I haven’t read it, but from what I understand it’s just a novelization of the manga.
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My understanding too was that it was part one of the novelisation of the manga. The copy I have came with a booklet that does have a short manga in it (unsure if this is an additional part for the series or just an excerpt ) but tbh, I bought it to read the book first then check my understanding with the manga since I haven’t read it in English.
There’s also the fact that cover looked stunning and the manga covers are very colourful which drew me to them.
2 Likes
2025/02/17:
TL:DR - new study plan to help improve shadowing/ speaking and get into a better routine
Writing - I managed to do some more writing and have decided to try a new study plan as of next week (since I’m off work from 23rd and hoping to get into a decent space for studying while I’m off) mostly for writing output (and shadowing) but I’m also hoping it will help me get a better routine for listing as well since my reading seems to be my best skill.
Speaking - I’ve continued with my lessons and language exchanges. I’m starting to feel like I’m picking up more and most of the time I’m able to write what I’m hearing if they give me certain phrases or words I haven’t heard before (write in hiragana when I don’t know the Kanji). My speaking needs a lot of work so I need a better routine for shadowing alongside the lessons.
Listening - I am seeing some improvement but nothing near what I saw last year when I did over 100 hours in the one month. I feel I need to do a lot more passive listening when I can and also set aside time each week on several days to do more active listening even if that’s just a podcast a day. Something short that I can stick to and build upon.
Reading - I felt like I was failing a bit when I didn’t manage to understand as much in 時をかける少女 when I read it but I think the issue was lack of vocabulary, no knowledge of the plot to follow and more difficult concepts that I probably wouldn’t have fully understood in English without major focus. Reading 泣きたい私は猫をかぶる even without too many look ups, I feel it has been more approachable for me and seems to be an easier read. I’ve easily picked up some pottery terms (which I will rarely use but my brain seems to find them useful to know 
) and I’ve understood things from reading it that I didn’t become aware of during watching the anime (like the fact Kaoru isn’t her mum and that’s part of how she ends up at the mask shop, I also didn’t realise while watching that they were bullying her at school and that’s why she reacts how she does). I’m curious now to read books of some of the other anime I’ve only watched and see how much more I pick up from reading. Unfortunately, with training being this week, there will be limited reading time available since I will need to focus more on the training that chilling between calls.
Other stuff:
I’ve been given 2 new recommendations for reading (Jujutsu Kaizen since my nephew threw Zero and the first manga at me, and 7th time loop recommended by a woman at work, she’s reading it in English, I’m picking it up in Japanese) so naturally their Light novel series have been added to my final CD Japan order which should arrive by end of the first week in March 
and that’s the end of my book orders for this year (definitely this time or I will need to bring my renovations forward to fin in all the books, floor to ceiling book cases will be needed 
).
I feel like my original study plans have gone off the rails due to the long commute times while driving (since I’ve been travelling back and forth to parents house or the hospital the last almost 2 months) as well as the lack of textbook time since I haven’t had the energy for much except reading the last while and even that sometimes takes a back seat.
I’m hoping that going forwards, although this week is training at work, it will start to become a bit easier as I get myself back into a routine again. Planning to use normal off work times for what I’ve been doing but factor in a little of the textbooks as well as more active study, and then use the time I would normally be working, split between additional study and sorting stuff that needs done around the house so I should have a decent weekly routine for me to get back into proper studying.
This part below will be edited throughout the week for listening study:
Currently on 5h 30m between last week and the week before.
- Tues 18th - 2h of Easy Japanese podcasts (an hour before my lesson and another hour afterwards)
- Wed 19th - 1h & 10m Comprehensible Japanese (YouTube videos)
- Thurs 20th - 30m YouTube Japanese music videos
- Fri 21st - 25m YouTube N5-N4 listening practice video
Total for the week: 4h 5m
Note: I have come to notice that my interactions with Japanese in tutor led lessons always seems better after listening just before the lesson, regardless of if it is passive or active listening.
6 Likes
2025/02/26:
TL:DR - need to study all 4 skills more consistently. Last of the books arriving on Friday, and hoping to get into a better routine over the next few weeks.
