this space will be dedicated to sharing my studies, tracking my progress and overall just motivating me to keep going. i'll mostly post about my psychology/language studies, my day-to-day life and stuff related to learning with AuDHD. i'm afrolatina, and my pronouns are she/her :)
fluent: brazilian portuguese (native), english (C1)
Disclaimer: I haven't been posting a lot lately (life's been hectic) so I decided to start sharing some of my notes. These were taken a while back, based on Tae Kim's grammar guide.
Japanese consists of two phonetic scripts (Hiragana and Katakana, referred to as kana), with a little less than 50 characters each. Today we'll study Hiragana!
Hiragana (ひらがな) is used for a couple of reasons:
• Grammatical purposes;
• Words with really difficult/rare Kanji;
• Colloquial expressions;
• Onomatopoeias;
• Or by beginner students and children, in place of unfamiliar Kanji;
Every character in Hiragana corresponds to a [vowel] or [consonant + vowel] syllable sound, with the exception of [ん].
When practicing by hand, it's extremely important to remember that stroke order and the direction of strokes matter a lot! You don’t want to end up with the writing skills of a clumsy toddler.
(the chart bellow has hiragana and katakana btw, the hiragana characters are on the left side)
source: r/japaneseresources on reddit
Thought learning all the characters was hard enough? Fear not, there's additional sounds for you to learn.
📚 The Muddied Sounds 📚
There are five more consonant sounds that are written by affixing two tiny lines (dakuten) or a tiny circle (handakuten) to a character. This creates a less clipped version of the consonants, as you can see bellow:
source: japanistry.com
📚 The Small [や], [ゆ] and [よ] 📚
We can combine a consonant with a / ya / yu / yo sound by attaching a small [や], [ゆ] or [よ] to the /i/ vowel character of each consonant.
source: guidetojapanese.org
📚 The Small [つ] 📚
A small [つ] is inserted between characters to carry the consonant sound of the second character to the end of the first.
Note that when you encounter a small [つ] between characters, there's almost always a clipping sound to the pronounciation! You gotta make sure to clip the right consonant (the consonant of the second character).
Example: ざっし (zas-shi / magazine)
📚 The Long Vowel Sound 📚
You can extend the vowel sound of a character by adding [あ], [い] or [う] to them. See the chart bellow:
source: guidetojapanese.org
Example: to create a extended vowel sound from [か], we add a [あ] to create [かあ].
Remember to actually hold your vowels long enough, or you'll end up saying stuff like [ここ - here] instead of [こうこう - highschool].
Lastly, there are a few exceptions where and /e/ vowel is extended by adding [え] or and /o/ vowel is extended by adding [お], but those are few and far between, so pay attention but don't worry too much about it.
here are a few podcasts I listen to weekly for practice!
Japanese with Teppei and Noriko
short, concise episodes covering various topics! easy to follow along!
Let's Learn Japanese from Small Talk
longer more detailed episodes with very casual Japanese! they explain some of the vocab they use while speaking (especially slang) and have a vocab list at the end that they go over with a link to read along!
Japanese with Kanako
great for shadowing practice with a few listening exercises mixed in. perfect if you are using the genki series!
what are some podcasts you like to listen to? 教えてください！😊
Hi. I've been struggling to come up with the needed downpayment for my school this semester. I've tried selling things online but theyre not enough. I am already in my 4th yr hoping to enroll this semester so I can proceed to internship next sem. If you need any proof of my university and existence, I'll gladly share them. So please.
