Thanks, I’ve been watching a lot of stuff today instead (watching Chi’s summer vacation at the moment 
), will try some reading later. 
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Super scary! I’m glad that it sounds like it’s relatively minor (although I’m sure a huge scare). Take care of yourself! And if taking care of yourself means binging a bunch of Japanese TV then all the better. 
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Thanks. I don’t like not being productive and after yesterday I don’t have much I can do atm. But I’m definitely getting my listening time in that I missed out on yesterday
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2024/09/10:
TL:DR - Managed a lot of listening this week due to being off work for a few days and not having anything else to do. Reading was good near the middle of the week but has tapered off near the end and speaking is limited to lessons and language exchanges. New language exchange meet up coming up in the next few weeks as well.
Managed to do a lot of listening this week, picking out individual words better now though my overall understanding is getting a little better, I feel. Managed to listen to a variety of different things in Japanese and managed over 25 hours in the last 9 days (todays hasn’t been counted in that yet as I count it up for the end of the day).
I feel like my listening is certainly improving even if my understanding seems to be improving at a snails pace The audio books and the podcasts seem to my biggest achievements even though they are mostly for beginner or lower intermediate level and I still don’t understand everything. I feel I need to make more of an effort to focus on them rather than being distracted as I am when I start watching something. Not sure if that’s because I can’t seem to focus on the words and the action at the same time or if it’s just too much for me to try to figure out in a short space of time.
Reading has kind of fallen back the last few days where I’ve read very little in the way of books but focused again on the textbooks or even reading in some of the easier games (currently re-playing ゼルダの伝説 夢をみる島 AKA Link’s Awakening on Switch). I have almost finished reading ふしぎ駄菓子屋銭天堂 book 3 but think I should do an intensive re-read starting with book 1 for when I am studying at home and continue reading the series extensively (or another book I know pretty well) while at work so I can work on both the intensive and extensive reading skills.
Writing has kind of swapped over to typing recently and I’m currently trying to go through all the grammar from みんなの日本語初級1 and typing out example sentences for it to check my understanding and practice them so I can try to pick out which ones are the ones I’m struggling with so I can strengthen those and then build on them with みんなの日本語初級2 which I always seem to get stuck with understanding after a few sections in. Might be counter intuitive and seem like a waste of time and effort but it does help me to memorise and strengthen my understanding as I do this. It should also me once I’m used to the textbooks again, it should be easier to switch back into that kind of routine again for starting the next textbook.
Speaking has been limited to my language exchanges and my one tutor lesson a week (will now need to see how things go the next few weeks before I know if I can take on the 2 new tutors as well so I have 3 hours of tutor lessons, and a hour and a half of language exchange lessons each week). The local (ish) language exchange meet up is again in the next few weeks so will be attending that again as I did enjoy it last time even if I was just listening and trying to understand what I could, though I did also speak to a few of the people there, this time I would like to drive so I know I can get home whenever I want to even if that means staying later as it was kind of cut short for me last time based on the train times, either that or I risk a large taxi bill trying to get home if I miss the train 
I am toying with the idea of doing shadowing or even just picking up more audio like Paul Noble’s Japanese courses. There are a few similar video playlists on YouTube as well as some videos as part of the Japanese with Hikari course which incidentally is in full Japanese so unsure why I’m not using that for the listening challenge which would make more sense 
Maybe I need to rethink my study schedule once September is over and make a better study schedule to include times for each skill
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TL:DR - Kept up with the listening challenge, more than half way through my goal, and also continuing to read ふしぎ駄菓子屋銭天堂, and started on ダンジョン飯 manga as well.
Managed another 10 hours(approx) of listening in the last week. I am seeing improvements in focus at times and I am now managing to listen and scan while reading though I don’t quite think I’m taking all the info in.
I do find it easier to focus when I need to listen to answer questions, so I think it’s more of a concentration thing than anything to do with how difficult it is.
I’ve started reading ダンジョン飯 book 1 along with the WK bookclub (a first for me since I’ve not really been on there in years and never for a book club) and I’m also still reading through ふしぎ駄菓子屋銭天堂 series, now on book 4. Focus on that varies, this week was mostly training so less opportunities at work for reading so it’s taken me longer to read through it.
