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Achieving Your Japanese Goals: 2014 Compilation — 82 Comments

  1. My goals:
    1. Finish off the last of JALUP Intermediate 1000
    2. Catch up on my RTK review backlog
    3. Win the Themed Language Pack contest so I can go through the Advanced 1000…

  2. My goals:
    1. Get up to card 1200 in my 5000 card deck. (currently 450 cards through)
    2. Finish reading Yotsubato! volume 1.
    3. Watch insane amounts of onepiece.

    • Only got up to 1000 cards, but I am still happy with that.

      Read half of yotsubato, but also read 4 easy readers.

      Probably watched a little too much one piece, only have 120 episodes left until I am up to the current episode in Japan.

  3. Muh goals:
    -Finish RTK (I’m at 630-something in JALUP Mod, doing 50 per day; I burned out at 100 per day and held off for a month.) I should’ve been finished long before now, but whatever. The reviews these past days getting into it were killer.
    -Start up on J-E sentences, get to around 500, proceed to J-J. I find sentences much more enjoyable to review, so yeah.
    -Finish the intro (excluding super-fancy professional message in prologue, up to second chapter) to Battle Royale without dictionary lookup. Currently I only know a few words hither and thither, but I’m getting better and my Kanji knowledge is going to skyrocket.
    I have pretty good memory and linguistic talent, so I plan to get on to this, stat.
    Wish me luck. :D

  4. By the end of November, I plan to:
    – Finish Genki I
    – Get up to 580 RtK kanji in Anki
    – Add 190 cards to my sentences deck
    – Keep looking for/downloading/trying out Japanese music in my spare time, so that I won’t be throwing myself out without a lifejacket when I start immersion! (A pretty nebulous goal, I know, but it’s more of a sneaky-get-prepared for if I have time inbetween Anki and Genki)

  5. For November:
    1. Get over the 1800 mark in RTK (~200 new characters)
    2. Complete JALUP Intermediate Stage 4 & start JALUP Advanced
    3. Complete 2+ chapters of Ciel Nosurge (so ~Chapter 5)
    4. Reach out to a group Japanese players on WoW and try to make some friends
    5. [Stretch] Complete Tales of Vesperia

    • Badly underestimated how busy I’d be in November. Heavy deadlines at work + several multi-day events + WoW expansion = very little study time.

      1. 0 New Kanji >_< With all the other stresses going on, I needed to give myself a break from pushing on these. I think it'll work out for the best in the long run.
      2. Done! So far so good on the Advanced deck.
      3. 50% done (Chapter 4). I specifically blame the WoW expac for this :P
      4. Done. They were super friendly and it was nice getting to talk a bit (though hoping to actually join their guild. The GM has been MIA, and nobody else can invite, so I might be waiting a bit.)
      5. Nope. But it was a stretch goal anyway so I don't mind.

  6. -Do 620 new cards from my drama transcripts
    -Do 155 new kanji
    -Do 4 more chapters in my textbook
    -Listen to 31 Japanese podcasts
    -Watch 8 episodes of dramas
    -Watch 8 episodes of HunterxHunter

    I’ve lost so much of my ample time since I started my new school… It’s a 12 hour day of lessons, sport, study periods and travelling…

    • -Did about 500 new cards from drama transcripts
      -Did about 4 new kanji (total fail)
      -Didn’t do much independant textbook grammar study but I started classes and learnt grammar there so not a complete fail.
      -Watched about 2 drama episodes because I was so busy learning all the words in their transcripts (need to be more discerning with my mining)
      -Watch about 3 episodes of HunterxHunter

      And thanks Rai for your suggestion, I’ll have a look at that.

  7. At 3000 anki cards in a few days

    I want to:
    Finish JALUP advanced stage 4 – 250 cards
    Add 750 cards from One Deck

    Get to 4000 cards by november’s end
    Immerse in every free moment of my day (just keep doing what I’m doing)
    Would like to read 30 minutes every day minimum
    1 drama or 2 anime minimum
    and continue passive listening whenever I can.

    • Not to discourage you James but there is quite a difference between JALUP advanced and the One Deck. I’ve done about 4500 cards from the One Deck so far and the Intermediate & Advanced(in progress) JALUP decks. At least for me, the later decks are a cake walk(98%) but in the One Deck there is still often multiple unknowns spanning many, many, many subjects. What I’m trying to say is: keep going, you seem to be doing great, but don’t get discouraged if the One Deck slows you down a bit. 頑張っ!