Any amount will do. Thank you for your kindness in advance. 🙏🩷
https://www.paypal.me/triciasantos
i'm honestly broke rn but hopefully this will reach someone with money to spare 🥲
i’m over 5'5 / i wear glasses or contacts / i have blonde hair / i often wear sweatshirts / i prefer loose clothing over tight clothes / i have one or two piercings / i have at least one tattoo / i have blue eyes / i have dyed or highlighted my hair / i have or have had braces / i have freckles / i paint my nails / i typically wear makeup / i don’t often smile / resting bitch face / i play sports / i play an instrument / i know more than one language / i can cook or bake / i like writing / i like to read / i can multitask / i’ve never dated anyone / i have a best friend i’ve known for over five years / i am an only child
i’m over 5'5 / i wear glasses or contacts / i have blonde hair / i often wear sweatshirts / i prefer loose clothing over tight clothes / i have one or two piercings / i have at least one tattoo / i have blue eyes / i have dyed or highlighted my hair / i have or have had braces / i have freckles / i paint my nails / i typically wear makeup / i don’t often smile / resting bitch face / i play sports / i play an instrument / i know more than one language / i can cook or bake / i like writing / i like to read / i can multitask / i’ve never dated anyone / i have a best friend i’ve known for over five years / i am an only child
Not much to color here lol
Tagging @nuuralshams @anordinaryarchitect @thoolibul-ilm @a-dream-deferred and anyone else who wants to do it :)
i’m over 5'5 / i wear glasses or contacts / i have blonde hair / i often wear sweatshirts / i prefer loose clothing over tight clothes / i have one or two piercings / i have at least one tattoo / i have blue eyes / i have dyed or highlighted my hair / i have or have had braces / i have freckles / i paint my nails / i typically wear makeup / i don’t often smile / resting bitch face / i play sports / i play an instrument / i know more than one language / i can cook or bake / i like writing / i like to read / i can multitask / i’ve never dated anyone / i have a best friend i’ve known for over five years / i am an only child
Tagging @iwillsurvivecollege @notetaeker and anyone else that wants to do this!
i’m over 5'5 (I wish😭) / i wear glasses or contacts / i have blonde hair / i often wear sweatshirts / i prefer loose clothing over tight clothes / i have one or two piercings / i have at least one tattoo / i have blue eyes / i have dyed or highlighted my hair / i have or have had braces / i have freckles / i paint my nails / i typically wear makeup / i don’t often smile / resting bitch face (so helpful) / i play sports (I play badminton) / i play an instrument (I have piano keyboard but i can only play Happy Birthday 😭) / i know more than one language / i can cook or bake (very beginner level still learning) / i like writing / i like to read / i can multitask (I can but I prefer not to) / i’ve never dated anyone / i have a best friend i’ve known for over five years (fun fact I met my best friend in kindergarten and I've known her for 15 years) / i am an only child
i’m over 5'5 / i wear glasses or contacts / i have blonde hair / i often wear sweatshirts (in winters only but yeah) / i prefer loose clothing over tight clothes / i have one or two piercings (two sets so technically four piercings, I'm getting more this winter!)/ i have at least one tattoo / i have blue eyes / i have dyed or highlighted my hair / i have or have had braces / i have freckles / i paint my nails / i typically wear makeup / i don’t often smile / resting bitch face/ i play sports (I've played badminton and swimming before, not anymore tho) / i play an instrument / i know more than one language (three lmfao)/ i can cook or bake (some things but not really) / i like writing (*cough cough* my ao3 is danmei_trash *cough*) / i like to read / i can multitask (I always multitask lmfao) / i’ve never dated anyone / i have a best friend i’ve known for over five years (12 years as of now I think) / i am an only child
i’m over 5'5 / i wear glasses or contacts / i have blonde hair / i often wear sweatshirts / i prefer loose clothing over tight clothes / i have one or two piercings / i have at least one tattoo / i have blue eyes / i have dyed or highlighted my hair / i have or have had braces / i have freckles / i paint my nails / i typically wear makeup / i don’t often smile / resting bitch face / i play sports / i play an instrument / i know more than one language / i can cook or bake / i like writing / i like to read / i can multitask / i’ve never dated anyone / i have a best friend i’ve known for over five years / i am an only child
