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Phil's Japanese Journal Ep 0
Gaming Together: A Cooperative PodcastJanuary 02, 202400:29:09

Phil's Japanese Journal Ep 0

NaveNaveHost

Howdy Coop Partners! Phillip Here! This year I set the goal of completing 12 games in Japanese. This journal is going to follow my path as I work my way through the year.

Here are a few links from each section:

Games

Study Tools

Watching

Listening


[00:00.000 --> 00:18.700] Hello and welcome to Philips Japanese Journalist Show about tracking my journey through a year of learning [00:18.700 --> 00:25.520] Japanese with the help of video games. This is month zero. So there are a few things [00:25.520 --> 00:30.580] in me to be outlined with this pod. And the goal of this pod is primarily selfish. It [00:30.580 --> 00:35.480] forces me to be more accountable for my studying and helps me provide a way to kind of like reflect [00:35.480 --> 00:41.140] on my learning journey. So hopefully for you dear listener, you can use this pod to either [00:41.140 --> 00:46.320] shape your own learning journey or just enjoy the ride with me. So let's see what our goals [00:46.320 --> 00:51.480] are. My current goal is not really fluency. That's not something I don't think is really [00:51.480 --> 00:57.800] feasible for me right now. But I'm just targeting the level good enough for kind of basic comprehension. [00:57.800 --> 01:03.560] Like I just want like almost like the next step above survival level Japanese. Like for [01:03.560 --> 01:09.840] example, I want to be able to play most games like Ace Attorney or Dang and Rompa, like even [01:09.840 --> 01:16.120] like a puzzle such visual novel style, but be able to understand and enjoy the experience [01:16.120 --> 01:20.560] and actually complete the title. Because I can't imagine trying to complete Dang and [01:20.560 --> 01:25.240] Rompa without understanding the language. It'd be really hard. Oh, and another small [01:25.240 --> 01:31.440] disclaimer at the top as well, I am not a Japanese teacher. And I do not know Japanese. [01:31.440 --> 01:36.960] I say this in case you dear listener are interested in language and you decide to kind of follow [01:36.960 --> 01:42.000] my path. I'm not an expert in any way. So a little bit more about me. I'm Philip from [01:42.000 --> 01:46.840] Gaming Together Quality Podcast. Odds are you're listening to this in that feed. This [01:46.920 --> 01:53.280] is my little side show going over my experience learning Japanese. So quick little outline, I'm [01:53.280 --> 01:57.320] going to be releasing this pod probably around the start of each month, maybe within the first [01:57.320 --> 02:02.440] week or so, depending on how fast I get through the recording and editing. In each episode, [02:02.440 --> 02:05.960] it's going to just kind of cover my Japanese activities for that month. And I'll kind of [02:05.960 --> 02:11.200] go into detail about each aspect I'm currently working on last month. And my cat is attacking [02:11.200 --> 02:16.120] me real quick. Oh, and if you're interested in how I'm actually tracking this, I'm using [02:16.120 --> 02:24.000] a combination of toggle, T O G G L, which is like a business productivity tracking tool. [02:24.000 --> 02:33.560] And just like Google sheets and docs and stuff like that. Hold on, the cat is attacking. There [02:33.560 --> 02:40.280] goes all my coffee. And I am back in my cat side to send my whole ice coffee straight to [02:40.280 --> 02:44.600] the floor. And we're just going to move on and just live with it. You know, that's that's [02:44.600 --> 02:51.080] life sometimes. So I don't think I'm going to get into why I actually want to learn Japanese [02:51.080 --> 02:55.360] in this episode. I think it might be too long. So I'll say that for a little bit later. So [02:55.360 --> 03:01.160] just get right into the aspects I'm going to be learning from or involved with. So number [03:01.160 --> 03:09.520] one, gaming and Japanese. This is my primary goal for this year. This is basically the apex [03:09.520 --> 03:14.040] of what I'm working towards. I want to be able to, you know, play all these games in their [03:14.040 --> 03:17.680] native language. I don't know where I read it, but there was like a cheesy line. It's like, [03:17.680 --> 03:22.320] if you want to play pro basketball, then you should probably go to a basketball court [03:22.320 --> 03:26.280] and start playing. So that's kind of just what I'm doing. This one's like, I want to [03:26.280 --> 03:30.600] play