Nuriko and IceCream created threads on this topic in years past, and I revived it last year. So in continuing the tradition, here go my reflections and resolutions.

vileru Wrote:2014 Resolutions
1. Score above 150 on an N1 practice test, and then begin studying either French or Chinese for at least an hour daily.
2. Spend at least 40 hours a week on philosophy.
3. Attend at least 2 philosophy events a month.
4. Write at least 1 publishable paper.
5. Exercise at least 4 times a week.
6. Complete at least one cycle of P90x.
7. Clear my RTK backlog.
8. Befriend at least one well-educated and intelligent Japanese person who lives near me.
9. Obtain at least 334/340 on the GRE so I can collect USD $100/hr tutoring (can't wait till this happens and then someone asks me "how do you expect to make money studying philosophy?" It's going to be like when Thales bought the olive presses.).
10. Stop reading articles or browsing forums when I need a break. Go on a walk, lie down, or perform mundane tasks instead.

2014 Reflections
1. Failed, sort of.
I neither studied for the JLPT nor began studying French or Chinese. However, I unexpectedly acquired credentials as a translator, which has been my primary way of "studying" Japanese this year.

2. Failed.
I foolishly didn't record the number of hours I spent every week on philosophy, so I don't have the data to back this up. I doubt I achieved my goal, however. I've probably been spending around 20-30 hours a week, though.

3. Failed.
I started out strong, but then I rationalized not going because I had "better things to do," i.e. "work" on papers, etc. Instead of working, though, I probably ended up wasting time. I probably would've been motivated more if I had attended more events. Honestly, I think I didn't attend more events because of my social anxiety. However, it's important to do so to overcome my anxiety and have more opportunities to do philosophy with others. (Contrary to popular belief, the lone philosopher contemplating in solitude is not a recipe for success. Most good philosophers are well-connected and collaborate often.)

4. Succeeded.
This was a stupid goal given that I'm still at too early of a stage to consider it as a plausible goal, but I did spend a lot of time on a paper that I presented in a seminar. I'm quite satisfied with the paper, so I consider myself as having reached my goal, even though I technically did not.

5. Failed.
Again, I didn't record which weeks I exercised 4 times and which weeks I didn't, so I don't know how well I performed. My estimate, however, is that I exercised 4 times a week about 60-65% of the time.

6. Failed.
Not because of lack of will, but because of lack of equipment.

7. Failed.
However, my backlog is now at about 800 kanji (it was about 1600 at the beginning of last year).

8. Succeeded (many times over).

9. Failed.
My GRE studies started off extremely well, but then tapered off. I did boost my score dramatically, however.

10. Failed miserably.

2/10... let's try harder and be more realistic next year.

2015 Resolutions
1. Succeed in my previous goal of scoring above 150 on an N1 practice test, and then begin studying either French or Chinese for at least 30 mins daily.
2. Record how much time I spend on philosophy every week, and then set a realistic goal in March when I have enough data.
3. Succeed in attending at least 2 philosophy events a month (during the academic year).
4. Create a plan to deal with my anxiety issues.
5. Record how many times I exercise every week.
6. Save up and purchase the exercise equipment I need to attain my goals.
7. Eliminate my kanji backlog, finally.
8. Study the GRE for at least 10 hrs/week so I can get that 334/340 on the GRE, which will allow me to stop translating (which I can't stand for the most part) and get a job that pays better.
9. Use HabitRPG to monitor how well I resist urges to surf the net.
10. Actually use my site-blocking app.
11. Empty my email inbox.
12. Organize my reading list and bookmarks.
13. Monitor my progress regarding these goals at least once a month and record any data or thoughts.
14. Post the next version of thread in the first week of December next year.

This year, I tried to design my goals so I'll get more feedback on my performance. I'm hoping this will allow me to better stay on track. Anyway, sorry for posting this thread so late in the year. I had planned to post it at the beginning of the month, but I told myself I had higher priorities (which was true). In any event, I hope you find this thread helpful, and I look forward to seeing your reflections and resolutions.

vix86 Wrote:2014 Resolution:
-Get a job I want, or leave Japan trying

Well, I left Japan, now I'm on the "get a job" part.

2015 Resolution:
-Get a Software Engineer Job in the US somewhere, pref in a metro-ish area. (Or Japan if I somehow get lucky)
-Take vacation to Japan during a Comiket
-Pay off my student loans
-Start saving money for returning to Japan

I really don't have much planned for this coming year. Probably 2016 I'll try my hand again at getting a dev position in Japan but expect I'll be waiting till 2017 for that. Will be back in Japan before 2020 Olympics.

Thanks for making this thread again, Vileru.
Second year posting in one of these. Here's a link to my first post.

I didn't really end up doing much Anki grinding this year. Actually, my Core deck has gone down in size since last year because I figured out (with the help of you guys) the benefits of suspending leeches. So I only have 5,153 cards actively repping... but daily reviews are under 100 so that's a relief.

