Phil's Japanese Journal Ep 3 Mar

[00:00:14] Hello and welcome to Phillip's Japanese Journal, a show dedicated to tracking my journey through

[00:00:18] a year of learning Japanese with video games.

[00:00:21] Nothing really to report as far as like a big intro, but let's just go right and do

[00:00:26] the goals.

[00:00:27] I'm recording this a bit later in the month, I think it's like the 25th.

[00:00:30] So this is pretty late, but I wrote it beforehand so I'm just now finally getting around

[00:00:35] editing it and putting it up.

[00:00:37] So my goals for listening.

[00:00:39] Podcast, once again, it's quite easy to get all my listening done.

[00:00:43] I have a small commute to work that's around like 20ish minutes and also walk my dog for

[00:00:48] nearly like 30 minutes a day.

[00:00:51] So let's guarantee like 50 minutes of listening time each month.

[00:00:55] I did want to note that from what I've gathered from the Japanese learning community, there

[00:00:59] are different forms of listening.

[00:01:02] So my primary practice passive listening, as in like just putting on a podcast and

[00:01:07] then continuing on with my day.

[00:01:09] This is quite a bit different from active listening where the listener interacts

[00:01:13] with the audio as they listen.

[00:01:15] I found a few different methods of active listening actually and I want to share them

[00:01:19] with you guys.

[00:01:21] One popular method suggested by my friend of the pod Defcon is transcription.

[00:01:27] You listen to Japanese audio and you write down what you hear unless you're probably

[00:01:30] already pretty advanced, you're probably just going to write the con that you hear

[00:01:34] and then maybe go back and like write the con if you know it.

[00:01:37] If a podcast has a transcription available, you could compare your transcription against

[00:01:41] theirs and see how close you were.

[00:01:44] I feel like this would really help you build an ear for each sound, but I think I would

[00:01:48] prefer just to do listening flashcards instead.

[00:01:52] Another popular form of listening is shadowing.

[00:01:55] Shadowing is where you repeat after the speaker and try to mirror them.

[00:01:58] This also supposedly builds up your speaking skills too as it helps you like mimic

[00:02:03] a native speaker.

[00:02:04] I don't really have an interest in speaking, but I do shadow sometimes.

[00:02:09] It's like a sentence that I feel I can fully understand.

[00:02:12] I get kind of excited and I just repeat it out loud.

[00:02:14] It's silly, but fun, especially during any anime I'm watching and they just have a

[00:02:19] catchphrase or something they throw out there.

[00:02:23] Another form of listening practice I've seen is to keep a running note page and write

[00:02:28] down notes as you're listening.

[00:02:30] This is just that you're writing as you go to show that you kind of understand

[00:02:35] what's happening, but you write as you listen like you're taking notes in a

[00:02:39] This makes the listening more active and encourage you to listen like harder to

[00:02:44] get more information.

[00:02:46] I've not tried this and it sounds tiring, but people talk about doing this online.

[00:02:51] So for listening, my target was 50 minutes a day and I easily hit that

[00:02:55] hitting like an average of 51 minutes a day.

[00:02:57] It's not that hard.

[00:02:59] My new goal is going to be 60 minutes a day.

[00:03:02] And I think I'm going to branch out from podcasts.

[00:03:04] I don't think I'm ready for audio books, but I've seen recommendations from

[00:03:08] others to rip audio from shows that you're watching or already watched and

[00:03:11] listen to them.

[00:03:13] So I think I'll try it with like card captor Sakura and see how it goes.

[00:03:17] Speaking of card captor Sakura, let's get into what I've been watching.

[00:03:22] This month I tried branching out to a lot of new shows and to see what I

[00:03:25] could comprehend.

[00:03:26] I tried to punch and but the ones I watch the most were card captor Sakura,

[00:03:30] vampire in the garden in my happy marriage.

[00:03:32] Card captor Sakura, I talked about last week.

[00:03:35] It's just Sailor Moon for little kids.

[00:03:36] It's cute, easy to understand.

[00:03:38] And the thing that was a little strange with the series is the magic

[00:03:41] creatures all have English names and it feels strange because I think

[00:03:44] about like the spells and Harry Potter all have Latin roots.

