Japan Study Abroad Podcast

Reverse Centennial Mark

There are 100 days left to study for the JLPT. That is, in fact, quite a bit of time, but it is something you should be aware of.

RTK:

• 55 kanji tested / 65% remembered
• 0 failed pile / 438 long term / 1044 cards total
• 98 re-circulated / 0 cards added

Sentences:

• 117 sentences tested / 50% remembered
• 59 failed pile / 116 long term / 441 cards total
• 87 cards added; 6 vocab lessons, 4 grammar points, extra sentences to clarify past grammar points

Other:

• Read the news today, oh boy.
  • 民主の渡辺秀・大江・姫井３氏、離党届を提出
  • 拉致８日前の伊藤さん、治安悪化に不安感…知人へメール
  • 歌舞伎町ビル火災７年、遺族が現場街頭で防火ビラ

Progress:

• Remembering the Kanji - 1044/2000 - 52.20%
• Unicom 2-kyuu Vocab - 40/112 - 35.71%
• Unicom 2-kyuu Grammar - 24/191 - 12.56%
• Unicom 2-kyuu Reading - 2/40 - 5%
• Unicom 2-kyuu Listening - 0/30 - 0%
• Other Vocab Drill Book - barely begun

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Study Diary, 08/27/08

Thinking very carefully about the progress I’m making and school starting up in a few weeks, I think I seriously have to increase the amount of material I’m studying everyday.

Days left until the JLPT: ~101

RTK:

• 108 kanji tested / 51% remembered
• 80 failed pile / 432 long term / 1044 cards total
• 53 re-circulated / 18 cards added

Sentences:

• 187 sentences tested / 68% remembered
• 59 failed pile / 116 long term / 354 cards total
• 44 cards added; 4 vocab lessons, 4 grammar points

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Sick Diary, 08/26/08

This should be my last sick diary. I’m feeling a ton better. I’m still coughing and my breathing isn’t perfect yet, but I’m not stricken with vomiting every time I forget to take some ibuprofen. I’m also making it through a full night’s sleep again. All in all, I’m back on track.

Days left until the JLPT: ~102

RTK:

• 152 kanji tested / 63% remembered
• 80 failed pile / 423 long term / 1026 cards total
• 57 re-circulated / 0 cards added

Study Sentences:

• 74 sentences tested / 38% remembered
• 46 failed pile / 75 long term / 310 cards total
• 37 cards added; 1 vocab lesson, 4 grammar points, 1 ALC sentence, 3 other random sentences
  • フラッシュ・カードは単語リストや公式、歴史上の日付や事件などを覚えるのに使うとよい
  • 私は（どんなことがあっても）君が好きだ。
  • 友達ながら不安になる。
  • 今朝、急に不安に襲われた。

Other:

• Played Mother 3 for an hour.
• Read ゲームについて思うと in this week’s Famitsu.

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Sick Diary, 08/25/08

I’m up early, and I don’t feel sick. Though, I am paranoid that at some point I will start feeling sick again. So, I’m taking some ibuprofen anyway, just in case. We’ll see how I feel in the morning, but right now it’s looking pretty good.

Days left until the JLPT: ~103

RTK:

• 42 kanji tested / 74% remembered
• 80 failed pile / 417 long term / 1026 cards total
• 50 re-circulated / 0 cards added

Study Sentences:

• 102 sentences tested / 45% remembered
• 73 failed pile / 75 long term / 273 cards total
• 0 cards added

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Sick Diary, 08/24/08

I’m still sick, but I feel alright as long as I remember to keep dosing up on ibuprofen. Skipping a day on my sentences wasn’t that detrimental. It only added about 20 cards to the review. I’m sure I’ve forgotten more than I should have, but we’ll have to see.

Days left until the JLPT: ~104

RTK:

• 109 kanji tested / 52% remembered
• 119 failed pile / 411 long term / 1026 cards total
• 53 re-circulated / 0 cards added

Study Sentences:

• 139 sentences tested / 47% remembered
• 73 failed pile / 74 long term / 273 cards total
• 3 cards added, proverbs from ALC.

1回目で成功しなかったら、やってみたという証拠をなくせ。
If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that suggests you tried.
1回目で成功しなかったら何度でもチャレンジしろ。
When at first you don’t succeed, try try again.
1回目で成功しなかったら成功の定義を変えろ。
If at first you don’t succeed, redefine success.