Still doing my RTK and grammar decks. Reviewing everything every day. Not much exciting to report there.

I haven't done much structured study in general this year. The majority of my learning has been directly from manga and anime--reading stuff, listening to stuff, and looking stuff up. But I dunno, I took everything a notch down since last year, so I don't feel like I've progressed as much as I did in 2013. I've been busy with some other personal endeavors (a novel in English and planning out a comic) and have focused on those to Japanese's loss.

But I think my level of commitment per day is still at a healthy level for maintaining this journey to fluency, so I'm still pretty proud of myself.

Here were my old goals:

"Finish Core10k"

Failed. I made it about 2,000 words in and then my unreasonable Anki habits caught up to me (adding cold words, keeping leeches, and not fixing a bad retention rate), and I decided to stop basing so much of my study on it, so I quit Core10k. I think it was a good decision. I can always pick it up again later, but right now it is not for me.

"Finish FMA: Brotherhood project"

Succeeded. Basically I went through each episode of the series and studied the Japanese transcripts while I watched along. Not only did I finish the 57 remaining episodes, but since then, I've studied 118 episodes from other anime series. It's been a lot of fun.

"Reach volume 40 in Detective Conan"

Failed, I'm only on 22. But that's +15 volumes (2 from another series) which isn't terrible.

"Find at least 1 Japanese language forum or blog to regularly read"

50/50. Did I find one? Yes, a few months ago in fact. Do I regularly read it? No.

"Start a Lang8 journal"

Failed. But I stuck to a 90 day Tweet Every Day In Japanese challenge.
It was so terrible. But I stuck with it.

Okay so I did pretty bad on keeping my resolutions. But to be fair, I sort of pulled those out of the air for my post since I didn't have any to begin with last year. And to be double fair, I did make some goals mid-year that I actually did hit (including that Twitter challenge), but since they weren't posted here, I'll spare you guys.

So, looking to the future...

Goals for 2015:
- Read 21 volumes of manga
- Finally finish the two light novels I bought
- Maintain anime transcript study all year, 1 episode per weekday (sans vacations)
- Better pursue other native media besides manga and anime
- Don't COMPLETELY neglect output
- Make a video demonstrating my Japanese level without having the microphone volume mess up

Okay that's 6 goals.
Gonna be super busy with my comic in 2015, but bring it on! I've gotta hit mastery in this language one of these years.

Didn't make any last year; went pretty well, I must say. Screwed up with vocab reviews, but I'm fixing that now.

2015 Resolution:
1.) Don't let competitive spirit overcome me during Tadoku months. (properly study instead of reading all the time)
2.) Pass the N1 and study nearly every day for that goal.
3.) Make all 'A's in my college courses this year.
4.) Properly maintain a mileage record for easy, safe tax-deductions.

That's about it for the (mostly) measurable things. Otherwise I'm just going to work on my health (finish rehabilitating my knee, for example), learn/improve some skills, try to be as profitable as is practical, then usual.
I'm usually pretty happy with the year, as long as I can constantly improve myself.

Hoo boy. Okay, one by one:

2014
- Watch anime and/or drama daily, and keep listening to podcasts every week in order to bump up my listening comp.

Eh. I listened to NHKジャーナル almost every day. I studied a lot of anime and drama, but likely not enough, as my listening is still weak in key areas.

- Read like a mother. Finishing 夏と花火と私の死体 now, and have a stack of 単行本 and 小説 waiting for me after that.

Success. I finished 私の死体 ages ago, and went on to read another 19 manga (including all of デスノート and ウイッチクラフトワークス), and 10 novels, including GO. I also continued to read at least two articles a day from NHK, HuffPo Japan, ASCII.jp, and other sources. My reading is at a point where I can rip through a manga like 海月姫 in a day.

- Write more in my 日記。

Blech. I just re-started publishing to lang-8 this month. So, little progress here.

- Make speaking two hours a week w/ italki teachers a consistent habit. I was pretty good this year, but could be better.

Close. Due to time constraints, I couldn't always stick with this. But according to my iTalki records, I logged 93 hours of Japanese-only lessons in the past year. I also had at least 20 half-Japanese/half-English sessions with Japanese friends who live in Seattle, so in the end I logged 100+ hours of Japanese conversation immersion. I also have a couple of friends I converse in Japanese with daily on Line and via FB.

- Possibly take N1, assuming I didn't bomb the N2　聴解.

Failed (I bombed N2 読解).

- Possibly go to Japan for a couple weeks later in the year, depending on finances and timing.

Put off trip due to work. Going for a full month in April.