[00:03:47] Like for example, the spell Lumos is derived from the Latin word for

[00:03:51] Lumen for light and Sakura we have monsters with names like shadow

[00:03:55] when wind and dark and spells like dash and fly.

[00:04:00] They're not like translated or anything.

[00:04:02] The first spell Sakura literally gets is fly.

[00:04:06] Anyways, just kind of interesting next show.

[00:04:09] Vampire in the Garden.

[00:04:10] I finished up this short series in less than a week.

[00:04:12] It's a Netflix exclusive action anime about a human girl living in

[00:04:16] a world full of vampires and humans.

[00:04:18] She befriends a vampire in the two runaway to find a place where

[00:04:21] they can live in peace.

[00:04:22] Great show.

[00:04:23] I recommend it all the way through language wise.

[00:04:26] The show is not that difficult.

[00:04:28] Most of the talking is centered around vampires, drinking blood

[00:04:32] and music.

[00:04:33] This could actually be a good beginner show if you're looking

[00:04:36] for something simple around vampires that isn't aimed at

[00:04:41] children because there's like violence.

[00:04:44] And finally, My Happy Marriage.

[00:04:47] This is another Netflix anime based on a light novel series.

[00:04:50] It takes place in like the late 1800s Japan where there's

[00:04:53] magic and demons.

[00:04:55] Our protagonist is a lady in a noble family who was born

[00:04:58] without magic power.

[00:04:59] She's sent to live with a very handsome military man

[00:05:02] and becomes as bride.

[00:05:04] This one is interesting language wise.

[00:05:06] I recently added this as a deck to JPDB

[00:05:09] and I have 43% coverage for the vocab used.

[00:05:13] Not very great, but I can still kind of track

[00:05:15] what's happening or just my way through it.

[00:05:17] The show might be a little too advanced for me

[00:05:19] but I'm enjoying it so far.

[00:05:20] So I'm probably gonna finish it out.

[00:05:23] For my goal of watching, it was 30 minutes a day

[00:05:26] and that's not hard to beat.

[00:05:27] I don't really wanna burn myself out

[00:05:29] but I do wanna push myself more.

[00:05:31] I have a lot more card capture soccer episodes to go.

[00:05:34] So I think I'm just gonna go for it.

[00:05:36] My new goal is gonna be 35 minutes a day

[00:05:38] of watching Japanese content.

[00:05:41] I finished the 30 minutes a day about a week early.

[00:05:44] So I'm hoping this will help me get through

[00:05:45] like the end of the month

[00:05:47] so that I'm able to keep watching every single day

[00:05:49] because it's hard to kind of push yourself to do more

[00:05:51] when you finish your goals like a week early.

[00:05:55] Next up, reading.

[00:05:57] So I tried reading about like eight different

[00:05:59] manga series this month

[00:06:01] but the two that really stuck with me was Yatsuba

[00:06:03] and teasing master Takagi-san.

[00:06:06] Yatsuba's still good.

[00:06:07] Anyone doesn't know where to start?

[00:06:09] Start with Yatsuba.

[00:06:10] I think I found the reason Yatsuba's so good.

[00:06:13] The author usually doesn't do like any thought bubbles

[00:06:16] or internal thoughts for any of the characters.

[00:06:18] Instead there's a bigger focus on like

[00:06:20] the facial expressions

[00:06:21] and the characters explaining themselves.

[00:06:24] As a beginner, I feel like this gives me a chance

[00:06:26] to more focus on the dialogue they're actually using

[00:06:28] with each other and not really have to worry

[00:06:30] about what the characters may be thinking

[00:06:32] or why they are saying something in a certain way.

[00:06:34] You can read it all on their faces.

[00:06:38] But teasing master Takagi-san goes the other way

[00:06:41] on that pretty much.

[00:06:43] I would get a lot of inner dialogue in this manga

[00:06:46] but mostly only from Nishikata

[00:06:48] who hyper explains all his thoughts death note style

[00:06:52] which I feel is good because

[00:06:53] he goes in and explains and outlines everything

[00:06:55] he's about to happen, everything's about to do.

