you were perfect

she/her, twenties. personal blog that's mostly a langblr (日本語).

[puncture]

11/20/21

Real life has been uneventful but also eventful. Mental health has been fucked but it's kind of getting better since a job I interviewed for months ago has gotten back to me (annoying but also it's my dream job at the moment) and I have two different interviews the week after thanksgiving. One is for said dream job and the other is for a retail position. I know how much retail pays and it's pretty good, I have no clue how much dream job pays but I have a feeling it'll be less than retail. I think the experience even if for only a year or two will be worth it though. Also Endwalker comes out in less than two weeks now and it's all I can think about! I'm also playing Shin Megami Tensei V and having a blast.

So not a lot new happening in my studies. Still doing my WK anki deck every day. I'm on level 17. When I stopped years and years ago I was on 20 and I'm hitting a place where kanji is getting harder. I might go to 10-15 new cards a day instead of 20 once I feel overwhelmed. It still takes no more than 30 minutes a day on new kanji days. Purely new vocab days it's only 15 minutes a day. Both of these are with reviews so it's not time consuming at all. I just know there's only a certain amount of material I can feasibly retain through anki (and not outside exposure) before it's just throwing words at my brain until I can hit "Good" and forget them by tomorrow's reviews.

Grammar has halted because I feel stuck. Still very much in a cloudy gray N4 area but not sure how to move on. Reading the book I was reading has gotten to where I felt like I was white noising, which isn't good. So I took a break from it. I don't know if I should reread Tae Kim or if I should reread my beginner textbooks.

The thing about my beginner textbooks is that they don't help me not struggle with the things that native material causes me to struggle with. My main issue when reading is parsing long and complex sentences. I can skip to the final reading in Genki II and won't come across something that exemplifies the problem I'm having. Does that mean I'm in any way shape or form mastered Genki II? No not at all, but I can stumble my way through N4 stuff (I'm not aiming for JLPT but just giving somewhat of a metric) and it never gets that complex structure-wise.

I have even read the first readings in the three most popular intermediate textbooks: Tobira, An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese, and Quartet I. Despite those all being difficult for me (and in different ways!) none of them hit the nail on the head. I know this should be pretty obvious why. Native material is going to be harder than what you learn in a textbook, where things are staggered. I understand this. It just makes self study feel fragmented and frustrating.

I will say that Quartet has a very cool section in its textbook that teaches you reading strategies. I haven't delved too far in though because I don't think I'm ready. Also of all the intermediate textbooks I mentioned above, it's probably my favorite. Even though I'm not a fan of how spacious the pages are, or of how it's split into two books with like six units in each. I picked up the first book from honto.jp. They have a coupon where I could get it for half off, it ended up costing less than 15 USD. I just wanted to satisfy a curiosity but if I use this book I will probably buy it physical. I'm not a fan of Honto's apps for e-reading and I'm not a fan of the fact that I can't turn the book into a pdf and read it how I want or import it into notetaking apps on my ipad. I could technically screenshot every page and do that but that's a lot of work.

So what do I do? Well I'm impatient and foolish so I don't know. I don't know when to give up on beginner textbooks, since I'm not in a classroom setting and my learning is tailored to being able to read and listen. I wish I could be a person who just immerses and uses online resources and never touches textbooks but I genuinely enjoy flipping through them and the culture readings. I'm not a fan of the study abroad student dialogues but the passages are always interesting and the way grammar is presented is also nice. It might be time for me to try a video series like Cure Dolly (R.I.P.).

There is some good news when it comes to my immersing though. The first two volumes of 阿部くんに狙われてます are free on amazon.co.jp so I grabbed them and they're very easy to read. I know everyone recommends Yotsuba& but from what I read of that years ago, this is easier. I will caveat that if a person has never watched anime in their life it might not be that easy. The main love interest, Asahi-kun talks in slang. All the characters do but Asahi in particular I find is easy to understand just because I've heard these phrases and words so often in anime. I don't know if this has drama cds or will ever get animated but I imagine Asahi as being voiced by Yoshimasa Hosoya! So even though I have put a pause on my book that's for like, 12 year olds, I have had success with this manga. Only problem is I can't afford the rest of the volumes right now but when I can I'll get them!

I guess that's it for now. Rereading what I wrote it just feels like analysis paralysis and lack of discipline, though at least my anki is going strong. I've definitely learned a lot over the past four months so I'm proud!

[puncture]

10/14/21

briefly emerges from beginner grammar depths

I finished reading Tae Kim's grammar guide. It only took me like six years.

I have a feeling this was only the beginning of my relationship with this guide though. I definitely tried to understand every concept that was thrown at me, but reading all that in the span of three days of course it only got me vaguely familiar. The basic grammar section was all review, with some nuances. The essential grammar section was like 25% review. Everything else was basically new to me other than some patterns I'd already come across when reading. So I can see myself rereading at some point, on top of constantly referencing.

Phew. That was exhausting and very difficult to make myself do. I've always been bad at just sitting down and studying like that, and this time was no different. I haven't given Tae Kim enough credit all these years I've been avoiding his guide though, it really isn't too painful to read. It's a lot, but his tone is enjoyable and he makes things pretty simple to understand. I think his writing and format does a good job of not wasting the reader's time while still having character so that it's not a complete snoozefest. I'd like to get my hands on his grammar guide's physical book.

So now to reassess my grammar studies. I will probably stop reading Genki II. I cross referenced the five chapters I have left in Genki II against Tae Kim using Bunpro's "paths" and yeah there's kind of no need to finish reading Genki II grammar now. If I'm reading and don't understand something, I can check Genki II to see how they explain it, but there's no point in just reading that when I can be immersing now. I might finish the readings since I found them interesting.

I'll absolutely still be using all the resources though because I need my grammar to level up. I might start using a grammar deck in anki. I'd probably do like three new cards a day alongside focusing on reading and mining words.

Just a thought but I may also start keeping a grammar spreadsheet. Something like Bunpro that has a point and then various places where I can read about the point. Bunpro is good for this but a spreadsheet would be easier for me to search through and I'd also be able to curate it myself. I'd like to add stuff from various JLPT prep materials. You can kind of do this if you have a paid subscription to Bunpro, to be fair.

--

Comprehensible Japanese on YouTube is an amazing channel that I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who wants some listening content. Yuki-sensei's new video on Kabuki was really interesting! I was pleasantly surprised that I understood it even though it was an intermediate level video, but she's really good at using gestures and drawings to give context clues pertaining to unknown vocabulary. I may go through and watch the rest of her free intermediate videos. As soon as I'm able I'll definitely become a paid user because I think she puts out high quality content.

--

Well that was just a check in. I'm off to try to get some reading in! I'm hoping to put out a post that's less of a diary format and more of a "these are native materials I would like to consume in Japanese" self inspiration post. Lately I spend a lot of time looking at JP books and adding them to my wishlist.

[puncture]

10/11/21

So just to go into more detail about my experience with Japanese. As a kid I watched anime that was dubbed. Then I went most of my teens without watching anime or consuming much from Japan other than Nintendo games in English.

I got back into anime about 9.5 years ago, with an anime called Mawaru Penguindrum (highly recommend!). The rest is history. I got into anime, manga, otome games, and jrpgs. I'm not as into anime as I was then but I still enjoy it a lot.

I first learned hiragana about 9 years ago. Then I stopped and came back to Japanese about 6.5 years ago. I refreshed my hiragana and learned katakana, then I started using anki and wanikani. I studied up until around level 20, for about 6 or 7 months.

Then something awful happened in my home life and I moved to get into a safer situation. During those stressful times I couldn't bring myself to do my reviews. It was hard to do anything back then. On top of that, I was already feeling slightly burnt out with the memorizations. I should have stopped learning and focused on reviews. I left things alone and tried to chip away months later but I could never summon the will or motivation to.

When I was learning Japanese all those years ago, I never really bothered with grammar. I'd read Genki I, I'd read the first third of Tae Kim over and over. Genki felt really uninteresting to me. Tae Kim felt really dry. I figured I'd just learn a sizeable chunk of vocab and then ... well I never really thought the rest of that through, haha.

There were otome games I read back then, but they were mostly machine translations alongside the original text that I was deluding myself into thinking meant I was reading Japanese. I had virtually no grammatical foundation other than the beginning particles you learn, and knowing the basic tenses.

Now since I've been learning again for the past three months, admittedly I've been making some of the same mistakes I did back then. Grammar studies are still my mortal enemy, I'm still lazy, I'm still impatient. More importantly, I've done a lot better too! I do study grammar more. I went through an entire beginner's textbook and I'm halfway through Genki II. However meaningless, I can pass most N5 practice tests. I can read NHK Easy news, and while I'm not perfect, I'm waaay better than I used to be.

I also feel like I'm constantly in amazement at what I don't know. This may sound obvious like, "yeah, of course, you're just starting out." As a beginner though, it has actually been difficult for me to understand that though. Like, I think to myself, if they can do it, how hard can it be? How much can there be to learn? It's just words! As I read and learn I realize that there's so much I don't know. So I think that as I learn Japanese and get better and more comfortable with it, I am realizing that I haven't learned anything!

This is a good thing. It helps me keep my expectations in check (a problem I had when I tried to learn years ago) while also keeping my perfectionism at bay. There were, there are(!) things I don't read because "I want to save this for when I know enough to read it." Some of that stuff, nothing can really be done about it. Like, I just have to work my way up to them, for my own comfort. This article has been helpful. I know some people have and do, but there's no way I can just jump straight into a furigana-less literary novel for adults. With all this being said though, there will never be a time that I will feel like I know enough to read something. Accepting that I know nothing, and accepting that I will never know everything, has been helping me.

~~~

All that aside, the past six days have been alright.

I reached 90 day streak in Anki yesterday. I hit 13 weeks today. I can't believe I've been back at this for so long already.

I'm midway through Genki II. I finished Chapter 18 yesterday. I'm in a weird place. Chapter 17 is when things got shaky. It was like everything up to then was super easy to understand and read (the respective readings and dialogues for each chapter). Since 17 though it's gotten more difficult. Partly it's because of the vocabulary. I'm studying vocab in my own way, not as it's presented in Genki, so there are often words I don't know. The grammar patterns have also gotten a bit more difficult as well. I think what I'll do is reread everything from those two chapters before I go to 19.

I also have have have to grin and bear the Tae Kim grammar guide. Thanks, I hate it.

I just reached Chapter 4 (of 13) in the book I'm reading. It was really slow going at first because I had to look up a lot and copy and pasting sentences didn't work well, so I would have to type out every sentence or phrase I didn't understand for the first two chapters of the book. Yes, seriously. This made reading really really tiring when, since I am a beginner, reading native material is already tiring. Last night I figured out how to use Yomichan with my book though and I got through chapter 3 in about an hour at the most. I've been saved. Reading is still so hard and it's because of grammar. Either I understand hardly anything in a sentence or I understand a whole sentence. Which makes i+1 mining difficult. Still, I'm feeling a lot more positive now. The book has also started picking up. Most of the "setting the scene" things have happened.

I would like to do one chapter a day but I also would like to boost my grammar so I can't decide if I want to just read a bit but focus hard on grammar reading this week, or if I want to balance things (which is kind of what I'm already doing), or if I want to read 1 chapter a day and just wing it then assess afterward and focus on grammar before I start another book.

The thing is, I know reading will be uncomfortable but I feel like I can somehow alleviate the unbearable part of the discomfort by rereading Tae Kim front to back, something I haven't done in years. There are sentences I come across in the book I'm reading that, I know all the words but the framework of the sentence, the skeleton, the grammar, I'm unfamiliar with. I really hate that feeling. It's not really the ambiguity it's more that I see grammar that is not ambiguous at all, I just don't know it or can't recall it. Like I know a lot of Japanese is context based but there are basic things that I know should not be giving me the trouble they do.

I think what I should do is go hard on grammar. Try to knock Tae Kim out within the week, and I can keep doing anki and even reviewing and making progress with Genki II (even though Tae Kim and Genki II will overlap) and reading NHK Easy and my book when I can. I want to get rid of this feeling as soon as possible.

Ooookaaaaaaaaay. That's what I'll do then.

[puncture]

10/5/21

So this is literally like the first update to the blog in over four years, but I've been studying Japanese again! It's been over 3 months now. In this post I'm going to go into the resources I'm using, and some goals of mine. If it helps you out, that's great. However I'm mostly just writing this to keep track of my progress.

I'm in N4 territory, though I'm not studying for the JLPT. I might take it someday but I don't think I'd bother with anything but N1.

Vocabulary

I'm using the Wanikani anki deck. I had a WK subscription years ago but I'm just more of a fan of doing this at a slightly adjusted pace. Almost six years ago I was at level 21-ish, I've been doing it daily now and I'm at level 11. I started at 10 new words per day but I upped it to 20 maybe a month ago. I'm still relearning material that my brain has deep in its recesses, but once I get past where I stopped I might lower the new words per day. I also want to get more into immersing so this deck, while great for me to pick up habits, and make sure I learn something every. single. day.--it's not the only vocab source I intend to have. Though after all this time it has definitely been the one thing that has made learning less daunting.

Grammar

I went through the new Tobira book for beginners. Its equivalent to Genki I. I found it pretty cool but not as different from Genki as I'd hoped. I'm just glad I got my hands on it because that's really what got me back into learning Japanese this past summer.

Now I've moved on to Genki II since Tobira II won't be out until next year. What can I say about Genki? It's Genki. I'm really just speeding through, reading grammar explanations, dialogues, and the passages in the back of the book.

Aside from this, I use, read, and refer to Sakubi, Tae Kim, Shin Kanzen Master N4, Try! N4, and Nihongo Challenge N4.

Immersion

Ah, pain. To just be upfront, my listening sucks. I don't practice it like I should. Moving on...

For reading I read NHK Easy news. As you can imagine, lately it's mostly about COVID but it's also pretty interesting and usually not too bad.

I started a kids novel last night. The series is called ポレポレ日記. It's aimed at girls around 12-ish, but it's not a fantasy setting so reading the first few pages last night, the vocabulary isn't too hard. The grammar is kicking my butt though. Even when I recognize patterns it's difficult to fully parse some sentences. I just pick up what I can and move on though. I don't know if I'll get through since it's very easy for me to become fatigued and discouraged when immersing, but compared to some other books for kids I've tried reading, I felt really good about the fact that most of the kanji and words on the first few pages of this book were ones that I already knew.

I definitely recommend Kodansha's Blue Bird line of books if you are interested in novels aimed at preteens and early teens. Kindle Unlimited Japan has a ton. Struggling through this is at least more fun than reading picture books.

The thing is, I'm not studying Japanese to move there, or to get a job, or for school, I'm just doing it to consume media. With that in mind, I want to get into native material as soon as I can! I've seen way too many people who go through Genki I/II, then Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese, then Tobira, then all JLPT study materials, and then still feel a huge brick wall is in front of them when they confront reading native material. So I would like to kick that wall down as soon as possible.

Goals

My current short term goals are just to finish Genki II, get through Tae Kim reread, and read all the passages in Nihongo Challenge N4. If I put my mind to it, these things could be finished by the end of October. Truthfully they could be finished by the end of next week but I need time to just let things marinate in my brain.

I would put finish this book I'm reading on my list of short term goals, but I still need more time to figure out if this is really something I think I can get through.

Medium term: Hard to define. I'd like to finish my Wanikani deck by January 2023 which would mean from here on out I do an average of 16 words per day. I'd like to one way or another, finish something in Japanese. Whether it be a visual novel, otome game, a jrpg, a novel, an anime, or a drama. Once I get more comfortable with reading I'd like to read at least one book in Japanese per month.

Long term: I'd like to be able to play and comfortably read Dragon Quest X without translation tools. Honestly this isn't even that lofty of a goal, but yeah!

[puncture]

how do you take screenshots of your 3ds games?

I have a hacked 3ds with cfw. If you have one too then install BootNTR and on 11.3 you can take screenshots of any game.

[nihongogogo]

Introductory Japanese Slang Pack: 6 printable pages, Letter + A4 Size, PDF Format Real Japanese used in real conversations! To truly communicate like a Japanese native speaker you need to go beyond what is covered in textbooks, one area typically overlooked is the rich culture of slang and colloquialisms. This pack will help you start to fill that gap in your knowledge by introducing 65 different terms. Designed by a Japanese native speaker, with adult learners in mind, this instant download PDF pack acts as a guide to well-known Japanese slang and colloquialisms used regularly on TV, on the Internet and in Japanese media.  Included in this pack: -Daily life slang -Romance & sex slang (contains some NSFW terms, these terms are clearly noted) -Work slang -Comedy slang -Kanji with furigana -Word type information included so you can conjugate and use as appropriate -Japanese to English review quiz -English to Japanese review quiz -NO obscure or obsolete terms -Many basic terms that have been used for years and are commonly used on Japanese TV and on the Internet

[puncture]

Literally just started playing Aikatsu Stars! My Special Appeal and this coord is gorgeous.

[japanesevocab-deactivated201902]

天罰

天罰 (てんばつ) - divine retribution, a well-deserved punishment.

[descent87]

Studying Japanese

Was writing up this post for something on reddit, but I figured some people might find it useful here. This is basically my “Japanese Studying” history condensed into survey form. I often get asked how I got started and how I learned and this is basically of summary of how I go about it along with some advice I would give people looking back at my own experience. 1. Out of 10, roughly how skilled are you in the following areas (1 is absolute beginner and 10 is native level fluency):    Speaking: 7    Listening: 8    Reading: 9    Writing: 7    Grammar: 9

2. How long have you been studying Japanese? 4.5 Years. 2 in college, got good grades but only studied with an aim of doing well on the tests. The rest has been as primarily an Elementary/Kindergarten ALT in somewhat rural Japan, a fairly immersive setting where I don’t really have any coworkers who can speak anything beyond rudimentary English.

3. What’s your Japanese vocabulary?

15k+ I’d say.

4. Why are you learning Japanese? I want to achieve near fluency and be able to use Japanese alongside my business/economics degree (and hopefully a future MBA) in the business world.

5. What resources do you use to study? I use Anki for an hour+ every day while writing everything down with a pencil and paper except for the most basic kanji and the hiragana/katakana-only words.

I used the first two text books in the Yokoso! Series in college. Pretty good.

The only textbook I have used in Japan is the Minna no Nihongo Intermediate II Textbook at a local volunteer 日本語教室. It was also good. Nowadays I mostly read newspaper articles there.

I am a big fan of the Kanken (漢字検定) exams because they expose you to lots of useful kanji, sentences, idioms, and opposite pairs that you might not otherwise see in textbooks made for foreigners. I just study the practice exam books, putting everything I don’t know how to write or read into a Anki deck. In 2 years I have been able to work my way up from level 8 to level 3 and am currently studying for the pre-2 and level 2 exams.

I am fortunate (for my career and language goals) to work in a place where basically the only English I speak is with my elementary students in class every week. All my work/meetings at school are conducted in Japanese, I make my lesson plans in Japanese, and while I do my best to expose my students to English and international culture, all my time spent playing at recess, eating lunch, or volunteering afterschool is pretty much free Japanese practice time with eager conversational partners.

I am a fan of Japanese Vocaloid music and for the past few years my hobby has been translating and subbing Vocaloid songs and videos for foreign fans to enjoy. You can find some of my work by looking up “descentsubs” on YT but unless you are into anime-type stuff you might not find it interesting at all.

I am also in an English Novel Translation group. We slowly translate novels (currently Animal Farm) into Japanese.  I am the “English Advisor”, helping with English metaphors, idoms, colloquial sayings, and archaic grammar, and the Japanese members correct my translations which is really helpful because while I have improved enough to not actually make many actual mistakes anymore, my Japanese writing is not at all “natural” so I get tons of advice on how actual Japanese people would reword the translations I create.

6. How many hours per week do you actively spend studying?

Anki and Kanken studying usually adds up to about 14 hours a week. I spend a good 4-5 hours on my translating hobby, a few hours reading, and another 3-4 hours at my Japanese class or Translation circle each week. As long as you have a smartphone/dictionary near you, anytime can be study time though.

7. Do you tend to focus more on reading & writing, or speaking and listening?

I have to do all 4 of them currently for my job, but listening and reading are the most important. People can still largely understand you if you write or speak poorly (and I make plenty of minor mistakes every time I open my mouth) but there are no “easy documents” or “easy meetings/lectures/conversations” in the workplace, you either got to know it or you don’t when the moment comes. My solution to dealing with this is to focus on increasing my vocabulary over everything else with grammar given secondary priority.

8. What country do you live in?

Fukushima, Japan

10. Any final words for beginners and fellow /r/learnjapanese folk? -Lots of people talk about how things like Kanken or JLPT aren’t real indicators of Japanese fluency and they are not, but what they are is excellent goals to help keep yourself motivated and honest as you move forward.

-Anki is an amazing program. It really works and if you stick with it every day you see real results. I only started using it 1.5 years ago and I regret that greatly. Back them I was between N2-N3 in level from accumulated experience, but once I started digesting some essential lists (JLPT N3, N2, N1 Kanji/Vocab lists, the Japan Elementary School kanji list, Core 6000) my life changed in a huge way. I was able to functionally (if slowly and painstakingly at times) read basically everything in my daily life and work environment. I finally started understanding enough Japanese to better know what I DIDN’T know. I could listen to a conversation or read something and understand it to the point that I could easily begin to realize things like “oh, I didn’t catch that one word” or “what is the nuance of that grammar he just used?”. That is when you really start getting on the path towards functional fluency.

-To go along with the last point, BUILD YOUR VOCABULARY (語彙力)! Until at least the N3 level I do think it is important to go along with a textbook like Genki or Minna no Nihongo to help understand the fundamentals of Japanese grammar and build a good base that will allow you to move forward into advanced levels. But once you are able to process the majority of basic grammar forms, pure vocab and kanji rapidly outpaces the usefulness of the grammar points you will encounter in high level textbooks and study materials, even for N2 and N1. While I may hear (or poorly try to use) something like ～ざるを得ない or 揚げ句 once a week, I am constantly bombarded with vocab from even my youngest elementary students (including bug, flower, food, and objects names) that really strains my memory because I don’t have the same life experiences as them. The only way to make up for that lack of experience is to STUDY YOUR ASS OFF! This doesn’t mean you don’t study grammar, but rather from the intermediate level on you should mostly look up grammar when you don’t understand something, don’t waste time studying chapters full of expressions that you may almost never use. Let your real experiences start to dictate what grammar you look up, learn, remember, and use. I never studied grammar by rote for either N2 or N1 and passed just fine using this approach.

-Finally, the only thing that will make these last 2 points worth your time is to find a way to apply your Japanese on a daily basis. Read books, read manga, watch anime, find conversation partners, translate songs, move to Japan, whatever. Anki and drilling are effective but what they really do is get things floating around in your head that are now ready to make a real life connection and be truly remembered. Pretty much every difficult word or phrase I have been able to learn and make my own to use in daily conversation over the past few years has started with memorizing in Anki and THEN encountering it once or twice in conversation or reading, having that A-HA! moment, and finally grasping what it really means. Whether you are in Japan or not, this “application”-phase of Japanese study can take all kinds of forms, just find something that suits your interests. I’m not a big anime fan but I disagree with some people who say “anime doesn’t teach you real Japanese”. If you approach anime or manga with a “I want to understand everything approach” and not just remember words like “senpai”, “dokidoki”, and “kawaii” you will learn and progress. It really doesn’t matter, just find SOME way to live and experience Japanese constantly.

-(For advanced learners) Once I got far along enough in Japanese to make heads and tails of my daily life over here, I couldn’t shake the ever present desire to want to understand EVERYTHING and not be perplexed by things Japanese people do without second thought. I am constantly looking up stuff I encounter. See a sign you can’t read completely? Look it up. Listening to your drunk boss ramble on at the enkai about stuff you don’t care about? Look it up while doing あいずち. Stuck at a meeting or event that doesn’t really apply to you? Silently aim for 100% comprehension trying to jot down every word that you didn’t understand. You won’t be able to do this all the time, but when life or work allows it, turn parts of everyday life into listening or reading exercises. This “looking up” habit is similar to using Anki; it primes your brain and breeds familiarity, just waiting for your next encounter with a newly learned word or phrase to cement it into your memory. Chances are that if it is worth remembering and you continue to watch the same kinds of shows or work in the same workplace it WILL come up again.

-Language is a never-ending process. Learning it is also progresses extremely unevenly when approaching the language as an outsider who didn’t grow up immersed in the culture. After these few years of hard work, I can show my elementary school students how to write any kanji or phrase in their homework, I can out-do the middle schoolers in town for the most part as well, I can dazzle adults with my knowledge of 四字熟語 but in the end, I am not native and never will be. I’m still not anywhere remotely close. All I need to do to prove it is open my mouth for a few seconds and speak Japanese. But it doesn’t matter. Learning this language has provided me with all kinds of amazing human connections, wonderful memories, and a new outlook on my future life and goals after years of fighting depression through college. Good luck and keep grinding!

[vinurminn]

In linguistics, a filler is a sound or word that is spoken in conversation by one participant to signal to others that he/she has paused to think but is not yet finished speaking.  These are not to be confused with placeholder names, such as thingamajig, which refer to objects or people whose names are temporarily forgotten, irrelevant, or unknown.

In Afrikaans, ah, em, and eh are common fillers.

In Arabic, يعني yaʿni (“I mean”) and وﷲ wallāh(i) (“by God”) are common fillers.[2][3][4]

In American Sign Language, UM can be signed with open-8 held at chin, palm in, eyebrows down (similar to FAVORITE); or bilateral symmetric bent-V, palm out, repeated axial rotation of wrist (similar to QUOTE).

In Bengali, mane (“it means”) is a common filler.

In Catalan, eh /ə/, doncs (“so”), llavors (“therefore”), and o sigui (“it means”) are common fillers.

In Czech, tak or takže (“so”), prostě (“simply”), jako (“like”) are used as fillers. Čili (“or”) and že (“that”, a conjunction) might also be others. A person who says jako and prostě as fillers might sound a bit simple-minded to others.[5]

In Danish, øh is one of the most common fillers.

In Dutch, eh, ehm, and dus are some of the more common fillers.

In Esperanto, do (“therefore”) is the most common filler.

In Filipino, ah, eh, ay, and ano are the most common fillers.

In Finnish, niinku (“like”), tota, and öö are the most common fillers.

In French, euh /ø/ is most common; other words used as fillers include quoi (“what”), bah, ben (“well”), tu vois (“you see”), and eh bien (roughly “well”, as in “Well, I’m not sure”). Outside of France, other expressions are tu sais (“you know”), t’sais’veux dire? (“you know what I mean?”), or allez une fois (“go one time”). Additional filler words include genre (“kind”), comme (“like”), and style (“style”; “kind”)

In German, a more extensive series of filler words, called modal particles, exists, which actually do give the sentence some meaning. More traditional filler words are äh /ɛː/, hm, so /zoː/, tja, and eigentlich (“actually”)

In Hebrew, eh is the most common filler. Em is also quite common.

In Hindi, matlab (“it means”) and “Mah” are fillers.

In Hungarian, common filler words include hát (well…) and asszongya (a variant of azt mondja, which means “it says here…”).

In Icelandic, a common filler is hérna (“here”). Þúst, a contraction of þú veist (“you know”), is popular among younger speakers.

In Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), anu is one of the most common fillers.

In Italian, common fillers include “tipo” (“like”), “ecco” (“there”) and “cioè” (“actually”)

In Irish Gaelic, abair /ˈabˠəɾʲ/ (“say”), bhoil /wɛlʲ/ (“well”), and era /ˈɛɾˠə/ are common fillers, along with emm as in Hiberno-English.

In Japanese, common fillers include eetto, ano, sono, and ee.

In Kannada,Matte for also,Enappa andre for the matter is are the common fillers.

In Korean, eung, eo, ge, and eum are commonly used as fillers.

In Lithuanian, nu, am and žinai (“you know”) are common fillers.

IN Maltese and Maltese English, mela (“then”), or just la, is a common filler.

In Mandarin Chinese, speakers often say 这个 zhège/zhèige (“this”) or 那个 nàge/nèige (“that”). Another common filler is 就 jìu (“just/precisely”).

In Norwegian, common fillers are øh, altså, på en måte (“in a way”), ikke sant (literally “not true?”, “no kidding”, or “exactly”), vel (“well”), and liksom (“like”). In Bergen, sant (“true”) is often used instead of ikke sant. In the Trøndelag region, skjø’ (“see?” or “understand?”) is also a common filler.

In Persian, bebin (“you see”), چیز “chiz” (“thing”), and مثلا masalan (“for instance”) are commonly-used filler words. As well as in Arabic and Urdu, يعني yaʿni (“I mean”) is also used in Persian. Also, eh is a common filler in Persian.

In Portuguese, tipo (“like”) is the most common filler.

In Romanian, deci /detʃʲ/ (“therefore”) is common, especially in school, and ă /ə/ is also very common (can be lengthened according to the pause in speech, rendered in writing as ăăă), whereas păi /pəj/ is widely used by almost anyone.

In Russian, fillers are called слова-паразиты (“vermin words”); the most common are Э-э (“eh”), это (“this”), того (“that”), ну (“well”), значит (“it means”), так (“so”), как его (“what’s it [called]”), типа (“like”), and как бы (“[just] like”).

In Serbian, znači (“means”) and ovaj (“this”) are common fillers.

In Slovak, oné (“that”), tento (“this”), proste (“simply”), or akože are used as fillers. The Hungarian izé (or izí in its Slovak pronunciation) can also be heard, especially in parts of the country with a large Hungarian population. Ta is a filler typical of Eastern Slovak and one of the most parodied features.

In Slovene, pač (“but”, although it has lost that meaning in colloquial, and it is used as a means of explanation), a ne? (“right?”), and no (“well”) are some of the fillers common in central Slovenia, including Ljubljana.

In Spanish, fillers are called muletillas. Some of the most common in American Spanish are e /e/, este (“this”), and o sea (roughly means “I mean”).[6], in Spain the previous fillers are also used, but ¿Vale? (“right?”) and ¿no? are very common too.

In Swedish, fillers are called utfyllningsord; some of the most common are öhm, ja (“yes”), ba (comes from “bara”, which means “just”), asså or alltså (“therefore”, “thus”), va (comes from “vad”, which means “what”), and liksom and typ (both similar to the English “like”).

In Ukrainian, ой /ɔj/ is a common filler.

In Urdu, yani (“meaning…”), falan falan (“this and that”; “blah blah”), umm, and aaa are also common fillers.

In Telugu, ikkada entante (“Whats here is…”) and tarwatha (“then…”) are common and there are numerous like this.

In Tamil, paatheenga-na (“if you see…”) and apparam (“then…”) are common.

In Turkish, yani (“meaning…”), şey (“thing”), “işte” (“that is”), and falan (“as such”, “so on”) are common fillers.

In Welsh, de or ynde is used as a filler (loosely the equivalent of “You know?” or “Isn’t it?”). Ym… and Y… are used similarly to the English “um…”.

[kittylevin-deactivated20250208]

Remember that this stuff is really important for fluency of speech. I’ve encountered a bad attitude among language teachers before: “we don’t teach filler words, because that’s not “normative” vocabulary, and it encourages students to sound unsure.”  But that’s so, so wrong.  

All people use filler words in conversation and even in formal settings.  It’s a way to keep the flow of speech when the train of thought pauses; it holds the audience’s attention and actually helps maintain clarity of thought.  What’s more, these words are instrumental for language learners, who need to pause more often in their speech than native speakers.  Allowing them to pause without breaking into their language (saying a filler word in their language) or completely breaking the flow of their speech allows them to gain fluency faster.