2015

- Go to Japan for a month.
- Read at least 20 novels this year, and at least 30 manga.
- Write two journal entries a week to iTalki. My entries tend to be rather long, so I think two/week is a decent goal.
- Study a couple of anime and drama closely every week, and close my listening gap wrt rapidly spoken Japanese.
- Continue with two Japanese-only lessons a week on iTalki.
- Study N1 reading material with a teacher in an attempt to bring my comprehension up to the next level.
- Do NOT take the N1, or, if I take it, make it strictly for benchmark purposes. I need to take a year off from that brutal monster.

Let's see...

Me Wrote:2014 Plans (not resolutions, I'm not a very resolute person)
-Wind up sentence study/current Anki study at some point and turn that time towards kanji.
-Read lots. One book a week is the general goal
-Output more - lang-8 and actually, y'know, talking to people.
-Program some shit.
-Get a new job, preferably involving programming some shit.

1) successish. I 'wound up' my sentence study (i.e. completely abandoned without looking back) quite some time ago. I've turned that time towards kanji only about three weeks ago. But hey, good enough.

2) Success! I have completed 63 novels, but will finish another before the end of the year. I don't think it quite works out to one a week, but it's plenty close enough.

3) Fail! I did write a little on lang-8 but mostly I avoid it. Did very little speaking in Japanese really.
Although I did start doing some creative writing and wrote a whole bunch of stuff in Japanese for NaNoWriMo (failed, but I was incredibly well prepared for that). I think it's done good but it's not enough. Did one language exchange with someone and it was alright but didn't feel motivated enough to organise another one.

4) not-really-success. Just like always, I bloth around and achieve very little.

5) Fail. No mitigating factors. Barely looked, really.

---

So the plan for this year is:

- Learn kanji.
- Continue reading lots.
- Talk to people. Hire a tutor and get some language exchanges going.
- Get a new job or leave the country.
- Program.

oh hey, this looks pretty much like last year's...

I don't think I wrote down my goals for this year, but here they are from memory:

1. Finish Core 2000
Failed, I stopped at 800 early on and recently restarted from scratch.

2. Finish Tae Kim
Failed, I only got through basic and essential.

3. Write regularly on lang-8
Failed, I did really well to start with but stopped completely by May.

4. Take the N4 test
Failed, but I took the N5 instead.

5. Finish reviewing RTK
Success! I may have stopped too soon as I think I've forgotten a lot, but I had no issues at all with kanji in the N5 test despite not studying kanji at all for over 6 months, so it definitely did some lasting good.

6. Go to Japan for a holiday
Success! I had a great time and learned a lot.

My main issue this year was that after my holiday I was so worn out and busy with work that I didn't have the motivation to study. I've gotten back into studying in the last month so hopefully I can keep it up next year.

My Goals for next year:

1. Get up to 1500 words in Core 2k.
2. Finish Tae Kim.
3. Write regularly on lang-8.
4. Take the N4 test.
5. Find a way to practice speaking.

I was hoping someone would create a topic like this. I'll limit myself to Japanese-related goals. I only joined the forum in 2014 so don't have any 2014 goals to compare to.

2014 Japanese-related Reflections

I picked up Japanese again this year after a 10 year break. It's been a lot of fun.

I had my biggest foreign-language accomplishment this year (giving a 30 minute presentation in Japanese on a technical topic at a conference, in front of hundreds of people). I also took the N4 exam, which I had wanted to take a decade ago but never got around to.

The biggest difference between studying this time and last time has got to be the technology: anki, rikaikun, this forum, NHK Easy News, JOI, plus knowing about RtK and using RtK Lite.

Also, technology like Meetup allows me to join groups where I can meet Japanese people and practice speaking with them, despite not being in Japan.

Overall, I probably over-did Japanese study in 2014. It was worth it for prep for my presentation, and it was nice to have longer conversations with people than I had in the past. But from what I can tell, none of the career options with advanced Japanese language ability interest me. So I should probably cool it in 2015.

2015 Japanese-related Resolutions

1. Continue to use Japanese to enrich my personal and professional life.

2. Use Anki and my JLPT prep books to make serious headway for the N3 vocab. For example, my N3 vocab book says it has about 1,200 words, and I've already added 146 cards.

3. Use Anki and RtK Lite to learn to write all the N3 kanji from the Heisig keyword. Have a high mature rate on my N5, N4 and N3 decks, with no suspended kanji. For future personal reference, here are my current RtK Lite stats:

Overall: 2,200 cards: 21% mature, 12% learning, 1% suspended

The breakdown is:

N5 (108 cards): 88% mature, 11% learning, 1 suspended card
N4 (211 cards): 66% mature, 30% learning, 4% suspended
N3 (406 cards): 26% mature, 28% learning 3% suspended
N2 (356 cards): 18% mature, 13% learning, 2% suspended
N1 (1,119 cards): 5% mature, 3% learning, 1 suspended card

Basically, I have to add 174 more cards in my N3 deck to achieve this goal, while continuing to drill my existing cards.