This last week has been difficult to get much studying done between training at work, long commutes (having to be in the office for full training instead of working from home for part of the week like I usually do), car issues and getting it fixed, devices needing set up manually and the remnants of another storm finally pulling the fence over.
I’m off the next few weeks so hoping to get things back on track during this time and get back to regular textbook studying since that’s taken a dive recently too.
Speaking - I’ve kept up with the lessons and language exchanges but I think I need something more on top of this. I need to start shadowing regularly again and maybe practicing common conversations.
Writing - recently I’ve been trying to write a bit more during lessons/ exchanges and note down what I think I’ve heard in Hiragana unless I know the kanji. I feel like writing regularly is helping me to formulate thoughts better and faster so going to be looking at doing that more often.
Listening - Has kind of fallen aside again but as I’ll be using a lot of my time off for sorting stuff around the house, I feel like I can use a lot of the dead time for listening more even if it’s stuff I’ve already listened to. Managed a total of 9h 35m over Feb so far, but I want to focus more on this more regularly.
Reading - I’m getting more from it when I’m able to do longer sessions covering at least 4-6 pages if not more. Not entirely happy with how things are going reading through 泣きたい私は猫をかぶる, but that’s more of a “starting to get tired of it”/ needing something new, than anything else (no issues with the story, just that I haven’t been able to focus on it properly so losing interest). I only have about 90 pages to go so want to finish it and tick it off the list before starting anything new. My last book order is on the way, due in on Friday so there will be more shuffling going on to make space for the newest books.
As a result of things falling by the wayside, I’ve decided to do a full overhaul of my previous study routines.
Going forward:
The plan is to build up my study time and sessions over the next few weeks trying to do something in Japanese for each skill every day, even if it’s only for 10 minutes.
-
Writing -
I’ll be starting out by writing short diary entries/ thought dumps trying to pin point the words and phrases I’m struggling with, then focus on those sets of words before moving onto others. -
Listening -
The intention is to listen to at least 2 podcasts per day, building up to longer sessions when I have the time to. Start doing read alongs of books around my level and see if that also helps a bit with both reading and listening. -
Speaking -
Shadow a few sentences every day. Record a few minutes long voice note every day. Continue with my regular lessons and language exchanges. -
Reading -
Continue with the extensive reading but use intensive reading for short sessions daily from the textbooks. -
Textbook study -
Start working through MNN intermediate books again and also continue with Japanese with Hikari intermediate video textbook series.
Alongside this, I’ll be continuing playing games, watching anime etc more for the fun aspects than the learning aspects so sort of extensive listening sessions with the focus on enjoyment rather than full understanding.
I’ll review this again at the end of March and see how much I feel it is helping and if I need to make more adjustments. I’ve been keeping track of stuff in a separate diary, so will continue to mark off days etc in there. I’ll see how things go with this, hopefully getting back into a proper routine and finding something the works with me.
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Not wanting to pile more books onto your lists, but have you had a look at the Quartet series before? It just came to mind since they specifically have practice for all 4 skills. Speaking is always going to be harder for self learners, but you could maybe bring it to your tutor if you wanted to.
I’m terrible at following textbook plans, but I feel like you might actually stick with one 
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I’ve got the set for Quartet but tbh, I’m not sure if I’m quite there yet. I was working on the first on the Minna no Nihongo intermediate set the end of last year and haven’t finished it yet.
Do you know if Quartet covers the same level content and I could maybe work through Quartet instead?
1 Like
I’m not sure, I did my early textbooks before either Genki or MNN were around (shout-out to ようこそ ). It’s graded on Natively: Quartet 1 | L20, which I feel like based on the books you’re reading you should be good with the level of the first book (Quartet 2 is 27 or 28, iirc, so maybe that’s what you’re thinking of?)
1 Like
I can always try it out and see how I get on with it. Worst case scenario, I need to re-do some of it.
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2025/03/05:
TL:DR - Struggling to get time to properly start my new study routine so tried to stick to reading daily and doing what else I can in the mean time.
