MaruMori has it’s own system for learning both the readings and the meanings, but I honestly skip them completely since I just ignore the stories made since they never help me remember them any better. I feel the best way to memorise a hard to figure out word is always a more personal story. For instance I had issues with the word “とにかく”, and the pre-made story wasn’t helpful. So I just imagined a mobster called Tony being dismissive going “anyway…”. And that helped me remember a lot better than the pre-made stories.

MaruMori does have a building of sorts for their words, but you need to sort of get in to them early to help make earlier meanings make sense of later meanings, so I’m far too deep to start them properly now which is another thing I can’t really jell with it fully. I guess it can work, but just not the way I use it.

MaruMori also doesn’t stay to a strict N5 list then N4, they do it based on what they think is more useful, and in terms of usefulness, it’s not always about word frequency, but about how a kanji you just picked up relates in words its used to indicate how it’s used. Like I learned 機体 in Japanese, despite hardly ever using that word in English. MaruMori also builds from base kanji into more and more complicated kanji, using older kanji as references to newer kanji in order to cement meanings of the strokes.

It’s not the best way to pick up Japanese vocabulary, but at the same time I don’t think there could ever be a realistic best scenario. So it works for what it is I guess.

Only managing to scrape by with 30 mins of Japanese a day and 1 Duolingo lesson of Spanish a day. No Irish. Still sorta depressed I think. I think to regrow my efforts I want to just focus in on my Japanese until that’s doing an hour, then grow my other language muscles again. Still amazed how I just completely fucked up after missing a day or 2 to that heatwave. Absolutely insane.

Also want to reply to some folk here on this thread at times, but can only see them if I go directly to this current Language Learning website/page (sopuli.xyz). Can’t see most posts from this instance. I know Ashtear pops on here every so often, but can’t comment to people if I can’t see them on my own feed. Reoccurring issue for me.

Also if anyone has any tips on getting back on the horse. I’d be appreciative.

Oh hey, my niece bought me that Koohi book just last Christmas. I haven’t gotten into it since I’m already knee deep in MaruMori SRS. But I’ll probably dig into that app and etc for when I start trying to write. Never knew how popular it was. Neat.

That small gap totalled my motivation. Somehow it was just so hard to restart once the heat dissipated. Only touched my Japanese, and even then just 30 mins a day. Today managed to do more though. However I scrape by on my Spanish Duolingo, but that’s about it for Spanish. Irish? Not even touched.

That being said, yesterday I spent several hours tinkering with Godot, and was thoroughly enjoying myself figuring things out. So that’s also ramped up my desire to study my languages again. Did 200-ish reviews today instead of the usual 100. I’m finding leveraging other interests also helps in overall mood and motivation. The thing me and my girlfriend will be doing was put on hold, so I’ll be able to push forwards with languages again as well for the time being, so nothing holding me back now except myself.

I’m hoping the upcoming summer heat won’t completely waste me again.

Edit: a bit more for clarity of point I was trying to make*

Was doing okay in my studies up until this recent heatwave. Always so tired and unable to think. No AC in Ireland either, so it gets up to around 28C in my room, even with the windows open, and at night. Temps go back to normal around Thursday/Friday I think? So I’ll just pick up then when I’m actually able to think and not be so drowsy.

Wolverine, who completely regenerated from a single drop of blood.

Managed to build up some of my efforts again. Did a few days very intensive learning. Probably shouldn’t have gone too ham as I’m already feeling burnt out. It’s always encouraging to hear peoples journeys though, it ends up helping keeping me going throughout the whole period I’ve been studying, especially during burnouts. Additionally, talked to my GF about some stuff lately, we decided it might be good to put some efforts on hold (at least reduced) (both me and her) to adjust to a few things that otherwise need to be picked up. This is good news for both of us, nothing major, but good news. And we’ll both be focusing more on combining our efforts to push for this certain thing. Don’t want to get too into details, sorry for the mystery. But yeah, languages will be pulled back for a while. At least a short while, to see what’s what.

Edit: Still plan on doing the hr in Japanese a day, so there’s that.

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Yeah, I feel that, studying is something I pride myself on, which is why I rather not skip a single day, but yeah, I’m only human, and not everything can or has to be perfect. I actually learnt that, in a language learning sense, from a Japanese learner on YouTube, when he admitted to missing a day on one of his live feeds, then said he forged the dates on Anki to make it seem like he didn’t miss any. I get it. People on social media want perfection, I just felt sorry he had to lie about something so simple, so I’m not really one for trying to egg someone who misses a day or two out of hundreds. Life happens.

Again, talking to fellow learners, even if I’m not as active, does help ease the pain by a fair amount. Just really want to indulge in the languages no matter what facet I can come across, so I’ll take what I can get.

I should have really slept hours ago, but need to stay awake longer still, so I’ll probably try do it now after this message, I really gotta do a lot more so even just the 30 minutes should at least tide my senses over for a while.

Also cheers.

Something happened to me last Friday and have only been doing 30 mins of Japanese since then (still not enough to progress).

In somewhat of a depressive slump right now. Trying to muster any energy to study is incredibly difficult. I’m amazed I managed to even do 30 minutes of Japanese a day since. But yeah, just really gutted, no energy, and in a degree of emotional pain.

