Minimalist language learning

I just finished volume 2! Some chapters were a little bit more difficult because of trading and finance related vocabulary, but overall it was very easy to understand.  As the series continues, I learned more and more about different side characters, which was really nice. At the beginning, I expected Yuna to travel from one place to another, with side characters only being temporarily relevant. Instead, she revisits these characters and either helps them solve new problems or improves their lives in some way. Occasionally, Yuna reflects on her previous life. This is something I wish she would do more often or in greater depth. I’d like to see how her experiences in this world have changed the way she views her old life. But so far, it seems like it doesn’t really matter to her. To her, she’s just doing whatever she wants (like before), even though her life now is completely different.  She isn’t just sitting alone in her room enjoying games and manga all day anymore, she’s co...

I finished the first volume of くまクマ熊ベアー ! This light novel is often recommended to Japanese learners as their first book because, compared to other light novels, it's quite easy to read and contains a lot of repetition. However, some people say that the story is a bit boring and predictable. I understand these opinions, but I think whether you enjoy it or not really depends on your expectations and preferences. In my case, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this volume. Difficulty Level  After reading quite challenging material for months, it felt refreshing to read something simpler. This light novel is easy to read (as long as you have some kind of foundation). On Learn Natively, it's labeled around the N3 level. There isn’t as much slang or as many special speaking styles as in other light novels or manga I've read before. Especially the little girl (フィナ) speaks in a very straightforward and basic way. Plus, many words are repeated so often that it's almost imposs...

I would like to share my current study routine in case it's useful to someone. It's not a strict plan, I change things depending on how I feel that day and how busy I am. Plus, it's tailored to my main goal: reaching a high comprehension level. I try to practice writing more but it's not my priority. On workdays (around 1h 50min a day): Anki - max. 20 minutes (often less) Listening (podcasts, anime, audiobooks, YouTube, etc.) - around 45 minutes Extensive Reading with occasional look-ups (not too difficult light novels, manga, video games, etc.) - around 45 minutes  I usually do Anki in the morning and listening and reading in the evening. When it comes to listening or reading material, I often stick with a particular novel or series, but sometimes I just choose whatever I feel like that day. When I’m listening to podcasts or audiobooks, I often do some housework. Additional activities on weekends: Writing (practice with sentence pattern book) Intensive Reading with mor...

This volume was tough. I had a lot of trouble understanding all these explanations. I think I got the most important parts, but I probably still missed some details. Because of the complexity of this series, I decided to take notes about characters and important information. Sometimes I don’t clearly understand who did what and why, so I write down what I do understand and move on. If I later come across additional information that brings more clarity, I go back and correct my earlier notes. At times I felt a bit down because some scenes were hard to follow, but my notes showed me that I actually understood a good part of it. This volume was challenging but I'm so glad that I kept reading! Chapter 7 and the following chapters felt especially rewarding. The final action scenes were really cool and the foreshadowing made me very curious about the next volume. I also loved the emotional scenes.    

I wanted to read the novel version of this Detective Conan movie for a long time, because it's one of my absolute favorites! Some things may not be very realistic, but I loved this movie (and the novel) for the action and excitement until the very end. Oh, and because Kaito Kid is also involved, of course. :D As always, the book has full furigana and is written in a easy to understand writing style. The aviation related vocab was a bit difficult at first, but I was able to understand these scenes quite well.  This is one of the strengths of this book series, in my opinion: Even if there are rather rare words, the sentences themselves are usually not very complicated. (Not like in other books, where I look up several words and still don't really understand the sentence) Plus, the same words come up more often than in other books I know, because the author uses a rather limited vocabulary to tell the story. For example, instead of using 5 different words to express similar things...

I always track the books I've read in Japanese with bookmeter. This is the summary of 2025:   I've read some cool novels and manga last year, like 遊☆戯☆王GX, 変な家２ or 心霊探偵八雲 for example. I also experimented with different reading approaches. For the most part, I looked up every unknown word because I wanted to expand my vocabulary so badly. I just was so unsatisfied because even after all these efforts I still come across so many unknown words. XD In the end, I'm still not satisfied with my vocabulary but I realized that I need to relax and just keep going.