4. Since grammar is my weakest area (at least according to the JLPT ), focus on this. So far the best way I've seen to learn grammar is thru classes, such as in person classes or online at JOI, and then practicing the points with friends. I haven't figured out a great way to anki-ize grammar yet, but I want this to convert this area of the language from a weakness to a strength.

5. Study less. This year - especially the second half of the year - my Japanese studies crowded out other important areas of my life. Perhaps limit myself to only an hour a day of studying?

[Zgarbas]

Quote:2014 Resolutions:
If I could get out of this slump, that would be great.

Way to aim low, 2013 me. Resolution complete .
(perks this year involve quitting smoking, moving to Japan, attended my first class in Japanese, wrote my first academic paper in Japanese, talking to Japanese people for the first time, talking Japanese in my everyday life, getting over a months-long burnout which had rendered me unable to look at Japanese, becoming self-sufficient, reading 100 books and building up on my knowledge of Philosophy, Humanities and the Social Sciences like there's no tomorrow, finally getting Foucault, passing the N1, and no longer identifying as a woman; lows this year include way more confusion and panic than I'd had imagined possible)

Japanese-related:
Get back into the habit of daily studying, at least do my anki reviews 3x/week.
Get into the Tadoku spirit. Try to read at least 20 novels this year.
Aside from the February admission I don't really have any benchmarks.

Not Japanese-related:
Get to a more decent level in my other languages. Say, a solid B1 level. Sorted by priority, Spanish,Portuguese, Mandarin, German.
Keep building up a solid foundation in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Get Derrida and Kristeva.
Lose the Freshman 15 (more like freshman 30).
Pass all my classes.
Think up a decent pitch for my Ph.D proposal.
Learn to stop being afraid of everything.
Mingle with the Nagoya Quiltbag community.
Become more involved with the local volunteering scene.
Participate in at least 1 academic conference and try to finish that journal article I had started.
Maybe actually get out of my prefecture more... been in Japan for 8 months now and I've only left it twice.

2014 was a shitty year for me

Quote:2014 Resolutions:
-Read as much as schedule and available mental energy allows every day.
-Fully recover from running injury and slowly work towards 10ks
-Get a dollfie
-Finally get round to going to Comike
-Get back to gaming regularly

Was too tedious to keep up for more than a few days
Got injured again for other reasons and gave up altogether
Still haven't (ended up blowing money on an OR instead)
Still haven't, maybe next summer
Sort of achieved, albeit at a casual level

Quote:Everything else is just stuff I have to do like study programming and graduate without hiccup, or was going to do anyway, like keeping up with anime.

5-10 year resolutions:
-Become native level in Japanese in every respect
-Get good at drawing
-Start writing novels or manga in Japanese

Probably gotten a little better, feel too exhausted to be very intelligible at work though
Getting better now
Nope

On a brighter note my karaoke scores have broken into the 90s lately.

And for 2015.. I'm having a good feeling

Keep drawing regularly and reach a high level of illustration ability by the end of the year
Get good at a CG modelling program
Finish learning C# deeply
Learn DirectX deeply
Become more proficient at Unity
Make a game/game engine or two
Find the time to get back into anime and LNs

AlgoRhythmic Wrote:Finish Core10k.
Start reading real books and not just manga in Japanese.
Keep consuming entertainment overall in Japanese.
Maybe try taking the JLPT if I feel like it (don't have any use for it, would be mostly to see how well I do).

1) Check. Did finish Core10k.
2) Check. Read 4 complete novels (not a large amount, but since I usually don't read novels at all I'm satisfied).
3) Check. Consumed pretty much 100% of all my entertainment in Japanese during 2014.
4) Check. Took N1 and it went pretty good (probably will pass but I couldn't self-grade the listening part completely so not 100% sure yet).

Not part of my 2014 resolutions, but I also had my first real conversations in Japanese with Japanese people which was a barrier I really had to overcome eventually since I'm not a very social person. That I was actually able to take this step is probably what I'm most satisfied with during the whole year to be honest. So overall it's been a good year.

For 2015 I'm going to try to do this:

1) Read more novels in Japanese. At least 8 novels.
2) Actually go to Japan.
3) Keep up the momentum from 2014 in consuming entertainment in Japanese.
4) Add and complete 5000 more words in Anki.
*5) If I end up not passing N1 after all, retake it.

@Zgarbas

I'm deviating off-topic, but I'd like to ask if you have any idea why analytic philosophy hasn't caught on in Japan. I have my own guesses, but I figure your answer is likely to be more accurate since you're in that environment and are more likely to have discussed this question.

Zgarbas Wrote:

Quote:2014 Resolutions:
If I could get out of this slump, that would be great.

