Did you continue to enjoy this? I read your review, but wanted to ask anyway. I can add one more item to my CD Japan order without further increasing the shipping cost, so I might add this.
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I did. Somewhere in the middle, it felt not quite as exciting as the beginning… but not to the same extent that 紡ぐ乙女と大正の月 1 | L31 did for me … It felt more level overall, if that makes sense
I’ll probably get vol 2 digitally when it’s out. Edit: tho ideally I’d get it physical… But idk how likely that is
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General
Weekly Progress
Been sorta annoyed constantly editing the weekly progress comment here. Realized I can do it in PM to myself, and then just edit the comment at the end of the day. Checking off the items is a nice dopamine reward 
and also nice having a loose structure, to make sure I’m consistently working on this
Lessons
Somehow I set up a lesson with a 2nd Kansai-ben teacher?! 
She had super cheap rates and sent me a message. I hadn’t set one up initially, cuz our schedules didn’t align. Her lessons seem to be more free talk, which I think will be helpful. It’s not till the end of the month. Assuming I stick with one or both teachers, this is pretty much the final nail in the coffin, as me ordering physical stuff goes. Anyway, lesson w/ the first teacher is on Wednesday… I’m kind of intimidated
Book Clubs
I voted very minimally in the LN, Beginner LN, and VN clubs… and to my chagrin(?), the ones I voted for are all winning so far. So much for trying not to join book clubs… Thankfully I’ve already read a good chunk of 裏世界ピクニック 1 ふたりの怪異探検ファイル | L33 and 凜として弓を引く | L26?? should be easy. If the VN club goes with flowers, I’ll probly use the playthrough vid for that. That’s the one I’m most worried about… especially since 空の軌跡 is out in a few days.
Grimgar 
Finished the second 1/2 of 灰と幻想のグリムガル level.14+ 相変わらずではいられない | L31 and partially into the final story of 灰と幻想のグリムガル level.14++ もし君とまた会えたなら | L31 . It’s kinda weird reading Yume’s parts now, cuz I’m analyzing her speech while doing it, rather than just vaguely getting the gyst of it. One thing I noticed is she has an interesting エセ関西弁 tick, she often says stuff like 〜と思うねやんか (including in that clip I’ve been shadowing) or 昨日のことみたいねやんかあ. I’m assuming it’s an intentional writing choice, since (very mild spoiler) she is not actually Kansai-native, and has language trouble in general… Tho I did find it in one panel in ラブ★コン 2 | L25 as well (I forget to screenshot it tho)… I’ll ask my teacher about it tomorrow
I’ve been using a 国語辞書 more, while reading Grimgar. It feels fairly comfortable - though there are some sentences that either don’t click, have too many unknown words, I get wrong b/c my brain is expecting the word to be one thing, but it’s in fact another.
Shadowing, Audio & Reading Aloud 
Started shadowing セトウツミ 1 | L23 and woooow they talk so fast!! Like even on .7x I can just barely keep up with certain lines. I’m more after the intonation than the speed, but I’d love to get the speed too. The audiobook has 2 actors for the male characters, their vocal styles are pretty different. I’m glad I’ve been able to find such a variety of vocal & speech styles, between all the different audio sources I have.
I’ve been annoyed by how unsmooth my outloud reading is (and this is relevant for shadowing too). Like I’ll be able to read fast, up to a break point, and then have to pause and process the next part. I assume the answer to this is to just read at a slower, but steady tempo. It also makes a difference whether there’s less familiar words, or vocal patterns I’m not used to making (like a lot of the Kansai 語尾 ones). Another “I’ll get there eventually” sorta thing
A use case for EN subs? 
Inspired by a recent post by @bungakushoujo , I decided to give a try rewatching the first ep of Lovely Complex w/ EN subs (I’ve already watched it once, plus listened to the audio). The original context is about intensive listening. To quote from the post:
I posted in my last log entry about the concept of schema and how I was reading a book called 英語独学法 looking for some gems or tips on how to study that I could use to mix up what I am doing and learn better. Well, I finished reading it this past week and one concept shared by the author as a way to do intensive listening really surprised me: She suggested that watching things with native language subtitles is helpful for doing intensive listening and learning from a cognitive psychology pov, since it removes the mental burden of trying to follow along and understand the story - instead you can just listen and try to understand the speech, and rewind and dig deeper into why you didn’t understand when you don’t. Furthermore, seeing the subtitles on screen and comparing it with the language you are hearing lets you further notice differences between your native and target language and move away from using your native language schema.