Japanese games. So I'm going to play Japanese games. Like that's a good good place [03:30.600 --> 03:38.040] to get started. So my goal for this last month was at least one hour of gaming a day. [03:38.040 --> 03:46.600] And I hit it. Looking back at it, my average that I hit was a long and hour and like one [03:46.600 --> 03:51.040] minute or something like that. So I just barely scraped it by. So I think I'm actually going [03:51.040 --> 03:55.200] to need to bump up my goal to like maybe an hour and five minutes a day or something [03:55.200 --> 04:00.680] like that, just to increase my total amount of game time, because I think I can do more. [04:00.680 --> 04:04.400] But of course, I don't want to get burned out. So I'm going to raise my target to like [04:04.400 --> 04:09.880] an hour and five minutes. One of the three most played games I played this month was Zelda [04:09.880 --> 04:15.560] Tears of the Kingdom, Tactics Ogre Reborn, and Rise of the Tomb Raider. So Zelda Tears [04:15.560 --> 04:20.760] of the Kingdom at this game on the shelf for a while, because I knew I wanted to save this [04:20.760 --> 04:27.040] for my first the first playthrough of this game to be in full Japanese. I am glad that [04:27.040 --> 04:33.080] I waited at this point. I've told put in a total of 18 hours, and it's a very solid [04:33.080 --> 04:38.560] game. And I think it's a very good pick for beginners in Japanese, if they're just getting [04:38.560 --> 04:45.200] into it. As this game is like all the Japanese you're actually going to encounter is mostly [04:45.200 --> 04:51.600] just tech space with a very few voice cutscenes. And everything is like at your own speed, [04:51.600 --> 04:54.920] because you had to press, you know, press A to continue type stuff. So it gives you time [04:54.920 --> 05:01.960] to actually read each line. And all the dialogue you encounter actually has Furgana on top [05:01.960 --> 05:06.840] of it, which except for the items in the inventory, they don't have it in there, which [05:06.840 --> 05:10.960] isn't a big deal because the inventory items usually have like a picture associated with [05:10.960 --> 05:15.880] it, such as like the mushrooms or the wood or something like that or heroes. Oh, and dear [05:15.880 --> 05:22.680] listener, if you're unfamiliar, Furgana is like a small kana written above kanji to inform [05:22.680 --> 05:26.560] you on the pronunciation. It's helpful for beginners because it gives you like a quick [05:26.560 --> 05:33.720] way to look up unknown kanji. And the font on all the text in the game is pretty large [05:33.720 --> 05:37.920] and very readable and handheld mode on the switch, because that's where I do most of [05:37.920 --> 05:43.040] my switch gaming is handheld mode. My only complaint is that there's no pausing during [05:43.040 --> 05:49.760] the voice cut scenes. So I kind of struggle to comprehend or even keep up with these scenes, [05:49.760 --> 05:53.680] but oftentimes these have like full animations. So you can kind of piece together what's [05:53.680 --> 05:58.560] happening throughout the game. So this one's actually a going very well for me. I think [05:58.560 --> 06:04.040] I'm comprehending a lot and making a lot of good progress. My next game I've been playing [06:04.040 --> 06:08.840] a lot is Tactics Ogre Reborn. I was playing on playing Tears of the Kingdom all the way [06:08.840 --> 06:13.160] through, but my daughter really wants to play too. So she keeps borrowing it. So I had to [06:13.160 --> 06:19.320] pivot to another title. I put in about 16 hours at this point into Tactics Ogre. And first [06:19.320 --> 06:25.680] up, like I've never played a Tactics Ogre game before. So or any of the Ogre games in [06:25.680 --> 06:28.640] the whole series. So I wasn't really sure what it was going into. I knew it was like [06:28.640 --> 06:34.880] a tactical RPG. So even in Japanese, I'm able to drop in and just get going and get playing. [06:34.880 --> 06:40.480] And I love the art style of this game. Like the way they have like the painted anime figures [06:40.480 --> 06:44.960] with the pixel art in the background of the like the lower pixel characters, whatever you're [06:45.000 --> 06:51.120] actually in the game. I love it. I think this game is really good. And also the dialogue [06:51.120 --> 06:56.400] is fully voiced in every scene. Every bit of like dialogue from any of the characters [06:56.400 --> 07:00.720] all has full Japanese voice acting, which is insane, I think. Because I think this is [07:00.720 --> 