      • I’m kinda glad because at least I know it’s not just hard because it’s me. Sucks because I have to slow my adding pace down a lot to keep up with the reviews because of those multiple unknowns. The JALUP decks are awesome because having only one unknown makes you review a card so many times less and they don’t build up as much (for me anyway). Not to mention they are so much faster to learn.

        But I’m sure there are lots of benefits from overcoming these challenges that the one deck presents too. I guess I’m better off slowing down my pace if it means I can keep up with it. I’m sure I’ll be able to increase it again once my level gets a bit higher.

        Thanks for the info!

        • You’re welcome, glad it helped clear things up! Don’t worry, after a while you will notice a difference (it get’s easier) even in this über deck :)

        • Not sure if this would help or not, but there is an anki addon called “morphman” (https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1248316808) which is extremely awesome and automatically rearranged cards into N+1 order based off your mature cards.

          N+1 basically means it tries to introduce 1 new item per card.

          I used morphman to scan my J-E 1000 deck that had all matured and then added 5000 cards from a japanese word frequency deck I made (https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1269450669) and just let morphman sort it out.

          Makes learning new content sooo much easier.

  8. -Learn 180 new Kanji
    -Finish the Step 5 and 6 Core 2K decks
    -Read Bikings volume 2 and 3
    -Watch at least 1 hour of Japanese TV or movies a day
    -Beat ダンボール戦機W

    • I had a little bit of burnout during the middle of the month, and I’ve been busy the last few days because of thanksgiving, so I didn’t end up watching at least 1 hour of Japanese tv/movies a day, and I didn’t beat ダンボール戦機W.

      I did learn 180 Kanji though (I actually learned a few more than that, just don’t know how many more) and I finished the step 5 and 6 decks for the Core 2k decks.

      I also read Bikings volume 2 and 3, and I ended up reading a volume of another manga, so I exceeded my goal on this one!!

      Time to set some more goals for December, and try to avoid the Christmas distractions so I can reach them!!

  9. My main goal: Finally finish JALUP Beginner! I have ~325 sentences left and that should be done very quickly but I keep skipping days D: So this month, it will be OVER!

  10. – Study 200 cards in Intermediate 1000
    – Reach level 18 in Wanikani
    – Watch 10 episodes of Maria-sama ga miteru with no subtitles
    – Read 1 volume of Dragon Ball SD

  11. – Read ハリーポッターと炎のゴブレット in its entirety.
    – Play ファイナルファンタジーⅥ from beginning to end.
    – Read volumes 8, 9, and 10 of エムゼロ.
    – Read volumes 6 and 7 of みえるひと.
    – Add 500 sentence cards to Anki.

    That last one is going to be quite the challenge for someone who has over 10,000 sentence cards already, but I’ll put it out there anyway just to see if I can make it to that or not. The Harry Potter novel should help with a major chunk of it at least. ;)

    • – Read ハリーポッターと炎のゴブレット in its entirety.
      I read the whole thing! All 1000+ pages of it. :D There were some days where I nearly read 100 pages, although I only needed to read about 36 per day (to keep to the schedule of completing one volume every ten days). I don’t think I would’ve pushed myself to get the books read in such a short time frame if it weren’t for this JALUP challenge!

      – Play ファイナルファンタジーⅥ from beginning to end.
      Didn’t quite get to the end, but did manage to make it to Kefka’s Tower (or がれきの塔 as it’s referred to on Japanese sites), so I’d say I did fairly well. I’ll be sure to play through the rest in the coming week.

      – Read volumes 8, 9, and 10 of エムゼロ.
      Complete!

      – Read volumes 6 and 7 of みえるひと.
      Just finished reading the last volume a few minutes ago! I’m happy to have finally read through the entire series, having owned it for about eight years. The ending was a little disappointing, but unfortunately with a canceled series such as this, it is sometimes an unavoidable fate.

      – Add 500 sentence cards to Anki.
      As I thought, I didn’t get 500, but did get to 261 however. 202 of those came from the Harry Potter novel.

