My Japanese Reading and studying Experiences - CatDQ

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2024/10/14:

TL:DR - Made some good listening progress, starting to get back to practicing Kanji/ writing and started back on みんなの日本語初級 blue series. And, increasing my listening goal from 40 hrs to 80 hrs this month since I’ve already hit 50 as of yesterday.

I feel like I have made some small leaps and bounds in understanding on the listening side of things. Finding it easier to figure out what the sounds of words are even if I don’t know the actual meaning of the word spoken. Sometimes I can also guess at the word meaning from the context, not often but enough for me to see a difference in my overall understanding.
I’m finding it quicker to pick up on words that I know without having to pause the audio. And I 'm recognising more words by just hearing them.

I haven’t done a lot of reading over the last several weeks since becoming unwell, but I feel that I have made up for this with listening. I’ve continued with passive listening as well though I’m not tracking that in the October challenge. I have managed to rack up 50 hours of active listening in the space of 2 weeks (10 hours more so far than I intended for the whole months) only due to the fact I have spent a lot of time resting and trying to recuperate and being unable at times to focus on reading from a book for more than a few minutes.

The last few weeks I have gone back over all the grammar in Genki book 1 & 2 (read through, listened to a bit, with some writing out of the answers if I wasn’t speaking them instead), rewatched the Game Gengo grammar videos for N5, N4 & N3 grammar, gone back through the Kanji text book for みんなの日本語初級 red book, and started the Kanji textbook for みんなの日本語初級 blue book (I’ll be starting the main blue textbook from tomorrow again so fingers crossed I manage to finish it this time instead of getting only a few sections in and finding it too difficult).

I’ve been writing more across the last week and finding it easier to answer the questions from Genki books as well as reading the Kanji in the みんなの日本語初級 Kanji textbooks (even without the furigana) and was able to write out almost all of the 243 Kanji in the Kanji textbooks so far (220 studied from the red Kanji textbook and 23 from the start of the blue Kanji textbook) without checking stroke order first or checking answers. I felt this was pretty decent considering I haven’t written much by hand the last few months. I’m also hoping to get back to writing to my penpals again since I’ve been unable to while so unwell.

I’ve continued with my lessons and language exchange, there’s also another meet up in a few weeks (hoping I’m not still contagious or feeling so unwell by then), and hoping to get a bit more practice in if I’m able to go.

Plans for this week;

  • Continue to work on my listening trying to get a few hours in each day (wondering if I can get 80 hours completed this month, double my original goal).
  • Start working through the みんなの日本語初級 blue textbook.
  • Continue working through the blue みんなの日本語初級 Kanji textbook.
  • Continue reading ふらいんぐうぃっち book 13 (started reading this the other day and finished chapter 1).
  • Hopefully finish ふしぎ駄菓子屋銭天堂 book 4 (only one chapter and the epilogue to complete).
  • Continue with my lessons and language exchanges.

On a different note, I am tempted to join the Korean side of Natively as well (so might have to switch this to the all languages topic), seeing how far I could get by with just reading. Obviously, for the moment this would not be serious study like with my Japanese but just small amounts to see how I find it since the written language has interested me for a while. I seem to like alternative writing systems (I was studying Ancient Egyptian at one point as well and will pick it back up again at some point :joy:).

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2024/10/29:

TL:DR - made a lot of listening progress this month that has had an impact on my understanding, sentence building and writing as well as the expected listening improvement. Going for a more regular routine from next month, adding Shadowing practice and getting back to working through the Zenitendo series as well as completing MNN blue series.

Still 2 days to go til the end of the month but thought I would update today since I missed updating last week.

For the listening challenge I managed (as of today) just over 135h. Mostly covered listening to anime series and films with Japanese voice over. Listening instead of watching the screen as most didn’t have Japanese subs and English subs were automatic.

There’s a few I will revisit at a later date, but I have found both my listening and writing have improved even if my vocabulary hasn’t increased that much. Listening to the grammar videos earlier in the month I think had an impact so will continue to use those for passive listening or for easier listening when feeling overwhelmed. I probably won’t get more than a few hours over the next 2 days so will take it a little easier for those.

