanese ability. It doesn’t take that long to learn. You could probably get it just from playing a song a few times, and following the lyrics. Certainly waaaaaay easier than learning kanji.
Are you looking for furigana or something? If not, just type “song name 歌詞” and you’ll almost never see romaji again.
I meant kana input into the IME, instead of romaji input. My handwriting is even slower than that lol… and I don’t have the hardware to do digital handwriting on my PC (not that I’d want to)
So like rather than typing kanashimi + selecting the kanji, I can just type かなしみ (would are on TUDN) and then select the kanji… 4 keystrokes instead of 9, plus less chances to mess up and have to retype. However, like learning how to touch type in your L1, it takes a while to get good at tho… So it’s pretty painful at first, if you’re normally a fast typer.
It’s not generally, was just doing a favor in this case, bc the lyrics weren’t available online (JP or English)
I’m sure I can read it phonetically and sing along almost immediately. I meant, understanding and taking meaning from it, like reading a manga or novel.
It’s like the amount of extra brain power needed for reading words in hiragana when they are normally written in Kanji. Like in kids books. It’s totally doable, just a little bit annoying I guess?
No, I meant like the native script with Kanji and Kana, similar to reading a manga. I have tried altering my searches in a similar way but most of the time it takes you to entirely Japanese sites and I am not at a level where I can comfortably browse the internet entirely in Japanese yet. So I’m kind of in this in between where the English resources aren’t sufficient but the Japanese internet navigation is overwhelming.
Got it. I didn’t even consider a keyboard with Japanese characters. That is really cool!
But yeah digital handwriting is unpopular for obvious reasons. I originally bought a drawing tablet for other purposes but I like drawing Kanji so it has become a very reliable input method for me.
Now that I know what you mean, what aspects of the direct input makes it feel nicer and less error prone for you?
Edit: whoops, just realized you kind of already answered this question when you said 4 keystrokes instead of 9. Feel free to ignore!
Ahh gotcha… Sometimes I find it quicker to get info from one vs the other… But yeah, it does generally obscure things, even more than hiragana. (I also probably over-rely on kanji)
Yeah, it’s cool! I had to get stickers for it. Tho fwiw even most Japanese use romaji input.
The thing with kana input too is it’s one less layer of translation to go through. So saves brain power in a sense. Like on mobile I always use the 五十音順 (syllabary order) - which is why it feels like such a pain to type romaji on desktop… and typing romaji on a phone is terrible, btwn autocorrupt and actual typos)
I still use romaji on phone since it’s what I’m used to on my computer, but the typos are real… Maybe I should try the flick keyboard at some point.
I wonder if anyone uses an いろは keyboard just for fun. Yesterday I learned that いろは order is used (not sure if historically or still currently) for music keys as well. The manga I was reading mentioned ト短調 but I would never have guessed that it was G minor.
I’m am VERY SLOWLY training myself on the flick keyboard. I’ve made a rule that if I mess up once on romaji input that I have to change input methods. It’s surprising how quickly I end up having to change.
I feel like I’m getting much better through practice until I see someone typing at real speed on a TV show and then I’m depressed again, lol
You definitely should! It’s a million times easier and faster, once you get used to it. Sorta like swiping in English, if it somehow never got words wrong (98% of my typos on here are cuz I didn’t proofread the swiping)
What’s an いろは keyboard??
Do they show the actual typing? Cuz whenever I see that in anime, I’m like "yeah there’s no way they’re typing that fast… Especially if they’re using tap mode, like the sound fx imply)
Anyway, as long as your typing speed isn’t holding back your ability to express yourself at a reasonable speed, that seems like something to be happy with, imo
Yeah, I didn’t even get through the whole song before forgetting 笑
終わった
熱帯魚 8-9 - glad I reread the series. Cried a bit in final volume. Appreciated the ending a lot more this time around (due to life experience I didn’t have the first time around). Think ppl who call it bait are being quite unreasonable
百合姫2024年9月 - the one shot was interesting. I’m all caught up for the year now, till next week (besides 踊り場, the android series, and スピカ, where I’m still behind the 2024 magazines)
ささ恋 10 + anthology - were both great (the former I already knew)
月姫 8 - not in any rush to start vol 9
AKB0048 S1 | L27 - wasn’t as bad as MyGO (I even enjoyed at times, and the last 4 eps were solid), but definitely won’t watch again. I wonder whether having subs would have improved my opinion
時々ボソッとロシア語でデレる隣のアーリャさん S1 | L27 - I’ve been thinking about whether I should switch this to subs. I can get it enough, but I don’t like that I’m missing some things
August Listening Challenge
I’m up to 22.4 / 50 hrs so far. This has been quite the challenge. I’ve tried some new things, and learned that I really don’t like audio without text for things that have text. Additionally, unlike reading above my comfort level, I feel like audio above my comfort level is really not productive for vocab acquisition. So ironically, audio with text is more beneficial to improving my listening skills 気がする
Audiobooks:裏世界ピクニック | L32 was the most productive, including the portion of ch 1 that I haven’t read yet… but I don’t like going ahead of my current position. SAO 1 felt very inefficient without the text (largely all the 熟語), so I dropped that fast. 君の名は | L30 felt really disorienting, despite having read the manga twice, and watched the movie. ポーション頼みで生き延びます! 1 | L28 seemed possibly interesting, but I wasn’t in the mood for another isekai.
