That’s really cool!! The N2 & N1 articles are actually pretty interesting, and he’s a great reader. Thx for sharing
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No worries, I randomly came across it while searching for something else but wasn’t sure where else to put the info.
I also listened to all the N6 articles. A few are duplicated but I liked how they cover a variety of topics. I’ll start to go through the N5 ones from next week.
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This seems like a good more directed way to ease into higher-than-n4/n3 level listening (podcasts are killing me)
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Are you trying to do native podcasts or learner podcasts? I found podcasts for learners to be really helpful at about that level for getting my listening stamina up. lmk if you want any recommendations.
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That’s such a great ressource! It’s nice to have other options for absolute beginner content as well, so I’m not just reading Tadoku graded readers.
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2024/06/14:
TL:DR - I finished 3 books in the last week and a bit, haven’t done any textbook studying but did complete 5 hours of listening. Continued with my lessons and language exchange and I’ll carry on reading the primary school level non-fiction books for the time being.
Since the last update, I finished にゃんにゃん探偵団おひるね as well as なげ？どうして？かがくのお話 1年生 and なぜ？どうして？科学のお話 2年生 and made a start on なぜ？どうして？みぢかなぎもん 1年生.
I haven’t done any of the textbooks recently but plan to pick those up again from Sunday onwards.
I have found that the stuff for 1年生 seem to be the right level of difficulty for me, though I will need to re-read the 2年生 book as I did find a lot of the vocabulary to be more difficult (7-8 look ups minimum per page, compared to the 3 or less look ups in the lower level book) though some of the vocabulary was repeated in the higher level book. I am quite enjoying the easy reading and shorter chapters as well as fact it’s science and natural world stuff, reminds me of the children’s encyclopedias I used to pour over as a kid. And I did manage to speak about the books a little in Japanese during my lesson (gave my tutor a laugh when I said “the book ran away” instead of “I lost the book” when I couldn’t find it to show her 
).
Still continuing with my weekly & fortnightly language exchanges and my weekly tutor lessons which do see some improvement with my speaking and less switching to English unless I can’t explain a word in Japanese, and I’ve started using more complex grammar even if my sentences are still short-ish. Feeling more confident with my speaking which is helping.
Listening has been limited to voice overs in game, except when I spent 5 hours straight listening to audiobooks and short stories while in town (noise cancelling headphones worked a charm 
). It was stuff I had listened to or read previously but I did notice I was picking more out this time as I was listening to it.
I haven’t done much writing recently (usually just from what I’ve heard during lessons or language exchange) though I plan to pick that up with the textbooks next week, I’m considering picking up the kanji part of Genki and みんなの日本語 books again for more practice writing them over the next few weeks since I’ve some additional free time and I can write while listening to more audio.
When I picked up the なぜ？どうして？ books, I got the full 科学のお話 set 1年生 to 6年生, and then Wednesday this week the full 身近な疑問 set 1年生 to 6年生 arrived so I’m going to read the two sets alongside each other, sticking to the same school year for both then switching to the next year up (I’ll catch up with reading the 身近な疑問 1年生 book first then re-read the 2年生 科学 book alongside the 2年生 身近 book). My hope is that will help me move up the levels a bit without too much pressure while still letting me read native level content and keeping my motivation going. It should also help with the vocabulary because so far the 科学 set has used a lot of the science vocabulary in more than one story with some of the same vocabulary being repeated in the second book.
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2024/06/20:
TL:DR - continued working on all 4 skills with a focus on speaking and listening. Refreshing Kanji from みんなの日本語 and watched Sand Land.
Most of this week has been either working on speaking and listening or watching Sand Land.
I binged it in one day (partly because I was tired and couldn’t face much reading and partly because it was relatively easy enough to follow). I recognised a fair amount of the vocabulary or picked most of the meaning up from the context though I don’t think one of the characters name translations is correct in English, I did watch with English Subs and Japanese voice over but will rewatch at some point with Japanese subs. I liked it. Will be adding it to the DVD collection beside my “Tales of”, Studio Ghibli and Final Fantasy DVDs.
