I see, you will catch up in no time 
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ごきげんよう！ 
This week I focused on updating my JPDB. Because I have just started lately there are a lot known vocabularies that I need to mark as “will never forget”. Before yesterday I would have done so in my regular reviewing schedule, but yesterday I stumbled across the fact, that I can do this also when viewing the whole list. So I have sit a lot on my phone and scanning through the lists. Currently I have both decks available マリア様がみてる 28 フレームオブマインド | L29 and 鏡の孤城 | L28.
I haven’t finished going through the lists but here are the stats I currently have:
- Marimite: Vocabulary 29,73% and coverage 71,27%
- Kagami no Kojou: Vocabulary 19,59% and coverage 71,39%
Btw, what does the number in the brackets mean, when there is “Vocabulary 29,73% (31,15%)”?
I sometimes did not have the time to read and sometimes did not have the muse to do so this week. So in the end I rarely read, but I did read a bit in Marimite. I finished another chapter and will update my comment in the Marimite thread later. The volume I am reading has a lot of small chapters in it. One main background story that is disrupted by other (related?) short stories. I like how this volume is structured and all of the short stories are unexpectedly 楽しい to read. And I really want to talk about them, but will have to hide them behind spoiler alerts here 
I created my first thread this week Stumbling in the intermediate plateau - growing together 
and was so happy, that so many participated right after. I was a bit nervous about opening a thread on my own, but I guess there was no reason to feel that way 
ルナちゃん also has linked me at the bookclub thread starting withClass-S (and Related) Reading Club . I have voted for some. I’m not sure yet, if I can join, but I want to leave this decision open for now.
I’m quite a slow reader. Both in my native language as well as in Japanese. I lately have read with a timer set so that learnnatively could calculate my stats, but I’m not so sure whether this will help me. Though maybe I will do so in a regular but not yet determined cycle. For Marimite I got 6 pages per 25 minutes and for Kagami no Kojou it was 5 pages per 25 minutes.
それではまたね！
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It may have something to do with including blacklisted words? I’ve also wondered this. Btw if you haven’t gone through the settings yet, there are settings to auto-blacklist certain very common things, which may save you some time from doing it manually… It’s such a pain at first, but you get there eventually.
I think something went wrong, and your views didn’t go through, cuz I don’t see them showing up. As for joining - it’s informal/open-ended, so ppl can join whenever, read at their own pace, etc
I might be a very delayed/slow participant this time around, depending on what gets picked
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Oh, that would make sense. Thank you! And yes, I went a bit through the settings, so that most of the particles are auto-blacklisted. That would really have been more hassle 
Oh! Thank you for mentioning this. I just checked and recognized that I could vote again. Now it should show up at your end, too. Maybe there was a lack of internet before 
Ah okay, so “informal” means the same as “open-ended”? Good to know. Then I can add it to my TBR list and start it when I feel like it 
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The number outside the brackets are your percentage of know vocabulary considering only the know vocabs.
The number inside the brackets is how much vocabulary percentage you will have if all your “Learning” vocabulary becomes “Know”.
As you get vocabs correctly, they get to a higher level, 0 to 7, when they are level 3, they become Know.
Also, you can find some cool material about JPDB in their discord, like userscripts extensions, tools to manage decks and some pre-made decks outside the official JPDB.
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Thank you so much for explaining this and also the additional info to check out their discord. This is available for Patreon supporters, right?
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ごきげんよう！
I got quite the cold last week that was coming in slowly, but steadily getting worse, making me rest from work and living on the couch for days without being able to do anything except for binge-watching anime and drowsing off now and then.
Beginning of last week I read a lot of マリア様がみてる 28 フレームオブマインド | L29 and continued today, so I reached page 212 and 84%. Other volumes of that series would have been finished by now but this volume is a bit longer. 40 more pages to go! 