I will be taking part in the next listening challenge and have decided to try building a proper habit for both active listening (30h, 1h minimum per day) and start shadowing (5h, 10 minutes per day). Hoping that this, alongside the textbooks, reading practice, tutor lessons and language exchanges, will all help me to build a proper habit and help me get passed the plateau I feel I have been stuck at for quite a while.

I’ve been writing more recently, just the textbook answers and drawing out the Kanji again but I do feel it is helping and this run through of みんなの日本語 blue textbook is actually making a lot more sense this time. I’m not taking everything in to be able to use it myself yet but I am able to at least understand what I’m reading and the grammar with just the first pass. I’ll come back to this again for the conversations for practice and refreshing my memory but I definitely find it easier this time around and don’t feel stuck or frustrated like I did last time (I’ve managed to reach further through the textbook this time too).

Reading has kind of fallen back this month with my focus being on listening and me having been unwell for a lot of this month unless it’s been from the textbooks or the 2 manga I’ve read (hoping to finish Ruri dragon 2 tonight or tomorrow). Next month I’ll have a more stable routine so hoping to get back into reading a chapter a day alongside my planned new listening and shadowing practice.

Speaking has been limited to my lessons and language exchanges but I have seen some improvements and my tutor has mentioned the change in my speaking as well. I have also been finding it easier to find ways of saying things even if I don’t know the way I want to say it so something must be clicking in my head.

Plan going forward:

  • Continue with the listening challenge for next month
  • Add in some Shadowing practice
  • Get back to reading regularly by continuing ふしぎ駄菓子屋銭天堂 from book 5
  • Continue working through みんなの日本語初級 blue textbook, Kanji textbook and English translation notes (will start on the listening and reading ones after finishing these)

Hoping this is me finally getting back to a regular study routine which works for both days I’m working and days I’m off and helps me to improve my Japanese more efficiently than I have been until now.

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Dang, I did not realize your numbers have gotten so high! You’ve been rock solid in your consistency. Hats off, seriously!

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Thanks :blush:
Most of it was anime, plus I was quite ill for much of the first 2 weeks or so of the month so a lot of that time I was doing around 6 hours split across the day, but I do think I’ve started to burn myself out and read very little this month which is why next month is a much lower number.

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Wow!! I’ll echo those are super impressive numbers!

If you’re watching in a web browser there’s plugins you can use to add a black bar over hardcoded subs like that, or you could just bring out the old “put a piece of paper over the bottom screen” tech, if you want to actually watch the things :laughing:

But seriously that’s great dedication and I hope your plan for the november challenge works out too!

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Thanks :blush:

Unfortunately most of these were DVDs or Bluray I had so I English subs were standard with the JP voice overs (most have no option to remove them) and was watching on the TV but easy enough to just sit listening to it while staring out the window or doodling as long as I didn’t zone out :joy:
Wish my laptop had a DVD/ Bluray drive though.

Thanks, I’m hoping this has started to build a habit so I can get back to studying properly since most of this year has been just reading and I haven’t felt much of an improvement elsewhere until this month. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Do you know of any? My answer is usually to find jp subs and make them really big with a opaque background, but I’ve never found a plugin that will just block it for me (I’m usually team watch without my glasses on, esp if I’m watching something I don’t care that much about, but obvs that doesn’t work for everyone :joy:)

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I bought an external Blu-ray drive for pretty cheap recently ($20-30 USD?). There’s free Blu-ray software these days, and if I wanna add subs (from kitsunekko.net or jimaku.cc), I just use MakeMKV to rip it onto my laptop.

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Hah, glad to see someone else has done the same thing. :rofl:

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I’ll echo the cheap external drive, mine was less than $40 about 5 years ago. And I’m not 100% sure, but I think you can use external subs in VLC player with physical media.

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That sounds right, tho whether or not you can get VLC to successful decode the region locking is another question (mixed results when I tried, but I didn’t go too far down the rabbit hole, and I gather others have gotten it to work better)

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I routinely forget my glasses exist (and need to get new ones), but I’m only mildly nearsighted, and almost always watch things at small distances anyway.

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Is it easy to set stuff like that up? And do you know if I can get it multi region?