  12. My goals for November are:

    1. Read ハイ☆スピード! completely
    2. Finish JALUP beginner and begin JALUP Intermediate
    3. Create an immersion iPod
    — Convert my anime and movies to audio
    — Download more music; Reach a total of 700 songs (currently have 412 songs)
    4. Watch at least 50 episodes of ONE PIECE

    I wrote out my goals in a notebook before writing them here, and it’s exciting seeing one’s goals like this. I feel really motivated!

    • 1. I did not even crack open the book all of November. I did, however, ready so many other comics and articles. I read more in November than I had ever done, but I just didn’t read ハイ☆スピード!

      2. I finished JALUP Beginner! And now I’m nearly 200 sentences into JALUP Intermediate. Very rough and bumpy road, but I’m getting through it.

      3. I did create an immersion iPod, and I got to 648 songs! So close to 700.

      4. I watched up to episode 74 of ONE PIECE!

  13. – Finish JALUP Intermediate (at 400 cards now)
    – Watch all of 鋼の錬金術師 with Japanese subs
    – Read through 鋼の錬金術師 vol. 1
    – Continue to listen at least 10 hours+ a day

  14. Ah ah… considering that October is a Tadoku month and that I made it my goal to read at least 50 pages every single day (a goal which at my current Japanese reading level and level of busyness is doable but a definite challenge), I’m actually planing on taking it easy in November, but here’s a list anyway:

    – Finish volume 18 of the ハイスクールDxD light novels (currently reading #17)
    – Play through either 妖怪ウオッチ or ブライブリーデフォルト (haven’t really decided which one to play first though)
    – Get done tackling my “marked” cards on Anki (these range from cards where I noticed small mistakes to cards that are confusing me for whatever reason. The later type can easily lead me to long trips into 知恵袋 so I’ll sometimes procrastinate on this)

  15. – Finish JALUP Advanced.
    – Finish the translation of a friends website into Japanese.
    – Read three chapters of チョコレート工場の秘密(Charlie & the Chocolate factory)
    – Do the Japanese Theme Language Contest.

    • I’m updating this!
      – Finish JALUP Advanced. *Won’t make it with current speed :( I should have seen this coming, since it was only a matter of simple mathematics… *

      – Finish the translation of a friends website into Japanese. *Still going strong! It’s a LOT of work.*

      – Read three chapters of チョコレート工場の秘密(Charlie & the Chocolate factory) *Done*

      – Do the Japanese Theme Language Contest. *Done*

      • – Read three chapters of チョコレート工場の秘密(Charlie & the Chocolate factory) *Done*

        – Do the Japanese Theme Language Contest. *Done*
        Still only the two above done. I will set up new goals for Dec.

  16. My goals:
    1. To read four chapters in 青鬼
    2. To watch the following movies: (1) Funky Forest; (2) Happiness of Us Alone; (3) Hikikomori; (4) Kamome Diner
    3. To write two short texts and publish them on Lang-8
    4. To play Mario & Luigi RPG 3 for 10 hours

  17. 1.Go from 395 to 1124 Kanji in RTK (+705) (Primary learning focus)
    2.Learn 330 new JALUP Beginner sentences in Anki (Ticking over)
    3.Finish Newbie Season 1 in Japanesepod101 and get to episode 25 in Newbie Season 2. This involves listening until I can totally follow the dialogue and making Anki audio flashcards for the dialogue. (Supplementary listening)

    I’ve just started my Japanese journey and I am hugely impressed with the Jalup resources so far. Thank you so much Adshap!

    • 1. Got to 1143, goal exceeded
      2. Success
      3. Newbie level too easy! Moved to Beginner.

      Finding it very tough to go at this rate.

  18. I’m just a beginner, but my current goals are to increase my vocabulary past 50k, and to get a decent grasp on dialects, literary and maybe even classical japanese grammar.

  19. 1. Get up to 1000 Kanji in RTK (currently at 742)
    2. Finish watching Fullmetal Alchemist.
    3. Finish Core 2k Step 2. (558 cards left)

    • Completed all my goals, got to level 11 this month woo hoo!
      1. RTK can be overwhelming a lot of the time, but now it’s encouraging to be half-way done.
      2. Oh I watched FMA. Boy did I. But I also got almost half-way through Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. So much alchemy.
      3. I got a much better sense of grammar this month from Step 2. I love Core 2k more than any of my other Anki reviews (Although my ‘Grammar Domination!’ deck is great too). I’m excited whenever I get a new card.

