New Year’s Challenge: Progress Report #005

Hi guys! So, I have been a little quiet of late – quieter than I intended, really – and I’m not sure why; things have just been odd in the run up to the holidays (in my head; I know I’m going away for a week and a bit so I get wary of starting anything – it’s like when you know you have to do something in the afternoon so you waste your whole morning waiting on the thing) and I’ve kind of been dwindling in motivation.

No matter, though! I’m here to update you on my Japanese progress (again) so let’s just do that, shall we?

Time period covered: 20.02.2016-13.03.2016 (yes, 23 days… I kind of messed up with the timing.)

And my goals last time around were:

• Finish up to Easy Japanese lesson 12. – I got so close; I’ve finished lesson 11 so hopefully I’ll be starting with lesson 12 today. I’m kind of bummed I didn’t make it to the goal here (especially since I ended up having such a long time in between updates…) but I felt really good about lesson 11 so it’s not so bad.
• Find and follow five Twitter accounts that tweet in Japanese. – I mean, I don’t think I followed five new accounts in that time period, but I definitely have started following a bunch of accounts since I started this challenge – and I got a comment on the last entry for a few accounts to follow. It’s fun, having the Twitter accounts to follow; it means I see some Japanese every day, even when I’m not studying.
• Find and begin using an audio/video course for Japanese. – Yes, I found a few playlists! I’ve saved two playlists from the JapanSocietyNYC YouTube account (Japanese Language Lessons / Waku Waku Japanese Language Lessons) and I’ve saved a JapanesePod101 playlist (Speak Japanese Basic series). These have proved to be quite helpful.
• Clock a study time of at least 20m a day. – Nope, didn’t manage this.
• Take some time to refresh the hiragana and katakana alphabets. – Also didn’t manage this, though I really do need to focus on katakana a little.

One thing that’s definitely been great throughout this period is the addition of the YouTube courses. Don’t get me wrong – they’re not going to teach me Japanese all on their own. However, they do add a little change to my routine and they force me to practise in a way that I’m used to but don’t always manage to do when I’m working with a textbook.

An example: I did one of the Japanese language lessons from the JapanSocietyNYC account and it focussed on the days of the week. Then I started lesson 11 of Easy Japanese the next day – which, lo and behold, has the days of the week in it. I remembered what I’d already learnt and it had me feeling a lot better about what I’m remembering.

So, new goals. I should be updating again on the 21st, in a week, which is actually great because I’m going on holiday then and I’ll be back again on the 30th March. That means I have a week to knuckle down and focus because I know I’m not going to be studying while I’m away (which also means that the update I had planned for the 31st won’t be forthcoming, but oh well, blogging is all about being flexible! 😉 )

Goals:

• Watch one Japanese language lesson YouTube video a day.
• Work on Easy Japanese for a minimum of 10 minutes a day.
• Watch at least one more episode of Last Cinderella (ラスト シンデレラ).
• Do a review of what I’ve learnt so far..

And the links for today:

• JapanSocietyNYC (YouTube)
• Japanese Language Lessons (YouTube)
• Waku Waku Japanese Language Lessons (YouTube)
• JapanesePod101 (YouTube)
• Speak Japanese Basic Series (YouTube)
• Last Cinderella (ラスト シンデレラ)

That’s it for this update. I’ll see you all again next week! 🙂