Regarding my JPDB stats I continued going through the list and checking the vocabulary that I will never forget. Now I encounter some vocabularies that I know but where I’m missing a nuance and feel troubled about what to do with them so they don’t get any check for now.
- Marimite: Vocabulary 31,81% and coverage 72,61%
- Kagami no Kojou: Vocabulary 20,39% and coverage 72,00%
I like it when I read or hear a vocabulary and it pops up everywhere since then 
And I learned such a sweet vocabulary these days called 妖精 ようせい fairy.
ではまたね！
EDIT: I added new impressions of Marimite to my comment here.
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Hope you’re feeling better!!
Will the jpdb cards help you with that tho? I find reading in context is usually how that gets across for me
That is a favorite phenomenon of mine 
A favorite word of mine
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Everyone can join their discord, there’s a lot of people that discuss things about learning japanese, jpdb itself, immersion content, a lot of things, if you are a Patreon supporter you can have a tag of supporter on the server I think
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Thank you, I didn’t know that and directly joined! There is really a lot going on 
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Good point. This may have been my “I want to do everything perfectly” trait I was fully convinced to do so in the past but am not anymore. Seems like it is still popping up here or there.
After thinking about this for a few days, I think this really would not help. Though the idea of having a card that tells me, there is still something I don’t fully grasp, the negative effect might be greater than what I want to gain from it.
Hehe, that really is fun, isn’t it? Though I haven’t had this experience in a while. Maybe that’s why I’m really enjoying this with 妖精.
Just want to leave an いいね here
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ごきげんよう！
I finished マリア様がみてる 28 フレームオブマインド | L29 today and started the next volume. Wow, that really took me a long time. One factor is, that volume 28 consists of 252 pages to read instead of the usual ~180 pages.
Impressions with spoilers can be found behind the details in my comment here and a review here.
I was bit troubled in the last days with JPDB and reading. I wanted to continue 鏡の孤城 | L28, but at the same time I wanted to do a bit more of the flashcards beforehand, to get the experience of first learning and seeing the vocabularies in context. But I could not bring myself to study on JPDB as there is still a long backlog on vocabularies I need to go through.
Finally yesterday went through the Kagami no Kojou deck and checked those vocabularies I understand and have already learned. Here I tried not to be too perfectionistic like only checking them after knowing everyone of those nuances. With this it felt more fulfilling. I also decided to put some vocabularies onto the ignore list, as I’m sure I won’t want to learn them right now.
Then I also continued to read some pages from Kagami no Kojou. That was great!
Some stats:
JPDB
- Marimite 29: Vocabulary 31,81% → 36,18% and coverage 72,61% → 76,49%
- Kagami no Kojou: Vocabulary 20,39% → 27,68% and coverage 78,90%
Natively
- Marimite 28: page 175 → finished
- Marimite 29: started → page 11 (5%)
- Kagami no Kojou: page 41 (7%) → page 46 (8%)
- Subete Mayonaka no Koibitotachi: page 72 (20%)
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こんばんは！
I forgot to mention it, but for my last update I also did sign up for JLPT N2 this summer. That is an awesome achievement in it self actually, as I tried two times before to sign up but it had been fully booked twice. This time I checked the website very regularly and once the information was updated when they would open the application I put this date into my calendar and proceeded with the application 
I also got the acceptance letter so I’m quite happy now 
My goal for the upcoming N2 is to try it out. I like the JLPT exams for measuring my current level. And since I passed N3 in 2017 I haven’t had the chance to apply for it. (in the meantime I used the 漢検 for testing myself)
@暁のルナ is now catching up to me on Marimite and we are both currently reading volume 29 (in case she is not finishing this right now, though I also only need a couple of pages).