Way to aim low, 2013 me. Resolution complete .
(perks this year involve quitting smoking, moving to Japan, attended my first class in Japanese, wrote my first academic paper in Japanese, talking to Japanese people for the first time, talking Japanese in my everyday life, getting over a months-long burnout which had rendered me unable to look at Japanese, becoming self-sufficient, reading 100 books and building up on my knowledge of Philosophy, Humanities and the Social Sciences like there's no tomorrow, finally getting Foucault, passing the N1, and no longer identifying as a woman; lows this year include way more confusion and panic than I'd had imagined possible)

Japanese-related:
Get back into the habit of daily studying, at least do my anki reviews 3x/week.
Get into the Tadoku spirit. Try to read at least 20 novels this year.
Aside from the February admission I don't really have any benchmarks.

Not Japanese-related:
Get to a more decent level in my other languages. Say, a solid B1 level. Sorted by priority, Spanish,Portuguese, Mandarin, German.
Keep building up a solid foundation in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Get Derrida and Kristeva.
Lose the Freshman 15 (more like freshman 30).
Pass all my classes.
Think up a decent pitch for my Ph.D proposal.
Learn to stop being afraid of everything.
Mingle with the Nagoya Quiltbag community.
Become more involved with the local volunteering scene.
Participate in at least 1 academic conference and try to finish that journal article I had started.
Maybe actually get out of my prefecture more... been in Japan for 8 months now and I've only left it twice.

Impressive that you jumped from N1 to attending classes in Japanese in the same year. Even if I am able to get by with N1 listening, I'm listening to Japanese news broadcasts and miss stuff all the time. I need to practice tons more.

TheVinster Wrote:2013 Reflection:
-Read a lot. Still suck at Japanese.
-Took N1. 90% confident I failed. Still suck at Japanese.
-Hardly spoke any Japanese. Still suck at Japanese.

2014 Resolution:
-Read more. Still suck at Japanese.
-Maybe stop sucking at Japanese.

Well in 2014 I read a decent amount up until August (if I remember correctly). After August I got my new job and now my commute is 2.5-3 hours a day, but really that's just a scapegoat to explain my lack of dedication. Let's be honest. I think I failed N1 this year too, and my Japanese continues to suck. So, for my 2015 resolutions:

-Consistently study. I finally work at a full-time job which is looking to expand into the Asian market in the next 1-3 years. My bosses know I study Japanese, and if I play my cards right I'll be the guy who gets to live/work in Japan on behalf of the company to get our foot in the door. The best part about my job is my bosses actually care and want me to succeed. It's up to me to make sure I'm prepared. Now's the time.
-Move closer to work and become more independent.
-Go to Japan in April and make the most of it. Meet everyone I can, make friends, etc. Don't squander half the trip like I did last time simply because I don't always have someone to adventure with me.
-When I move closer to work, start exercising again. Will improve my physical and mental well-being which I severely need in terms of my mental state.
-Depending on the state of my company's expansion into Japan consider beginning a MBA program. If moving to Japan proves to be faster than expected, postpone MBA until I live in Japan. Potentially pursue it at that time.
-Overall just keep learning what I love: Japanese. The fact I graduated in March and was able to find a job by August, albeit at the very bottom, made 2014 worthwhile. I started as an Office Admin and will be getting a promotion as soon as my replacement is found. I'll be dealing with Accounts Payable but will be able to transition into a role later on that suits my dreams of Japan.

hyvel Wrote:1)Cover about one page per day in N1新完全読解. After that, continue with N1新完全文法
2)Finish Kanji in Context (at least the words that I deem somewhat useful, ~1500 left to go)
3)Finish reading ご冗談でしょう、ファインマンさん. Or read any of the other books that I brought home with me.
4)Keep my speaking and listening skills intact, especially because there is a reasonable chance of me having to act as an interpreter on a trip to Japan together with a colleague later this year.
Bonus:
5)Attempt JLPT N1 in July (seems unrealistic) or December if I get a surge of motivation and enough free time to go through a reasonable part of N1新完全文法

My goals for 2014 were quite moderate, as my Japanese is now mostly in 'maintenance mode':
1) Mostly done. Finished N1新完全読解, and roughly learned the N1新完全文法 grammar (but skipped the exercises)
2) Done
3) Done, and read some other books as well
4) So-so. The skills are alive, but not very polished.
5) Done. Tried in December, but probably failed. But that's okay.
Generally 2014 was a good year for me as I was able to create some good opportunities and then also follow up.

2015 Japanese-related resolutions

My goals are mostly the same as last year: Try to improve my Japanese, rather than forgetting everything, using a modest amount of time and effort. Also, I'd like to get my skills a bit more balanced, which in my case means getting better at listening and speaking (I don't really care about writing for now). This leads me to the following resolutions:

1) Finish N1新完全文法, now including the exercises
2) Mix in some more 'concentrated study time', e.g. actively studying grammar and addressing my known weaknesses rather than just reading books, always having trouble understanding exactly the same grammatical constructions.
3) Create more opportunities to use Japanese. Either locally by making some new friends, or contacting my friends in Japan more regularly
4) Continue reading books and watching movies somewhat regularly.
5) Pass the N1 (assuming I failed in Dec14).