07:06.120] a remake of like a either a Super Nintendo game or like a it was imported to Pete was [07:06.120 --> 07:10.800] like PSP or something. And then that can't finally came to switch. So it is crazy how [07:10.800 --> 07:17.440] good the voice acting is in this. My problem with it though is the font is really small [07:17.440 --> 07:23.320] and hard to read. Also, another struggle is this game. They aren't really afraid to [07:23.320 --> 07:28.200] speak in a more old fashioned mode. It's not that I'm well versed in Japanese to be able [07:28.200 --> 07:34.880] to identify when someone's throwing out like a a vow or a forsooth or something like that. [07:34.880 --> 07:38.280] But when I look up one of the words that like somebody says because I'm like, Oh, I don't [07:38.360 --> 07:43.200] know this word. I better look it up. My dictionary will say that this word is like super rare, [07:43.200 --> 07:49.160] like it's outside of the top like 10,000 used words. It's never used. It's niche. It's archaic. [07:49.160 --> 07:53.440] It's probably never going to come up outside of specifically this type of setting of like [07:53.440 --> 07:58.320] castles and dragons and stuff. So that's a bit of a struggle. I'm thinking I might need [07:58.320 --> 08:02.320] to put this game on hold to my skills develop a lot more, or am I just keep playing through [08:02.320 --> 08:07.360] with it and just come back around and play it again once I get a little bit better. [08:07.360 --> 08:12.840] And then my final game this week is rise of the Tomb Raider. Okay, I was initially pretty [08:12.840 --> 08:22.520] hesitant with this title as it is not a Japanese made game. It's it's more like a well, it's [08:22.520 --> 08:28.400] made by Square like you're pretty produced or whatever. But it's made by a American team, [08:28.400 --> 08:34.800] I think I have to look it up. But it actually has full Japanese localization. Like I was [08:34.800 --> 08:38.040] thinking like, oh, I'm only going to play games with Japanese developers, producers, [08:38.040 --> 08:43.320] writers. But I don't think that's really worth it in the long run. Like I feel like if [08:43.320 --> 08:51.080] the main form of communication either audio or text is localized to Japan, then it's good [08:51.080 --> 08:57.080] enough for me to play. Like I'm not that prissy or picky. This guy game does feature also direct [08:57.080 --> 09:03.160] subtitles linked to the audio. And I mentioned direct subtitles because it matters and it [09:03.160 --> 09:08.240] can be a problem in some situation. Like I say direct, like for example, League of Legends [09:08.240 --> 09:15.680] arcane series on Netflix. Great show. It has full Japanese audio and subtitles. But the subtitles [09:15.680 --> 09:21.400] are based on the English version instead of the Japanese version. So there's a lot of kind [09:21.400 --> 09:26.400] of inconsistencies. Like if you're using them kind of as a study source like I am, because [09:26.400 --> 09:30.640] I'll be going like line by line, listening to the audio reading the text. It's almost [09:30.640 --> 09:36.120] like it's reading to me type deal. And the voice might say something like my father told [09:36.120 --> 09:41.200] me it. And then the subtitles instead of saying that say I heard it from my father, which both [09:41.200 --> 09:47.480] basically mean the same thing with different syntax. It gets really annoying fast. But [09:47.480 --> 09:52.640] Tomb Raider does not have this problem. And the game is mostly action sequences with very [09:52.640 --> 09:58.800] sporadic cut scenes. I'm worried that I might be progressing this game because of how game [09:58.800 --> 10:04.920] or literate I am, opposed to Japanese literate, because I played the first one like 10 years [10:04.920 --> 10:10.160] ago back whenever they rebooted the series. And this one seems to be nothing new gameplay [10:10.160 --> 10:15.960] wise. I feel like I remember a lot of it. I've put in about five hours so far, how long to [10:15.960 --> 10:20.040] beat somewhere around like 14 hours. So I think this is going to be an easy clear for my 12 [10:20.040 --> 10:25.080] games challenge. And I think I'm just going to keep sticking with my goal is now an hour [10:25.240 --> 10:30.920] and five minutes a day. And I'm thinking I can stick with it through the next, I don't know [10:30.920 --> 10:39.280] month and then we'll come back and see how we're doing. Next up studying. So why study? You know, [10:39.280 --> 10:43.240] there's some people I can go out