i’m over 5'5 / i wear glasses or contacts / i have blonde hair / i often wear sweatshirts / i prefer loose clothing over tight clothes / i have one or two piercings / i have at least one tattoo / i have blue eyes / i have dyed or highlighted my hair / i have or have had braces / i have freckles / i paint my nails / i typically wear makeup / i don’t often smile / resting bitch face / i play sports / i play an instrument / i know more than one language / i can cook or bake / i like writing / i like to read / i can multitask / i’ve never dated anyone / i have a best friend i’ve known for over five years / i am an only child
tagging some moots that I guess will enjoy doing this: @nelyastudies @alas9 @autumnlake @patheticintp @zzzzzestforlife @lauralearns @eldritchsx @anestudy @fer-code @greenteabag @lunacchy (no pressure tags)
i’m over 5'5 / i wear glasses or contacts / i have blonde hair / i often wear sweatshirts / i prefer loose clothing over tight clothes / i have one or two piercings / i have at least one tattoo / i have blue eyes / i have dyed or highlighted my hair / i have or have had braces / i have freckles / i paint my nails / i typically wear makeup / i don’t often smile / resting bitch face / i play sports / i play an instrument / i know more than one language / i can cook or bake / i like writing / i like to read / i can multitask / i’ve never dated anyone / i have a best friend i’ve known for over five years / i am an only child
no pressure tags for some of my moots @emikopng @fireworks-too @anestudy @pxasee @333ophelia333
Disclaimer: I haven't been posting a lot lately (life's been hectic) so I decided to start sharing some of my notes. These were taken a while back, based on Tae Kim's grammar guide.
Japanese consists of two phonetic scripts (Hiragana and Katakana, referred to as kana), with a little less than 50 characters each. Today we'll study Hiragana!
Hiragana (ひらがな) is used for a couple of reasons:
• Grammatical purposes;
• Words with really difficult/rare Kanji;
• Colloquial expressions;
• Onomatopoeias;
• Or by beginner students and children, in place of unfamiliar Kanji;
Every character in Hiragana corresponds to a [vowel] or [consonant + vowel] syllable sound, with the exception of [ん].
When practicing by hand, it's extremely important to remember that stroke order and the direction of strokes matter a lot! You don’t want to end up with the writing skills of a clumsy toddler.
(the chart bellow has hiragana and katakana btw, the hiragana characters are on the left side)
source: r/japaneseresources on reddit
Thought learning all the characters was hard enough? Fear not, there's additional sounds for you to learn.
📚 The Muddied Sounds 📚
There are five more consonant sounds that are written by affixing two tiny lines (dakuten) or a tiny circle (handakuten) to a character. This creates a less clipped version of the consonants, as you can see bellow:
source: japanistry.com
📚 The Small [や], [ゆ] and [よ] 📚
We can combine a consonant with a / ya / yu / yo sound by attaching a small [や], [ゆ] or [よ] to the /i/ vowel character of each consonant.
source: guidetojapanese.org
📚 The Small [つ] 📚
A small [つ] is inserted between characters to carry the consonant sound of the second character to the end of the first.
Note that when you encounter a small [つ] between characters, there's almost always a clipping sound to the pronounciation! You gotta make sure to clip the right consonant (the consonant of the second character).
Example: ざっし (zas-shi / magazine)
📚 The Long Vowel Sound 📚
You can extend the vowel sound of a character by adding [あ], [い] or [う] to them. See the chart bellow:
source: guidetojapanese.org
Example: to create a extended vowel sound from [か], we add a [あ] to create [かあ].
Remember to actually hold your vowels long enough, or you'll end up saying stuff like [ここ - here] instead of [こうこう - highschool].
Lastly, there are a few exceptions where and /e/ vowel is extended by adding [え] or and /o/ vowel is extended by adding [お], but those are few and far between, so pay attention but don't worry too much about it.