General resolutions
-Improve my programming skills systematically (learn more about design patterns & co)
-Finally go through all the order of magnitude physics & engineering material that I've amassed over the years. I really want to improve my ability to quickly arrive at a rough quantitative understanding of physics, engineering and also general questions.
-Use above mentioned quantitative skills to analyze the things that I encounter in daily life.
Example: Yesterday I read some discussion on reddit about the daily sales of gas stations. The number of 30k gallons/day was mentioned somewhere. There are a variety of ways to analyze that number. 30k gallons are roughly 100k liters, so the gas station has a daily (yearly) revenue of ~100k (30M) $. This feels quite high, but I know little about the business. On the other hand, to dispense 100k liters of gasoline, they probably have to serve around 2000 cars a day. Assuming that most of them come during daytime, that means roughly 200 cars/hours, or 3 cars/min. So the gas station in question must be rather large with a lot of spots. So 30k gallons/day seems to be on the high side. So now I have a rough understanding of the matter and there is some meaning attached to the number, instead of just mindlessly seeing it and then forgetting it some few seconds later. I'd like to be able to quickly give meaning to most of the numbers I encounter in daily life.
-Manage my time better, so that I can easily take advantage of unforeseen opportunities. Luck favors the prepared mind!

Never did one of these before last year so I guess I'll do it now.

2015 Resolutions:

1) Finally finish RTK. As sad as it sounds, it's kinda disappointing having studied the language for 2 years at school and a year self study that I haven't even done this. That and I never got the copy of the book. That's changed lol xD
2) Cover Tae Kim deck. I have a decent grasp of grammar but since I haven't touched 日本語 in about a year, I need a refresher.
3) Improve my listening. This for me is a big deal because my listening sucks!
4) track my progress in either my blog or Onenote
5) Hit my Tadoku goal. (Thanks RawToast) I never seem to hit my goal. Something always makes me lose momentum. I need to find a way to change that

(Life related)

- Study for the TEAS, an exam as part of the admission process in nursing school. I plan to apply for schools in the Fall semester.
- Find a job (again...all my previous jobs have been dirt)

I'm not at all very ambiguous it seems xD

[Zgarbas]

vileru Wrote:@Zgarbas

I'm deviating off-topic, but I'd like to ask if you have any idea why analytic philosophy hasn't caught on in Japan. I have my own guesses, but I figure your answer is likely to be more accurate since you're in that environment and are more likely to have discussed this question.

I'm sorry, but I'm a total disappointment on that level. I've been reading about philosophy lately, but I'm still at that really-really basic level, and it's mostly for myself =). Since I'm in cultural studies, and the field itself is basically rooted in continental philosophy, we've not really paid any notice to analytic for obvious reasons... However, I'd blame academic eurocentrism

Quote:Impressive that you jumped from N1 to attending classes in Japanese in the same year. Even if I am able to get by with N1 listening, I'm listening to Japanese news broadcasts and miss stuff all the time. I need to practice tons more.

Classes involve real people talking in your general direction, so that helps. Also, you also get used to a particular teacher's speech after a while. It took me a few classes before I got used to them, and if the subject is way beyond my comprehension I find myself unable to follow, but that's not just the Japanese's fault. In my first classes this semester I found it *really* hard to follow all the new professors. It's the same with novels... hand me an author I've never read and I'll take ages to get past the first 10 pages, but hand me some よしもとばなな and I read 50 pages/h since I'm so used to their works.
(Fun fact about news broadcasts: since almost all of my reading has been of news articles, as I read little else in Japanese, I've had people comment that I sound like the NHK sometimes. I've actually used the "NHK prefers this" argument when discussing some grammar points in our language classes)

muteki99 Wrote:Lets see...

2014 Resolutions
- Finish reading Japanese the Manga Way. I really enjoy the format, I just need to find time to do it. It's bad but I find it hard to be motivated to do anything that doesn't have cards due today.
- Finish Core 6k. At 20 cards a day, this puts me ~June.
- Complete a deck or two of Subs-SRS of something.
- Start reading something real, manga-wise most likely, for the purpose of actually understanding it, no matter how much I look up or how slow I go. Somehow, someway, all this work needs to pay off.

I feel pretty good about 2013. It was a productive year but I don't feel at the end of it that my comprehension is where I thought it would be at this time last year. Too ambitious I guess, though I feel as though I got a lot of work behind me.

I'm still alive!