there and just spend 17 hours a day watching Japanese vtubers [10:43.240 --> 10:49.800] and then coming away knowing some vocab. But that's not me. I really need direct definitions [10:49.840 --> 10:55.120] explained and grammar points repeated until I know them by like heart. So let's just get [10:55.120 --> 11:00.520] into some of the tools that I've been using to learn Japanese. Like in the last month, [11:00.520 --> 11:08.040] I spent 13 hours using JPDB, which is the Japanese database. And this is the first time kind of [11:08.040 --> 11:16.440] mentioning a SRS system. So I'm going to kind of explain that here. So SRS or a spaced repetition [11:16.440 --> 11:22.840] system. This is a very popular in language learning and other fields, I guess to basically [11:22.840 --> 11:28.200] any field reading to learn massive amounts of data. And this regard is one most efficient [11:28.200 --> 11:37.640] ways to learn large data sets like vocab in Japanese. In Japanese, or like 95% word comprehension, [11:37.640 --> 11:43.360] like if you only want to know 19 out of 20 words, you don't need them all. You still need between [11:43.360 --> 11:51.040] 9500 to like 12,100 words, depending on what kind of niches you're reading or involved with. [11:51.040 --> 11:54.720] Like if you're only reading novels about high school, you don't need as many words. And if you're [11:54.720 --> 12:00.960] watching sci-fi, anime is like Gundam, like you can kind of vary it based on what you're like [12:00.960 --> 12:08.000] niched into. So let's assume that I'm trying to learn like 10,000 words just as a target. So [12:08.000 --> 12:12.880] that's going to take a long time and a lot of practice to remember all this. This is where SRS [12:12.880 --> 12:18.720] comes in. With an SRS program, you can kind of limit your study based on what you needed that [12:18.720 --> 12:24.800] exact time. Like imagine we have a flashcard for the word dog and he knew if the program then [12:24.800 --> 12:29.520] asked me this card and I get around the first try, the program will then predict when I'm most [12:29.520 --> 12:33.520] likely to forget the card and then show it to me right before that week. That could be like a week [12:33.520 --> 12:38.160] for now. It can be the next day, it could be whatever. So and then if I get it right again, [12:38.160 --> 12:45.040] it'll just the due date even further based on my forgetting slash remembering trend or other cards. [12:45.600 --> 12:49.520] So eventually like if I just keep getting it right, like I get it right once and ask me to get in a [12:49.520 --> 12:53.600] week, then I get it right again. It'll ask me to get in a month, then I get it right after a month [12:53.600 --> 12:57.520] and ask me to get in four months. And then I get it right in four months. At that point, [12:57.520 --> 13:02.080] it might even think like, oh, this guy's never going to forget Enu. You can just not ask me for [13:02.080 --> 13:07.360] a whole year. And then after a year, I come back and I get it right first try, no problem. [13:07.360 --> 13:10.800] Then it might never ask me Enu for like multiple years at that point. [13:11.680 --> 13:17.680] And that is the beauty of SRS programs is that it gets rid of the easy ones super fast, [13:17.680 --> 13:22.960] the ones that you're never going to forget that way you can then just focus on the harder ones. [13:24.400 --> 13:30.800] Now back to Japanese database or JPDB, I'm probably going to mess up that acronym a lot. [13:31.680 --> 13:37.040] This is an SRS website that groups flashcards together based on the media that you [13:37.040 --> 13:42.480] specifically select. And then it feeds you cards based on the occurrence rate in that media. [13:43.040 --> 13:48.880] For example, like when we get to the reading section, I'm currently working through a web [13:48.880 --> 13:54.400] novel called Priestess. No, the bear does it a separate world purification journey with a [13:54.400 --> 13:58.240] cute and fluffy bear for the rest of the bottom. Probably going to refer to that title as like [13:58.240 --> 14:05.280] bear priest or something. But in bear priest, the most frequent used word is cookie, [14:05.360 --> 14:12.880] which is the name of the bear and the title, JPDB knew that I would need this word. [14:12.880 --> 14:21.440] So it taught me like first thing, Tommy cookie. The best part about JPDB is that if I learn cookie [14:21.440 --> 14:27.280] in bear priestess, then it will not read teach it to me if it comes up with another deck. [14:27.280 --> 