For my last Monday post of the year, I would like to look back on the books I have read this year in Japanese! My favourite books (story only) If I only take the story into account, without considering the language level, I would say that my favourite books this year are: 『豆の上で眠る』by Kanae MINATO...
2019: More Books! JLPT N1?
It is time to plan my studies for next year! (I know it's a little early, but I cannot wait!) More easy books, more difficult books. I have greatly enjoyed 2018: finally, I was able to read a wider range of novels, mysteries and detective stories. I could go on like that in 2019, but..
My progress in 2018
We are in December, time to look back on the year and see what progress I have made! 2017's hardcore study vs 2018's relaxed tempo I feel that I haven't worked as hard in 2018 that I did in 2017. When I say "work hard" I mainly mean learning tons of vocabulary and spend a..
Monthly Review: November 2018
I cannot believe that November is almost over... While I have more or less completed my goals for November, I do not end the month with a feeling of satisfaction. 😕 Let's see how far I went in my November Goals: First of all, I completed my reading goals. I did start the novel 『リカーシブル』,..
Back to study!!
After two weeks away from Japanese, I now feel the urge to study again! The last two weeks, I was more interested in other hobbies, and I have left my Japanese studies almost untouched. This break has been a good thing since I now feel a new motivation to learn Japanese. So I will start..
Taking a break… but not completely!
I have already mentioned it on Friday, but I am not studying at the moment. This does not mean, however, that I am doing nothing in Japanese! I think it is necessary to stay in touch with your target language on a daily basis. If you don't want to or cannot study for a long..
How to start writing in Japanese
One of my goals for November is to write in Japanese every day for a month. I have been thinking about how to write in a foreign language if you don't have a native to correct you, and I thought that I would write about it today. If you are like me, writing is not..
Monthly Review: October 2018
October has been a month for discovering new paths: I have started studying Japanese history and I have watched my very first Japanese drama. The two books I had ordered about Japanese History have finally arrived, but before that, I had started reading as many things as possible on the Internet. I am taking notes..
I am studying Japanese History!
Or at least, I will soon! I have been telling myself for a long time now that I should read about Japanese History in English or French. I have finally got down to looking at History books available in English and selected the one I wanted to read. The book I ordered turned out to..
Korean resources to learn Japanese: how to download audio files
A discussion I had recently in the comments of this blog made me think I should write more about the Korean publisher Darakwon. Darakwon publishes a lot of textbooks to learn foreign languages (including Korean as a foreign language), and Japanese is, with English and Chinese, one of the main languages studied in Korea. I..
Focus of the week: listening exercise
Why I find it so hard to improve my listening I am used to roughly dividing listening practice into two different activities: Passive immersion: just let an audio run in your target language, you don't have to pay special attention to it or try to understand what it says. Active study: work on a short..
Monthly review: September 2018
Monthly review: September I have tried a new thing this month, which is to define some monthly goals and publish them on my homepage. The goals I have chosen for September were: And now, it is time to see how far I went! First of all Anki! My usual practice is to save in my..