2014 Reflections
-Read JTMW. It was an interesting diversion and I liked how it presented some of the material (causative/passive in particular), but in hindsight I don't think improved my grammar that much over other activities. My grammar has come a long way over the past year, mostly just from reading stuff.
-Finished Core 6k in ~July. Woo~!
-Finished 2 episodes of K-On in subs-srs style. I wanted to do a 3rd episode before years end but ran out of time. I think I'll do another show sometime down the road.
-Have not read any manga or otherwise "native" material

Also for 2014:
-Acquired Tobira book, attempted first chapter, decided it was too advanced/too much work alongside Core6k. Post-poned.
-After 6k, picked up the Japan Times Integrated Intermediate book (bought the old edition used some time ago). Much more approachable. Got through it and put the vocab/grammar into Anki in about ~3 months.
-I picked up the white rabbit graded readers, and i'm through Level 3 Vol. 2 and am enjoying it. They have really helped building up my confidence and reading ability above and beyond individual sentences and short dialogs from text books.
-Went back to Tobira, and after the Intermediate text, graded readers, subs-srs-ing, 6k, it was much easier. Made me really happy to see so much improvement. It looks like I'm getting through 7 of the book's 15 chapters by year end.
-started maintaining my own vocab deck for words I find out in the wild that aren't in 6k. So far, about 900 words. I add about ~30 a week from text books/twitter/readers/etc.

2015 Resolutions
-Finish Tobira by ~March. Main book anyway, unknown vocab+grammar into Anki. Grammar workbook ~ TBD.
-Start/Finish Core 10k by ~July. Based on last year, seems doable.
-Finish White Rabit graded reader series. 4 more volumes to go. Probably looking at April~May here.
-After that?

I really hope that after the above I can start reading something like Yotsuba. I would also like to more strictly stick to reading something like NHK News Easy daily. I'm not sure what I will be doing with my time after the summer when most/all of the things I see I need to do now will be done. If it is anything like this year I won't really know what I'll be up to then, or how much study time I'll have. Mostly just seeing how far I have come since this time last year is good enough for me.

Since it's so close to the New Year, I might as well get mine in while I still have a chance.

2014 Reflections:

-Stagnate and procrastinate. I definitely succeeded in that.

2015 Resolutions:

-Finish RTK and the rest of my kanji studies.
-Finish Core 10k and other misc vocab studies.
-Go through several different Japanese audio courses and whatnot.
-Get tons more listening comprehension in.

Non-Japanese Resolutions:

-Eat healthier.
-Work out more.

2014 Reflections: I didn't have any, I don't think. Japanese got better, I had a bunch of nagging little health problems that got in the way of working out, and I probably tanked N1 again. Boo.

2015 Resolutions: Hmm...
- Sell a bunch of stuff (like old books, old Japanese study books, cameras, etc.) so I have only what I use. (It's a goal, anyway.) I'm gonna try to start the sales next week. (Fingers crossed.)
- Get some daily exercise, but not to the point that I get injured, so walking, light workouts for now. Something that lasts longer than mid-February, or mid-May even. Something I can do daily, that won't trash my arms/legs/back randomly. (So no Crossfit.) Maybe walking briskly while Shadowing, to scare the neighbors!
- Write more in Japanese. Probably Lang-8 it. Definitely work on the biz JPN. I'm getting rusty there.
- Keep reading in Japanese. Transition from LNs to harder stuff. (Find harder stuff I'm interested in!)
- Most importantly, boost the heck out of my Japanese vocab. Find the gaps and fill 'em.
- Destroy N1. Really. Destroy it. I really want this. (And maybe pass it before it's destroyed. ) So be more diligent about grammar, vocab, reading comp, etc. Don't let it all slide for 4-5 months, then try to cram it all back in in the last few months.
- If I have time, resuscitate my French to survival level for family emergencies, just in case.
- Have fun.

[RawToast]

Strange to find I didn't make any for 2014, well I guess I should make some achievable goals for 2015.

* Continue having weekly private lessons on Skype.
* Continue to drag myself to some slow/dull evening lessons at University (or request to move up a level).
* Actually achieve a Tadoku goal.
* Go to Japan on 'holiday'.
* Go to 'some' JLPT test in the summer

Last year's post.

2014 reflections:

Current active cards (19846 total, including a few scraps not listed below):
3269 kanji (reviewing kanji -> meaning)
6000 core6k
3568 core10k (past first 6k)
2642 harry potter deck
360 grammar dictionary deck (out of 8555)
460 names deck
249 minna no nihongo deck
768 toki wo kakeru shoujo deck
2446 self-made deck

Anki stats

>4 light novels read: ねらわれた学園, 君にしか聞こえない, GO, All You Need is Kill.
>About a dozen volumes of disreputable manga read
>All 366 of the 日本の昔話 read.
>Over half of the イソップ童話 read, discovering in the process that these would have been much better to start with, as they are much easier than the 昔話.
RA Miller, A Japanese Reader not read, though after reading one of john555's posts I did read through to the intermediate section to try to catch up to where John's at in the hope that I can be of assistance next time questions arise, though haven't quite got there yet. It's a good book BTW, and the notes accompanying the text are quite instructive if you can stand all the romaji.

Re last year's resolutions:
Make some (more) youtube vids showing off playing the piano.
Well, I did make one, but I want to improve my setup before making any more, if I ever get round to it.