I’m not tech savvy with a laptop/pc since I switched to mobile and tablets about 10 years ago (can set up steam and apps but no idea about hardware add ons) and even with my new laptop, I’ve not used it for much (it kinda sits in its bag wondering why the hell I bought it :joy:).

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External drive, Leawo(Windows only), and MakeMKV are all very straightforward. I’m pretty sure there’s multiregion players out there (and MakeMKV is good with that). Adding subs in VLC is straightforward. Getting the region decoding to work is potentially not.

I vary between devices, but usually watch things on laptop, and do use my Blu-ray player for the few that I have. Tho if something has built-in subs, or I don’t need them, then tablet’s nice too.

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I think MakeMKV can break the region lock, it just takes longer? :woman_shrugging:t4:

I have a US computer and can rip Blue rays and DVDs from the UK and Japan on it, but it’s been so long since I’ve done it I don’t remember how it works :sweat_smile:

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MakeMKV breaks the region lock just fine. Idk about it taking longer. I just know that it’s been totally fine with anything I’ve fed it.

US and Japan are same region for Blu-ray (but different for DVD)

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Thank you :blush: I’ll look into this as it might suit my needs if I can get it to work and get the JP subs for things if they are available.

So far I use a tablet if it’s on Disney+, Netflix or YouTube, I use the PS5 for UK Bluray, (I don’t currently have a multi-region Bluray) and I use the multi-region DVD player or PS5 for DVDs. So far only one of my DVDs/ Bluray seems to have JP subs (I’m not counting the part subs in Zestria the X) and the rest either have English subs as standard (you can’t switch those off at all) or no subs.

Netflix, Disney+ and YouTube mostly have JP subs if they have the audio but the stuff on DVD/ Bluray I can’t find anywhere else. At some point it will become a moot point but it would be nice to be able to use them for studying from and trying to pick apart the audio if I can.

Incase anyone is wondering about the multi-region DVD player, most of my anime DVDs are either US or JP instead of UK.

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The subtitle hider I used was a web browser extension that @cat shared a long time ago, but I think the website for it is dead now. subtitle-hider/README.md at main · Bennycopter/subtitle-hider · GitHub This looks like it does a pretty similar thing with a few customization options. It just adds an adjustable box that’s always on top of your screen and blocks that area, and because it’s not a web extension it would also work for hiding subs in any video player

That wont let you add your own subs though, if you wanted to watch with those because it will be on top of your new subs as well, but I also just make my jp subs larger with a big black background if I need to do that :laughing:

Adding subs to physical media you’re watching with vlc player :white_check_mark:
Using vlc to watch out of region stuff, also :white_check_mark: it used to be pretty bad at it, and also pretty bad at playing bluray specifically, but both of those have gotten a lot better in the last couple years or so

Can’t remember if there were any settings I needed to tinker with to make it work at first (I seem to remember there was a region switch option in vlc settings somewhere?), but just popped a region 2 dvd into my internal drive and vlc autoplayed it

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2024/11/11:

TD:DR - Listening/ Shadowing progress halted due to motivation/ frustration but I did manage to complete the みんなの日本語 blue textbook this time (even if I haven’t fully internalised the grammar yet).

Last few weeks I’ve felt frustrated with progress and inability to focus again. Not sure why though it could be physical health issues as I’m still not 100% and seem to have a perpetual cold, fever and fatigue. I felt I was getting back on track and starting to have a habit for listening regularly in October then was getting frustrated with my progress in listening and Shadowing at beginning of November, stuck with it for around a week then everything came to a halt last weekend and I just stopped cold turkey. At that time I just felt like throwing everything out the window due to the frustration I was feeling and the fact I was no longer enjoying anything I was interacting with in Japanese (which was the frustrating thing) so I stopped and decided to just continue with the textbook stuff with みんなの日本語 blue textbook and kanji book which did help to pull things back for me as well as improving my mood. I think part of the issue was the fact I changed my routine suddenly with how I was interacting with Japanese and that I was finding it frustrating to fit an hour of listening/ 10 minutes of Shadowing on where previously I had been able to fit in around 2 hours or more of listening into my day, and it just sent me on a downward spiral.

