It’s been a long time since I looked at TextFugu or posted. The past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to get back into learning Japanese, with an emphasis on being able to read it. So, I’ve been diving back into Anki, WaniKani, TextFugu and Lang-8.

Point? I just finished Season 5 of TextFugu. *does snoopy dance*

I’m getting to the point now where I can kind of read NHK Web Easy (?) and I can recognize bits and pieces of ja.wikipedia.org. It’s still very difficult, but it no longer feels impossible, or like every little bit I learn is this earthshattering revelation. I’m seeing where my weaknesses are and I’m trying to focus on them more.

One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that when you’re learning on your own, you have to have multiple streams of input. It’s not an option. Learning kanji/vocabulary through WaniKani reinforces my Anki decks (and vice versa). Practicing with TextFugu and Lang-8 reinforces WaniKani and Anki and it goes the other way as well. I don’t use dramas and anime as much as some others might, but it’s a fun way of seeing how much I’ve progressed.

I’m thinking of getting something like Pimsleur’s Japanese to continue reinforcing all of this from the angle of listening and speaking. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Also, my biggest weakness seems to be with particles. Any recommended resources for mastering that aspect of grammar? Or is it just something I’ll pick up if I listen/read enough?

I have finally gotten through Season Four. Oh, gah.

But I’m still enjoying this. I was actually able to write a bit about a Korean drama I watched yesterday called The Last Scandal that I have yet to finish. And the sentences made sense! I only got corrected on spelling and a couple of particles I forgot to add. Mostly, I’m glad I was able to write more than a sentence or two and still make sense. For now, I’m just practicing what I know as a way of making sure it sticks.

I still feel a little overwhelmed. I’m not sure if I’ll be going into Season Five this week, though the vocab might be useful. I want to make sure everything is solid before I do that, and I’m still having a little trouble with remembering a few of the verbs and some of the い adjectives.

The most frustrating part for me is that I can see a word in Anki or on Textfugu, remember its meaning in English, but when it comes time to take the English word and turn it into its Japanese equivalent, that’s when my mind goes blank. Should I be making an Anki deck with English words so I have to figure out the Japanese equivalent?

Anyway, in spite of that, I’m still having a great time with this. I’ve tried learning German, French, and Spanish, and none of them have been as much fun to learn as Japanese. Then again, none of those languages had manga as a motivator, either. ;)

I’m not sure if I’ve posted yet about completing Season Three…but I have.

I’m a few chapters into Season Four, and YES IT GETS HARDER. But I’m enjoying it, no matter how difficult the vocab is becoming. I just slowed down the amount of new words, try to get to Anki whenever I can (time has been a difficult thing to come by lately) and keep working at it, even if I miss a few days. I’ve been especially focusing on verbs and the adjectives since that’s my weakest right now.

As a side note, because of Textfugu and WaniKani, when I looked at a manga chapter in actual Japanese today, I was able to recognize a few of the kanji, a few of the words written in hiragana, and all the words written in katakana except for one, enough that I became that much more motivated to learn Japanese. ^^ I even managed to figure out some of the grammar, lol.

Oooo, gothic lolita is such an interesting look. It looks intimidating to actually sew, though. I look forward to seeing your progress. I’m curious to see how that look is put together.

Finished Season One and began Season Two this week. *cheers*

Is it wrong that I made pteradactyl noises when I saw the radicals?