My Japanese Reading and studying Experiences - CatDQ

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Apparently polyglots say that the better you are at this, the faster you’ll progress in a language since you’re going to get more exposure to the language than you would stoping all of the time to look things up.

Since I only speak English and my best foreign language is my middle- pushing high-intermediate Japanese I can only repeat what I’ve heard others say, but I have also noticed that I’ve become more tolerant of not perfectly understanding every single phrase. And now that I think about it, working on listening comprehension by watching raw anime has really helped push me into that zone.

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Thank you for the advice. I do appreciate it and for certain people it does work. However for me, I have tried doing less cards per day and even focusing on a smaller amount of cards before adding more and it always ends the same way with me getting to a point that I am forgetting the words I’ve studied because there are too many reviews as I start forgetting words because I’m not seeing them in context outside of the sentences on the flashcards. I’ve tried multiple different SRS systems for years on and off with the same results (by on and off I mean using them consistently for like 8-9 months then finding The issues above escalated so I stoped for several months then try again and repeat the cycle in different ways).

My brain needs to find the information relevant and useful or it forgets it and no amount of srs flashcards help. The only way that seems to help me is by coming across it naturally and re-reading the article or book etc several times with months of a gap in between.

All of the stuff that I’ve remembered in Japanese is stuff that I’ve used in everyday life from reading/ listening, or in the letters and conversations I’ve had. Even the textbook vocabulary lists don’t stick no matter how many times I re read them or write them out unless it’s stuff that I’m using regularly in context. I struggled in English when learning that as well, both with spelling and vocabulary, even though it’s my native tongue.

I’m not bashing SRS btw, I know it works for others and some people have great results with it, I just know that flashcards do not work for me. I wish they did, because it would make things so much easier.

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2024/02/05:

I was doing well on the studying front but fell behind a little. I have managed to keep up with reading extensively during breaks at work, completing my homework and getting a bit better with more complex sentences when speaking. I have another conversation lesson tomorrow as well and I’m considering trying to speak about the things I learned in my language exchange this week as well as about a recent find in the area.

I’ve kept up with the book clubs so far, and I’ll be continuing reading through and listening to them alongside the textbook stuff and extensive reading I’m doing. I’ve been trying to use the book club books and textbook for intensive reading and then use the books I’m reading in my free time as extensive reading with vocabulary look ups. Decided I need a proper adult (or at least high school level) Japanese physical dictionary so that will be on my to get list this year.

I’ve also been using the easier short story books to listen to and use for intensive listening so I can check my listening comprehension of more natural Japanese alongside refreshing the vocabulary from them, doing at least 20 minutes per day most days.

I’m off in two weeks so will be looking at doing more Japanese studying on days I would usually be at work, so I can try to build up a better study schedule that works both when I’m working and when I’m on holiday. I’m also considering trying to add Spanish into my studying but will set up a separate log for that one (maybe).

Library musings

I didn’t think much previously about trying to get books from the local library in different languages (they have 2 walls worth of shelves just on crime books and very few fantasy or sci fi with absolutely no books in other languages that I could find), but I have been going more recently and found they have an app for reserving books. So I checked in there and they have a small selection of books in Japanese (around 50 or so) but it seems a little tricky to navigate. I did manage to reserve a few which arrived today though in truth, I chose them at random so had no idea what I was getting. One is a kids book in full hiragana (ともだちがいっぱい), the others, I think one is about a doctor who brought vaccines to an area while being shunned for his work because people were afraid of what the vaccine would do (雪の花) and the others are a 2 part book of short stories (夜の長い叫び 上/下).

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I know I won’t be able to read them in the time I’ve got them for but at least I know I can get them if needed and there were more books on the list. I think I’m currently the only one in the area that might read them so I doubt it would be difficult for me to get them again when I need to.

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in my experience SRS is purely a stop-gap measure for real life usage (in other words, IRL usage is the ‘real’ SRS and Anki et al are merely ways to keep words ‘floating’ around in the ether for a slightly longer period). as you find, it’s real life usage with all the varying contexts that includes that really helps things stick

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2024/02/27:

I haven’t done much reading recently but plan to try to get back into that ASAP. I think I’ll continue with ふしぎ駄菓子屋銭天堂 because it has been mostly easy enough to follow along with. また、同じ夢を見ていた has been more difficult and with listening to it as well as reading along , I haven’t been able to pick much up (I’m just listening without understanding most of it). I’ll re-read it at some point and see how much I understand then. Parts that I have understood have been a little difficult to read and I can relate to some of it either through personal experience or seeing/ talking to friends who have gone through similar things. I will re-read it properly at some point but I think maybe right now isn’t the time to do so when my own mental health hasn’t been too great and I’m still in the recovery phase from last year.

I also may have taken on more than I can handle and I’m trying to prevent myself from slipping back into the same patterns as before Xmas.

I’ve got 2 weeks worth of ふしぎ駄菓子屋銭天堂 to read since I missed last weeks reading so I’ll try to get back on track with that by Sunday and I’ve got Two lessons worth of Homework to complete for Sunday (I had an extra lesson this week).

Thoughts:

I kinda feel myself slipping back into the same state I was in before Xmas and a lot of what I had planned for my time off hasn’t happened due to other commitments and other plans having to change.

I’ve fell behind on the book clubs and one of them, I’m really not understanding much. I haven’t read any more of the last ふらいんぐうぃっち manga, nor have I fully caught up with my penpal letters more recently either.

Reading has fallen by the way side since last week and I’ve struggled to do much of anything for studying recently except my weekly lessons, homework and a video course I’m currently following. So far the lessons and the homework have been the most successful yet but my Tutor moves back to Japan after next week. We’re trying to sort out times where we are both available because I like the way that she teaches even though it is free talking and I feel I’m getting a lot out of the lessons especially with the homework as well.

I’m hoping to get back on track with みんなの日本語 blue textbook as of Thursday this week and I’m thinking that from next week it may be best to try to sort out a new routine for days I don’t normally work so that it continues after I go back to work and then days that I am off when I’m usually working, it may be best to use those for additional stuff like catching up on extra reading, watching anime and playing video games or even reviewing older content. I’m still working through the specifics.

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It sounds to me like you might be in a funk. I don’t know where you live, but if it’s cold and grey and dark, that will definitely be a part of it. And it’s easy to over extend yourself when you feel good and then feel like you’re drowning when you’re not. It sounds like you’re still interacting with Japanese weekly (daily?), and for right now that might be enough. The language isn’t going anywhere. The books you started aren’t going anywhere.

I would recommend finding one thing in Japanese that you want to do, regardless of the fact that it’s in Japanese, and start with that for your reading/watching. If you want to do more later, great! If you don’t, you did one thing, and that will add up over time.

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Yeah, I was just coming out of it and getting back into things and then more “life” stuff has been added to my plate making it more difficult to juggle my interest/ adult life responsibilities balance even though I’m currently on holiday from work (break in my usual routine hasn’t helped either :sweat_smile:).

I’m still interacting daily but usually just my Kanji reviews, homework for my lessons or it’s my conversation lesson and language exchange. Between those there’s usually a days gap and that’s when I’m then trying to read or play something even if I’m not totally up for studying. If I’ve not been up for reading, I’ll instead listen to something in audiobook/ game audio and try to understand what I can or I’m reviewing basic stuff using one of the video courses I’ve got.

Japanese is one of the things that is keeping me on an even keel with my mental health and has done all through Covid and after, even though life is difficult, Japanese is something I still enjoy but when life becomes overwhelming, I need to dial studying back a bit so I don’t burn myself out.

I want to study, I just can’t cope with it at the moment even though I have the drive to do it, I don’t have the mental energy to follow through when it starts getting into the nitty gritty stuff again.

That one thing might need to be the language learner short stories as they are simple enough and I know the gist of them but they have vocabulary I could learn and would help with both listening and reading. I also enjoy them and if they are short then if I’m not feeling it it’s only a 5-10 minute story I need to focus on.
I’ll take that suggestion and see where it goes. Thank you :blush:

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2024/03/12:

It’s been a few weeks since I posted. I’ve had a lot on the last few weeks so my studying has fallen by the wayside again. I have still managed to do a bit of listening every day, my language exchange chat once a week and a bit of kanji/ vocab revision with Wanikani app still. But reading and active studying has taken a backseat. Last week was my last Tutor led session until the end of March. My tutor is moving back to Japan but we’ve worked out times that still suit us both so once she’s available again, I’ll rebook lessons.

I go back to work starting tomorrow so break time reading will commence again and that will hopefully get me back into a routine for reading regularly. I’ve also fallen way behind with the bookclubs so thinking I might pick those up for reading during breaks. I’ve got a little bit of Flying witch book 12 to finish as well.

I think once I’ve finished those I’ll look at more comprehensible input with fewer look ups and try that for a bit to get back into the swing of things.

I’ll see how that goes.

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How do you find them as the series goes on? I enjoyed the anime, tho dropped the manga after vol 1, bc I was in the mood for something faster (I have trouble with slow pacing in general, esp with my reading speed (esp back then))

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I have been enjoying it though there are a few parts I was struggling with because it was slow. I mostly read it in small blocks (even when it looks like I’ve read 50-60 pages in one, I’ve actually been reading it a few pages at a time between calls at work or 5-10 pages while on break).

I liked a few of the characters and some of the bits where I was not understanding anything said, I was still able to get the gist from the panels.

But overall, I’ve found it has been good for me while I’ve been looking for something calm and relaxing. :slightly_smiling_face:

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2024/03/17:

My studying and routine has taken a nose dive. I’ve been practicing my listening through voice overs on games since it’s been about all I could focus on recently (most notably FF7 rebirth) and I’ve been reviewing Kanji and vocabulary with Wanikani (I still hate it but it’s giving me some short sentences to read daily which is better than nothing). I wasn’t able to read the last parts of Flying Witch while at work since it has some slightly risky drawings. There is a group Onsen scene that lasts for a few pages while they talk stuff out. Everything is covered but it still doesn’t leave much to the imagination and although there’s nothing bad in it, I would get weird looks at work if caught with it. I’ll finish reading it over the next little while. I’m loath to put concrete timeframes on anything at the moment since I haven’t been able to focus much recently, I don’t think I’ve finished a book this year so far, hopefully that will change over the next few weeks but we’ll see.

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2024/03/21:

I did manage to finish the last ふらいんぐうぃっち manga and the next one is due out this year so will try re-reading them once I get that one.

I haven’t managed to do much else the last week until yesterday when I started on Let’s read Japanese. I read ヤマタノオロチ. I learnt a few new words and cemented a few others. Overall the difficulty is pretty low compared to what I’ve been trying to do, but I think it’s exactly what I’ve been needing to try to build myself back up to a point where I’m actively learning as much as I was previously.

Plan for this week is to read through the rest of these stories in the first book of the Let’s read Japanese series at least a few times then I’ll move on to the next one and do the same, see how working through that helps a bit with how I’ve been feeling.

I’ve put ふしぎ駄菓子屋銭天堂 and また、同じ夢を見ていた to the side for now. The difficulty is fine in very small doses but with my overall mood and motivation levels atm, it’s not helping me and it’s actively making me turn away from doing things in Japanese even when I’ve tried to brute force my way through it or tried listening and seeing what I can get from it. I tried yesterday to re-read the first chapter in ふしぎ駄菓子屋銭天堂 and it took me most of the day to get to page 19, at one point it took me about 3 hours to try to read through and break down one and a half pages :sweat_smile: so I’m just not in the right head space for it at the moment. That’s not to say I won’t try it again but I think brute forcing my way through things is partly what’s contributing to my burn out and motivation loss.

My tutor led lessons should start up from next week of the week after depending on what’s available so I have that to look forward to as well. I might try to talk a bit about one of the short stories I’m reading at the moment and see if I can do a simple book report style thing to shake things up but we’ll see.

I’ve also got some books out from the library for practicing listening so might have a listen to them at some point.

Feel free to skip this, it's just here for my own reflection, not necessarily to do with studying.


The other thing that’s contributing to it is the fact that I was referred for an Autism assessment a few month ago and finally got the assessment the first week in March, they contacted me yesterday and have diagnosed me as Autistic which isn’t a major issue because I already suspected it was the case and have considered it a possibility for the majority of my adult life since I left school. The issue is that me seeking this has caused a rift between me and certain family members (I’ve not yet told them the diagnosis, just that I had been referred) because one of those family members was advised to get me assessed as a child and actively choose not to as well as is still actively trying to keep the other family members in the dark about it. I don’t know if they are feeling guilty or if they are feeling like I’m pretending there is a problem or what but they refuse to talk about it with me and I don’t quite know how to deal with that or to talk to the other family members without me stepping on toes. All of this seems insignificant in the grand scheme of things but it’s having and has had a major impact on my mental health across the last few years to the point I feel physically and emotionally drained and my coping skills are pretty much non-existent at the moment, hence why the massive struggle to keep up with Japanese studying. I’ve been advised before to take a break from Japanese but it’s literally one of the only things I get much enjoyment out of at the moment which is why I don’t want to give it up and why I’m trying to find alternative ways to continue to use it daily even if the most I can do on any one day is review some Kanji readings or read a few short sentences. I feel like I’m actively doing something to improve myself and be the person I want to be.

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06/04/2024:

TLDR: I passed an N5 mock exam with flying colours, moved my books to a bigger bookshelf and I’m considering taking N4 or N3 exam this year, not decided which yet but leaning more towards N4.

Did not realise it had been over 2 weeks since my last post.

Not much on the reading front, still trying to get back into it by reading graded readers but I have managed to complete Japanese with Hikari beginner 1 along with one of the JLPT N5 tests (156/180).

One thing I will say is that if you are trying to do a mock exam, Japanese with Hikari has N5, N4 and N3 JLPT tests with a video that simulates an exam environment (if you wear headphones) and sticks to the timings of the test parts including a break after the grammar and reading before the listening part takes place. I really liked the way the exams were set out and the video that comes with them. She has 3 videos/ mock exams per N level and then 2 links to additional past papers through an official JLPT site. You can print the exam papers off and a blank answer sheet and there is a separate sheet with the answers for each section too.

I know N5 isn’t much after me studying for so long but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I was able to pick out considering I haven’t really done much in the last 4 months. I didn’t understand some of the vocabulary and since I haven’t been listening to Japanese much, I struggled to focus on the listening part.

I’ve decided I have too many books and I’ve recently purchased the Shin Kanzen Master N3 books along with a few more light novels from CD Japan. Not quite ready for N3 (will possibly struggle with N4 unless I pull my act together, but it was a decent deal and about £30 cheaper than buying in the UK even after shipping and tax.

I spent 5 hours between Friday evening and Saturday after midnight transferring my books from one bookcase to another since the other one was bigger and I needed the extra space. I’ve tried to sort them into sections; textbooks/ non fiction and learning materials, manga, children’s books, light novels and novels. Novels and light novels are the biggest sections. I have very few children’s books. I’ve also tried to sort the separate sections into natively level (except textbooks).

Plans for this week coming are to complete another mock JLPT, this time N4, and to finish the last story in the first “Let’s read Japanese” graded reader. I know the stories are easy but I think they are probably the best option for me at the moment while I’m re-gaining my footing and it is helping me to pick up new words (random words like 櫛 but still new words nonetheless). There’s a second book at the same level so I’ll then continue working through that one. I’m hoping that by the end of April, I will be back on a better footing and have completed the second beginner course of Japanese with Hikari while still working through the blue みんなの日本語 textbook.

I’m considering taking the JLPT N4 this year but if I feel confident enough by the time the registration opens, I may switch to taking N3 but that’s a very big maybe.

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Each shelf here has either 2-3 rows deep of textbooks or they have 3 rows deep of other books with some stacked 2 rows tall as well. :sweat_smile:

Textbooks and learning materials including graded readers - 116 (with 5 more textbooks on the way)
Children’s books - 24
Light novels - 101 (with 4 more on the way)
Novels - 80 with (with 2 more on the way)
Manga - 65 (with 1 more on the way)
Essays and non fiction - 20

I have additional books (about another 18 on a different shelf beside my English books) but they are textbooks and use romaji or have mostly English. I also tend not to use those ones. I also have a stack of e-books and audiobooks in Japanese as well :sweat_smile:

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Buying books and reading books are 2 different hobbies. :rofl: also: it’s not hoarding if it’s books. :see_no_evil:

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It’s my contingency plan for when I retire :joy:

I dread to think how many books I have in English if my Japanese books only cover 6 of those shelves and my English books cover 32 of them with some more English books in my room :sweat_smile: If I ever win the lottery, I really need to look at a house with a dedicated Library :rofl:

I have noticed a distinct lack of lower level books though so may need to fix that :thinking::joy:

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It’s not hoarding, it’s a collection :rofl:

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2024/04/16:

Since the last update I’ve been working through 新完全マスター N4 Kanji and Vocabulary books (next I’ll do the Grammar book, then Reading and Listening books after that). I’ve found these a bit easier than the みんなの日本語 blue textbook so far and that’s probably the best way for me to ease myself back into studying again. I know it’s a lot of stuff that I already know but it’s useful for me to review things multiple times.

Alongside this, I’ve also been reading the “Let’s Read Japanese” series on and off, finding the stories pretty decent and picking up the occasional word. The Level 1 stories are most likely under my level since there is only 3-5 unknown words per story which is about 1 every 1-2 pages. There’s only 3 levels for “Let’s Read Japanese” so far, 2 books each for levels 1 & 2 (5 stories per book) and 1 book for level 3 (4 stories per book). I’ve also considered getting the second level box sets for Genki graded readers but £50 a set seems a little steep though I can get the audio through the Oto Navi App for free so could just use them as listening practice.

I’ve also continued with a tutor led lesson each week and completing the homework from the new vocabulary or grammar that my tutor explains. I feel that this does help but that I need to think up better things to talk about though I don’t currently have the grammar or vocabulary and don’t want to ask for an translation of every sentence for unknown words and grammar or it may be too much and feel too overwhelming.

I’m still on the fence about if I should go for N4 and play it safe or try for N3 and see how far I can get. I’ll see how it goes and how quickly I get through the 新幹線マスター N4 books first.

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I hadn’t realized that those Ikea shelves could hold so many books! I might just get one then, depending on how much shelve space my next appartement has. After all, as long s you have the space to put the books, no amount of books is excessive.

(Seeing some empty shelf space might just make me want to buy a lot more books though. That’s what happened every single time some additional shelves were added in my family home :sweat_smile:)

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Just arrange the books in fun ways so that they take up more space :stuck_out_tongue:

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