  20. -Learn 31 more Kanji (completely failed my kanji target last time so I thought I’d build up from 1 a day which is much more than I did last time)

    -Do 400 new words from drama transcripts (and limit to 100 words per episode)

    -Watch 4 new drama episodes

    -Finish the book I started (Tsumaetai Yoru ni)

    -Do 2 more chapters in my book

    -Listen to 31 podcasts

    Hopefully these slightly less ambitious goals can all be met, especially since this goes over the Christmas holidays, whereas last month I was in the deep end of school.

  21. 1. Figure out when 何時 いつ is vs  なんじ.
    2. Continue to do my anki reviews daily.
    3. Get at least 50 new RTK cards in the month of December.

    I think those are pretty good achievable goals.

    • Well it seems that number 1 isn’t as easy as I thought. I get that its when vs what time, but they seem interchangeable to me.

      I did all my anki reviews daily even though there were days I did not want.

      Number 3 would have been smart to write down the starting number. I’m not sure if I got 50 or not completed.

  22. -finish 310 漢字
    -finish J-E and get to 310 J-J
    -watch at least two episodes of anime a day
    -listen to about an hour a day of podcasts after 25th December
    -not stress too much over these goals if I can’t do them

    Christmas holidays are soon so hopefully I can get better at J-J before they end.

    • Anki goals are achieved.

      As for the immersion goals, this month I have been able to listen to more than 4 hours of my iPod of anime, J dramas and a little music a day, which is soo much better than what I had planned. I also managed to get into reading manga, and using subs2srs which really helped me develop a better sense of Japanese grammar which really helped with my J-J phase(which I feel I’m going awesome in). Also, the cards I got from this were a lot more enjoyable to review than the other cards from textbooks, RTK and dictionaries. This month I also switched focus from anki to Japanese entertainment and started to enjoy a wider variety of it. I am starting to feel pretty confident I can learn this language and I’m feeling good about it!

  23. Watch 2 hours of ニコニコ動画 per day.
    Continue J-E anki, but while I’m doing that, build a J-J deck in time for 2015.
    1 Chapter of Manga per day.
    Get enough sleep. (Sleep has such a massive effect on my retention rate!

  24. 1. Complete my damn Anki reviews daily!
    2. Learn the remaining 603 kanji in my RTK deck (100 cards per day)
    3. Learn the remaining 414 sentences in my J-E deck (15 cards per day)
    4. Finish reading (extensive) the novelization of The Incredibles and “Kitchen”
    5. Watch an episode of an anime/drama or a movie every day (preferably with JP subs); I’m rewatching Kill La Kill and planning to watch Ghibli films all month. I might dive into One Piece and there’s the occasional Sailor Moon Crystal episode… Then there’s the JP dubs of US movies I have…
    6. Beat Pokemon X and get farther in Pokemon Omega Ruby (I know, vague).
    7. Read (intensive) one article of NHK Web Easy news every other day
    8. Buy JALUP Intermediate 1000 + One Deck for January

    Jeez, I have a lot of goals… I think I can handle it though!

    • I am full of inconsistent fail, hahaha!

      1. Didn’t complete my reviews daily. They got out of hand last week.
      2. I actually had less cards than I thought and finished the RTK deck!
      3. This deck was too far gone review-wise and I just, well, hated it. Decided to just delete it and start fresh.
      4. Kinda gave up on finishing “Kitchen.” I have 4 days left to finish The Incredibles and I’m sure I can do it!
      5. I started watching shows daily over the past couple weeks, missing a day or two. I rewatched Kill La Kill and watched a handful of anime and finished the drama Aoi Honoo. I definitely need to stay on top of active listening.
      6. I HAVE BEATEN NEITHER!!! I haven’t been playing too much lately.
      7. I haven’t been reading articles every other day, but I can say I’ve read at least two articles a week. I need to get better about re-reading the article to solidify the vocabulary I’m learning and watch the videos more than once… soooo booooring
      8. When I deleted my trashy J-E deck, I immediately picked up the JALUP Intermediate 1000 Pack and acquired the One Deck! I LOVE this deck! I had to stop for the past two weeks to get my 1200+ reviews under control, but I’m back to it come tomorrow! I’m on the fence about if I’ll acquire the JALUP Advanced even though I have the One Deck…

      So this month was kind of a flop, but I definitely got a little more focused. Just gotta be more consistent with my anki!