Some pics of my notes from today, the other two photos were made a while ago. I barely did anything today, hopefully tomorrow will be a more productive day. Wishing y'all a blessed evening! 🫶🏻✨
🎏Immersion, its quirks, and tips for language learning this way!
its the 5th of May, so happy children's day! 🎏
I got a question in one of my posts asking for some advice on immersion learning! i thought it would be a good opportunity to talk about immersion in general, my current study(?) routine and perhaps give some useful advice!
As the name suggests, Immersion language learning is done primarily by consuming media in your target language. Immersion can seem super intimidating to us learners, mostly cause we can't understand most of the stuff available to us. But! its not impossible to start out using immersion right out of the gate.
i think people tend to get scared or go "I'll immerse when i get better at my TL!"
But the truth of the matter is, your not going to get used to, or better at your target language unless you consume actual content. (in my opinion.)
Honestly, a lot of immersion learning is being able to tolerate that i probably wont understand everything right away. I will someday, but for now i have to be comfortable with not understanding a lot. which is okay!
So, what is my current study routine?
right now, my routine consists of:
doing vocabulary cards on Anki from a premade anki deck.
playing about an hour of Animal crossing everyday
watching 1 - 3 episodes of an anime
watching Youtube videos
weekly (ish) grammar done by reading Imabi, and watching Cure Dolly videos on Youtube.
The bread and butter of my routine is learning vocab, and occasional grammar studies. I'm using the core2k/6k deck. which as the name implies, is an optimized vocab deck that contains the most common 6k JP vocabulary. i currently take 5 new vocab cards a day, and try to get my reviews in everyday. my anki deck has contributed a lot to me being able to immerse so early in my language journey. learning and then reviewing new words everyday lets me recognize words in my immersion.
As time has gone on, i can recognize more and more words, and even some words I haven't encountered yet in my deck. Immersion, while still uncomfortable, (especially with complex media) is the other side of the coin. i try to spend double the time i spend on anki, immersing. Mostly because i enjoy what I'm immersing in, but also because i get more out of it the more time i spend immersing.
"that's all well and good Lucky, but what advice would you give to someone who wants to learn this way?"
Well! first of all, and this is very important:
Be comfortable with ambiguity.
you may not be able to understand some, or maybe most of the thing you are immersing in. that's okay!
Your brain is already looking for patterns to see in your TL, and is growing more accustomed to it. I got a lot of headaches in the beginning, i still do actually. but i know that's my brain working hard! (take a break if you get a headache!!)
Second, and probably just as important:
Follow your interests. make immersion fun!
whats the point of immersing if its torturous?!
I'm a lot more likely to continue immersing in something if i actually enjoy it. there are a lot of easier anime to immerse in, but if I'm not having fun, I'm not going to learn anything. you should do the same! even if its too difficult to understand. I'm currently watching someone on YouTube play a dating sim, and even though its waaaay above my skill level, I'm really enjoying myself watching it! I've even recognized some words i know. whole sentences, even.
Third:
Be Consistent!
This is probably advice you've already heard, but it bears repeating! even if you do something small like listening to a song in your TL, that's immersion babyy :) consistency is key, above all.
Lastly: Track your Immersion.
a problem with immersion is it can feel like you are going nowhere. tracking how much time you spend doing an activity, (watching videos, reading, etc) is a great way to make immersion more tangible.
lots of people reccomend toggl, but i personally use polylogger. its built with language learners in mind, and is stupidly easy to use. i also keep personal logs in an online diary, as well as here on my blog to measure my progress. it helps!
alright, i think thats everything i have to say for now! if you've made it to the end of this long post, hello! and thank you <3 hope you've had a good day so far!
I will leave you with some links to more reading on the subject under the cut, they go into more detail than i have here.
take care for now! またね！
this article by Refold about tolerating ambiguity:
The Refold roadmap is a step-by-step guide for learning any language from scratch. We explain exactly how to combine media, strategic study,
The Moe ways guide to immersion:
Moe Moe Moe Moe Moe Moe Moe
Making the leap to Immersion, Video by Cure Dolly:
