A NEW ADVENTURE!

I want to be able to read untranslated fanfics and doujins. Simple as!

[ssddjp]

This is going to be my langblr account for Japanese. If anyone sees this – nice to meet you!

My ultimate goal is to be able to read untranslated Japanese works of any kind, but right now my attention is on doujinshis and fanfiction.

I will try to study at least 3 hours a day with the help of Anki (I’ll use one premade deck and two of my own where I’ll (a) store Kanjis I hadn’t seen before and (b) store sentences that have a grammatical construct I hadn’t seen before either), Itazuraneko (mainly for the Kana quiz, which is really helpful!), and notes from the media I watch and the artists I follow on various platform.

I’ll track the time I spend daily studying Japanese and I’ll see how far I’ve come in one year. I’ll maintain this blog as I progress.

I hope this experiment goes well!

[citrijp]

On understanding Japanese sentence structure:

(Featuring color-coding because it's helpful for me to break down the sentences!! I'll add ID when I can but it'll be easier on desktop!)

[lainpsx]

this is one of my favorite images ever. whoever made it is so wise and kind and talented and i truly hope that when instrumentality hits they have it good. words that actually mean something

[ssddjp]

it has been one month since I started this blog and I reached the 30-day milestone on Anki yesterday... let's keep this up :) (and oops, I have 146 cards due, but life happened).

My current goal is to review more cards and read more Japanese. Tweets from artists I follow isn't enough

[manabamba]

I am simply so bad at the N2 grammar patterns it’s becoming comical. They all blur together and I can’t tell any of the nuances apart or remember this pattern is only for verbs/nouns/adjective, this pattern is only for bad things, etc. Comparatively I’m great at the vocab, kanji, and listening but grammar hits and you might as well be teaching me kana for the first time.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[mochayoubi]

hi!! i definitely feel this struggle. i can suggest a few things:

try practicing the grammar by writing sentences using it - i would probably only try this if you have someone who can verify if it makes sense or not (a tutor if youre using one, posting on websites like hinative or apps like hellotalk, etc.) but that way youre more actively trying to practice the grammar rather than just trying to memorize the differences.

look up example sentences using the grammar - since youre studying for the N2, i think youre at the level where you can navigate japanese websites ok. i'd recommend going on websites like weblio and putting phrases into the searchbar using the grammar and seeing what example sentences come up, and that way you might get a better idea for when the grammar is used. alternatively, if that doesnt work, you can google "(insert grammar here) 例文" and check what results come up.

look up what the grammar means in japanese - by which i mean, google something like "(insert grammar here) 使い方" or "(insert grammar here) 文法" and 9 times out of 10 there is some japanese website that will explain the grammar to you in the way it actually means, and not an english translation of it, which could be what's making them confusing. if it's two grammar points or words that seem similar, you can also look up "(grammar 1) (grammar 2) 使い分け" and explanations about how they're distinguished should come up for that too. speaking personally, ive found that when an english explanation of a japanese grammar (or anything, really) isnt making sense, looking it up in japanese typically clears up the weirdness surrounding it, or at the very least adds some clarification.

practice reading in japanese more - might be kind of a "duh" answer, and i'd use this as a supplement to the other things i said, but reading more helps build up a stronger intuition for why some grammar work the way they do. i'd recommend trying to read newspapers or more formal writing, since you're more likely to encounter N2 grammar there.

that's all i can think of atm. best of luck with your N2 studies!!

[nihongoseito]

random vocab of the day!

nouns:

ブツ = stock, products; stolen goods, loot

気分（きぶん）転換（てんかん） = change of pace, (mental) break

手加減（てかげん） = adjusting by feel, adapting to the situation; going easy (on someone)

顎（あご）クイ = suddenly lifting someone's face by their chin (in a domineering yet romantic fashion) (colloquialism (笑))

神経（しんけい） = nerve (anatomical)

愛想（あいそ／あいそう） = amiability, friendliness

長居（ながい） = long visit, overstaying

verbs:

腫れる（はれる） = to swell, be inflamed

塞ぐ（ふさぐ） = to stop up, close up, cover; to stand in the way, obstruct

adverbs/onomatopoeiae:

直後（ちょくご） = immediately following

expressions:

〜ざんまい = being immersed in, being absorbed in, indulging in

想い（おもい）を込める（こめる） = to show one's affection, express one's love

[ssddjp]

things I noticed while attempting to read an untranslated manga chapter for the 4th time yesterday:

- I managed to get through the entire thing without stopping after the first 3 panels. I’m getting used to reading Japanese

- I definitely need to learn katakana more… there were some terms I could understand because of context but as a whole I got most katakanas mixed up in my mind which made the chapter hard to follow

- I could understand certain speech bubbles! Probably around 5 or 10, they weren’t complex sentences or anything but I got the gist of what they meant. I’m trying to stop translating stuff in my mind word-for-word

- the Anki deck I’m using is actually useful. I’m noticing vocab I had seen on that deck and know their meaning AND pronunciation

I can’t wait to improve more :)

[ssddjp]

don't feel motivated in the slightest, but it'll be better tomorrow since I'll have more free time. don't want this streak going to waste

[ssddjp]

It's only been a few days since I started learning from my Anki deck (VN Core 1250 v3, which is described as better than the other Core 2k/6k decks that tend to have words pulled from strange frequency lists) and I am already noticing the vocabulary I've learned in almost every Japanese text I read, or Japanese songs I listen to.

I used to just review my Anki decks daily and call it a day, thinking it was enough learning, but reading more, even when it seems like gibberish, helps tremendously.

I am getting closer to my goal daily :) It's time to review some grammar (right now I don't know what the particle に really stands for) and review my cards!

Right now (as of September 13th), my Kanji grid looks like this. As I progress (in a few short months), the red Kanji will slowly go from red to green and I'll have seen more than half of the Kanji in this image instead of the dozen or so that are in red.

Can't wait :)

[ssddjp]

today I have already gone through my premade Anki deck and now I’ll play that kana quiz game on itazuraneko and then sleep. right now I cannot really study 3 hours a day as I first planned, but as long as I am making progress, it’s fine

[ssddjp]

September 8th

— 30 minutes spent on the kana quiz [djtguide link], because I'd forgotten most hiragana combinations and katakana. I'll need to do that again tomorrow.

— 6 minutes spent on a premade Anki deck (VN Core 1250 v3). 20 cards. I'm taking this more seriously than I did a few years ago

— 1 hour spent reading about various grammatical rules (mainly 'basic' particles like の, と, や, ...) [another djtguide link, this time about grammar] and learning some vocab along the way.

Since I don't have much time today all I could squeeze out was 1 hour, but I did make progress. Can't wait to do it all over again tomorrow :)