Talking with other language learners does enable me to feel somewhat connected to my habits still though, so at least there’s that.

Yeah, I feel this somewhat. When you tell people about what you’re attempting, they just immediately have high regards for you, and it can be demotivating living up to these sorts of unrealistic expectations. I have something coming up later this year and they could very well just have a “everyone stand up and talk about yourself” spiel. I study languages a lot in my free time, but I’m definitely not going to tell any of them that.

2hrs Japanese, 1hr Spanish, 30 mins Irish.

Graduated from N5 grammar lessons to N4 on MaruMori.
Graduated from A2 section on Duolingo to B1.

Still need a lot more education than what this is otherwise perceived as, need chock tons of exposure and exercises in the languages still. It feels like I’m a beginner in everything. I like studying, but even with the 2hrs in Japanese a day, it still feels like I’m hardly getting any traction. I have no idea why.

Maybe not in the current climate, but what they ended up doing with both the Steam Deck and the Steam Deck Dock is they went on sale after about a year or so, so if you could wait for that long you could probably get it a few bucks cheaper.

That or the AI bubble crashes and shit just get infinitely worse to the point even that is not feasible.

This all being said, you should probably try be more money conscious. Save money from unnecessary purchases, and splurge when you’re doing better. Give or take, etc, all that stuff.

Someone in my immediate family was hospitalised, so I haven’t been able to study as rigorously as I used to. That being said the bare minimum I’ve done is at least 20 minutes in Japanese. My Irish has taken a backseat for the most part, and my Spanish is sort of intermittent.

Sort of settled down a bit more this morning, so I’m currently doing my studies as my friend develops his game. Somehow managed an hour today, including 200 Japanese reviews and 30 minutes of Spanish. To add to that, I’ll be upgrading to the B1 section of Duolingo in Spanish in the next few days if I’m consistent, so I at least have that going for me. Edit: Oh yeah, and upgrading to N4 on my Japanese in the next few weeks, so I’m looking forward to that more.

Sorta depressing recently, but like… yeah… Life I guess.

I’ve been following this Japanese learning YouTuber for a while. If I somehow ever get past N1 levels, I’d want to try reading the book he read, Confessions of a Mask. Mostly because of how difficult the reading material ends up being, and going through it will end up teaching you another 1-2k words past N1.

Also to add, I’ve recently enough started reading books in English about history, so maybe reading native books about their respective cultures is another newish goal of mine.

My first foray into proper output will probably be on Discord to Japanese speakers too. Know no one personally, so I just hope my neurodivergence doesn’t offput people.

I have heard about Genki, but feel it’s rather quite the shame a website like that got taken down. I know Genki has an app to use for flashcards, but afaik it’s basically doing something you could have gotten for free from Anki, (I could be wrong though).

My family tells me that if you want more accurate responses from AI, you have to ask about the language, while speaking to the AI in that language. A lot of LLMs are fed on random user data from reddit and the like, so there’s a lot of misinformation being generated based on that. So you get farther when talking about the language you’re already speaking it to it. Anytime I phrase a question to an LLM about language I phrase it like “X…” is wrong, and “Y…” is right, explain the differences as to why. I’m hoping at that point because you’ve already told it the good and bad answer, it would explain it better. But honestly I’ve found a lot better personal growth from just read grammar books on those points than I did with a quicker reply from an LLM. A lot more effort though, I’ll say.

Someone in my family is aiming for N2 this year too actually. It’s honestly amazing how much a difference there is between N2 and N5. I’m always amazed at people getting that high, because it does require a very extensive amount of dedication. I do wish you the best luck with your tests, I’m sure if you study diligently you’ll pass, no problems!

I’d probably be more for joining a new social media platform if it had more language stuff I could engage in, not too fond of social media these days for social media sake, but I think that’s everyone to a degree(?).

Similar languages to me then! Maybe in a few years we could also be speaking on this forum in both those languages, as well as English. :)

I found sinking more time into Japanese seemed to be more rewarding than just sinking into Spanish. I do fully realise that sinking more time to Spanish will get me a lot farther than if I spent that time in Japanese and going farther with Japanese, but also, it does genuinely feel like you have to pump a lot more effort into Japanese to get the same amount of progress with less time spent in Spanish, so I guess for me at least it’s about some sense of progress in both those languages.

One of my future goals is to read the Spanish Harry Potter book Philosophers Stone. I’ll be looking for a second hand copy somewhere as I don’t want to give that franchise any money though. Not sure what else would be a reading goal for now though, other than seeing online circles, and media consumption. I guess one thing I might like is re-reading The Hobbit in JP/SP? Not sure.

It’s very rewarding finding tracks of culture that ends up being just packed with language, then further still finding the other culture behind the language. I’m learning a lot about Latin America by just asking questions about the language, and what to say and what not to say. (There’s a word Duolingo taught that said it meant “to take”, but the word used in SA means more like “copulate”), so that was an unintended eye opener.

I can say the initial spark of language interest for me was also many years ago, with Lojban. So I can understand to a degree about thinking how would a “programming” language relate to natural languages.

I wish you well on your goals, I think they’re well attainable, but more power to you still!