For speaking, I’ve been doing my usual lessons and language exchanges as well as picking up from where I left off in Paul Noble’s Next steps in Japanese course again. I’m thinking of picking up my shadowing books to replace that once I’ve completed it.
Listening has been either listening to audiobooks I’ve listened to before or listing to podcasts (title: easy Japanese podcast 
).
I have done some reading from みぢかなぎもん 一年生 recently though I have been reding without looking up words, trying to get them from context which just shows me I need more vocabulary since I’m not always understanding them.
And for writing, I’ve been going through みんなの日本語 漢字 book (red one). I think after this I will pick up the blue one. I also think that at some point I should pick out the exact grammar I don’t understand and start working on that in my speaking lessons to get feedback and corrections since I’ve been a little haphazard with that side of things.
I noticed this week that I understood very little when my tutor was speaking and most of the time was asking her to repeat things, especially compared to last week. I couldn’t think of a reason for this as it was more like my brain wouldn’t comprehend it rather than I didn’t hear it. Only difference I can think of is that last week I did a 5 hour listening session as well as several shorter sessions with multiple audio books whereas this week I had done no active listening between Tuesday last week and Tuesday this week which is probably a contributing factor.
I also found a few more books on CD Japan, primary school age world history books so might pick those up at the end of the month.
Plan going forward: finish the kanji book I’m on, continue reading みぢかなぎもん 一年生 book, continue with Paul Noble’s course and continue with my lessons/ language exchanges while trying to also increase my listening sessions more again as I used to listen to something every day.
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2024/06/25
TL:DR - I’ve worked a bit on all 4 skills, focusing on Kanji/ vocab and writing mostly. I’ve also started using my Japanese dictionary (image below). Starting to feel more comfortable speaking as well as recognising word meanings from context even without look ups on easier level content.
This week I’ve been re-working my way back through the みんなの日本語 beginner kanji book which I completed before starting again on the Vocabulary 新完全マスター book which I’m working on atm. 
I’ve also been reading using Coral Island (PS5). I know a bit of the vocab already but since there’s no furigana it does make some of them more difficult to look up. I’ve managed to work out the meaning of some of the vocab using my knowledge of the game or kanji meaning but can’t always get the reading which is fine for now.
I’ve been listening passively to audiobooks again and getting a bit of listening in on my lessons and language exchanges as well as some easy podcasts. I do need to work more on this though.
Speaking has been only on my lessons or language exchanges but I am feeling more confident with things I know. I also find it easier to switch back to Japanese if I’ve been speaking English. Longer sentences are still a struggle to understand though and a few of my lessons I have had to ask my tutor to repeat something a few times until I understand each part of it. My main language exchange partner though has stopped telling me “日本語上手ですね” so I’ll take that as an improvement in my skills, however slight that may be
One thing that I have noticed is that I find my lessons or language exchanges easier if I have been studying just before hand or have been listening to Japanese. When doing random stuff or just chilling out playing something (if there is no voice over) I’ve taken to trying to have something always in the background speaking Japanese for passive listening as well which I feel is helping me recognise words and get more used to hearing native level speech. I’m also finding that even if I’m passive listening, I’m translating some parts without thinking about it, sometimes switching from what I’m doing to actively listen when I’m understanding it.
Going back through 新完全マスター vocab book (I reached part 17 previously) I have found it a lot easier to recognise the correct words even though I don’t remember them from the first time around. I’m also finding it easier to pick apart the sentences to figure out meaning but that could just be because I’ve been more active with studying and reading lately.
I’ve also started using my 小学館 dictionary for looking up the words I don’t know since there are example sentences in very easy Japanese being that it is for primary school children. This one:
A few of the words that I’ve struggled to figure out proper nuance or to understand when translated to English, I’ve understood better after looking it up in here (I have tried places like HiNative and other online resources but been confused by the more difficult or unknown vocab and grammar used). It’s for kids but I kind of feel like my level is around this level and if it helps, then it’s useful. I wonder if there is a higher level one for more advanced language but still with the simplified explanations. Or if not, I wonder if there is a Middle School one or Junior High School version. Might need to check with my Tutor or language exchange partners 
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That’s cool you’re using a paper dictionary!! I’ve thought about that sometimes, tho it seems like it would be a bit of a pain for me.