I managed to finish both textbook and kanji book but when I started using the other みんなの日本語 books (reading topics, listening tasks and writing books) the same feelings started to come back so instead I switched to 新完全マスター N4 grammar book to see if there was any difference and managed to complete several short chapters (they are only 2 pages each). I’ve been listening to Terraced House in the background as well for some passive listening practice yesterday and today.

Sunday before last, I didn’t have a language exchange because my exchange partner had a guest staying over so we picked things up again last Sunday. Between that and the lesson I had today, I have noticed a massive difference compared with last month where I felt more confident when speaking and more confident with listening too.

I spoke to my tutor about it today as I was struggling for about the first 15-20 minutes to form sentences with words I knew and I was thinking the lack of listening over the last week could be what was causing it. She suggested some things to try and we’re also going to look at doing some Shadowing practice in my lessons as well as looking at additional pitch accent/ pacing issues.

I’ve decided that for listening I’m going to go back to what I had been enjoying but I am also going to try to do short intensive sessions on days off (starting from next weekend) where I will listen to something several times, looking up all the unknown words/ grammar and practice those in addition to the extensive listening again but this time I won’t be tracking time spent incase that’s part of what’s causing me to feel demotivated.

Plan going forwards:

  • Continue working through the textbooks (currently 新完全マスターN4 grammar one)
  • Continue reading ふしぎ駄菓子屋銭天堂 while at work
  • Start short intensive listening sessions for understanding purposes
  • Re-try Shadowing but drop outside of lessons for now if I feel overwhelmed or demotivated
  • Try not to overwork or overwhelm myself while I’m still recovering.

I need to have more patience with myself and my progress again. I think I lost this when things started progressing and I felt I was on a roll again with みんなの日本語. I identified today that this was due to me wanting to be able to do things I can’t currently which in turn frustrates me because I’m trying to compare my Japanese level to my English level and I know it doesn’t work like that but it still frustrates me.

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2024/11/19:

TL:DR - Everything is feeling a little up in the air atm and I’m unsure how to pin down my focus and motivation since I changed things at the beginning of November.

This week has gone down hill a bit with studying and even my daily stuff has been done in stops and starts with a few days missed iirc.

I feel like the regular listening of normal stuff and the Game Gengo videos was helping quite a bit but then when I switched to my plan for this month for the listening, everything just fell apart and nothing seems to fit right atm. After finishing みんなの日本語 blue textbook, I tried reading/listening to some of the other books bit couldn’t focus, managed to do some of 新完全マスター N4 grammar but now that isn’t making sense and even the reading through of ふしぎ駄菓子屋銭天堂 book 5 has been on hold when I’m not at work. It’s like everything just stopped and I’m not entirely sure how to fix it.

So instead, I’ve continued doing my lessons and language exchanges. This weeks lesson we started on Shadowing (half the lesson as free speech and half as shadowing)only to discover that the books are not the same, some parts are but some of them aren’t so we mixed it up a bit and tried parts from both. I have been trying to Shadow on my own as well but that wasn’t going great the last week or so.

I can hear the differences but trying to replicate certain ones is a huge struggle. I can also hear that my intonation is incorrect and that throws me off by quite a bit because I know what I need to say but not how to say it. It made me think of some of the words I was helping one of my language exchange partners with in English where words of the same sound mean different things.

During today’s lesson it took me around 25 minutes or so to do 10 phrases with only a few short lines each as we practiced each line until I could say it properly. I think I need to look at investing in something to help me hear my own voice alongside the audio so I get instant feedback. Or look at increasing my lessons and working with the tutor to perfect it (probably the better option but having additional lessons may now be the best idea with how I have been the last few weeks, I don’t want another burnout and that’s where things appear to be heading).

I don’t know if I need something different or just need to take a step back to what I was doing before and try to find the focus/ motivation I had previously again.

There are books I want to read but know I don’t have the energy for the look ups atm and even with ふしぎ駄菓子屋銭天堂, I’m struggling to understand large chunks again even though I should know the words. I’m thinking I need something a little lower for Natively level just to have as some kind of “I can read this!” motivation, but at the same time, I don’t need something that is too easy.

I think I maybe need to go back and use intensive reading on the graded readers or the Read Real Japanese books and see if I can work through those to help increase my understanding. I have audio for them too.

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