14:31.760] Like if I switched to the full metal alchemist deck, and it thought I needed the word cookie as well, [14:32.240 --> 14:36.160] since I've already learned that word and already been practicing that flashcard, [14:36.160 --> 14:40.800] it won't teach me to that first thing. It's probably going to teach me the word for metal or [14:40.800 --> 14:46.800] something like that or Alphonse. It keeps your progress across all these texts. So you can [14:46.800 --> 14:51.920] focus on the words that you actually don't know, instead of words that you really don't need to [14:51.920 --> 14:59.840] know. So in bear priestess, I currently know like 429 words, which is only 15% of the [14:59.840 --> 15:06.400] 2793 different words used. I know what this sounds bad. Don't worry. It may seem like a terrible [15:06.400 --> 15:14.720] number, but this actually gives me 77% coverage and all this data is provided in JPDB. So with [15:14.720 --> 15:23.120] 77% coverage, I can comfortably pull 10 random words from the novel. And I'll know odds are at least [15:23.120 --> 15:28.560] like seven of them. And this makes it possible for me to read without constant lookups. That's why I [15:28.560 --> 15:34.400] love the Japanese database so much is that it can fine tune exactly what you want to study. [15:34.400 --> 15:39.600] The next thing I've been studying with is Rinchu. I spent about six hours in the last month studying [15:39.600 --> 15:44.240] Rinchu, not a lot, just kind of popping in and doing a couple flashcards and letting go. [15:45.040 --> 15:50.880] Rinchu is another SRS tool, but it comes with an app, which JPDB does not. I wish it did. [15:51.680 --> 15:56.640] And dear listener, I know you're probably wondering, why do I bother with another SRS tool? If I [15:56.720 --> 16:03.360] already have one with JPDB, well, dear listener, Rinchu is a bit different than our other SRS tools, [16:04.080 --> 16:10.960] mostly because it has multiple choice built in. So for example, like in JPDB, I have cards that [16:10.960 --> 16:18.240] are specifically checking for me to actually write out on paper, the kanji and the meaning of terms [16:18.240 --> 16:24.640] when they pop up on Rinchu, I have more multiple choice so I can actually be asked harder things [16:24.720 --> 16:29.440] and I'm actually able to answer them more consistently. For example, I'll get tested on [16:29.440 --> 16:34.640] every aspect of a word such as the translating from English to Japanese and then back again [16:34.640 --> 16:41.840] or kana to kanji and then kanji to kana. Rinchu is more thorough and offers more multiple choice, [16:41.840 --> 16:49.200] so it's significantly easier than JPDB. I use it as kind of like a soft introduction to a lot of [16:49.200 --> 16:55.120] words because I'll learn a way bigger vocab listed on Rinchu than I do on JPDB. [16:55.760 --> 17:00.880] But that's mostly because I'm just kind of like, Rinchu is my fire hose of just all the terms, [17:00.880 --> 17:06.400] all these words that I'm just grinding through. Whereas in JPDB, that is like my focus, [17:06.400 --> 17:10.960] I need to learn this to be able to read what I want to read or play what I want to play. [17:12.000 --> 17:18.320] So it's just like a fast way to get a lot of exposure towards that I can then like [17:18.800 --> 17:24.800] focus in on later with other tools. And speaking of which, I've been using a couple other tools [17:24.800 --> 17:28.400] that I don't think are worth getting really on the knitting gritty on. Some of my other ones, [17:28.400 --> 17:36.160] of course, are onki, another SRS tool, kanji garden, which is a fun little app that just focuses on [17:36.160 --> 17:42.400] kanji and kanji teacher, which is once again, just another way for me to grind out kanji flash cards [17:42.480 --> 17:48.000] whenever it's not they're not like doo-doo with one of my other systems is a way to just like [17:48.000 --> 17:52.160] just do more practice because odds are the more I practice the better I'm going to get. [17:52.880 --> 17:58.400] And my overall study goal was just an hour a day. And I did not hit it actually. I only made it [17:58.400 --> 18:04.000] to 47 minutes a day. So I'm once again going to target that one hour and see if I can actually [18:04.000 --> 18:08.800] consistently hit it this month because you know, studying is important. That's where I'm going to [18:08.880 --> 18:14.160] get all my actual information from. And right now I'm primarily just focused on vocab, [18:14.160 --> 18:21.680] just being able