Minimalist language learning

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.

(I finished this novel in 2025) I already read 変な家 (1) so I wanted to read 変な家２, too.  First, the author presents a number of "short stories" about strange houses. Each case was quite interesting by itself. However, one story was very hard to stomach for me ( trigger warning : this one story contains very disturbing experiences of a child). I had to pause reading for a while because of this. After sharing lots of information about these houses and their inhabitants, the author connects the dots. It was fascinating to see how all these houses and people were connected to each other. This revelation phase felt a bit forced, but it was interesting nevertheless. Often things were different than they seemed at first. The end was sad and tragic.  変な家２ is easier to read than most novels. In some scenes you will come across difficult vocabulary, but overall the author uses an rather uncomplicated writing style.    

(I finished this manga series in 2025) I loved the Yu-Gi-Oh GX anime as a teenager. That's why I wanted to read the manga version in Japanese. Interestingly, the manga has many similarities but also big differences. To put it simply: they took familiar characters from the anime, added some new ones and told a complete new story. The manga version feels like a parallel universe. I really liked the anime so I was a bit sceptical at first. It's a very different story, yes, but overall a good one in my opinion. For example: I liked how the manga gave the protagonist (Judai) more depth. Quite early in the story, his backstory explains how he became a duelist and why he uses this particular deck. In the manga, Judai has a strong "why". This is something I missed in the beginning of the anime version.  Difficulty Most chapters contain two types of scenes: story scenes and duel scenes.  Language wise, the story scenes are much more interesting and beneficial for Japanese lear...

 (I finished this novel in 2025) Volume 1 was so much fun! The setting was very interesting and I really liked the rather unusual yet relatable main character (He acts not very nice in the beginning, but the more I learned about his feelings the more his reactions made sense.) There was lots of action but also very emotional scenes. I'm looking forward to see how the main character develops during the following volumes! Language-wise, the book was a bit challenging. Some scenes were very difficult because of technical or biological details, but overall the level was okay for me. By reading more volumes of this series, I hope I'll eventually reach a point where I can enjoy it with only occasional look-ups.      

Whenever I see a post where someone passed N2 or N1 and shared their experiences, it's very interesting to me how they reached their level. Of course, not every experience post is equally useful. Some are quite vague, but others describe pretty clearly what the learner did, what worked well and what didn't. Detailed experience posts can provide valuable insights. That's why I like reading them. Maybe I can learn something from them? Unfortunately, I often see lots of skepticism, accusations or defensiveness under such posts. Don't get me wrong, healthy skepticism is important. But instantly dismissing someone who shares detailed data and answers questions in a friendly tone is counterproductive in my opinion. It shifts the focus from learning to doubting and discrediting others. When someone reaches a goal faster or more efficiently than we have, it can make us feel uncomfortable and inferior. I understand that, that’s human. But does attacking the OP helps anyo...

 (I finished this game in 2025) It was so nostalgic and fun to play all three parts again after so many years! Interestingly, playing part 3 (especially the last chapter) felt almost like a completely new experience. I remembered only a few things, so I was surprised by all these twists again. The last chapter was quite confusing towards the end. I wished I had taken notes during my play sessions. Can't wait to play the other Ace Attorney games in Japanese, too!    

 (I finished this novel in 2025) The second half of the book felt much more dynamic and dramatic, and I found myself reading it much faster than in the beginning. The mysterious tunnel wasn't just central to the plot, but also a very fascinating element. Especially in the latter half, the tunnel scenes were at times quite eerie. To me, the story is ultimately about coping with loss—about letting go of the past and finding a way forward into the future. This is hard, it hurts and takes time, of course. But once you let it go, you'll feel libertated. Suddenly you can see new possibilities and other things you couldn't see before.     

 (Note: With this post I just want to share thoughts and tips based on my own experiences and observations. If you have a different opinion that's fine. Language learning is an very individual process. Everyone has different goals and preferences. Try different things and do what works best for you.) Reading is an effective way to increase your vocabulary. But the really interesting books are often very difficult for a language learner (especially if you have little to no experience with native level books). Looking at a page full of unknown words can be intimidating. And if it’s a physical book, reading even a few pages takes ages if you need to look up many words. Reading texts above your current level can be slow and difficult.  From time to time I see language learners who tend to avoid books for natives and keep studying from textbooks or apps to “prepare“ themselves until they are “ready“. And I understand their decision. Textbooks and language learning apps provide stru...

The more I read in Japanese, the more I feel like the constant stream of new words and expressions will never end. Despite all the progress, there's always more to learn. It's intimidating and amazing at the same time. This is the reason why I think that it's important to enjoy the journey instead of focusing only on the end goal. Otherwise, you’ll burn out long before reaching a very high level of comprehension (if that’s your goal).

I finished  ヒカルの碁 in 2024, but I only shared my thoughts on Tumblr. Now I want to share it here, too.  A long time ago, I've read the first 4 or 5 volumes in German. I was fascinated by the story and the board game Go. (I even bought a Go set and played a bit) Somehow I never bought the other volumes which I later regretted… Now, many years later, reading this manga series in Japanese was a very special experience to me.      Story & Characters (Very light) spoiler warning: In the following, I want to highlight some aspects of the story and characters. I tried to be as vague as possible to avoid clear spoilers. I didn’t describe specific events but just in case you definitely don’t want to know anything before you read the manga yourself you probably should not read the following text. The manga is quite old, but the drawings are still excellent in my opinion. I like, how the main character Hikaru slowly changes his opinion about the board game Go ...

Some learning methods become very popular, especially in language-learning communities. One thing I’ve been thinking about lately is why popular methods don’t necessarily work well for everyone. There are several aspects to this but one part seems to be success bias: we hear far more about what worked than about what didn’t. Over time, this creates the impression that certain techniques are universally effective, simply because we’re exposed to them so often. I think it’s worth being cautious when we come across “popular” methods. A method may work extremely well for some people, but popularity alone doesn’t mean it’s inherently better than less well-known approaches. People are much more likely to share their successes than their failures, which can make certain methods seem more effective than they really are. We might see a handful of learners or content creators who achieved great results, but we don’t see all the people who tried the same method and quietly moved on because it did...

I’ve noticed that I haven’t updated my blog in ages. I kind of switched to Tumblr , but now I miss writing here. So I’ll start sharing my thoughts and my Japanese progress here again. Stay tuned! :)