So, the New Year's Resolution thread made me think. We normally focus on what your goal is over a long period of time (e.g. getting halfway through RTK, passing JLPT Nwhatever, reaching a certain number of sentences.)

However, it's a bit more motivating (in my opinion at least) to focus on the little goals. What's your goal for today? Have you achieved it? Have you done your daily sentences or kanji?

Personally, I just want to finish Lesson 18 of RTK today. It's getting on my nerves now, haha.

Lesson 18 done!: http://ompldr.org/vN2sxZw/2011-02-25%2013.20.09.jpg

Hrm...I'll bite, because I'm tired and it's 6:42 in the blinkin' morning and I should be sleeping and not awake. Anyways.

Goals today? Hrm, it's Friday. My grammar study is making a searchable database of grammar (at least the DOBJG), so type out an entry or two into the document. I figure by the time I'm done with that, I'll be able to pick up new grammar faster.

Oh, and today's goal includes catching up on SRS because I'm behind again. And studying twenty to forty new words.

Goal: Finish this dang grammar deck and try to ignore One Piece for the next half hour. (Just recreated Kanzen from old cards and freebies. Not a bad deck - custom fonts also rock!

Get down to less than 300 outstanding reviews on my srs (I've been away for a few days).

By the way, I really like this kind of thread. It seems stupid but they really do motivate me.

I have 60 cards to review across all my decks. It will take me about 15 minutes.

I want to add 40 cards to my vocab deck today (current size is 230). Cards I am adding are either previously unknown words or words I do not know the kanji for. All were found in Suite Precure #1 so they can't be that hard, right? Favorite words I'll add today:

天然ボケ
おっちょこちょい

Why are insults more memorable than normal words?

Find more ways of learning more Japanese daily, as humanly possible.

What I do in 1 day is(daily):
Finish all my reps for all my decks+add 60 new vocab cards, 30 new production cards and 10 new sentence cards. That equals to hundred cards per day, but since it's spread throughout my decks, it doesn't feel hard even. With all my reps+adding cards. I average around 700-1200 reps per day. It may seem big but it takes less than 1 hr and 15mins daily. If I'm going at a good pace, it takes less then 1 hr.
I listen to it as much as I can.
I should definitely try to increase my reading outside my srs, via manga,news,websites. I listen to Japanese a lot more than I read it, so definitely reading needs to be increased.
I always love to shadow what I listen to, i.e. say what they are saying, copying exactly how they say it(emotions,etc).

Outside of this, I want to add some Japanese workborks so I can work through for math(trying to find a book)+find a kanji writing book for run(workbook again).

I feel i should be doing more than this actually(may seem intensive, but it isn't that bad. I enjoy it actually)

(Can anyone give any advice to add more into my Japanese learning?)
I'm waiting till I find another job before I actively get a language learning partner(male, because I want to talk like a guy not a girl...) to practice output.

じゃあ、げんき２の第十七課の練習終わりたいです。後で漢字の復習をしているつもりです。時間だったら、新しい本が読んでいるつもりです。このごろ読む暇がなくて、本を買ったまま置きっぱなしになっている。 (Correct?)

Let's see, i want to finish the exercises in Genki 2 chapter 17. Later on i think i will review the kanji. And if i still have time, i will start to read one of my new books. These days i haven't had much time to read, and the books i bought are piling up at my desk.

These are my very small goals for today.

Finished Assimil Japanese today!

Open Anki instead of avoiding it like I have been for the last five days. *cry*

ta12121 Wrote:I should definitely try to increase my reading outside my srs, via manga,news,websites. I listen to Japanese a lot more than I read it, so definitely reading needs to be increased.

Still addicted to anki, eh?

Just find books associated with sex and mystery, get addicted, and the next thing you'll notice is that you need the next book hastily!

jettyke Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:I should definitely try to increase my reading outside my srs, via manga,news,websites. I listen to Japanese a lot more than I read it, so definitely reading needs to be increased.

Still addicted to anki, eh?

Just find books associated with sex and mystery, get addicted, and the next thing you'll notice is that you need the next book hastily!

recommend any good romance novels?

To contribute to the thread, today I would like to at least read 5 pages of 俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがない, today's editorial (http://www.asahi.com/paper/editorial.html), and do my subs2srs cards.

jettyke Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:I should definitely try to increase my reading outside my srs, via manga,news,websites. I listen to Japanese a lot more than I read it, so definitely reading needs to be increased.

