Yet Another Language Learning Update

How is it already April?

Has probably everyone thought this month. My last update was in February, so it feels like high time I do another one, before I forget what I was doing.

This time, I have decided, I will be making a list of the resources I used at the end of the post, and focus on the general first.

The last month has been a bit odd to be honest. I had a lot of free time on my hands, yet little motivation and was hanging in a sort of limbo. As a result, I expected to make ALL the gains, but in fact my learning continued as it had before. Which is probably healthier than going super hard for a short amount of time.

Anki

My main quarrel at the moment are my Anki decks

Whoever read my last update will know that I struggled a lot with my three (I know) Evita Korean decks, especially the pure vocab one. In an attempt to lessen the burden of trying to learn new words out of context, I increased the new cards on the sentence decks and reduced them on the vocab. It unfortunately did not have the same effect as before. I am not sure what all I did wrong, But I am usually looking at several hundred reviews per day. That is just not feasible and means I won't do it.

Now, the core2k deck for Japanese was going well, until it was of the opinion it needed to introduce all of the least immediately useful vocabulary to me. Like several different ways to say "price" or "company" as opposed to "business undertaking" or "foreign office". Whilst I do fully intent on learning these words at some point, they do not turn up in my immersion at all, which makes them impossible to remember for me. I also deleted my RTK deck after not having touched it for weeks on end. It was useful in the beginning though!

SO my thinking is the following. I will note down how many words I have learned in each of those decks.

• RTK (deleted so estimate) -- 300 Kanji
• core 2000 -- 779/2007
• General Korean Sentences by Evita, Part 1 -- 383/950
• Korean Grammar Sentences by Evita -- 456/2454
• Korean Vocabulary by Evita -- 627/6500

And now I will delete all but one.
I know, it feels wrong. And maybe I will regret it. I really wanted to at least reach 1k in Evitas Vocabulary and core2k respectively, however that goal has kept me from sentence mining and immersing to an extent, and it also didn't make me study Anki more. It is really holding me back, I have decided.
I am the sort of person that learns best when given the freedom to choose what to learn first, and I realised that at this point I have progressed enough that I can actually do that. I will keep the Grammar Sentences, since they are low effort but useful.

Anki really is missing a pause function to archive a deck or something. I know that there is probably a work around for that, with an extension. But I honestly can't be bothered.

So, the only decks I will be focussing on are my sentence mining ones. Which means I will also be doing more of that. I am actually looking forward this.There are many things I can learn.

Current Level and Achievements

There is still the matter left of my level in the respective languages, concerning the Refold system, as well as perceived.

A while ago I joined a Korean-Japanese language exchange voice chat and it was a lot of fun. I was surprised at how much of the conversation I could follow. I would really recommend this to anyone learning Korean and Japanese at the same time (there are lots of us!). Because there were people in there whose Japanese or Korean level were similar to mine, conversation points or difficult concepts were often explained in both languages, in easy, short sentences. I ended up actually taking part in the conversation and to my surprise, my Korean was better than my Japanese. I did not expect this. It might have been because I had seen videos in Korean prior to that, so it was more in the forefront of my mind. But it also makes sense, since I consume more Korean media than Japanese. More on that later.

Anyway, that was exhilarating! I participated in a conversation without any German or English as an aid. How mad is that? It is really amazing to see the progress. I probably sounded horrifically wrong, but I was getting my points across and the natives were really sweet and helpful about it. This I consider a major WIN in both languages.

Within the refold grading system, I am currently at a 2A level in both languages. I feel a bit like an imposter about this, since I never actually matched the formal requirement of knowing 1k words to reach that. I have decided not to care so much about it and just grade myself how I think is right. To move to 2B, the road map suggests the following:

To move from 2A to 2B, you should have level 3 comprehension of content aimed at adolescents. Remember, level 3 comprehension means that you can recognize more than half of the words.
To test yourself to see if you’re ready to move to 2B, choose a children's TV show (aimed at ages 7-14) that has subtitles. Watch the show with the subtitles, pausing to read each line. Turn off your pop-up dictionaries so that you’re not tempted to look at definitions or translations.
If you can recognize most of the words and you can understand some full sentences, then you're ready to move on to Stage 2B. Congratulations!

https://refold.la/simplified/stage-2/a/measure-comprehension, 5.4.2023

I am quite confident that I have reached this level in Korean, maybe even Japanese. I might indulge in some Peppa Pig (JP) and Pororo (KR) watching and grade myself. If you think about it, the requirement is quite low.