Make some youtube vids showing off reading Japanese
Not done. I am cursed with a melancholic voice and demeanor which is rather unvideogenic(?), though I might try it anyway at some point and see how it goes.

Switch off anime subs permanently.
Not done, though I have watched a fair bit without subs. I would say that I'm at the "about 90% comprehension" stage without subs, though I have thought that for a much longer time than it can possibly have been true.

Read Neuromancer in Japanese.
Not done, but it's now well within my grasp. I have one or two books I want to look at first as I think they might be easier, but after that this sucker is nailed.

Read some more grammar stuff & do some production exercises (currently hopeless)
Not done. Need to get round to this, as my intuitive comprehension could use a good deal of polish in places.

Do some skype language exchanges & start talking (currently hopeless)
Not done. Lol, as if. I did sign up on italki but never got further than that. I haven't even written on lang8 because I know that if I do I will agonise over every word and end up spending hours on it. I was keen to join the Kotobaminers reading group until I realised that it would be at 2am for me.

Slaughter the N1, maybe July more likely December.
Well that didn't happen. When the deadline for the December signup came around I looked over a few past papers and realised to my horror that I was not quite as "nearly N1" as I had imagined. Pretty sure I'm on top of it now though, so should be able to slaughter it in July 2015 with any luck.

Stricter pushups + maybe a vid to show off
Didn't make a vid but did get stricter. I have now done 100 pushups in under a minute every day for nearly 2 years.

Get round to installing Ubuntu 13.10 before 14.04 comes out
Didn't do that but I have now installed 14.10.

An unexpected development in 2014 was that I ended up running ~5km every weekday to work and speedwalking the same distance home for about 10 months, so that now in my mid 40s I'm the fittest I've ever been in my entire life.

Goals for 2015:

- Finish off all the 'common' words in EDICT. Probably only a few k of these not currently active anyway. And I really don't need to make a 'resolution' of this, because I'm very likely to do it anyway. Heh.

- Shore up the N1 grammar. The N1 grammar words generally seem easy to guess in context even without knowing them, but when taken out of context I often find myself at a loss to know wtf they mean. This will mean trawling through grammar books and online resources etc, which is why I haven't done it already. Too much like hard work.

- Do the core6k in listening mode, and make some decent listening cards from anime eps. Haven't done this yet because I'm up to my neck in Anki reviews already, and listening reviews are likely to be rather slow. And making my own cards seems like a lot of bother.

- Post regularly to lang8, and get some online speaking lessons, and be less passive in general. Yeah right.

.

RawToast Wrote:Strange to find I didn't make any for 2014, well I guess I should make some achievable goals for 2015.

* Continue having weekly private lessons on Skype.
* Continue to drag myself to some slow/dull evening lessons at University (or request to move up a level).
* Actually achieve a Tadoku goal.
* Go to Japan on 'holiday'.
* Go to 'some' JLPT test in the summer

lol yes! I never make my Tadoku goal either. I should add this to my list xD

Last years post here - Reflections on 2014

In my post last year I mentioned how I hit a wall and got burnt out and used studying Japanese as a way to get me back on my feet again after getting hit with severe depression. A year later now I can happily say it's been a complete success. I have made a near full recovery and starting to feel as full of creativity, spirit and confidence as I had in my high school days. Probably the best I've felt in the past 5 years.

End of the year update on 2014's Resolutions

- Read through my first Japanese novel, a copy of 狼と香辛料.
Completed! Also finished とらどら！ v1 and read 100 pages of 告白. Also finished a VN called 黒白 -コクハク- on my phone.

- Finally play the copy of 『戦場のヴァルキュリア III』 I bought back in 2012.
Hmm, I didn't end up doing this. I figured I should beat the first two before I do at least, but I probably could play it now if I wanted to.

- Build a vocabulary of over 10k words.
Completed! I managed to study ~10100 words in Anki before the end of the year.

- Read, read, read lots of more.
I completed 74 volumes of manga in the past year. I think that's an overall success.

- Fill my bookshelves with a respectable number of interesting Japanese books.
I got about 66 books on my shelf, around 40 excluding manga, essay comics and picture novels. Although buying books isn't exactly that difficult of a goal to achieve.

- Find a job that doesn't make me feel utterly miserable inside.
Still a work in progress.

- Make new friends. <3
I suppose I made some. I haven't kept count, but I guess that counts as a success.

In addition I lost another 8 pounds over the course of the year, started drawing comics again for the first time in 8 years and got a renewed interest in reading books. It's been an overall good year, despite certain unmentioned events.

Resolutions for 2015

- Complete JLPT N1, failing that maybe at least N2.
- Finish at least a douzen novels.
- Complete a comic.
- Run Göteborgsvarvet (famous half-marathon in Sweden).
- Write a short story.

Not a resolution, but hopefully I can go to Japan this autumn.

皆さん、今年も頑張ってね！