Your stuff about passive listening matches my experience as well… tho most of my passive listening tend to be music. I tend to active listen to spoken stuff… Maybe I should try putting more spoken stuff on. Hard when I’m trying to work tho
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I usually use DeepL for English translations but there have been a few words that even my tutor has struggled to explain (since she mostly explains in Japanese if she can’t give an English translation) so I thought definitions suitable for kids might help and these have been pretty simple but effective for me. It may not show full nuance like a more complex sentence but it’s been easier for me to understand. I’ve had the dictionary for a while but always felt intimidated by it or didn’t know how to use it properly (it’s a dictionary so shouldn’t be too difficult but it was for me 
).
I tend to put an audiobook on or podcasts or just some of the easy listening Japanese YouTube videos on low while studying (or Terraced House ) just for background chatter as it seemed to help me focus better when studying but I’ve noticed now I can catch unknown words and most of the time write the Hiragana correct without looking at subtitles or such. I still don’t know what it means but I can identify its letters
I listen to music too but that’s mostly Gackt, Vivid Bad Squad, Stereopony or anime theme songs usually in the car or when traveling. I can’t focus on study when listening to vocals.
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Any chance you could share a page or two? Curious to see what it’s like (definitions & format)
Sounds more useful than JP-EN dictionaries anyway, as that goes.
That’s basically why I haven’t tried tbh… That and I’m impatient enough about lookup disruption as it is
For listening , I tend to like voice actor stuff like ガールズバンドクライ ラジオ or ぼっち・ざ・ラジオ. Most of the time I can identify words being said (and understand it relatively well), but sometimes not. It was waaaaaay harder a year or so ago, when I was starting to listen to that stuff tho.
For music, I have a 21 hr playlist… Tho lately I just listen to トゲナシトゲアリ (from ガールズバンドクライ) on repeat… Can go either way with focus-ability. Sometimes I need total silence, and sometimes the music helps - vocals or not. Thankfully I neither have to be in a car, nor travel, 98% of the time 
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I travel almost an hour to work and the same back, same if I need any non essential stuff (food wise, pet food wise or even just household stuff/ car stuff) since my local shops don’t stock as much as I’d like
Usually at home if I’m not active studying, I’m reading, watching or playing something in Japanese. Lots of dead time while doing menial stuff to is always good for passive listening I’ve found. My active listening is usually not as intense (which is possibly why my understanding when listening isn’t as good as my recognition).
Here’s some pages/ close ups from it (I just chose random ones):
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2024/07/08:
TL:DR - need to shake things up so starting a new study plan focusing primarily on Reading and Listening for the moment.
Decided that I really need to try to focus on individual parts of my studying to make better use of my time and energy.
I know my listening is an issue so decided that I would like to complete some podcasts each day (I’ll start with Japanese with Shun since they are easy podcasts, he speaks slowly and I should know most of the words already).
I also need to work better on my reading; I’ve been re-reading ミラーさん red novel breaking down the sentences and working through the vocabulary that I haven’t quite internalised yet. I’ve also been reading みぢかなぎもん 1年生 though a lot is going over my head so I’ll be revisiting this one again shortly using intensive reading.
I need a physical book that is easy enough to read while at work (not allowed phones at our desks or to use the work computer for accessing non work related stuff) so I’m still getting some Japanese in my down time but isn’t so difficult that I need a dictionary to look up every unknown word. Picking stuff at my level seems to be hit or miss though the biggest issue is the vocabulary, not the grammar.
So, new plan:
Reading: finish re-reading ミラーさん red book using intensive reading. Do the same with Read Real Japanese while at work since it has an inbuilt dictionary and grammar breakdown. I would like to read for at least 30-60 minutes each day but more on days I have more time to do so.
Listening: complete at least 2 podcasts each day in addition to listening to the audio for the Read Real Japanese story of that week. I can adjust the podcast speed but not the story narration speed so that will give me a slower speed listening exercise and a native speed listening exercise.
Speaking: continue with my lessons and language exchanges. Try something new in my lessons starting from next week.
Writing: I do get practice writing as I write out all my answers for the textbook questions and also for the Kanji as I’m studying those but once I’ve finished the 新完全マスター N4 series, I’ll review and see if there is something different I need to do instead.
