Here I am on day 94 of my Japanese learning journey! I've still been continuing to expand my vocabulary and keep up with the words I've learned so far. I've slowed a bit on how many words per day on average I'm learning for the most part. I know approximately 2000 vocabulary words at this point, which averages out to having learned about 20 words per day even with slowing down a bit. I've been slowly starting to use the Genki 1 book with my husband and I like the it so far. I need to dedicate more time to studying that way.
I've been focusing a lot on kanji even though I haven't learned quite as many per day on average as I would have liked. Life happens. I can recognize the common meanings of about 485 kanji. I started really studying those around November 18th, so I've been focusing more on kanji than vocabulary for 5 weeks. To do the math, out of the total 2136 joyo (common use) kanji and having "learned" about 485 of them so far, I have 1651 left to "learn". That means I'm a little over 1/5 of the way through the joyo kanji. That is super exciting to me! It has been so great to be able to type Japanese words and use the kanji instead of having to do everything with just kana.
I've also started brushing up on my Spanish again and have been doing well with that. I can do basic sentences pretty well in Spanish, so I figured it might help me in feeling more confident and less afraid to make Japanese sentences if I brushed up on my Spanish again. So far it's been working well for me. Studying some Spanish again has taken a little time from Japanese study time but if it helps me move forward to where I need to be in making sentences in Japanese so that I can actually practice and use the language and the vocabulary I've learned so far then it's completely worth it.
I finished my Mindsnacks Japanese app and have continued to utilize some courses through Memrise and Mango Languages. I've been using Duolingo and Mindsnacks to brush up on my Spanish vocabulary again. It's funny how some words just come back without having to re-learn them once the brain gets studying again. To study kanji I've still been using my JLPT Study app.
This past week I have finally been brave enough to do some posts on lang-8.com. I had signed up for the site back in September but hadn't been ready to do any posts until now. I was worried about how the environment of people correcting one another would be and whether the site was safe to use. So far I am really impressed and I like the environment of the site. So far all the people I have connected with that have corrected my Japanese and that I have corrected English have been very nice. No one has said anything mean or embarrassing. I definitely understand why so many people on the internet have recommended using lang-8 to help learn. I have gone from just doing a very simple sentence to doing a 5 or 6 sentence post. I'm excited to continue to do posts and learn how to write and make sentences better.
As I've continued to study Japanese, I've continued to enjoy Japanese culture more and more. It's been exciting to understand various things better and to comprehend names of foods and restaurants that I've been aware of but didn't know the meanings. Also watching Japanese programs and knowing that I understand more of what is being said without needing the subtitles as much is really cool.
Yesterday I drove past a brand new restaurant near where I live that had tonkotsu in the name and to know what that means in relation to a ramen shop was fun. (Pork ramen where the bones have been boiled.) I hope to go try the tonkotsu ramen sometime. Yum yum it makes me hungry just thinking about it!
A couple weeks ago at a local grocery store I found these gummy candies:
I love finding Japanese foods at stores now since I can read what they are for the most part. For those who don't read katakana writing from left to right these say peach gummy, Suika (watermelon) gummy, and strawberry gummy. Why the company used the Japanese word for watermelon but not for peach and strawberry I don't understand, but whatever. They taste really good.
Thanks for reading about my continuing journey of learning Japanese!
Until next time! さようなら。
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