Still addicted to anki, eh?

Just find books associated with sex and mystery, get addicted, and the next thing you'll notice is that you need the next book hastily!

Yea, who wouldn't? lol (I think once people get the hang of it plus put fun things in, then there is no stopping people from gaining a lot of useful knowledge in the language they are learning)

Your right about the romance stuff+mystery If I can find some books on samurais/ninjas/traditional books/romance. I'm on my way to reading a lot. (For samurai stuff, I'm reading rurouni kenshin manga, I have the whole set)

One thing I've found to make reading more fun is read it transcripts or get videos that have jp subs that you enjoy/read/follow along. I'm finding I can do this for hours on end with no end in site. I think that's a way I can increase my reading X 5!

Manske Wrote:

jettyke Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:I should definitely try to increase my reading outside my srs, via manga,news,websites. I listen to Japanese a lot more than I read it, so definitely reading needs to be increased.

Still addicted to anki, eh?

Just find books associated with sex and mystery, get addicted, and the next thing you'll notice is that you need the next book hastily!

recommend any good romance novels?

To contribute to the thread, today I would like to at least read 5 pages of 俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがない, today's editorial (http://www.asahi.com/paper/editorial.html), and do my subs2srs cards.

OH yeahs! Did anyone say romance novels??
must-reads in bold.


Modern: Banana Yoshimoto: Kitchen

A short book, relatively easy, as compared to the next one's i'm recommending. I think it talked about all kinds of daily things and some good ideas and a relationship...I don't remember much but I think it was pretty good. And it's short...less than 100 pages.


Modern: Murakami haruki:

Norwegian wood
If you don't know it, look it up.
http://tinyurl.com/58cerk


Sputnik sweetheart
About lesbians, and a writer who goes to Greece to find out what those lesbians do...or something I don't remember that well.

Hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world
It's in a fantasy world a bit like lord of the rings, here murakami writes something unexpected. There is a love story in that fantasy land , i think.

"south of the border, west of the sun"
(not so outstanding if you've read most of his other works, but a good novel anyway!)

Traditional:Next step in difficulty: Yasunari kawabata:

Snow country
Fantasy love in a snow country
Geishas, cold, kotatsu

Thousand Cranes
hmm..geishas and tea ceremony, I think?

Traditional: next step: Yukio Mishima :

The sound of waves
About a young fisherman and a beautiful girls of some noble status, who get entangled in a relationship. The novel is set on a remote island in a fishing village.
The novel is pretty short 150 pages in english, but a very good and nice positive story.

Sea of Fertility Trilogy book 1:

Spring snow
An extremely beautiful story of a noble boy and a princess...there's a lot of noble beauty, hazy dreaminess of love, mystical snow and mystery.
------------
All books mentioned are good.

jettyke Wrote:Yasunari kawabata:

Snow country
Fantasy love in a snow country
Geishas, cold, kotatsu

isn't this one of those where the ending is just like 'wait, why did THAT just happen?' because it kind of...doesn't really fit with the general feel of the rest of it?
Without giving away any spoilers, isn't this the one where... things get really hot, and then depressing?

cool, definitely add them to my list of books to get.

Asriel Wrote:

jettyke Wrote:Yasunari kawabata:

Snow country
Fantasy love in a snow country
Geishas, cold, kotatsu

isn't this one of those where the ending is just like 'wait, why did THAT just happen?' because it kind of...doesn't really fit with the general feel of the rest of it?
Without giving away any spoilers, isn't this the one where... things get really hot, and then depressing?

I don't know...I read it 3 years ago ...almost all of those books.
I think the ending doesn't concern the book so much, what is important is:

It's a very very good book. I enjoyed swallowing every word of it. Simply beautiful. And it made me think that I'll be having a hard time finding a book better than this about traditional japan.

Made me want to read more...

And to be frank, after that I found other books which I can compare to it, (spring snow)

So you'll find good books as long as you search for them, I recommend to find authors that you like and read all books by them if you don't want to research.

ta12121 Wrote:Your right about the romance stuff+mystery If I can find some books on samurais/ninjas/traditional books/romance. I'm on my way to reading a lot. (For samurai stuff, I'm reading rurouni kenshin manga, I have the whole set)

I envy you, Kenshin is superb.

