This week, I chose an easy article that does not bring me much new vocabulary but brightens me up and restores my trust in my ability to read (at least some) news articles in Japanese! Link to the article: シャンシャン きょうから先着順に 公開時間も延長 In June 2017, a baby panda named Shanshan was born in Ueno Zoo...
Currently Reading: 「豆の上で眠る」 by 湊かなえ
I am reading the second book of my 2018 Reading challenge! I chose 「豆の上で眠る」by 湊かなえ（みなとかなえ）. I bought this book because it was presented as a "shocking mystery of two sisters" (衝撃の姉妹ミステリー！), but I am slowly discovering that this novel is much more than a mystery. Even if there is a mystery focused on the two..
My method for the JLPT reading part
Last week, I got the results of the second session of the JLPT (December 2017), and I was happy and relieved to see that I passed with 156 points! I thought that I would pass because, after the test, I felt that my performance was similar to what I did in July 2017, when I took..
Japanese News: Changing article 9 of the Constitution? Discussions inside the LDP
The article I propose to study was published on NHK Yesterday: 憲法９条２項”の扱い 自民 党内意見集約に時間かかるか Political articles are by far the most difficult ones... Today, I want to try to study one and get more familiar with some political vocabulary that is bound to appear often in the news. I want to slowly broaden my vocabulary..
Book review: 『噓を愛する女』 by Etsu Okabe
I finished reading the first novel of my 2018 reading challenge (read one novel in Japanese a month in 2018). I chose a very short one to begin with: 「噓を愛する女」by 岡部えつ（おかべえつ）. To summarize briefly the story, Yukari (由香里), a successful working woman pushing 30, is living with her boyfriend Kippei (桔平), who does not seem..
Motivation: studying Anki
If you are learning a foreign language, you are certainly using a spaced repetition system (SRS) to memorise vocabulary. I personally use Anki and created my deck from scratch when I started learning Japanese. Today, it contains more than 7000 words and expressions and I can say that, contrary to any other material, this Anki..
Japanese News: South Korea and North Korea together in Pyeongchang
On Wednesday (January 17th), officials from South Korea and North Korea have met and discussed the Olympics for 11 hours. Two major decisions came out of this meeting, both turned towards friendship: first, South and Nord Korea will enter the opening ceremony together, under a "flag of the unification" (a white flag with a blue..
Currently reading: 噓を愛する女 by 岡部えつ
I started the first novel of my 2018 reading challenge list! I picked up what seemed to be the easiest novel on the list: 「噓を愛する女」by 岡部えつ（おかべえつ）. I didn't know this author before, I have checked her Wikipedia page and I saw that there was a drama adaptation of one of her previous novel. I first..
Book review: 『パラドックス13』 by Keigo Higashino
Review 「パラドックス13」(read: サーティーン) is a novel by famous crime author Higashino Keigo. Contrary to what we may expect, 「パラドックス13」does not deal with crime and investigation, but with science-fiction. At least, an SF element gives the context in which the characters will evolve but we won't know much about the scientifical phenomenon that stroke the Earth on..
Daily Study: working on input
The concept of "input" may be familiar to a lot of language learners, but I didn't know the word "input" until I discovered the website Antimoon. Antimoon gives advice to English learner, but of course, they can be applied to any other language. The authors of Antimoon stress the importance of input through several enlightening articles..
Japanese News: Moon Jae-in and the comfort women agreement.
Several articles on NHK News Web (main source) discuss South Korea President Moon Jae-in's press conference that took place on January 10th. 記者会見・きしゃかいけん: press conference Of course, Japan media were closely watching what Moon Jae-in would say about the Japan-Korea agreement on the comfort women issue that was signed in 2015 by the two governments...
Reading notes: 舟を編む, part 5 and Review
Finally, the last chapter of 舟を編む! As I haven't taken many notes for this chapter, I will also write my review of the novel in the same post. Reading Notes 血潮が凍る The missing word on the fourth galley proof is 血潮・ちしお which means both "spurting blood" and "hot blood" or "hot-bloodedness". Hence Majime's joke 「血潮が凍る事態です」..