I do find reading extensively to be easier but there are still chunks where I don’t understand much. I will use the series as a gauge of my understanding going forwards so I feel like I will wait til I reach the end and then re-read through the series after a little break to see how much I can understand second time around. Should help me pick up the vocabulary as well. I think I need to add something else in for variety that is easy enough to read extensively but at the same time, I don’t want to overload myself with different books or series.
I haven’t done any more textbook work though I kind of want to go back to it so I can finish みんなの日本語初級 blue series and pick up what I missed from the red series first time around.
No real writing since last week, maybe I should be looking more at trying to write again, or at least practice the Kanji.
Speaking is still being done in my lessons and language exchange and there’s another meet up next week so will be going to that again.
Thoughts about my study process:
I do think I should section out parts of the day specifically for to practice each of the four skills, but I’m not entirely sure how to go about it in a way that won’t burn me out.
I do feel that I could be a lot more productive if I did section my days out, though it could also backfire and cause me to burn out (training this week and less time for me has had a slight burn out effect, hence why I haven’t been reading as much as I usually would).
I will be reviewing my process and progress at the end of the month, see if I can figure out the best option to help me build all skills better so I can see better progress going forwards.
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I’m a big fan of habit stacking. So if you can do something like listening while you do dishes (for example) that might be a way to always know that you’re going to get listening in each day. Reading and writing would be a little harder to do, but you can do something like always write after dinner, or something like that.
For me, personally, knowing that I always do such and such habit at such and such time helps a lot because then I don’t waste any brainpower on figuring out what I need to be doing and it makes me way more likely to both make new habits and keep up with old ones.
Just a thought.
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Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll try doing habit stacking then and see how I go, using set tasks or set times to do certain practice might help
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2024/09/23:
TL:DR - In a bit of a slump atm and hoping I can pull it back.
I feel I was doing great up until the last few days when I’ve had to focus on getting things ready for new Broadband install. I was doing great with the listening challenge (which I can still pull off if I can do around 2 hours of focused listening per day from tomorrow). I was reading most days, sometimes one chapter, some times 2 in the one day. But the last few days everything has taken a back seat while I’ve been clearing and reshuffling furniture around. Change does seem to have a large impact on my focus, which I’ve only really come to realise more recently and the last few days has seen my study space be turned upside down. It’s gotten me a bit more space but it has caused me to feel unsettled and wired til I’m exhausted and can’t focus.
I also can’t re-settle in until the install is complete so I’ve a few more days of this before I can start to feel okay again. I did manage to get most of my Japanese books back on their shelves and since moving a few things have also freed up a little more space so things aren’t as cramped but having to pile them into boxes meant they are now out of order (I had them in Natively level order and then in reading order within that) so that may also be having an impact on my focus. I don’t have the energy to spend the next 2 days trying to reshuffle them though so will live with it for now.
I started reading ハウルの動く城 oversized book, it has images from the anime, and has most of the dialogue as well. I feel like it will help when I re-watch it after reading and will also help me to pick up words that should be useful for when I read the novel series even though I know there will be differences between them.
I want to continue with ふしぎ駄菓子屋銭天堂 book 4 but can’t focus on it atm so may need to re-read something or see if there is something easier to read atm. I also have ダンジョン飯 manga to read with the WK bookclub but I’m already behind on that too so may need to take a step back again.
I did plan to restart the textbooks this week since I’m off, maybe that will help with the listening and reading slump atm?
Going to take it easy the next few days, try not to put any pressure on and just go with the flow. Just short of 39 hours this month with the active listening is still pretty damn good considering most of my listening previously was just passive unless it was through the textbooks and with the exception of my current lack of focus, I have found a decent improvement in my listening and the impact it has had on my reading and speaking as well so it’s not a loss on the whole
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I agree! If nothing else, just figuring out how your brain reacts to changes like this in your environment is already a win; you’ll be much more prepared in the future for inevitable shifts.
Dang, I really like that idea. 
May have to steal it…
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Yeah, I’ve noticed a lot more recently how things affect me since I’ve payed more attention after my diagnosis. It’s helped in many ways. I can now be aware of possible triggers for burnout and take it easy with less pressure on myself. Hoping that helps prevent it from surfacing. 
Feel free It seemed like the best way for me to approach it at the time. I borrowed it from the Fluent U article; Learn Japanese by reading: 22 Reading suggestions.
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I hadn’t read this article before but have found others like it. I got stalled for so long in reading because of them!!