to read and absorb the information, which goes right into my next aspect of reading. [18:22.320 --> 18:27.520] So why does reading matter? So I spend a lot of time on the Japanese subreddit. And I often will [18:27.520 --> 18:33.920] see people post journals and posts just like this one, highlighting what they did to reach their goals. [18:33.920 --> 18:41.600] It'll be like, I studied for four years to pass the GLPT level one. And I did it watching only [18:41.600 --> 18:46.960] anime or something like that. And I'm like, okay, but whatever. So assuming that these successful [18:46.960 --> 18:51.920] strangers on the internet are not lying, a lot of things they bring up is just that they spend a [18:51.920 --> 18:58.320] lot of time reading, reading everything, reading light novels, reading novels, reading manga, [18:58.880 --> 19:05.600] apparently the more you read, the more you can learn. So my current reading target is, you know, [19:05.600 --> 19:10.240] priestess know the bear does it a separate world purification journey with acute and fluffy bear. [19:11.520 --> 19:20.720] Okay, I found this book or this web novel through JPDB as it is the easiest rated novel. I think [19:20.720 --> 19:26.720] it's like level one out of 10 or whatever. It's supposed to be super poo poo baby easy. And surprisingly, [19:26.720 --> 19:31.840] it is super poo poo baby easy. And I can read it. It is like, if you don't want to read children [19:31.840 --> 19:37.680] books, I recommend you check out something like this. It's very cute. It's an isekai. So it's a [19:37.680 --> 19:43.440] person being transported to another world. It's about a 25 year old office woman who named Sarah [19:43.440 --> 19:48.960] who gets someone to do a different world and becomes a seven year old girl. And in this fantasy world, [19:48.960 --> 19:55.520] her class or abilities or whatever is listed as priestess, but she only has a power called bear [19:55.520 --> 20:01.760] friendship. So she doesn't actually have any powers, but she be friends a bear, which is a cookie, [20:01.760 --> 20:07.680] a big fluffy bear who turns out is actually a divine beast with the power to purify evil by [20:07.680 --> 20:13.920] instant killing all monsters and has lots of other powers to literally a god bear. So lucky [20:13.920 --> 20:19.040] thing, they are currently in a fantasy land that is overrun by monsters. And it's up to Sarah and [20:19.040 --> 20:23.440] her new best friend, the god bear cookie to save the world or something. I don't have it finished. [20:23.440 --> 20:29.520] And I'm like seven chapters end at this point. But the story is very cute. And I love it. It's just [20:29.520 --> 20:34.320] about this little girl and this bear traveling along. The whole bit about her being a 25 year old [20:34.320 --> 20:38.880] woman transforming into a seven year old is very strange, but it never comes up again after the first [20:38.880 --> 20:45.760] chapter. But the sentences are simple. The vocab list is considerably small, very small, [20:45.760 --> 20:50.560] compared to many other stories in its category. Like, that's what I love about it so much is that [20:51.120 --> 20:56.480] you will see many things repeated, like they will talk about, oh, we're going back to the end, [20:56.480 --> 21:01.440] or oh, we're going back to the library to look at a map. And these are words that I didn't know [21:01.440 --> 21:06.000] before like I didn't know the word for in. I didn't know the word for library. I didn't know the word [21:06.000 --> 21:12.560] for chow hall, where they go to eat at the end. Or I guess it's like a food room dining room type [21:12.560 --> 21:16.480] thing. Only it's more this different than a dining room. That's a different word. But [21:17.120 --> 21:23.200] I'm really enjoying this one. And my goal with reading was 15 minutes a day. And surprisingly, [21:23.200 --> 21:27.920] I did not hit that at all. I only think it did like two minutes a day because I can just barely [21:27.920 --> 21:32.800] sit down and read. Reading is really hard to sit down and do for me because I feel like I'm always [21:32.800 --> 21:37.600] moving. I'm always on the go always have something that needs to be going. And my reading speed is [21:38.480 --> 21:44.480] terribly slow. Like, at least whenever I'm playing a game, usually my reading doesn't slow me down [21:44.480 --> 21:49.120] too much because I can read it. Like, okay, I need this. And I move right along. Whereas like [21:49.680 --> 21:55.360] reading an actual novel. That is