Well, my plan so far from last week hasn’t come to fullfruition yet
There’s been a lot of issues and unplanned excursions the last several days that have prevented me from actually doing much in the way of studying 
So instead I’ve just tried to do what I can, when I can.
Speaking - I’ve kept up with my language exchanges and Lessons though my last lesson was used mostly for trying to ask questions about grammar that I was struggling with as I flaked out a bit and was unable to say much of anything in Japanese 
I did manage to finally understand why を is used with 他動詞 words and が is used with 自動詞 words though I still don’t know what words come under those in English(they never taught those in English when I was in school, or I missed that lesson ).
I still need more practice to use the words correctly but I learned a little so it’s a plus.
Writing - I’ve continued to take notes in lessons and my language exchanges and I’ve now started to write a few sentences daily using words I’m trying to use in output sessions. Still trying to figure out if I should focus on a few grammar points and a set of vocab per week or if I should switch things up every few days but I’ll see how the weekly thing goes and take it from there.
Listening - I’ve managed a bit more over the last few days between random podcasts, YouTube videos, N4 単語 1500 vocabulary book vocab list with sentences (full Japanese, no English) and the voice over from Monster Hunter Wilds when I’ve played small parts of it.
Reading - Most of this has been either N5-N3 graded articles I found by fluke (not tried the N2 ones yet though), or the few pages I’ve managed to read from 泣きたい私は猫をかぶる (78 pages to go) in the last week but I have managed to keep my streak up and read at least one article or page per day.
Gaming wise, I really should start 13 Sentinels as it will have both Voice over and text with a fully re-playable text/voice log. I’m not quite at the stage of being able to understand Monster Hunter text since it’s not fully voiced and has no furigana but 13 Sentinels is fully voiced.
Plan going forward:
-
Writing -
I’ll continue writing out a few sentences daily using the grammar and some vocab I’ve been struggling with and see how this goes over the next week. -
Listening -
I’ll continue with what I’ve been doing and try to get at least 10 minutes or a few podcasts/ equivalent done each day. Alongside passive listening while doing other tasks. -
Speaking -
Shadow a page of the Shadowing book each day (it’s not that long). Record a few minutes long voice note every day (starting from tomorrow). Continue with my regular lessons and language exchanges. -
Reading -
Continue with the extensive reading but use intensive reading for short sessions daily from the textbooks, articles or other short pieces of text. -
Textbook study -
Continue working through Quartet (hopefully at a faster pace) also continue with Japanese with Hikari intermediate video textbook series though this may need to be done at a slower pace or have repeat listening of certain videos again.
I’m hoping the more regular and more consistent interactions with Japanese will start giving me better output skills as well as helping me get faster with my input skills.
I got a few new DVDs the other day (Frieren and Jujutsu Kaizen Zero), just as Frieren became available on UK Netflix I plan next weekend to pick up the Apothecary Diaries as well as Delicious in Dungeon if I can.
7 Likes
English doesn’t make much of a distinction. It’s part of the reason why people have so much trouble with lay vs lie. But what’s nice is once you unlock it for one language, it carries over to others. German made so much more sense to me when I realized that が and を could help me learn cases!
5 Likes
Ehh, enlight me on this 
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Sorry I liked this yesterday when I was leaving my computer and then just forgot to respond, lol
I don’t think there’s anything groundbreaking here, but with easy sentences I could translate them into my head and note which particle went with which noun.
It’s been a really long time since I’ve done grammar-based language learning, and still a long time since I did any German, but the … accusative (?) is the one that goes with を and the nomitive goes with が. I guess also the … indirect object (totally forgot the name) would also go with に, but there’s enough other uses of に that that’s not going to be set in stone.
Since English only tracks this with word order (and you don’t need all of the parts in a given sentence), it’s a lot harder to figure out what each part is. Japanese has a convenient tag and it helped me to understand these better than with English alone.
Japanese has also helped me understand direct/indirect objects and reflexive verbs in Spanish, which also carried over to French. So it’s been pretty useful at teaching me a thing that just didn’t make a lot of sense to me in English.