  25. 1. Pass the RTK threshold from World 3: 950 Kanji. With a pace of 10 new kanji per day, I’m now at 802 kanji learnt today from the Jalup RTK Mod, so at the end of the year, I should arrive beyond 1000 kanji learnt.
    2. Continue through the J-E sentences and reach the World 3 threshold of 500 J-E sentences reviewed (I’m at 295 sentences reviewed now).
    3. Finish Yotsubato Volume 1
    4. Watch Kanon 2006 with the Japanese Subtitles, and then eventually begin to do a sub2srs in order to learn the sentences, but it’s better to wait for world 4 to do it.
    5. Analyze 5 lyrics of japanese songs I love by researching the meanings of the words (Do as Infinity, Anime songs…)

    It’s a lot of goals, but they are not beyond reach. I believe in the power of learning the language with different ways, because it’s so amazing how you feel good when you recognize a word or a kanji in an anime because you learnt it before in the J-E deck. Or understand some sentences in a manga because you know the meaning of the kanji from the RTK deck!
    If I manage to meet my goals, I can finally move to World 4, I can’t wait for that! :)

    Thanks again for the wonderful tips you give us in Jalup and see you next month.

    • I was unable to keep the pace since mid-December… Holidays and change of job are the main causes.
      1. I viewed 973 kanji, but among these cards there are still 288 young+learn cards. Yes, I passed the RTK threshold!
      2. I viewed 497 J-E cards, with still 271 young+learn cards. Didn’t pass the threshold of 500… It already takes lots of time and energy to review the kanji, I always skip the J-E cards review…
      3. Not finished the Yotsubato Vol 1, I’m nearly at the end.
      4. Didn’t continue the Kanon anime
      5. Analyzed 5 Japanese songs: Some of DAI, the 2 Kanon op and ed songs, Kibogaoka

      Next month, I must lower my expectations and reduce the goal numbers. I can’t put japanese on first priority in my life.

  26. 1. Get to at least 18課 in 新完全マスター 文法 N2
    2. Listen to a minimum of 2 hours of Japanese daily.
    3. Read more on the art world in Japan (increase vocabulary especially)
    4. Increase overall vocabulary.

    I feel like I never have enough vocabulary. I tend to get a bit discouraged when I mark off all the unknown words in a text…so hopefully I can work on that too. :)

    • 1. Well that didn’t happen lol. I think it was a bit too ambitious of me. I got to 5課.
      2. Did it and then some! Yay!
      3. Did it! Learned lots of new vocab. Also found a book in Japanese at a HPB recently on pieces at the Milwaukee Art Museum and that’s been really interesting to read.
      4. I am on a roll with new vocab. I have been reading a lot and jotting down new words, then going through them and putting them into anki. I’m getting less discouraged when I come across a lot of new vocabulary in a text because I now find it fun to go through them.

  27. 1. Learn ~1500 Vocabulary.
    2. Learn ~280 Grammar points (If I can find that many, I’m starting to run out).
    3. SRS 750 of the Core 6k sentences as listening production.
    4. Add a couple episodes worth of sentences from Kill La Kill to my SRS listening production deck, and pre-learn a bit of the vocabulary.
    5. Start reading something difficult, like Dies Irae, add sentences from it into my reading production deck, and pre-learn some of the vocabulary.
    6. (optional) Learn 万葉仮名 and classical japanese grammar so I can create diabolical, impossible to understand sentences.

  28. -Having just finished the jalup beginner 1000, start on the jalup intermediate deck, and get at least 150 cards in by end of December.
    -Find and do more exercises to practice my Japanese daily, rather than just using anki.
    -Try to watch at least one episode of a j-drama a day.

    • Being on break really drains motivation to do much :/
      -I got 50 cards into the intermediate stage. I’m liking the deck and am really looking forward to continuing it.
      -Got to spend more time with Japanese friends and friends learning Japanese, so was able to talk with them.
      -Wasn’t able to watch one a day, but was able to finish GTO. Good show.