So I was curious, does that last part about helping “move away from using your native language schema” actually hold up? Based on the episode I tried… yeah, I can kinda see that in some parts. Also it was helpful for grabbing some small things I missed. I had to add in the JP subs at one point, b/c there were some lines where I wasn’t quite getting the words. I’ll probly try with another episode or two, but it’s low on the totem pole. It reminds me of the handful of times I tried transcribing episodes (along with the subs)… I think that was actually pretty helpful with the schema shifting… but it’s very intensive, since I was hand-writing. Since my kanji knowledge is a lot stronger now, the writing portion would probably be easier.
Standard → Kansai subs
I also tried this with 会社の昼休み / During Lunch | Kansaibenkyou.net . First reading the standard transcription, while listening to the Kansai audio, and then the English translation. The former is hard, since it’s pushing my reading speed, but that conversion is something I’m trying to work on in general. The EN trascript did help parse a small part I wasn’t quite getting (too fast). Anyway, idk how much benefit there really is to doing that w/ audio vs not at this point.
Audiobooks 
I’ve been thinking recently that audio + text might not be the best thing for me, in cases where comprehension matter. Reason being: my thoughts are likely to drift, and I’m not likely to rewind. Otoh it is useful for improving audio recognition & comprehension. I might still use it for 裏世界ピクニック though, particularly for the portion I’ve already read. Idk.
Anyway I’ve spent waaaay too long writing this. So I’m gonna go do some Japanese and/or work things now
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Difficulty is just my guess, as it seems. Nobody has read the book yet.
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I figured, but still it’s < L30 - so that’s perfectly comfortable for me
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I have a yuri recommendation for you @暁のルナ! I’ve been reading 暗黒女子 | L34 in English and thought you might enjoy it; it takes place at an all-girls Christian school in Japan, focusing on the girls of the school’s literature club. The club president dies prior to the book’s start, and the book is written as a series of short stories the other girls in the club write giving their POV on her death, and why they think it was murder. (I don’t know enough about Class-S to say whether it’s an example of it or not, sadly.)
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Thx! I feel like I’ve read that synopsis on the site before, but wasn’t particularly interested at the time… But now it sounds interesting. Thx for the rec!
Do they have a 義姉妹 system (formal or informal) where a senpai takes a kouhai under her wing, in what’s basically a romantic friendship, nominally meant to help guide the younger student in her life at school/in general?
That’s basically the defining feature
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Ah, gotcha. In that case then, definitely not.
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Had first lesson w/ new Kansai-ben teacher (N-sensei). He was very complimentary about my level in general, with both kansai-ben and standard, and was impressed that I’ve only been working on it for 2-3 weeks. He even said my intonation was good (which almost makes me wonder if my 標準語 intonation is just kinda shitty … 冗談けど驚いたわ), and that my accent is actually こてこて (stereotypically thick - meaning I speak it well). We did some vocab at the beginning of the class, and he gave me homework to write a sentence w/ each word. It’s only 6 words though, so I’ll probly write 2 or 3 sentences for each.
In general I feel like I’ve been getting a gradually better grasp of some of the grammar and 使い方 of things, just by going through media. Of course the most helpful there is something like Example conversations | Kansaibenkyou.net where you can see the 標準語 and 関西弁 versions is the most helpful. Been working on intonation too via shadowing, but it really takes effort, and it’s easy to get tired. I have been internally hearing certain words or phrases in Kansai intonation when I read… but mostly like salutation-type stuff. Still, it’s some progress
I started writing this yesterday: Finished lesson w/ Y sensei… やっぱり標準語のイントネーションはまだようつこったけど、少しずつ関西弁のイントネーションもつこった。シャドーイングは効果になった (the last part’s probly off, but w/e). Also I had more slipping into standard than I was expecting (especially with ない and ～ちゃう（「てしまう」の「ちゃう」）)… but she said she can definitely hear an improvement from 2 weeks ago
I asked Y-sensei about what first person pronoun(s) she usually uses. She said mostly わたし, but at home she sometimes uses わし (but would definitely not use it outside, as it’s very おっさん or masculine sounding), and when she was younger (or maybe occasionally now), she’d use うち in more informal settings (like with her friends), but that it would sound childish in a formal setting. She also mentioned that the intonation is probably different (standard would be LHH, and Kansai HHL). And her son uses ぼく at home, and おれ outside/with his friends. I’m clumsily switching off between わたし and あたし in lessons at this point… but trying to get more used to saying あたし
Otherwise I’m slowly progressing through 灰と幻想のグリムガル level.14++ もし君とまた会えたなら | L31 . I do feel bad I’m not progressing faster, but しゃないな～… the Kansai-ben stuff has really been taking up most of my Japanese time. Trying not to finish ラブ★コン 2 | L25 too quickly, but I’ll probly end up buying vol 3 soon enough… hopefully the physicals get to Cdjapan (and then to me) soon. One thing I did earlier was write out some lines from ラブ★コン ep 4, as I was watching. I wrote them mostly in hiragana, just to keep it flowing. I’ve been really happy in general that I’ve been gradually finding more & more useful media or resources… at first it seemed like there wasn’t gonna be that much. Watched the live-action for ラブ★コン. It was surprisingly good, and I understood 98%. A few lines I missed - partially due to spacing out.
Tobira came, and I went through most of the geography reading (but got bored), then the first two sample conversations. I decided I’m gonna actually write out the 内容質問 answers this time around. Should be pretty simple. I think I’ll go back and finish the geography reading… it’s not actually boring, I’m just more interested in the conversation parts right now. It’s nice having the physical textbook, but wow it’s heavy!
Words from today’s lesson:
| 語彙 | 定義 | 誰が使う |
|---|---|---|
| ばり | とても、すごく、めっちゃ | 大阪や滋賀の若い人がよう使う |
| いっちゃん | 一番、最も | |
| こてこて(の) | 典型的なとても濃い。とても濃い | |
| しける | 面白くない、場が冷める、スベル | |
| まける | 安くする | ほとんど おばあさんたち |
| せこい | けち、ずるい |
Anyway, despite everything I wrote above, I feel like I’m not making enough progress with Kansai-ben… so 頑張らな！(yes, my brain actually works this way…)
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Oh I started a new drama today and thought of you: 自転車屋さんの高橋くん S1 | L25
It’s about 60/40 standard to Kansai ben I’d say from the first episode. The main lead is from Tokyo, and her obvious gonna be love interest is from Kansai. He also talks fairly rough, which I feel like I haven’t heard all that much of before.
Anyway, it’s live action, but so far (I mean, I’m one episode in), it seems to be well acted for a jdrama.
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Thx, I started reading the manga, and the percentage seems about right so far… Maybe 45/55. Also I’m practically falling for this guy. I just got to the scene where he tells her to treat him to dinner, to pay for the bike repairs. Anyway it’s very easy to read. Edit: actually I got further she went on a date with her coworker who she doesn’t like at all, and bumped into Ryoukei and friends at the movies
I couldn’t tell anything from the TV trailer, but maybe I’ll give it a try. I feel like I should make more progress on アベノ橋魔法☆商店街 S1 | L30?? and 光が死んだ夏 S1 | L28 first tho
That seems pretty typical to me? At least the manga speech isn’t all that different from say 大谷. Slightly more こてこて (since everyone in ラブ★コン mixes in standard). Maybe the TV show feels different tho?
Edit: tho this is the first time I’ve seen 偉い like this:
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The actor who plays him is outstandingly good-looking. Like I would have watched this show a long time ago if I knew that. Not me planning to look up everything else he’s been in so I can just stare at him some more.
Maybe it’s just that I haven’t watched a lot of Kansai shows… or maybe I’ve actually only recently been able to understand that kind of speech with any fluency at all, regardless of the dialect. 
But yeah, he talks exactly like that manga panel all the time (and wow, he’s really hot in the manga too… maybe I’ll need to read it afterwards 
).