It is so much fun, because the main story continues and I’m exactly there where I wanted to be 2017 when I started reading those novels. Main reason for tackling this is that I love the story I got to know from the manga and anime and wanted to know how it proceeds. The anime has four seasons and is covering until volume 27. As I knew at 2017 with just passing N3 and never touching any novels in Japanese before I wanted to start early on to build up the vocabulary to be actually able to enjoy the reading when I would be catching up. … and I definitely achieved that! I’m very proud on myself I tackled this high level novel series, stuck to it and learned a lot. Though if I had known about learnnatively before last year I may have used another approach for learning on reading in Japanese with native material
Some stats:
JPDB
- Marimite 29: Vocabulary 36,18% → 44,34% and coverage 76,49% → 84,19%
- Kagami no Kojou: Vocabulary 27,68% → 31,38% and coverage 78,90% → 80,91%
Natively
- Marimite 29: page 11 (5%) → page 179 (91%)
- Kagami no Kojou: page 46 (8%)
- Subete Mayonaka no Koibitotachi: page 72 (20%)
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I literally was on the last chapter as you were writing this Now I just need to go back and read 28. It’s been so nice to be able to share thoughts on them (and I look forward to more!).
While I’ve read a decent number of novels, this was a large part of why I started at the beginning of the series. When I started these, they were a good challenge - the writing style was really tricky for me, and I couldn’t trust my reading comprehension (not to mention vocab)… I cannot imagine reading these as my first novels
Anyway there’s something special about reading this far into a series, right? Congrats on the achievement
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I also finished volume 29 that evening. Got so excited writing about it, that I forgot to go to bed early and read through the end 
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I totally agree. Though I could not compare at that time I also was struggling with the writing style and the translation I had in my head for a few sentences. I also remember going through some sentences to explicitly check the sentence structure and grammar points. And there were sooo many vocabularies I didn’t know. I need to check the volume I started with … if I remember correctly I did use kind of a workbook in the beginning
I would also not recommend trying those as someone’s first novels if I get ever asked 
Thank you so much! And yes, I can totally relate. And when I have a look at my bookshelf and physically see the number of volumes I have read from Marimite, the year’s I have stayed with the characters. They are already like a part of myself
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こんにちは
I started volume 30 the next day I had finished reading through volume 29 and also worked through the JPDB deck. But then I missed a day, and another day and now there were almost two weeks without any readings.
I recognized in the last years that I cannot read when I am stressed. And in the last two weeks there was so much to do for work, privately & also spending a lot on time reading through political news. There were no time and energy left for reading. Reading is a good anti-stressor, but if I am already stressed too much I am not able to read, so … books are sadly not my savior when I am stressed 
In the last two days I read like one or two pages in the evening right before going to bed, but not more. Strangely - or interestingly - I had the desire to pick up my Japanese book about IT stuff that I had bought one year ago. A really big book I wanted to go through to improve my business Japanese. So … maybe I crave for more technical and objective content when I am stressed instead of continuing my novels? … Though I had the desire to pick up the book, I actually did not do so.
Sooo, I will gather some stats now and then go on working. Just wanted to leave a comment here to later see when and how I am struggling in my Japanese journey.
JPDB
- Marimite 30: started Vocabulary 39,51 → 40,58% and coverage 76,87% → 80,11%
- Kagami no Kojou: Vocabulary 31,38% → 31,84% and coverage 80,91% → 81,94%
Natively
- Marimite 29: page 179 (91%) → finished
- Marimite 30: started → page 46 (24%)
- Kagami no Kojou: page 46 (8%)
- Subete Mayonaka no Koibitotachi: page 72 (20%)
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お久しぶり！
I was captivated with daily private and work life and last weekend came back from Japan. I did Japanese in the meantime but hardly had any time left to browse on learnnatively (good thing is, that I now have a lot available to read +grin+).
Japan was awesome. It was my third visit and as posted in Physical Media Megathread - #1002 by Makochou101 I did buy some books. Before my visit I created some private tags on my learnnatively wishlist and tagged all the books I wanted to buy. However I got quite lost in the big book store in the huge department store so that I just asked a personnel to guide me to Mochitzuki Sensei’s books and gave up on the other books on my list .