At any rate, I can tell I am still progressing, which is all that matters to me! I am quite happy to continue in this fashion. It is comfortable to learn,  just something I do, without any specific routine or anything. I get contact with my languages most days, in whatever way feels right. Be it doing some Anki on public transport, listening to a podcast on the way to the shops, watching a show and switching the subtitles back and forth in the evening, reading a webtoon during breakfast, watch comprehensible input videos or attempt a book.

Which brings me to the Media I used!

Immersion Media

Japanese

• Olly Richards Short Stories for Intermediate Learners -- I had already read three of the stories in here, I just read another one, making it four.
• gather list entry for a bunch of Japanese dramas that I only saw a few episodes of before stopping. For some reason I don't really love them, recommendations are welcome
  
• "Alice in Borderland" S2 (unfortunately I do not remember to what extent I used the English subtitles, but probably a lot)
• The drama "恋と弾丸" or "Romance and Bullets", entirely in Japanese. The plot is like a questionable fanfiction, so very followable and dramatic.
• Nihongo con Teppei of course! I don't usually listen to the beginner one anymore
• "YUYU no Ninhongo Podcast" feels very similar to Mr. Teppei :)
• "辛坊治郎ズームそこまで言うか" Podcast. I have honestly little Idea what it is about, I think it is news but sometimes there are guests and they talk about some topic with them. Someone suggested it on the server and it can be fun to just let the language wash over
  
• "Bright Sun - Dark Shadows" Anime (currently on episode 12). I think I switch on eng subtitles relatively often, but I am honestly not sure
• The odd twitch stream for Hogwarts Legacy
• "Kevin's English Room / 掛山ケビ志郎" on Youtube. The three hosts are usually talking about something from American culture, so it is likely that I too am familiar and can follow the remarks they make about it.
• "迷子になっていた幼女を助けたら, お隣に住む美少女留学生が家に来るようになった件について" -- Book. It is honestly way too hard for me right now, but I read a little of it from time to time. With an easy way to do a bunch of lookups it is sometimes fun to treat it like a puzzle. Can't say much about the plot as I am only two chapters in.
• Peppa Pig <3

Korean

• bibimchat or IYAGI Podcasts by TTMIK (not very often)
• 태웅쌤 - Comprehensible Input Korean has been absolutely killing it lately. I think I might have seen all of his videos by now, and some several times. The content is really comprehensible, but still has lots of new words and grammar.
• Some K dramas. I hop around a lot and usually have English subtitles on, it still helps sometimes, so I am including them. Sometimes I rewatch entirely in Korean
• Hilda (cartoon) in Korean a few episodes
• Pororo (childens animated series) is honestly great if one can get over the voices haha
• Dating shows like Singles Inferno, Pink Lie (again, I switch to English subtitles a lot, I am weak)
• "Psick Show" by Psick Univ on Youtube, since Ian from Korean Patch recommended the channel. The usual sketch content is way beyond my understanding, but the show is mixed English and Korean
•  그렇고 그런 바람애 (A Whirlwind Campus Affair) webtoon. I have read this in English before which allows me to follow along without having to look up complicated words at all. I would highly recommend
  
• 명탐정 셜록 홈즈⑥ is Sherlock Holmes for children and youngsters. I have not read much, but I did attempt!

For some reason it looks like I engage with Japanese a lot more, when really the opposite is the case. Which is why I think my Korean level has become better. Most of it i would attribute to the comprehensible input.

Moving Forward

I want to start intensive study and sentence mining seriously. I also want to make sure that my Japanese is not being left behind, which means searching for some more comprehensible content. Also outputting is on the agenda! Other than that, I will continue forward without much plan, as I have before, and trust that as long as I am progressing somehow, I am doing most things right.

Anyone who has reached this far, thank you so much for reading! I wish all the best with your own endeavours and hope my ramblings are helpful <3

Cheers,
Zora