Okay so itās beenā¦ way too long since Iāve last posted on here and been at least somewhat consistent with my japanese reading. But thatās going to change NOW (yes, this time for sureā¦) so Iām setting up this log to hold myself accountable.
Iām planning to use this to track my progress and goals but also to talk about my thought regarding language learning and maybe occasionally dabble in other languages (Mandarin is looking really tempting right nowā¦). I donāt think Iāll manage to do weekly updates but maybe monthly? I donāt know, weāll see I think.
Feel free to comment on anything I post and letās hope I can get back to building a study habit!
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Log #1, 12/2024
How did things go since the last update?
Since there wasnāt really a last update I will just say how things went since the start of the year and wellā¦ the answer is terrible, at least if we are just talking about my language learning. Looking at my stats page you can see that my logged reading did an absolute nose-dive and came to a halt around March and hasnāt recovered ever since.
Thereās a bunch of reasons for that which can be summed up as major life changes that just completely demolished my habits and also a change in priorities, some of which I regret more than others but alas.
Details on my life changes for anyone who might be curious
I quit my fulltime job in March to start university, which Iām so so glad I did. I was absolutely miserable mentally and although my degree is very challenging it definitely feels like Iām doing the right thing. (And no, my degree actually isnāt related to languages at all 
)
I also ended up getting involved in various forms of activism (not through uni) which kind of knocked down language learning in my priorities for a while but Iām ready to find a balance between those hopefully.
The part of this year with the least positive consequences was me getting into a relationship for a few months, realizing that it really didnāt feel right and then (still) dealing with the aftermath of a fairly ungly breakup. Sighs. Anyway, guess Iāll be smarter next time.
Last point is that I also started a new part-time job to earn some money on the side. It has been pretty chill because my team is nice and Iām not too busy most of the time but I still had to get some new time management skills.
Meeting my 2024 goals or filling my bingo card is definitely impossible at this rate but Iām not too upset about it considering I really didnāt expect to have to deal with all these altered conditions. Still would have been nice to get at least a little closer to my goals but thatās life.
The only way I still kept in touch with Japanese after March was through social media and a long-running hobby project that I thankfully managed to finish recently to free up more time for proper studying again. I feel like my overall skills havenāt deterioated much but I definitely forgot some wordsā¦
What is the plan for now?
Iāll try to ease myself back into reading at first and see if I can motivate myself to actually read on the train every day. First step is to finally finish the last bit of åęęć»é«ę§»å½°čÆć®ęØåÆ4 ććć¦ē°ēć®ęćć²ćć | L31. I also bought ē”ęµć®ē¬ć®å¤ | L29 today which seems easy and short enough to not be daunting to read.
I think I wonāt add more unknown words I encounter to anki for now. Right now I just want to focus on getting back to reading and the thought of having to go through my kindle dictionary file for sentence mining would definitely hold me back at the moment. Maybe that means Iāll forget some words again after looking them up but thatās fine for now. Small steps and all.
Iād say the goal until the next update is to finish the books I listed and maybe get some listening practice in even if itās just one hour or something.
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