Drama CDs: Tried some Fate & 空の軌跡, but in general these feel hard b/c I get bored very quickly, and have trouble focusing without something visual. For some reason I don’t have as much trouble with radio shows… tho even there I have to actively concentrate, a lot of the time
Radio Shows: besides the usual (ガルクラ、ささ恋、ぼっち) I tried the わたゆり one, but DNF’d after 10 min… not bad, but not for me. Thankfully I’m way behind on ぼっち, and ガルクラ has a new one every week… so I’ve got material there. I haven’t felt inclined to try Re:Zero or 鬼滅の刃, even tho those have been in my 音泉 bookmarks for a while
Anime: Carnival Phantasm 1-8 (コメンタリーなし、コメンタリーあり) was interesting. I can understand it a bit better now than in Jan/Feb. The commentary was very hit or miss - sometimes great, and once or twice I just plain skipped or DNF’d. Definitely would not listen to a second time (whereas I will Carnival Phantasm itself never gets old). AKB0048 comprehension was very mixed… sometimes lack of interest didn’t help, but subs would have been very nice. ロシデレ (Alya/Russian show) is less than I’d like… probly between 85-90%?
Reading
Fate/Stay Night: is going well enough. I’m playing side-by-side w/ EN translation on Switch, and OG version on PC. As usual, hard vocab and kanji (occasionally ones I’ve never seen outside of Fate/Stay Night). The grammar generally feels better this time around… I don’t always get it, but now when I look at the translation and look back, it usually makes sense pretty quickly. As opposed to last time where I had to really ponder a lot of the sentences. I’m still in the portion of the game I played earlier this year tho, and still have to take it in small doses
Novels: Started making progress on わたおし | L32 again. It’s honestly not that interesting at this point, but it’s also not that hard. So it works in a “read for a little bit” way. If I wasn’t 56% through, I’d probly drop it… but like I may as well finish it. 裏世界ピクニック | L32 is 8-10 pgs per lesson, which is frustratingly slow. If my reading pace doesn’t start getting faster in the next month, I think I’ll start picking something easier to do in lessons, b/c I don’t wanna be reading this book forever.
I wish audio + text counted for the listening challenge, cuz then I’d be going through 転生王女と天才令嬢の魔法革命 | L33 a lot more
I also started making progress on 空の軌跡 playthrough again. On vid 5/45
They were okay. Some of the songs I liked, some were kinda ?? But the ones I liked didn’t blow me away the way songs from say Heroines Run the Show did
Definitely not something I’d go out of my way to listen to, but I’d enjoy it enough if it came up on Spotify or something
I like the original songs most, basically the OP and ED songs from both seasons. Most of the songs in-story are just renditions of old AKB48 songs, which I’m not a huge fan of.
Audio Challenge: I decided to modify my August Listening Challenge to include audiobooks + text, and game playthroughs (where everything is out loud, and the majority of the game is speech) to count. But also upped my challenge hrs to 75/100 to compensate. I’m only at 23 so far Otoh it means I’m finally making progress on 転生王女と天才令嬢の魔法革命 | L33 again
ガルクラ: finally has an official EN release in North America… so I’m watching it for the 5th time (this time with Toei’s EN subs) to see what I missed, and also just how the subs are… やっぱり there’s still things here & there I was missing (悔しい), but the subs have definitely helped break those parts down. Some of that was audio comprehension, and some was meaning comprehension. Curious to see how much of it sticks when I rewatch it in 3 weeks (Blu-Ray 3 will be here by then)… if only it was here sooner, I could use it for the Audio challenge
As for Toei’s EN subs… based on the first 3 eps, I think they’re a solid reflection of the Japanese, while not sounding awkward in English (tho I think I’ve somewhat lost my sense of this over time lol). There’s been an occasional moment where I didn’t get, or disagreed with, a certain choice… but like 2-3 words in 3 episodes
Anyway, it’s nice that if I get stuck on something on my next rewatch, I’ll be able to pull up the official translation to check
I finally pushed myself past my 8-10 pgs with 裏世界ピクニック… managed to get in 15 pgs this time. I had to really push myself though, and it probably affected my comprehension somewhat (but also I’m tired today and it was a semi-nonsensical scene anyway). I don’t think having listened to the audiobook a few days ago helped that much, but some things did feel kinda familiar. Anyway, now I’m done with chapter 1… I probly want to do something else in my lessons… but I have to think about what.
Dropped Konosuba earlier, b/c I just haven’t felt motivated to continue, and did another ep of ヲタクに恋は難しい S1 | L27 - which similar to the manga, my comprehension is probly like 85-90%(?) and a lot of the hard stuff is like slang or otaku references.
I’m watching ガールズバンドクライ for the 5th time now, but with EN subs, since Toei just released it in North America. It’s been helpful to double-check what I’m hearing, and see what things I’m still missing. If there’s things I’m still not getting in real time on my next watch (probly 1st week of September), I’ll probably resort to actually writing those parts out, or even Anki
Yesterday I learned that いろは order is used (not sure if historically or still currently) for music keys as well. The manga I was reading mentioned ト短調 but I would never have guessed that it was 