  29. -Finish Core 2k step 7 and 8 (may be a bit difficult to find time to finish both with Christmas coming up and everything involved with it)
    -Learn 150 new Kanji. I’ve been taking Kanji slow as it seems when I attempt to learn large numbers of Kanji everyday, even for short bursts, it burns me out on studying at all, so I will stick with 5 a day to prevent myself from burning out.
    -Finish reading at least 2 manga. I’ve started to get a decent collection of Japanese Manga, but I’ve been to slow on reading it, I need to catch up!!.
    -Beat Pokemon Omega Ruby in Japanese

    • I finished Core 2k step 7, which was my main goal, didn’t even start Core 2k 8 though, although I figured thats how it would end up this month.

      I didn’t meet my kanji goal, around halfway through the month i stopped adding new ones because I got to busy with life getting in the way.

      I finished reading 2 manga, and I realized how much more i’m understanding now then I was just a month or 2 ago.

      I didn’t play pokemon at all, but I did play multiple other japanese games, not going to have a goal to beat a specific game from now on, just going to put a certain amount of time into japanese games in general.

      I also reached a goal I forgot to put on here when making them, I finished watching Sword Art Online and Death Note.

  30. -Continue reading おしまいの日, but now putting unknown words into anki(スマホ). (won’t set any objective goals for this one as I don’t know how it will work)
    -Listen to (at least) one podcast a day
    -(RE)Watch one drama episode (no subs) a day. (will probably fail due to lack of time at home, although I’ll try to put episodes in my smartphone)
    -Watch 神様の言うとおり. That is, if I can find it somewhere to download, cause so far I’ve found nothing.
    -Catch up with my 900 late anki (pc) reviews… maybe >.<

  31. * Create Swedish subtitles for the first episode of the anime しろくまカフェ
    * Read the remaining five chapters in the manga 伊藤潤二 傑作集 8
    * Watch four ゴジラ movies
    * Write two new 作文 for Lang-8
    * Play Mario & Luigi RPG 3 for another 10 hours

  32. – Learn 300 new Kanji (from the JALUP RTK deck)
    – Never skip the ANKI reviews
    – Learn at least 150 sentences from Genki (J-E)
    – Don’t give up!!! It’s way harder to get back into studying than just continuing.

    • Checking in at the halfway mark. I’ve hit a couple of runs of material that I needed to spend an extra day with before feeling comfortable advancing, so I’m not currently on pace to complete 277 in December.

      That said, I’m not so far off that its completely out of the question.

    • 1) Didn’t get there. Hit a dip, then the whole family got the flu. That said, I still did add more new cards than had in any previous months.
      2) Not finishing number 1, means I didn’t get to 2 :(
      3) Purchased, along with Jalup Legends!

  33. – Read ベルガリアード物語(1) 予言の守護者.
    – Read あなたの英語がダメな理由.
    – Play through another cycle of 弟切草.
    – Play 聖剣伝説2 from beginning to end.
    – Add 300 sentence cards to Anki.

    Hopefully this will be a bit more manageable. The novel reading isn’t nearly as heavy as it was this past month, so I’m fairly confident that I will complete all my goals this time around!

  34. – Complete the translation of my friends webpage. This one is still huge….
    – Finish the first story in 悪夢のエレベーター, around 110 pages.
    Immersion and Anki goes without saying.

    • – 60% of the webpage finished so far.. Still going.
      – Forgot about this one! I’m only 30-40 pages in but I like it though.

  35. 1. Get down to 200 cards in JALUP Intermediate by the end of the month. (That’s doing 20 cards a day, my usual pace).

    2. Create a new Anki deck and put in five sentences for each word from JALUP Intermediate I need more practice with with only Japanese definitions. No English.

    3. Get up to episode 150 in ONE PIECE.

    4. Read at least two chapters of ハイ☆スピード!, and enter sentences and words from the book that I don’t understand.

    5. Continue to expand my immersion iPod and get up to 750 songs and convert more of my anime to audio.

    I love being able to make goals. Having to post them on the site and then reply back to them at the end of the month is so motivating for me.

    • 1. I didn’t quite down to the number I wanted. As of this writing, I at 515 cards remaining. Still pretty impressive since I had begun JALUP Intermediate at the beginning of the month.