everything. Everything is reading. So it takes me so long to [21:55.360 --> 22:00.320] move anywhere. It's hard to find the motivation to sit down and read, but I'm going to try harder. [22:00.320 --> 22:05.360] And I got to hit that 15 minutes a day. I bear I didn't even get close this time. [22:05.360 --> 22:11.760] So this next month, I'm going to hit the books. Now I'm just something more fun watching, [22:12.640 --> 22:18.560] watching things in Japanese. So why am I watching things in Japanese? Mostly because I think it's [22:18.560 --> 22:24.560] fun. I doubt I'm really learning much from watching things in Japanese, but it's a good way to see [22:24.560 --> 22:29.840] how the language is actually used. Most recently, the biggest thing I've been watching is Naruto, [22:30.560 --> 22:34.560] which I'm not even Naruto fan. I'm really watching in English either. Like, I think it's all [22:34.560 --> 22:38.400] maybe like 20 episodes or something as a kid when they were just playing on Cartoon Network. [22:39.040 --> 22:44.560] But there's a fallacy that I think we've brought up on the pod where it's Japanese content seems [22:44.560 --> 22:49.360] more interesting just because it's in Japanese to me. So I don't actually know if it's good or not [22:49.360 --> 22:56.000] because I'm not an Naruto fan, but I am really enjoying my watching Naruto. My goal was about [22:56.000 --> 23:02.800] 20 minutes a day for the last month. And I hit 22 minutes a day. Surprise. I was able to watch [23:02.880 --> 23:08.880] Japanese every day as it turns out. So on to the next one, listening. So why am I [23:08.880 --> 23:12.640] bother focusing on listening in Japanese? Is this supposed to be for like audiobooks and podcasts [23:12.640 --> 23:17.440] that type of stuff? If I'm going to be able to understand video games that have a lot of cutscenes [23:17.440 --> 23:21.200] and they talk, they'll have a lot of dialogue that maybe doesn't have the best subtitles [23:22.080 --> 23:26.560] than I need to develop my listening skills. I feel like more than development mean my [23:26.560 --> 23:32.080] watching skills, listening is very important because subtitles are not always available. [23:32.080 --> 23:38.080] Or the subtitles aren't even tuned specifically to Japanese when I talked about the direct subtitles [23:38.080 --> 23:45.200] and arcane before. So the number one thing I'm listening to is Nihongo Kan Teppi. This is my [23:45.200 --> 23:49.120] primary podcast I'm listening to right now. I love this show. When I first heard it, [23:49.120 --> 23:54.160] I didn't really like the style. It's kind of cringy. It's kind of silly. But now I've stuck [23:54.160 --> 24:00.560] with it and I'm on episode like 640. This guy makes a new episode like every single day and [24:00.640 --> 24:05.600] it's simple. And I can actually understand it, which I think is like the most insane thing [24:05.600 --> 24:10.160] is that I'm able to keep up. Not all the subjects I can keep up with, but a lot of them I can't. [24:10.160 --> 24:16.880] And he talks at a good speed. I've listened to quite a few easy, I say easy in quotes, [24:16.880 --> 24:21.440] Japanese podcasts. And I usually get lost in the thread of the conversation. But this is one guy [24:22.160 --> 24:29.040] talking about one thing for less than 10 minutes. And I actually feel like I'm able to grasp a [24:29.040 --> 24:33.920] lot of what he's saying. And the more I listen to, I feel like the more I think that I'm eventually [24:33.920 --> 24:37.520] going to catch up to him because they're only 10 minutes. I'm listening to him faster than he's [24:37.520 --> 24:42.000] making him. I am going to catch up. And I think I might need to restart and go back and see if I [24:42.000 --> 24:49.200] can actually catch on to more of the subjects I didn't understand before. So my target with listening [24:49.200 --> 24:55.200] was 15 minutes a day. And I hit an average of 39 minutes a day with almost 20 hours total [24:55.200 --> 25:00.160] in the last month. So that's, you know, I'm not at an hour a day, but I'm getting up there. [25:00.160 --> 25:05.680] So I'm definitely going to need to like increase my goal to like 20 minutes a day. I'm sure I'm [25:05.680 --> 25:10.720] going to be able to hit that as well. But I think increasing my goals to like a point [25:10.720 --> 25:16.000] that's like, controllable is important that I don't burn myself out. But I do need to keep pushing [25:16.000 --> 25:22.480] myself harder. But I'm easily beating this time every time I