Intro
I’ve internally debated a bit whether I should start writing a study log, mainly because I have no idea how to start this or how to format it nicely. I’ve stalked looked at a few of the other logs and everyone is keeping their posts so neat and tidy! I guess that’s to be expected of a community that loves tracking things.
But well, here I am.
The main purpose is that I want to be able to look back on this post (maybe I will abandon this thread, maybe I will abandon Natively, maybe I will abandon learning Japanese) – but I always found great joy in finding old posts of mine and seeing how much I changed over the weeks, months, years. Sometimes it’s like seeing a completely different person.
I found Natively a few months ago and I love it so much, I really love having a place to keep track of all the things I’m reading and watching and I love stalking looking at other’s profiles to find recommendations. So hopefully this will help me keep track of my progress as well. I don’t know many people here yet, but everyone seems very friendly and helpful.
Some background
I’ve started learning Japanese a long time ago, it must have been 2018 or so. I found old Wanikani posts from me in 2019. I wish I could remember the exact moment where I decided “okay, I’m doing this for real!”. Probably I saw some anime or listened to some J-music, and thought it would be cool to be able to understand it just like that. Or maybe I was reading scans and was in awe of the hard-working translators.
At that time I was pretty clueless how to start, at that time already there was a wealth of information and apps on learning Japanese.
I think I started with some apps like Drops, and then Lingodeer. I remember struggling to find a method to learn Kanji which completely overwhelmed me (as always, the easiest terms - here numbers - have the most complicated readings).
Ultimately I succumbed to Wanikani and used it religiously for a few years. Luckily I already started earning my own money and could afford it without regrets.
I also had a Anki phase but because I wasn’t really versed with making card layouts I always had issues with the pre-made decks, adding and dropping them after a while. If JPDB had been there already then, I probably would have stuck with that. But instead, I re-discovered a cute little app called Renshuu which could do everything I wanted! Nowadays, I only use Renshuu as my all-in-one review tool and feed it the materials I’m studying (textbooks, JLPT lists, making my immersion lists).
During all this time, I’ve had a few slumps where I didn’t study for months on end, but ultimately I always found my motivation back. And the reason for that, was always that I found something that I hyperfixated on, which fueled my burning desire to please let me understand the raws and fanarts I’m begging on my knees.
It’s a bit embarrassing to admit but yeah my latest motivational burst was born from the power of yaoi ships. That’s why I’m putting it here right at the end. But maybe I don’t have to, since I noticed there’s actually quite a lot of BL enjoyers in this community!
Current goals
-
Pass N3 in December to have a sort of qualitative checkpoint
-
Finish reading a (light) novel (I have no idea where the difference between light novels and novels start, I guess anything that’s young-adult themed is a LN? I’m not a YA anymore, so I have no idea what’s that supposed to include)
-
I want be more confident in speaking and reach a travel-conversational level (want to travel to Japan in 2025 with friends and I’ll probably be the one who translates everything)
Stats! (cuz everybody loves numbers!)
| Renshuu | Vocab | Kanji | Grammar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unique Terms | 6387 | 1611 | 514 |
| N5 | 855/855 (100%) | 80/80 (100%) | 110/110 (100%) |
| N4 | 610/610 (100%) | 166/166 (100%) | 141/141 (100%) |
| N3* | 1427/1772 (81%) | 376/376 (100%) | 153/153 (100%) |
| N2 | 622/1747 (36%) | 359/359 (100%) | 65/247 (26%) |
| N1 | 397/3096 (13%) | 532/1226 (43%) | 7/216 (3%) |
*currently working on
| Natively Stats | |
|---|---|
| Books/Volumes read* | 27 |
| Pages read* | 5.3k |
| Series/Movies watched | 6 |
| Hours watched | 47.6 |
*excluding textbooks and graded readers
Currently Reading:
Currently watching:
Is there something else? I guess I can always make liberal use of the edit function. If you’ve come so far, then thank you so much for reading (but I’ll be fine using this just for accountability, too).
(I really hope I won’t abandon this T_T )
As far as we’ve managed to figure out, most of the distinction comes down to how the publisher wants to market a book. Any particular LN/novel you’ve got your sights set on first?
it’s a mess of tables and references I made for myself and chitchat with other people.
)… Particularly I love that he’s able to both be really compassionate and not have a crisis over doing his work. Not sure if you’d agree, but some others that come to mind as similar for me: Kirito/Kazuto from SAO, Syaoran from Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle (mostly), and (in a very broken way) Shirou from Fate/Stay Night.