Edit: lol, it was already on my wishlist. I do not remember putting it there.
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Seems 普通 to me (but I’m not that into guys… most of the time)
But this I’ll agree with!
Me but with voice actors
I watched the first ep, and agreed, but I hate how they drag certain moments out, cuz it feels creepier. Also didn’t care for where they ended the episode - but 23 min, I get it.
Sounds like the more likely of the two. I wouldn’t really consider his speech that rough. It’s definitely こてこて, but seems like typical informal guy speech. Also I’m probably discounting the Kansai portion of it, cuz I’m already used to it. Curious if this seems equally or more rough to you: セトウツミ 映画 clip (the audiobook version sounds a bit less intense than this)
ところで my first exposure to Kansai-ben was probably this scene in SAO (which I still have to listen closely to fully make out)… Long before I knew what Kansai-ben was:
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Saw 劇場版「鬼滅の刃」無限城編 | L27 in theatres (EN Subs) with my friend. I could have gotten a lot of it without subs, but some parts with too many unfamiliar words, or too ous BG music. Still like 90-95% I would have been fine, I think.
Started 空の軌跡 the 1st. I can follow the story parts perfectly fine, but there’s basically 3 categories:
- Dialogue - comfortable with or without audio
- NPC speech - mostly comfortable without. Reading speed doesn’t get too slow
- Game mechanics and tutorials - reading speed tanks
I took pics of all those screens, and will probably make an Anki or jpdb deck from it… With the latter being the much easier to make, but less convenient option of the two. (Less convenient bc I’m in the middle of Kansai stuff on there). Still it’s not too much effort to make the deck via Akebi… Tho maybe just reading through it once on my phone will be fine.
I’ll probably try to play a bit each day. Don’t want to overdo it, since I don’t wanna take too much time away from Kansai & Grimgar, and I could easily get lost for days with this game.
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And then I stayed up till 7:30AM playing… which is more than a little bit bc of all the caffeine I had while watching Demon Slayer
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Found a cool way to use Tobira: write the definitions in JP
I mostly stick to hiragana, so I get less tired as I do it, but if I feel like it I’ll write the kanji . My handwriting is certainly sloppy, but the exercise of reading the JP defs and then writing them is more the point. Great way to pick up new vocab too. If I really wanted to go in on it, I could use the physical dictionary… But Tobira’s already one heavy book, so that would be overkill I think
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Feel free to revive the ⛩️ Tobira Study Group - Open for all! 
I’m planning to rekindle my efforts there once I get back from vaycaycay. I did go through the book quite thoroughly, but it wasn’t intended that everyone has to do that.
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Will do if there’s something it seems like I need it for
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Lessons
Just had lesson with Y-sensei… I’ve been a little light on the Kansai immersion the last few days, btwn 空の軌跡 coming out, and trying to get more progress on Grimgar and the other books… so I felt a bit out of my element for the first few minutes, and there were various things I was hearing that are like “I haven’t internalized this yet”… so I need to keep up more audio immersion, I think. The lesson itself was fun though!
Otoh I’m reading through the preview of 佐々木さんと宮本くん 1 | L28 (which supposedly has Kansai, but I’m not seeing any), and auto-correcting parts of it to Kansai in my head… so something is sticking
N-sensei pointed out about the Yume (Grimgar) clip:
- ものっそい多きオオカミ: most people from Osaka don’t say ものっそい (instead of ものすごい) - that’s apparently a Kagawa (Shikoku area) thing. But he’d say めっちゃ大きい (he is from Osaka)
- と思うねやんか: ～ねやんか is probably a reduction of ～ねんやんか
Gifu vs Kansai
Though one thing that did come up is that 自転車屋さんの高橋くん 1 | L25 is actually set in 岐阜, which is a bit northeast of Kansai, and has a slightly different dialect. I can’t tell the differences at this point… but I added tags for both Tokai-Tosan dialects (the parent group) and Gifu-Aichi dialect now. Finished vol 1
How to balance things
It’s frustrating trying to figure out how to balance things right now, between:
- Keeping up daily kansai routine… I can do the bare minimum if necessary, but that feels like too little
- Grimgar - I’d really love to get through more than 1 book per week
- 空の軌跡 - This is the biggest variable… cuz I could easily spend like 30 min or 6 hrs
- Book clubs - the perpetual thorn in my side 笑
Book clubs:
- 明日の世界 - Finished
- クラにか I need to read all of chapter 4 this week (kindle thinks this will be 3.5 hrs, but idk if accurate)
- そうなんだ!日本の歴史のお話 古代~室町時代編 dropped for now, but may pick up again in the next few weeks
- 百合オタ I can read whenever I’m in the mood… after that I’m not entirely sure whether to keep the Class S & related club going, or to just put it on hiatus. I’m in a pretty different place now vs when I started it.
