Language Journal: May 10th 2020

Down to my final deck in Anki. I get just 5 new cards a day by default now. Though, some days I bump that number up to 20-30. There are about 375 cards left total at this point.

I'll admit, I'm getting anxious. Anki was great in the beginning. I know I need more now than just flash cards. Though, I still think keeping up with them is important. The anxiety comes from what to do next.

I have a couple of ideas. Re-reading manga is a big one. But, that won't help with my biggest gaps; Speaking and listening. Right now, I have some stuff I ripped into my Plex library which has Japanese audio and sometimes Japanese sub-titles. I'm thinking about incorporating that. But, I haven't made time for that in the past and I don't know how to fit it in my schedule. At this point I've gone years without missing a day of Anki. So, it is quite difficult to imagine my progress once that stops being my primary source of learning materials.

Re-reading manga makes the short list mostly because I know I've been able to get through volumes of manga without much trouble. It seems easier to pick it up without worrying about making too big of a commitment to it or any fear of coming back to it later. But, when I don't finish a show or movie, I'm a lot less likely to come back to it if I've put it down for 24 hours or more. So I need to work on my habit forming there a bit more.

Books are also more information dense. So, even though reading isn't my weakest aspect, it is hard to justify anime or a movie over it.

That being said, I started watching the Chihayafuru movie again from the beginning. And, I was able to watch a lot more of it, with a lot less pausing and confusion than the first time I tried. So, progress is being made. I am at the point where it is REALLY hard to tell when I am making progress. Even a basic vocabulary is a big thing. And without constant reinforcement there are common words I forgot or mistake. And, a lot of news and stuff I'm seeing daily includes a lot of niche words I haven't seen before. But, watching a live action movie is helping me to get a better understanding of where I might be. The dialog is little less juvenile than the anime was, and much of the non-Karuta based lingo is fairly common stuff. So, I think it is proving a good measure.