[00:06:57] The reason he did everything up to that point.

[00:07:01] This is good because there's some things

[00:07:02] that just wouldn't make sense otherwise.

[00:07:04] And I guess I just might be out of touch

[00:07:06] with children's games.

[00:07:08] And this may make me sound old or outdated

[00:07:10] but there was one game that I learned

[00:07:12] from Takagi-san that was a variation

[00:07:15] on rock, paper, scissors.

[00:07:16] It plays like a standard game

[00:07:18] but after a match the loser looks a direction

[00:07:20] and the winner tries to predict

[00:07:22] what direction the loser will choose.

[00:07:24] It turns out this is actually a popular children's game.

[00:07:27] My middle daughter came home one day from school

[00:07:29] and asked me if I knew about this rock, paper, scissors game

[00:07:33] or classmates were playing.

[00:07:34] It's the same game except in her class

[00:07:36] they call it shadow boxing.

[00:07:38] And when the winner is predicting the direction

[00:07:39] that they will punch they make it look

[00:07:41] like they punched the loser into looking that direction.

[00:07:45] I feel kind of silly going into such detail

[00:07:47] about rock, paper, scissors

[00:07:49] but another variation comes up in Yatsuba.

[00:07:52] Yatsuba and her father are playing like rock, paper, scissors

[00:07:54] with a bowl and a newspaper.

[00:07:56] After a match the loser must grab the bowl

[00:07:59] and put it on like a helmet

[00:08:00] while the winner grabs the newspaper

[00:08:01] to hit the loser in the head.

[00:08:04] I guess rock, paper, scissors might have some

[00:08:06] like cultural significance in Japan

[00:08:08] that I don't know about.

[00:08:09] Either way it's weird

[00:08:10] that it kind of popped up twice in one month.

[00:08:14] My goal for reading was 18 minutes a day

[00:08:16] and once again it was really hard to hit this goal.

[00:08:18] I'd spent like 40 minutes a day near the end of the month

[00:08:20] to get my average up high enough but I did it.

[00:08:23] I think I'm gonna bump my goal up to 20 minutes a day.

[00:08:27] I recently gathered a bunch of reading material

[00:08:29] and I'm really hoping to get into it.

[00:08:30] Some of the titles I grabbed are Senyu,

[00:08:34] Sweetness and Lighting and Burakumon

[00:08:37] and I hope they aren't too hard but we'll see.

[00:08:41] And next up studying.

[00:08:43] Nothing really new to report in the study section.

[00:08:45] I'm still using JPDB here, the Japanese database,

[00:08:49] Anki and Ren Shu.

[00:08:51] My goal is an average of an hour and seven minutes each day

[00:08:54] and I made it but it was really hard.

[00:08:56] Much like reading, I had to do a lot of ketchup

[00:08:58] to make this goal.

[00:08:59] This month was the closest I came

[00:09:01] to just burning out or giving up

[00:09:02] and just not hitting my goals.

[00:09:04] When I was about a week out,

[00:09:05] I saw that I needed to do almost two hours a day

[00:09:07] to catch up.

[00:09:09] I got really bummed out when I thought

[00:09:11] I wasn't gonna make it

[00:09:12] so then I just tried even harder to catch up

[00:09:14] and managed to do it.

[00:09:16] But with that experience in mind,

[00:09:18] I'm kind of scared to increase this too much.

[00:09:20] So I may have hit like a soft cap here.

[00:09:22] So I'm just gonna play it safe.

[00:09:23] I'll increase my goal by a total of one minute

[00:09:26] to a total of an hour and eight minutes a day

[00:09:28] of study time.

[00:09:29] So that I can just tell myself

[00:09:30] that I'm pushing myself more

[00:09:32] with all the other increases in the other categories

[00:09:35] and I'm worried that things will get unmanageable

[00:09:37] at some point.

[00:09:38] I only have so much time in each day.

[00:09:40] So we'll stick with that.

[00:09:42] All right, time for the big meet.

[00:09:44] The gaming trials of mana.

[00:09:48] Trials of mana was my fourth game

[00:09:50] to finish this year in Japanese.

[00:09:51] It took me 24 hours to complete this game.