3 Likes
2025/03/12:
TL:DR - implementing the plan I started last week as well as some of the suggestions for improving my listening going forward, and planning to get back into the textbooks.
So, I still haven’t re-opened the textbooks yet 
But I did finally manage to complete 泣きたい、私は猫をかぶる and start the next bingo read - 雪の森. I originally picked this up because I liked the look of the cover, not realising it was a print-to-order book.
Reading -
So far, I’ve read just over 1/3 of the book (it is pretty short and has some pictures dotted through out). It’s been an interesting read so far, set in Hokkaido and it seems to have a lot of Kanji forms of words I’m used to reading in Hiragana only. There are very few furigana so it’s been good practice for Kanji readings and recognition. I’m struggling a little with the story but only because I kind of didn’t pay a lot of attention at the start and I think I missed a little of the important set up info meaning I was kind of confused for the first several pages. It’s shaping up to be a quick read, and I’ve not come across any weird or too complex grammar.
Speaking -
For some reason, my speaking skills seem to be taking a nose dive in lessons and I’m unsure exactly why. I’ve continued to read and sound things out as well as started listening more and also writing daily sentences so unsure why my speaking would be getting worse. I’ll be adding shadowing back in again from now though I’m going to be using the N5-N1 単語 books since I have both physical copies as well as the audiobooks (which were free through the audiobook.jp app). Hopefully that will help a bit
Writing -
I’ve been continuing to take notes through my exchanges and lessons. As an addition to this - and my homework - I’ve started writing a few sentences every day using words or grammar I’ve picked up while reading that day or words and grammar from my language exchanges and lessons that I was struggling with. My intention is that once this becomes more automatic, I will switch to writing short passages of info instead of just separate sentences and this in-turn will hopefully help my output as well as my thinking in Japanese
Listening -
I’ve picked up more passive listening and trying short focused sessions of active listening again on a daily basis since last week. Hopefully this will help more over time again and I can pick things up more easily as I get more regular practice again. I’ve been using a combination of comprehensible input videos, shorts in Japanese and also the audio from the N5-N1 単語 books since these have all Japanese tracks with the words and an example sentence for each vocabulary word.
I have made some adjustments to my study routine since last week and I think these adjustments will help me to progress a bit better going forwards. I’m also looking at trying to increase the volume of listening content going forward so that other than the reading at work, listening and shadowing will become my biggest focus for my study time.
Plan going forward:
Speaking/ Shadowing -
- increase this over the next few weeks to becoming a daily practice of shadowing per day with my language exchanges/ lessons 2-3 times per week.
Writing -
- increase the number of sentences/ complexity of the sentences I am writing as well as increase the vocab and grammar used as a way of trying to improve my overall output.
Listening -
- improve my listening by doing more sessions per week (hopefully at least 1 per day, more or longer sessions on days I’m not at work) as well as adding in more passive listening of easier content whenever possible using more of my downtime. I also intend to start adding in sessions of read alongs for books I’ve already read or even some of the Manga read along videos and such that was suggested to me in the Listening comprehension improvement thread.
Reading -
- continue reading through the bingo reads and hopefully improve my reading over the next several months so I can complete as many of the bingo choices as I can. In between at work, I will revert to easier books that have furigana so I can use these for more extensive reading again.
Textbook study -
- plan to get back into the Quartet textbook over the next few weeks and trying to get a more regular study routine for those again.
Gaming -
- as an added extra, I’m hoping to start 13 Sentinels soon as a study option for combining reading and listening (it has full voice over as well as a running log for replaying sentences). My understanding is that this will be quite a slow process and not be good for chilling out with since the focus will be on understanding rather than enjoyment.
All in, I am hoping that I can try to do a lot more time spent with active Japanese over the next few months and wasting less time doing things which aren’t actually helping me improve. The hope is that if I can get into a better study routine which is actively helping my focus, then I will see the pay off in my output and overall understanding. That’s the plan anyway. Fingers crossed this works the way I hope it will
9 Likes