Future:
- Home Thread for 凜として弓を引く (Beginner LN club) - Reading in October, tbd - to my huge relief, everybody wants schedule-optional or schedule-free so far
- Visual Novel club - Update: Fuyukara is the selection. Which frees up my plate
Kansai Progress
I think I’ll stop trying to limit how fast I go through these - since I’ve found more than enough (btwn ラブ★コン | L25 and セトウツミ 1 | L23 there’s 25 volumes, not to mention plenty of audio). I’ve been nervous I’ll get sick of Lovely Complex - but that doesn’t seem to be happening So I’ll continue listening to the anime episodes audio, and/or get myself to play the game a bit more. セトウツミ I can basically spend forever shadowing - so it’s enjoyable getting through that at a snail’s pace lol. Otoh I’ve gotten kinda sick of まんじ and don’t feel like I’m getting much out of it, compared to other sources, in part b/c of the speech rate. So I may double the pace, so I can be done with it.
Considering whether I should pause うちの師匠はしっぽがない 1 | L33 . Decided to pick 舞妓さんちのまかないさん | L25 back up
Also I think I need to increase shadowing time. It’s intense, but it’s literally the way to get better at speaking. So I’ll make those mandatory for my dailies
Grimgar
Otherwise Grimgar is my main time conflict. I’m probly gonna have to settle for 1 book per week for now. Kindle thinks I have 10 hrs left for this volume - so that would be about 2 hrs per day, for the rest of this week to stay on schedule.
Anyway, I’ve spent way too long writing this post… which helped me clear my head a bit… but I’m gonna get back to doing the reading & listening & stuff
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Reading Progress
Well I spent basically two days straight reading Grimgar, and finished 15-16. That was great, but I think a little too taxing lol. Almost missed a really important detail. Otoh I feel much more relieved about my progress now. There’s 8 volumes left now… which is 2x the number of weeks left in Week 16 - クラスで2番目に可愛い女の子と友だちになった | L27 - Light Novel Club … so I’ve started catching up with that
Lessons
I had my 2nd Kansai lesson with Na-sensei, and didn’t really feel so good about this one. I don’t feel like he really has a good grasp of my level - or I guess what to do for a student who is less beginner. And I was hoping he’d be able to figure out how to adjust more. I also feel like his communication style is a bit わかりにくい.
I’m thinking about whether I want to try to write him some feedback, or just move on. Leaning towards the latter. If I do want to try making it work I think I’d need to specifically do/ask for the following:
- More intonation correction
- More “how to say”, in conversation practice
- I bring in questions
- Maybe just eliminate the beginning “let’s do grammar” portion, and have it all be free talk?
I also think I need to think up new things to talk about, in general. Most of my conversation tends to be about fiction I’m reading or watching… and I’ve gotten decent at that. So I feel like it might be time to improve in some other area of conversation. Wrt grammar, I think I’ve been getting more of that on my own than I expected. So except for when I have specific questions, I think I’m better off just doing that on my own.
I have a first lesson with Ne-sensei next week… Hopefully that feels like a better fit
Tobira
Got up to to the grammar portion of ch 1 in Tobira. I didn’t answer the reading comprehension questions this time around, but did write in the sample conversations. Most of the grammar points are very familiar, but I think I will try writing out a sentence or two for the ones that are less automatic, tomorrow. Listened to some of the audio as well - that was cool… particularly since one samples uses うち for 家… like how would I have known that?
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