Some background to 京都寺町三条のホームズ with only light spoilers, if
京都寺町三条のホームズ | L31 from Mochitsuki Sensei I got to know from a friend who presented to me the first volume. I read this last summer and really enjoyed the story. Until now it is like a light-romance novel with a lot of mystery and Kyoto culture. Also the main location is the antique store where Holmes-san (Kiyotaka-san) works part-time while studying. It is his family’s store. Aoi is a high-school girl moving in to Kyoto from … What was it exactly? Sendai? Saitama? Regardless, we get a lot of Kansai-ben, which is refreshing, though the main characters usually talk in standard Japanese with each other.
I went to Saitama to Iwatsuki which is the city of 人形 and where you can also find a lot of advertisement to the manga and anime called その着せ替え人形は恋をする 1 | L25 (I forgot whether the story is also located in Iwatsuki, but would make sense). In Iwatsuki you have the 人形 museum that I can totally recommend to visit if you are interested.
More about on what I liked in the 人形 museum
This year they have 5th anniversary and a really great exhibition of 人形s. You can visit their web page here for more information in detail. I personally was really fascinated on how the 人形s are made and how much this was reflected in the anime mentioned above. And then to see the permanent exhibition and the anniversary exhibition with the so many 人形s. All in different sizes, colors. From different times from mostly the Edo epoch. I specifically liked two 人形s from the anniversary exhibition (need to look up their craftsperson later). One was a feminine Hina-Matsuri Doll and her specific way of looking. Really cunning. And one was from a set of musicians that were displayed on the Hina-Matsuri onto the staircase where the craftsperson created those as females and with faces as they were playing a joke. So much life in those two 人形s!
My speaking Japanese went quite well. After a little bit of shyness on the first day, I enjoyed talking with them and also tried to not cut the conversations to a minimum but rather extend them with a little bit of 世間話 and sometimes we went ahead. My longest conversation was in one 人形 store actually in Saitama-Iwatsuki, where I just wanted to look through the windows but was invited to come inside to have a look.
I also often got asked whether I lived in Japan or whether I went to highschool or university in Japan. They usually started those conversations with “日本語が上手ですね。日本に住んでますか”. The first time I was a bit taken aback, but then genuinely happy about this. Though I personally would not have rated myself as someone speaking Japanese like living there 
JPDB
- Marimite 30: Vocabulary 40,58% → 39,92% and coverage 80,11% → 79,88%
- Kagami no Kojou: Vocabulary 31,84% → 31,25% and coverage 81,94% → 81,76%
They actually go down when I don’t review. +laugh+ Good to know. But yes, totally makes sense!
Natively
- Marimite 30: page 46 (24%) → page 136 (71%)
- Kagami no Kojou: page 46 (8%) → page 52 (9%)
- Subete Mayonaka no Koibitotachi: page 72 (20%)
- Kakushigoto: started → page 18 (5%)
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Quarterly Recab 2025 Q1
Just recognized we are almost at the end of March, so I want to think about the last months a bit.
End of last year / beginning of this year I joined the forum and created my own learning log.
I have a lot of fun with マリア様がみてる & お釈迦様もみてる Home Thread - #79 by 暁のルナ and talking about Marimite. I enjoy reading our reviews and discussing about the scenes. It really got me motivated to read the books at a higher pace than I usually do.
I’m reading through other people’s learning log’s and I started out with JPDB. And though I cannot attend to this as regularly as I liked this is really helping me while reading.
Hhhhm. Regarding goals. I was not able to write down specific goals for 2025 at the beginning of this year, but I managed to apply for JLPT N2 this summer
And let me have a brief look at the learnnatively statistics so far … I have already finished 2 books and 600 pages. That’s almost half of what I accomplished last year
I guess I will continue without any specific goals for now
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Same here - it’s been very fun. Maybe you’ll motivate me to read the volumes I skipped/paused, when you get to them (hopefully I’ll be done w/ Sailor Moon by then)
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