I am very happy this week because I have listened to a lot of Japanese thanks to the film Only Yesterday directed by Isao TAKAHATA. I am a fan of Ghibli films and I have several of them on DVD. The problem is that I don't always want to sit on the sofa for two..
Book review: 『ちょっと今から仕事やめてくる』by Emi Kitagawa
As the title suggests, the novel is about quitting one's work. The protagonist, Takashi Aoyama is a young salaryman, who has been working for his company for 6 months. He spends most of his time at work, comes home only to sleep, has no friends, no girlfriend, no free time and only waits for the..
Back to study mode!
I am back, after a two-week break from writing my blog. Even though I promised myself that I would continue learning Japanese, I almost did nothing to learn or be immersed in Japanese during these two weeks... Some say that taking a break from time to time is not a bad thing and some say..
Japanese Immersion: August week 1
Would you consider this week to be the last week of July or the first week August? 🙄 Writing this "Japanese immersion" post makes me realise how much immersion does not happen naturally to me. I really have to make it happen or the week passes without me doing anything in Japanese apart from reading..
Currently Reading: 『往復書簡』by 湊かなえ
I was very excited to start a new book by Kanae MINATO! I have read only one book from this author before, but it is clearly one of my favourite books. I was looking forward to reading another story by Kanae MINATO and was full of expectations when I finally opened 『往復書簡』. The fact that..
Monthly review: July 2018
I haven't been productive this month, I was mainly fighting the heat, sleeping badly because the temperature would hardly go down during the night. That's okay, because I know I will be filled with new energy in September! Japanese I haven't done much apart from reading, studying Anki and making one type of exercise per..
Japanese immersion: July week 4
Introduction: a word on immersion I will enlarge my Friday post's definition (if it had any...) and call it "Japanese immersion". In other words, I will write every Friday about the things I did to get immersed in Japanese. We all know that immersion is a key factor to language learning, but it is easy..
Book Review: 「私のクラスの生徒が、一晩で24人死にました。」by 日向奈くらら
The book 「私のクラスの生徒が、一晩で24人死にました。」by 日向奈くらら (ひむかな・くらら) reminded me how much I like horror stories and thrillers. I have a taste for thrillers and psycho-thrillers with horror elements but I always find that half of the books I read in these areas are disappointing. It was not the case with Himukana's book that I found very entertaining. Strangely..
Organising my studies
For some time now, I come up with things that I want to do every day. I want to write in Japanese every day, I want to do listening exercise every day, write lines of kanji, read the news and take notes, read my book on Japanese history, revise N3 grammar, study Anki, and so..
I am watching 孤独のグルメ!
As I announced last week, I won't be posting any more about Japanese news on Friday. I want to diversify the way I learn Japanese and find other materials (that is, not books) to improve my listening and get to know more different aspects of Japanese culture. I find that my Japanese learning has become..
Currently Reading: 「それでも、日本人は戦争を選んだ」by 加藤陽子
I have finally given up reading 「朝鮮開国と日清戦争」by Soki WATANABE because the more I read, the more difficult the book becomes. I was unlucky in my choice when I picked a History book, I should have bought a popular book written for a large public. Watanabe's book was maybe too specialised for me. As I don't..