[00:09:54] It's kind of funny,

[00:09:55] the thing that I spent a full day of my life

[00:09:57] playing a game in full Japanese.

[00:10:00] Trials of mana is my longest played Japanese game

[00:10:03] at this point and I 100% recommend it.

[00:10:05] I complained last month about the auto advancing text

[00:10:09] and if you don't mind missing a few things

[00:10:10] you will enjoy the game.

[00:10:12] I would not recommend this as your first game

[00:10:14] but it's not an impossibly hard play through by any means.

[00:10:17] A couple of notes, there are no points in the game

[00:10:20] where I had to do any lookups to progress

[00:10:22] but there's also no Fugurgana present in the game.

[00:10:25] The font is perfectly legible.

[00:10:27] If you want a 3D HD version of a classic action RPG

[00:10:31] then Trials of Mana is for you.

[00:10:32] I think there's even a sequel coming out

[00:10:34] or there's a addition to the Mana series.

[00:10:38] I don't know what it's called

[00:10:38] but I'm really excited to play that when it comes out.

[00:10:43] Next up, Resident Evil 2 Remake.

[00:10:46] This is my fifth game to complete this year

[00:10:48] after Trials of Mana.

[00:10:50] My goal is 12 of course so I'm advancing quite well.

[00:10:53] It took me 19 hours to complete the game

[00:10:55] but now for completion on this one

[00:10:57] I played through Leon A story and Claire A and Claire B.

[00:11:01] I didn't do Leon B.

[00:11:03] I guess it could be argued that I need to go back

[00:11:05] and do Leon B to get a full experience

[00:11:07] but I don't think there's enough variants

[00:11:08] in the playthroughs for me personally.

[00:11:10] I did three playthroughs at this point.

[00:11:12] Maybe I'll go back one day for the last one

[00:11:14] but that's enough for me.

[00:11:16] I'm a beginner in Japanese but this game is not too hard.

[00:11:19] I don't think I can fully recommend this game

[00:11:21] to other beginners but if you have like Game Pass

[00:11:23] you could give it a shot.

[00:11:25] Once again, there's one brutal puzzle in this game

[00:11:27] that is a language based logic puzzle

[00:11:30] and that's the chess puzzle.

[00:11:31] I thought it was hard on the A playthrough

[00:11:33] but the B playthrough they remix it

[00:11:35] and make it even harder.

[00:11:36] The puzzle has a simple logic puzzle

[00:11:39] of placing chess pieces on switches.

[00:11:42] The player's then given a hint by a cryptic note

[00:11:44] that reads something like,

[00:11:45] the knight sits beside the queen

[00:11:48] and a cross from the rook

[00:11:49] and you think it's easy because I know where the rook goes

[00:11:52] so I can place the queen in the knight

[00:11:54] but then you read on and it says something like

[00:11:56] the original marking of the rook

[00:11:58] was placed on the wrong switch

[00:12:00] so then you have to go and look at the switches

[00:12:01] and some of them do have photos of pieces next to them

[00:12:04] and you know that the rook switch

[00:12:06] is not actually the rook switch

[00:12:08] so then you have to logically think about it.

[00:12:11] This puzzle will be hard enough

[00:12:12] for me without a language barrier

[00:12:14] but it had me struggling so to understand

[00:12:16] like see the quit, the hint about the queen or the rook

[00:12:20] cannot be seen.

[00:12:21] I don't know, I couldn't understand it.

[00:12:23] It was too difficult to parse

[00:12:24] so I had to look at a guide

[00:12:25] just to see what I was supposed to do

[00:12:28] but that's the hardest part

[00:12:29] the rest of the game is easy in comparison

[00:12:33] and then just miscellaneous other games

[00:12:35] like Octopath, Traveler 2

[00:12:38] is one of the titles I've been playing

[00:12:39] a bunch of other titles.