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Sick Diary, 08/23/08

I’ve become sick, and for the first time in a while am too sick to study even something as simple as Remembering the Kanji. So, today, I’m counting the conversation I had when I went to the store to buy medicine as my studying. It was more Japanese conversation than I’ve had in a long time, and it basically went like this:

スーパの薬屋員：いらっしゃいませ！
私：すみません、質問があります。
スーパの薬屋員：どぞう…
私：風を引いて、ちょっと熱がある。どんな薬を飲んだほうがいいんですか？
スーパの薬屋員：Long string of stuff I didn’t understand.
私：ごめなさい、ゆっくり話して、もう一回おねがいします。
スーパの薬屋員：Understood better, but don’t know exactly what was said. He explained that there were separate medicines for fever and for cold.
私：病院に行ったほうがいいんですか？
スーパの薬屋員：たぶん…熱に効果がある薬を買って飲んで、熱が下がらなかったら病院に行ったほうがいいんです。
私：そうですね。薬は何ですか？
スーパの薬屋員：熱と風の間にどちらですか？
私：熱…
スーパの薬屋員：そう、こちら来てください。
行動：歩いています。
スーパの薬屋員：この薬は痛いと熱に効果があるのです。この薬は風だけに効果があるのです。
私：熱の効果がある薬は大丈夫と思います。

Hmm, I’ve started to feel better just while writing this. I may actually do some studying later, but until then this writing will have to do for my studying. I really should write more with some of my new JLPT vocab. It’s a lot of fun, and I can do it a lot better now.

Days left until the JLPT: ~105

RTK:

• 178 kanji tested / 46% remembered
• 120 failed pile / 404 long term / 1026 cards total
• 51 re-circulated / 0 cards added

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Study Diary, 08/22/08

This is the first day in a long time that I’ve felt really engrossed in studying. I managed to finish reviewing sentences in a quick fashion, and so that leaves time for entering a bit of new material and some real Japanese input. Mother 3 here I come.

Days left until the JLPT: ~106

RTK:

• 82 kanji tested / 57% remembered
• 75 failed pile / 394 long term / 1026 cards total
• 50 re-circulated / 0 cards added

Study Sentences:

• 139 sentences tested / 74% remembered
• 36 failed pile / 72 long term / 273 cards total
• 33 cards added; 3 grammar points, 3 vocab lessons

Miscellaneous:

• Made a verb conjugation cheat-sheet to acclimate myself with causative, passive, and causative-passive forms of verbs.
• Made a list of my frequently-looked up grammar points so that I can begin to tell apart the various uses of ことになる、ことにする、ようになになに、and ものだ.

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014 - Sexytime Lemonade

Sexy Stuff:

• Interview with Pedro
• Agreements with girlfriends.
• Sealing the deal.
• Yes, no, maybe? Please?
• がんしゃしてもいいですか？
• The interview continues next week.

Links of Interest:

• I try not to link to things that would get me in trouble.

 

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Study Diary, 08/21/08

I finally got back to adding new kanji this week, and so the numbers are a little ridiculous today. I ended up adding 200 kanji across 3 days according to the loose rules I follow. I had less than 50 failed kanji 3 days in a row, and so I just added a new lesson to the pile each of those days. Those lessons ended up being some of the longest lessons in the book, and so the kanji stacked up for today. That just means I work every day until the failed pile is manageable again. Then I toss more kanji on. Basically, I’m letting my failed pile dictate which kanji I study. This gives me exactly the kanji I need to see, as often as I need to see them.

If I spent more time on it, I could do a lot better with RTK. My stories are terrible, and are usually little more than hints to link the radicals together. I just can’t justify spending more time on RTK because, in my opinion, it’s not studying Japanese. So, I like to make it brief so I can continue on with real Japanese study. Plus, because I’ve studying Japanese for a long time, I already have a feeling about a lot of the kanji anyway. They’re rarely new.

According to my math/timelines/guesstimations/magic eight balls, I’ll finish RTK solidly enough before I take the JLPT, anyway. If I anticipated trouble or it was more important, I might devote more time to it. But, I don’t and it’s not. Therefore, I will not.

Days left until the JLPT: ~107

RTK:

• 209 kanji tested / 33% remembered
• 90 failed pile / 389 long term / 1026 cards total
• 51 re-circulated / 0 cards added

Sentences:

• Didn’t study today because I was wrapped up recording the podcast.

Vocab Power Prep Book:

• 0 cards tested
• 115 failed pile / 0 long term / 115 cards total
• 115 cards added (verbs from chapter 1)

Video:

• Penguin Girl, Episode 1 on Nico Nico Douga

Progress:

• Remembering the Kanji - 1026/2000 - 51.30%
• Unicom 2-kyuu Vocab - 26/112 - 23.21%
• Unicom 2-kyuu Grammar - 10/191 - 5.23%
• Unicom 2-kyuu Reading - 2/40 - 5%
• Unicom 2-kyuu Listening - 0/30 - 0%
• Genki - 18/23 - 78.26%
• Other Vocab Drill Book - barely begun

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Study Diary, 08/20/08

Days left until the JLPT: ~108

RTK:

• 66 kanji tested / 58% remembered
• 0 failed pile / 382 long term / 1026 cards total
• 28 re-circulated / 76 cards added

Study Sentences:

• 67 sentences tested / 67% remembered
• 22 failed pile / 63 long term / 230 cards total
• 24 cards added

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