      2. Completed and ongoing.

      3. I got up to episode 139. I had also been watching 進撃の巨人, and Free! again.

      4. I read the first chapter! Better than last month! Also been reading よつばと! and 鋼の錬金術師, and I just bought 進撃の巨人 manga (can’t wait for it to arrive!).

      5. While I didn’t get up to 750 songs, I still feel good about this goal because I converted A LOT of anime. Almost 200 episodes worth of audio.

      December was hectic, but still achieved quite a bit.

  36. 1. Reach 1800+ in RTK (~200 new kanji). I gave myself a break last month, but I’d like to actually get it done this time.
    2. Complete JALUP Advanced Stage 1.
    3. 30+ hours of native material. Chapter 4 of Ciel Nosurge, and whatever I feel like for the rest.

    December will be nuts with the holidays, but I’ll also have a few days off work, so hopefully things balance out. I *really* want to finally put RTK behind me.

    • 1. Not quite. Got a little over halfway on the RTK goal at 1710. Given work and holiday disruptions, I feel OK with that. Just gotta keep moving forward and I’ll eventually finish.
      2. Done. Starting Stage 2 today.
      3. Done, though I didn’t end up finishing C4 of Ciel Nosurge. Went more wide than deep this month, it seems XD

  37. Right now I am just trying to get my life back on track so my only goal will be to start back working on japanese, next month will have a lot more if I do manage this!

  38. 1. Add 250 RTK to active review (~1200 total cards under review)
    2. Complete JALUP Beginner Stages 1 + 2 (500 total cards under review)
    3. Finish initial preparations of immersion environment and enter World 5

    On an unrelated note, long time lurker and first time poster. Thank you for all the effort that goes into this blog!

  39. Going away for a sea voyage for a month. Not sure how I will cope with an extremely disrupted routine. It could be anything from getting nothing done at all to having lots of spare time to study.

    Goal:
    Try to at least keep up with reviews so as not to lose ground.
    Ideally, continue adding material with RTK and Jalup Beginner.
    Worst case, must get back on the horse once I’m back on dry land even if I fell off whilst at sea.
    I /should/ be able to do a lot of listening whatever happens, so looking to work through 30 odd Jpod101 lessons.

    By end of January, aim to finish both RTK and Jalup Beginner.
    No update from me on Jan 1 on account of being away.

    Anyone got any tips for studying on a long holiday?
    Tips for recovering from a major disruption, should that happen?

    • When I have a disrupted schedule and find it difficult to allocate significant study time, the only thing I do differently it be very lenient on myself with regard to not doing reviews. The only thing I make sure of is that I do more than nothing, even if that’s only 10 or 20 reviews. You may want to consider reducing your daily new cards limit considerably in order to relieve some of the short-term pressure.

      When I get back to my normal routine, I tend to set my daily new cards to zero and I can usually clear my pending cards pretty quickly. Set yourself an achievable daily target that fits with your new schedule, but aim to return your Anki situation to a manageable level within a week. With no new cards to deal with, I can usually breeze through this and I’m hankering for some new material to review by the end.

      I feel that breaking down the psychological roadblock of a mountain of pending reviews is much more important than reviewing new cards. After a long time away from studying, some of the cards will probably feel like they’re new anyway. At this stage, continuing to look at new cards will only exacerbate the problem of your short-term workload.

      This is a crucial time for you and Japanese and you must do everything you can to maintain as much momentum as possible.

      Finally, don’t fall off while at sea, or I guarantee you’ll never get through those pending cards.

    • Result:
      No new cards added to Anki, but all reviews up to date. Even this was tough.

      Good news is that, far from falling off the horse, I return with renewed enthusiasm. The break did me good – I was getting a bit burned out. By good fortune I was sat next to a native Japanese man on the plane and had a very simple but real conversation with him (he was tickled pink) and got the obligatory 日本語が上手ですね (my first one!).

      Thanks for the tips.

  40. I want to use the Genki books to help supplement my material from here as well as my Pimsleur stuff, though I have no idea for any kind of lesson plan so to speak for the Genki books. anyone have suggestions for way that worked for them, like a plan of attack or an order to do things so it makes sense to learn? Thanks!

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