234 Days of Learning Japanese!

皆さんこんにちは。

Well, here I am on day 234! I've been continuing to work hard learning new vocabulary, grammar, and to improve my listening skills. I've noticed that I'm starting to understand more and feel less overwhelmed when listening to music or watching videos in Japanese. 

As a result of feeling less overwhelmed, I've been listening to even more music, watching more videos, and listening to audio books while reading along. It's been helping so much and I feel that I've turned a corner into where I can actually enjoy learning instead of studying being so serious all the time. I'm still doing all the serious studies, such as reviewing vocabulary cards in Anki, but now when I don't feel up for that I can at least watch or listen to something and understand what's going on without having to rely on subtitles or a lyric translation so heavily. 

It's such an exciting feeling to listen to something and catch more than just a word here and there. To be able to listen to something and be able to really understand (with a little work) it has been really great. 

I've been listening to a lot of music the past few weeks after I came across a song that I had known the tune previously but didn't know more than that. The song is "Ue o Muite Arukou"  or sometimes known as "Sukiyaki" sung by Kyu Sakamoto. I've been a little obsessed with the song and have played it and sung it a lot. 

Last week I downloaded a CD called "Planet Journey" from an artist named Ritsuka. I love all the songs and I have learned new vocabulary and grammar from listening closely. I've been really into the song "Aoi Tori" aka "Bluebird". There were a lot of words I already knew when I first listened to it so it had caught my attention, and now that I have listened a lot I've learned a good deal. I've been enjoying some other songs and artists as well, but these two songs stand out. I've been trying to find some additional music artists that fit my tastes but it's a lot of work. 

I also have been watching some clips from game shows on YouTube. AKBingo is my favorite right now even though I know there is a lot of controversy and some shady things concerning AKB48, the music group that the show is built around. 

Aside from diving into Japanese music and media a little more, I've been continuing to practice in more serious ways as well. I haven't done as much Rosetta Stone as I'd like to the past few weeks because I haven't been well enough (thus all the time on my hands to watch game shows and such). I have been doing some more vocabulary, and have worked my way up to about 5500 vocabulary words that I'm currently working on. Since I've been doing more reading and other things, it has felt easier to remember more words and their meanings. Sometimes just practicing a word in Anki a couple of times, and then hearing it in a song or on a program is all it takes to remember it well.

In one of my last posts I talked about taking a break from new vocabulary, and I took around a month long break (or close to that). I may take another break in the future if I feel burned out on new words, but right now I feel like my learning is similar to a snowball running down a hill that's getting bigger and bigger and I want it to keep going. It's a hard balance between doing too little and not progressing much and becoming frustrated that way, or doing too much and getting overwhelmed. This past week I've felt like being in an at-home pseudo-immersion where I just want more and more no matter how well I understand it all. I know that will likely taper off but it's been nice to feel less overwhelmed in general, even if it's a temporary thing.

I've felt myself more easily be able to make sentences, and I often think quite a few sentences (at minimum) in Japanese each day. Even though I'm by myself a lot it is a relief to be able to form a complete thought fairly quickly about something I'm watching, etc. Baby steps! 

I can't wait to see how much progress I make between now and my next update! Thanks for reading!

じゃまたね。