My high school Japanese teacher did it right: “etto” and “anou” were in the second lesson.  Teach filler words, people!!  And if you’re studying a language and don’t know them, look at this list!!  It has a lot!

[lunasaltator-deactivated2018122]

シ shi is a girl looking up into tsu’s eyes

ツ tsu is a boy looking down in to shi’s eyes

ソ /winking “So, do you want to come back to my place?”

ン /thinking_about_it “Nnnnn… I don’t think so.”

ノ /eyes_closed “Noooooooooooooo!”

From this thread I saw on Reddit by user macrocosm93.

[deactivated-blog]

[polygloticalme-deactivated20151]

How much should I study?

I get so many asks from people asking me how much they should study a day. To make a straight point: There is “right” amount.

But there is a simple rule which you might follow to know how much you should study.  This diagramm could help you:

Person 1 studies 10 words per day. After 28 days he has 280 words.

Person 2 studies 24 words per day. After 28 days he has 672 words. This makes about 1 /10 of a very, very good vocabulary.

The more effort you make, the faster you will get to your goals. But remember: Learning a language is not a race. It doesn`t matter if you`re running a mile in 5 minutes or in 20 minutes, it`s important to keep running.

Everything depends on you. And with you I mean:

Your discipline

Your capacity

Your commitment

Your dedication

Your passion

Your learning methods

I can tell you about my time and how I invested it. I started with once a week in August 2014. I realized fast that it wasn`t a lot and that I wanted to do more. So it got 3-4 times a week for 30 minutes. In my fall vacations I studied 14 days long about 6-7 hours a day. That`s when I finished the books “Japanese from Zero 2&3″ Then I went on with a more or less consistent time of 1 hour per day. In March it was about 2, then April vacations again more, and now it`s a bit less because I`m near my last tests.

I suggest to make a plan according to your goals. For that let`s make an example.

Joe wants to go on learning Japanese while going to school. It`s 1st of October. He`d like to know about 1000 basic words by the end of the year. Joe calculates:

1000 ÷ 90 =11,111…

So Joe has to learn about 12 words per day to achieve his goal.

The formula is:

(amount of wanted words) ÷ (days) = (amount of words per day)

This is one of the best ways to make an achieveable goal, unless you want to achieve too much in a little time span. Work with common sense. So you`ve learnt that there is no “ideal” and that you determine how much you want to work. The more you work the faster you`ll get to your goals.

[puncture]

I’m feeling a bit burnt out on anki lately. I wonder if I should pause on learning new cards for a week or so and instead work on mastering the kanji and vocab I’ve been having trouble with. I think that’s the source of my burnout. There are currently about 200 cards out of the 3000+ that I’ve seen that I’m not very comfortable with. 

I think I’m gonna try this. I hope it helps me start enjoying anki again. For the past two weeks I’ve been dreading my daily reps. Hm so I should stick to my reviews and spend more time reading native material or going through a textbook. Hopefully this snag in my learning is just meant to get me to vary the methods I use to study. I’m a little worried! This is the first time this has happened to me and I feel a little helpless. 

If anyone has any suggestions I’d love to hear them. 

[onlinecounsellingcollege]

When you want to give up

1. Remember why you started – what your reasons were. What was the “spark” that got you going, and inspired you to begin on the journey you are on?

2. List all the reasons why you can persevere, and make it to the end so you reach your goal. Remind yourself you have what you need to succeed.

3. Give yourself permission to give up if you choose. That reminds you that it’s you who is in control. You’re choosing to do this as it’s what you want to do.

4. Think of all the reasons why you should persevere – as that stops you focusing on why you should give up. What are the benefits? What will you gain? How will you feel when you’ve reached your goal?

5. Instead of concentrating on the struggle and the effort, focus all that energy on looking for solutions.

6. Recognise that success will require sacrifice. It’s always hard work, and every winner pays a price. “No pain no gain” is a basic truth in life.

[puncture]

My classes for the rest of the week were cancelled! 🎉🎊 Lucky! I have to write a paper that’s due tonight, I need to clean the kitchen, I need to do my anki reps, and I need to do some grammar reading. If I’m feeling especially diligent then I’ll work on my large pile of math problems due by Saturday night. Once all this stuff is done I’ll be able to spend much of the rest of this week playing Re:birthday Song. I’ve been playing it with Chiitrans Lite and I’m really enjoying it, plus I’m getting Japanese reading in. First, give me the strength to knock out this paper. 😩 

[wnq-anonymous]

Start now. Start where you are. Start with fear. Start with pain. Start with doubt. Start with hands shaking. Start with voice trembling but start. Start and don’t stop. Start where you are, with what you have. Just … start.

Ijeoma Umebinyuo  (via wordsnquotes)