I’ll try this for a few weeks and see how I get on, see if there is any progress or changes.
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2024/07/14:
TL:DR - managed to stick with the plan from last week and intend to continue with the plan this week but Tuesday will mostly be listening over reading instead.
Writing this today since the next few days are full enough.
I’ve continued with the plan from last week. So far, I’ve managed to listen to at least 2 podcasts from “Japanese with Shun” each day (today I managed 4, one of them was quite funny and a break from the norm as he described having to buy a new phone because he accidentally dropped the old one down the toilet 笑). I listened again to 神様.
I also read chapter 4 of N4 単語 1500 (I recently found out the audiobook.jp app allows you to download the audio for free, just search using the last 5 digits of the ISBN number as recommended by their site), finished reading through 神様 from Read Real Japanese fiction as well. I’m just about to read another chapter of ミラーさん red book too as I’m using that for intensive reading at the moment.
Plan for this week is a little different, though I’ll continue with at least 2 podcasts per day along with listening to 神様 again, I’ll try to re-read 神様 all in one go this time as well, and I’ll continue with reading ミラーさん. Most of Tuesday will be just listening practice while I’m out and about so tomorrow is my tutor lesson instead of Tuesday.
Last week during my tutor lesson, I managed to talk a bit about what I remembered about 神様 and ask the tutor if they had read it or any other of Hiromi Kawakami’s books. This week, having finished re-reading it, I hope to talk a bit more about it and explain why it’s called 神様 even though it’s about a picnic and walk with a bear.
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2024/07/22:
TL:DR - new plan is working and helping me with reading, listening and speaking. And from now, I’ll be picking up textbook study in between the other things. No rush for completion, just go at my own pace and take it easy
I think this new plan is working better though textbook stuff has fallen behind, I’ll be picking those up on Sundays to Tuesdays then continuing the normal plan through the week.
I’ve managed to listen to and understand most of at least 2 podcasts every day (though I only listened to 1 on Tuesday). Some days I’ve listened to more and Tuesday last week, although I only listened to one podcast, I managed to listen to 2 stories and the full vocabulary and sentences in はじめての日本語能力試験 N5 単語 1000 and N4 単語 1500. I also read 3 chapters of ミラーさん on Tuesday as well. Granted most of the listening was passive though there were sections I was listening to actively. The rest of the week has been listening to at least 2 podcasts and a bit of reading.
I finished ミラーさん red book on Friday, and started the blue one on Saturday. Of the red one, only one chapter seems to need re-read as the rest of it was pretty straight forward though I may re-read it again further down the line, maybe.
The blue ミラーさん novel only has 12 chapters and they are longer than the ones in the red book. I didn’t switch over to reading むかし夕日の公園で yet, that will be from today. Again it’s a shorter story than 神様 was so shouldn’t take that long to read through. I know the gist of the story but plan to talk about it with my tutor again this week. Last weeks lesson on Monday I ended up talking about a few things and did manage to hold a better conversation than previous weeks before I changed things up. I also managed to say a bit about 神様 again and we spoke of crime novels which my tutor was surprised at the ones I had already collected were the ones she was talking about. Once I’ve read them, she wants to try talking about those since she knows them quite well. I spoke about tech issues at work and the podcasts I had been listening to, which I think is helping, more that I realise, my understanding as well as my ability to use Japanese when speaking and keep the conversation flowing.
I kind of want to do more tutor led lessons to have more opportunities to speak but I also need to watch that I don’t bite off more than I can chew, especially since I’m still working through things and re-adjusting.
Plan going forward will be:
- Listen to at least 2 podcasts each day
- Read a little every day (more when I can or when I feel I want to)
- Complete some of my textbook work on my days off (starting next week)
- Read and listen to one short story throughout the week from Read Real Japanese (start with Fiction then progress to the Essays book)
- Pick something from the week to talk about in my tutor led lesson, either short story, podcast or something that I’ve done.
For the moment, I think 5 things is enough to be going on with and I’ll review again once I feel I can add something else or need to change things again. I’m content with the way things are going and the improvements I’m feeling, even if I wasn’t seeing them as clearly before.
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2024/07/30:
TL:DR - Stuck with the same plan, managed to do everything except the text books which I will go back to next week and I have an alternative plan for when I’m on holiday from work
So, this week I did most of the plan, with the exception of doing the textbook work though I am off on holiday next week so will work through the textbooks then as I have an alternative plan now for when I’m off work on holidays.
New plan:
Standard plan when working normal hours
- Complete listening to as least 2 podcasts per day
- Read a little every day (preferably from one of the books I have but I will also settle for online articles as well).
- Read and listen to a short story each week (still working through Read Real Japanese Fiction)
- Pick something from the week to talk to my tutor about
Alternative plan when on holiday from work
- Start the same as the standard plan
- Work through minimum of 1 - 2 Text book chapters per week
- Practice listening with comprehensible Japanese YouTube videos
- Watch a film or a few episodes of an anime in Japanese and try to understand what I can
If there are other things I manage to do, that’s fine but these can be the foundation for the moment.
This weeks progress:
This week, I managed to finish ミラーさん book 2 (blue book), read and listen to むかし夕日の公園で from Read Real Japanese (also in Zoo book 2) and I managed to complete the minimum number of podcasts each day as well as speak to my tutor about むかし夕日の公園で. It’s difficult at times trying to think up what to speak of and having the right vocabulary but I’ve started to find that speaking about the books I’m reading or the new words I’m learning through reading is helping me to have a 30-40 minute conversation without switching to English, so it must be helping.
I definitely understood a lot more in ミラーさん book 2 this time and a lot of that was without intensive reading. There’s a few chapters I want to revisit in the future but for now I will put it aside and work through something else.
I’m not sure about talking about the next short story in Read Real Japanese though as it is a bit creepy (if my understanding is correct) and I think the following one will also be difficult to talk about so I’ll need to find an alternative between now and next week.
I also need to stop buying books:
CD Japan has a promotion on at the moment where you get extra points so I bought a fair amount of new books from my wish list and a few lower level ones to give me more to read that should be around my current level of just above it. I will need to make more space for them though as I am currently running out of space on the 6 shelves I have filled with Japanese books (3 rows deep and 2 rows high, except the textbook shelf). I do have 2 spare shelves just to the side of the current ones so will need to look at moving the stuff from there and then figure out how I will re-shuffle the books as I put them back on the shelf since I bought more Light Novels and more children’s books.
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2024/07/31 - Quick update:
Decided that since I had finished re-reading Miraasan and found it a lot easier than the last time I read it, I would try reading one of the Futago no Mahoutsukai series, since it was the next level I had available until the books I ordered for the children’s book club turn up as a few of those are of an easier level and closer to the Miraasan novel whereas this series is showing around 3 levels higher than Miraasan book 2.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much of it I can understand and a lot of the words I’m looking up (around 3-5 per page) are either words I already know but wasn’t quite sure of the meaning, or they are words I had guessed through context but wanted to check my understanding. It is taking me around 3 minutes to read a page with look ups. I’m also finding it quicker to remember the words I’ve checked previously in the story.
Managed to read over half of it already and understood most of it so going to continue reading the few books I have of this level/ series and see how I get on.
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I’m soooooo glad this promotion finally ended, so I can stop trying to optimize pre-order purchases for extra points lol… It’s confusing enough to group those as it is
Tho I’m lost on what happens if I move other items to one of the qualifying orders now (I know you lose the point, if you move things out idk about moving in tho)
Glad to hear 双子の魔法使い is going well for you 
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Me too I dread to think what my bank account is going to be like after my orders are sent as I’ve ended up with several orders including a stack of books I was buying a few at a time to make up the whole set.
Thanks, I wasn’t expecting it to be as comprehensible as it is considering the level difference but it’s been pretty good. Definitely a massive improvement since the last time I tried a few pages when I first got it a while back
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Any reason you didn’t combine them into a single order?
Mine are only in diff orders, cuz it’s pre-order stuff, and I don’t want to wait for mid-October to get stuff that releases in August lol
After I’m done with the ガルクラ Blu-rays, I’m going back to getting everything on Suruga-ya tho… Miss that free shipping!!