[00:12:41] Square had a publisher sale

[00:12:42] and I picked about seven other games to try

[00:12:45] some are games that I played before others are new

[00:12:47] the game I'm playing most though

[00:12:48] is Octopath, Traveler 2

[00:12:50] I was worried this game would be too hard

[00:12:52] but it really isn't

[00:12:53] it could be that I'm improving some

[00:12:55] but the game is actually quite plain speaking

[00:12:57] and direct with its text

[00:12:59] I'll just see how it shakes out

[00:13:00] after some more game time

[00:13:01] but 15 hours in

[00:13:02] I think this could be a good beginner game

[00:13:05] my goal for gaming was

[00:13:08] an hour and 20 minutes

[00:13:10] and much like reading

[00:13:12] I barely made it

[00:13:13] gaming is my main motivator

[00:13:15] for this year long exercise

[00:13:17] so even though it was close this month

[00:13:18] I am going to increase my goal by five minutes again

[00:13:21] to an hour and 25 minutes a day

[00:13:23] I think the biggest thing I can do for this goal

[00:13:24] is minimize doing anything in English

[00:13:27] I'm at the point where I can enjoy Japanese

[00:13:30] in game or

[00:13:31] I can enjoy gaming in Japanese

[00:13:32] without too much struggle

[00:13:34] the struggle isn't really about finding a game

[00:13:36] I want to play in Japanese

[00:13:38] I have a massive list of games I already want to play

[00:13:41] the issue actually stems from being able to play the games I want

[00:13:44] I have multiple games on Switch

[00:13:45] that I was

[00:13:46] planning on playing in Japanese

[00:13:48] but found out they don't support Japanese

[00:13:50] on the North American release of the cartridge

[00:13:52] or even worse

[00:13:53] on the recently game I bought recent

[00:13:56] Final Fantasy IX

[00:13:57] on the Microsoft Store

[00:13:59] in the store details

[00:14:00] as a chart

[00:14:00] outlining all the supported languages for the game

[00:14:03] Japanese is marked as supported

[00:14:05] after days of research

[00:14:06] I discovered that the Japanese language option

[00:14:08] is only available

[00:14:10] on the Japanese digital version of the game

[00:14:13] but since I purchased the game

[00:14:14] from a USA region Microsoft Store

[00:14:17] I received the version with the language

[00:14:19] specifically removed

[00:14:21] I never thought of my biggest struggle in Japanese

[00:14:23] would be dealing with a region locked games

[00:14:27] I could just do all my gaming on my PC

[00:14:28] but I feel like I never have time to sit down

[00:14:30] to do some PC gaming

[00:14:31] so all my gaming is either done

[00:14:33] on my Switch

[00:14:34] or on the go

[00:14:35] or my Series X downstairs

[00:14:37] kind of annoying

[00:14:40] but that covers all my goals

[00:14:41] and it is a lot

[00:14:45] I feel like it's just getting to be a lot

[00:14:48] just a quick little confidence check

[00:14:49] just to see how

[00:14:51] you know I'm feeling at this point

[00:14:53] I'm feeling good

[00:14:54] about my journey so far

[00:14:55] each month is harder than the last

[00:14:57] this month definitely felt like it

[00:15:00] my total average goal for the month

[00:15:01] was four hours and five minutes

[00:15:03] of Japanese every single day

[00:15:06] now this increase next month

[00:15:08] is going to be four hours and 28 minutes

[00:15:10] average each day

[00:15:11] and at this point I think I need to

[00:15:13] like cut back on sleeving or something

[00:15:15] to these goals

[00:15:16] in future months

[00:15:17] my increases will need to be cut back

[00:15:19] significantly

[00:15:20] otherwise I'm going to end up

[00:15:21] doing seven hours of Japanese a day

[00:15:24] I do have other responsibilities

[00:15:25] outside of Japanese as a hobby

[00:15:27] so I'm very happy with my progress

[00:15:29] and there will be a point I need to cut back

[00:15:31] I keep hoping for my skills

[00:15:33] day to cliff where I could just keep

[00:15:35] improving through input alone

[00:15:37] maybe in the future I'll just trim back

[00:15:39] on time I spend studying

[00:15:41] and slide that time into reading

[00:15:43] or gaming

[00:15:44] anyways I think I've gone on long

[00:15:46] enough for this episode

[00:15:47] I have another full month of Japanese

[00:15:49] learning to get to

[00:15:50] so thanks for joining me this week

[00:15:52] see ya