When I discovered Murakami I read his books for days in a row. Because they're quite easy to understand, addicting, catchy etc.

When I read "After dark" I started reading the book at about 10pm and I thought that...oh well, I'll check it out...I'll just see what kind of a book it is.

But

What happened was that I couldn't stop and so ...

I read and read and read the book nonstop until the very end. And that was when I found that It was already morning and my family had already gotten up!

jettyke Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:Your right about the romance stuff+mystery If I can find some books on samurais/ninjas/traditional books/romance. I'm on my way to reading a lot. (For samurai stuff, I'm reading rurouni kenshin manga, I have the whole set)

I envy you, Kenshin is superb.

When I discovered Murakami I read his books for days in a row. Because they're quite easy to understand, addicting, catchy etc.

When I read "After dark" I started reading the book at about 10pm and I thought that...oh well, I'll check it out...I'll just see what kind of a book it is.

But

What happened was that I couldn't stop and so ...

I read and read and read the book nonstop until the very end. And that was when I found that It was already morning and my family had already gotten up!

haha, then it definitely was addicting. That happened to me with rurouni kenshin(expect I didn't read it all night though). I went to bed around 11:30pm and I read 1 volume(taking my time/enjoying the visuals) and then it was already almost 3am. I was like ouch... I gotta wake up at 7am lol.

currently on volume 7 out of 28. (I hear even Japanese people have trouble with this manga, so makes me feel ok if I have some trouble as well with some of the vocab. But thanks to have a strong kanji knowledge+my vocab deck. It's going well)

Failed to finish my reviews yesterday because I had to finish studying for my midterm today. So I have 170 reviews and 25 new cards i need to get done today but because i was awake all night my first goal is SLEEP.! I know I know, my name is a fraud. But The rest of my day is free so after my nap maybe I'll get a little extra work done if I feel like it.

ongoing daily goal: 25 Kanji from RTK1.
After RTK1 is done: 15 Kanji from RTK3 and 10 Sentences or Translate my one L2 book.

Today I will try to close my Kanji Koohii forum tab so I can get more things done.

Okay I give up.

ta12121 Wrote:haha, then it definitely was addicting. That happened to me with rurouni kenshin(expect I didn't read it all night though). I went to bed around 11:30pm and I read 1 volume(taking my time/enjoying the visuals) and then it was already almost 3am. I was like ouch... I gotta wake up at 7am lol.

currently on volume 7 out of 28. (I hear even Japanese people have trouble with this manga, so makes me feel ok if I have some trouble as well with some of the vocab. But thanks to have a strong kanji knowledge+my vocab deck. It's going well)

Yeah the addiction of japanese material is why I stopped watching things like dramas...some weeks ago I got so addicted that I skipped school for 1,5 weeks watching all my boss my hero and hotaru no hikari episodes one after another.

At least I was glad when I realized that I knew enough Japanese to get THAT addicted...

Actually when to talk about mangas, then Chobits consists of 8 volumes. I have all. When I started reading I doggy-eared the mangas.

And guess what I found out?
Every next volume had more doggy-ears than the previous volume= the difficulty increased.

At the 6th volume I gave up because it was too hard for me.( ~november)

Then in the beginning of January I had learned 1000 new words from core.
Picked up the 6th volume again, and read it until the end, finding that I had improved so much that reading the last volumes was as hard for me as reading the first volumes before.

This made me put up an assumption that probably mangas' readability becomes harder as the volume number increases...I wonder if it's true or not?

Seamoby Wrote:Today I will try to close my Kanji Koohii forum tab so I can get more things done.

Okay I give up.

it happens to the best of us. Try to listen to Japanese while your doing stuff in English. I should definitely cut back on the forum usage and get back to more japanese.

NoSleepTilFluent Wrote:Failed to finish my reviews yesterday because I had to finish studying for my midterm today. So I have 170 reviews and 25 new cards i need to get done today but because i was awake all night my first goal is SLEEP.! I know I know, my name is a fraud. But The rest of my day is free so after my nap maybe I'll get a little extra work done if I feel like it.

ongoing daily goal: 25 Kanji from RTK1.
After RTK1 is done: 15 Kanji from RTK3 and 10 Sentences or Translate my one L2 book.

Your name might be fun and all, but

watch this clip-> " 4 hours of sleep vs 8hours"
http://www.brainrules.net/sleep?scene=