take the baby out to play in the yard, [25:22.480 --> 25:27.760] or I take the dog on a walk, I'm listening. If I'm just by myself, I put in your pod, I listen [25:27.760 --> 25:34.080] while I'm cleaning the kitchen. It's easy to just zone out and listen to tepi talk. So those are [25:34.080 --> 25:39.120] all the major aspects I'm tracking. Now, this is kind of like a self reflection period of like, [25:39.120 --> 25:43.360] why do I even bother tracking these hours? Like, why don't I just do the practice? [25:44.560 --> 25:51.040] So one of the silly reasons I do this is the 10,000 hour rule. We've talked about this on the pod before. [25:51.840 --> 25:58.320] I led to look it up because I wasn't sure where it's from. But the 10,000 hour rule was popularized. [25:58.320 --> 26:04.240] Came to speak English by Malcolm Gladwell, an author. And he suggests that achieving mastery [26:04.240 --> 26:11.040] in a particular skill requires approximately 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. So I'm developing [26:11.040 --> 26:15.680] multiple skills. As I talked about, like, I guess you could say that all of Japanese is one skill, [26:15.680 --> 26:20.800] but I honestly believe they're multiple skills in Japanese. You could have someone that can read [26:20.800 --> 26:27.040] perfectly well, but then they can't speak at all. And so I'm specifically aiming to develop my skills [26:27.040 --> 26:32.160] in, I don't know, all of these different aspects. And if I'm going to reach 10,000 hours, I probably [26:32.160 --> 26:37.760] need to start now because that's going to take me a couple years. Now, the 10,000 hours thing is [26:37.760 --> 26:42.560] really arbitrary. There's a lot of other studies that kind of debunk this rule saying that even [26:42.560 --> 26:48.000] like musical instruments to become an expert, it only takes around like 7,000 hours. But 7,000 hours [26:48.080 --> 26:54.080] still pretty high. But I want to have these quantified goals to target. Another reason if we [26:54.080 --> 27:00.080] I bothered to even track these hours, if we look specifically at languages, the US Foreign [27:00.080 --> 27:07.200] Services Institute has categorized Japanese is a level five language for English speakers, [27:07.200 --> 27:13.920] meaning it takes around 2,200 classroom hours to reach a professional working proficiency, [27:13.920 --> 27:18.080] whatever that means. I guess that you could work as a professional if you can reach them [27:18.080 --> 27:24.640] in your classroom hours. Now, for the record, to reach the same level in Spanish, it was found to [27:24.640 --> 27:31.360] only be 600 hours. So apparently Spanish is significantly easier. Now, I'm not in a classroom, [27:31.360 --> 27:36.880] but I'm also not trying to learn to speak professionally or fluently. I'm literally just trying to understand [27:37.360 --> 27:45.200] the the input coming towards me. So this doesn't exactly apply to me, but it's fun. And it's a silly [27:45.200 --> 27:50.480] reason to count my hours, just see how close I'm getting. So maybe by the time I actually reach [27:50.480 --> 27:54.720] one of these numbers, one of these goal posts, I actually be pretty proficient. And if you want [27:54.720 --> 27:59.920] to know what I'm out so far for the last, I don't know, seven months, I think I've been studying, [28:00.000 --> 28:07.360] it might be more than seven months. I'm at 384 hours total. I'm just all my numbers roll up together. [28:08.080 --> 28:16.080] So just rolling everything together, I'm not even halfway to the 2,200 classroom hours. And [28:16.080 --> 28:21.280] looking at it, I have to do the math. But even if I keep meeting my goals for the rest of the year, [28:21.280 --> 28:26.160] I still won't reach halfway, I think, I have to do the math. I'll do that next time. But [28:26.880 --> 28:32.480] it's going to be a long journey to reach that point. I'm finding it hard to hit all of my study goals [28:32.480 --> 28:38.640] or all my my time goals. But I'm really glad that I get a chance to record this pod. And hopefully, [28:38.640 --> 28:43.440] the next episode can be a bit more concise without all this extra bloat and the old rigamarole. [28:44.400 --> 28:47.920] And I can report back that I hit all my goals. And maybe you finished a couple games or, [28:47.920 --> 28:53.920] you know, one game. So thanks for joining me today, listener. And I'll see you next month. Bye. Transcription results written to '/home/forge/transcribe.sonicengage.com/releases/20240210005325' directory