Yes, let’s read white rabbit readers and then Satori reader. Then you should be ready for Marukami. 
I couldn’t ever find any books on the rung between graded readers and actual literature, and even reading aoi tori/tsubasa bunko was hit or miss (I hadn’t noticed their difficulty system yet). I don’t even know how I randomly stumbled into Natively on Reddit but my life is completely changed because of it.
Anyway, don’t mean to rant on your learning log, I just couldn’t hold it in.
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Feel free to rant on here
I did read a lot of those articles, the fluent U one did mention the Read Real Japanese books after the graded readers then Zoo and キノの旅, which was good in a way because it did encourage me to actually start reading something other than textbooks but I think it also set me back a bit because I felt I should have been able to read them no problem by then (big let down on my part when I couldn’t read them as well as I had hoped)
It did give me a good list of books in Japanese to gather for reading and I doubt I would have picked up a few of the books without it though, especially Otsuichi’s Zoo. Kinda horrifying but I could also understand chunks of it which was good motivation in itself even if the genre isn’t really what I would have chosen.
I used a lot of those other articles to gather books I felt like I may enjoy or I like the idea of but yeah, I gave up on trying to read stuff from those lists a while back when I started focusing more on what I could actually read.
My biggest issue with those articles is that they don’t specifically tell you how to read to get the most from it. Like I know how to read in English but they just assume you know how to read to learn a language and it doesn’t go into process. That took me so long to figure out which al attributed to the burn out I then crashed into.
Closest thing I came to find was Read Real Japanese and Breaking into Japanese literature but both of those put me in mind of academic study (I know they aren’t but it just feels like that kind of level and approach which doesn’t actually help me understand).
I think I stumbled across natively through a recommendation to me on the WK forums. I didn’t actually join for a little after finding natively then that helped me find more manageable content after struggling with the Read Real Japanese books (which I still struggle with ).
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It’s so interesting that I see those two Read Real Japanese books recommended so often (+ キノの旅) after graded readers. The RRJ books are hard, they’re several several steps up from your average graded reader, and assume a lot more familiarity with the general act of reading Japanese than your average early learner is going to have. Granted, I think RRJ does mention somewhere or another that they’re for intermediate learners, but that’s such a vague playing field. I don’t blame anyone who started a RRJ book and lost confidence because of one.
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I just checked, I’ve finished 25 non-manga books and I’m nowhere near ready to read either of those smoothly without looking up 10 words a page. They aren’t exactly clear on what they mean to read, and maybe you’re supposed to intensive read all of the books on their lists? But agree with @CatDQ that opening books I was “supposed” to be ready for (ゼロの使い魔 and 魔女の宅急便 in my case) just destroyed my confidence and my motivation.
tbf, RRJ has a CD, and キノの旅 has an audiobook, but that’s not part of what’s suggested. Read graded readers and you’ll be ready for these other suggestions was the message I got and it made things worse.
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There are graded readers of level 5, which are in the N2 range, though.
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There weren’t when I was reading them. The high level ones are relatively new.
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Yeah, even now, I can read one or two of them but the others I need to read intensively and still don’t fully understand them
Even with the audio for RRJ (which is supper quick and mine didn’t come with the CD so I can’t slow it down without trying to put it through several other systems which aren’t available on phone ) I still struggle greatly with it. And キノの旅 audiobook I haven’t been able to find in the UK online but that could just be lack of knowledge on my part for where to find it. I have the DVD though so know what some of the chapters are about.
I wasn’t able to get a hold of some of the higher level ones so far (I grudged paying the price for some of those on eBay or such knowing I’ll get very little use from them) so mine are either the Tadoku free ones from a few years back, RRJ/ Breaking into Japanese literature, or levels 1-3 of the Oxford university ones. There is a few higher level stories in the last one (Lv 3) but I think most of the grammar is still N4/N3 level, except perhaps the True war story one at the end. wish my local library had them so I wouldn’t need to buy them
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Here are free ones of the levels 0-5: https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/19bitqy/2024_updated_free_tadoku_graded_reader_pdfs_2681/
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Cool, thanks I’ll have a look at those over the next few days.
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I myself read the „official“ ones, though. I borrowed them from the Japan Foundation (for free). They have an affiliation in London, too, if you could easily get there, this will for sure be worth it, not just because of the graded readers.
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