When I started this newsletter, I thought nobody would be interested: the content is tough and (mostly) in plain text. So I was surprised and happy to see your positive reactions. It has been such a rewarding experience for me and I’ve learned a lot. A big thank you to all of you for your enthusiasm and spontaneity along the way!
But now, it’s time for a fresh start. The database of daily snippets will always be freely available, but I’ll only add new ones sporadically from now on. Instead, I want to focus on more interactive content. I noticed that projects that allow me to actively interact with all of you give me a lot of energy. This means I’ll do more immersion reading projects, but I also want to share what I’ve learned along my 16-year journey studying Japanese more broadly and include you in my own learning process. To be honest, I’m not sure what that will look like, but perhaps I can use more audio (or even video) to create content you’ll enjoy. It’d be great if you could let me know in the comment section below what kind of content you’d enjoy seeing.
I’ll also continue sending out longer segments with detailed notes and audio as a thank you to the people who so generously donate to the platform. I cannot express how much I appreciate your support!
Thank you for the wonderful posts over the last year. As someone who has been studying Japanese for 7 years now but still gets frustrated at times trying to engage with native materials, novels, podcasts and TV shoes, I love the encouragement of this self learning community.
Personally I like the idea of a reading club, and the interactive reading projects.
You're very welcome! I hope you'll join the next immersion reading project. I'm glad to see you're finding the community helpful. Thanks for always participating and commenting. By doing so you yourself are also helping others to keep motivated.
Hi Bunsuke. I support the new direction and trust what you're doing. I wanted to try to answer your question about what I'd like to see. I'm not entirely sure, but somehow for me, learning to understand sentences at a higher level that word for word swaps is key. I got some of that by daily seeing how you translated a sentence. I also learned from comments and questions from the group - those exchanges really helped me see broader. I'm so stuck right now in kanji, vocab and grammar study that something that assimilates this - like your daily snippets and the immersion readings you've guided -- really help. Thanks as always for creating this. IMHO, yours is a unique perspective and a completely new approach.
Hi Jim, thank you for the kind words. I completely get that having to learn a combination of kanji, grammar, and vocabulary is very challenging. I think that for each of these elements you need a different approach. When you're doing kanji, you're getting down to the nitty gritty, but when you're reading text it's better to take a step back and try to understand the meaning of the sentence as a whole. I know...easier said than done, but you're doing so well. Just keep at it and I'll keep helping where I can. Feel free to send in questions whenever you get stuck :)
I totally second this. Sentence formation is sometimes the hardest part of Japanese for me; I understand the words, but occasionally mistake the meaning of the sentence. And I'm definitely for diversifying into something you prefer.
The bad news is that it will take time. But the good news is that you're already in the process of struggling through these sentences. Because it's a slow process you might not feel you're making progress, but powering through these things (even if in the end you feel you still haven't understood) will pay off in the long run. Just trust the process and the results will follow.
Thank you for all your efforts and immersion programmes over the past year. Even though i do not comment or engage that frequently i do try to reap the benefits of your newsletter to my fullest ! It has even inspired me to start my own and I thank you for that too. About what type of content I would like to see most, well- this isn't particularly a type of content but a monthly list where you could recommend some good japanese books would be so nice !
You're welcome! And it's great you started your own newsletter! Is it Japan/language related?? You can share it here if you'd like! Also, of course I can send out some book recommendations, that's a great idea!
I AM SO SORRY I WASN'T PROMOTING OR ANYTHING I WAS JUST THANKING YOU FOR THE INSPIRATION BUT UM https://zaikun.carrd.co/ its in this carrd, the second column. i couldnt post the original one because that is unneccessarily long :o
What a lovely idea Bunsuke! I will go along with whatever others suggest. Knowing that there are quite a few members who already have a thorough knowledge of the Japanese language and literature in general. I agree the reading projects were really fun, plus you get to know each other better and learn challenging stuff you won’t find in a text book. As you know I enjoy reading Murakami Haruki, but any good literature book is fine. If you would add audio or video, it might be fun to read or listen to you (or others) read a small passage and discuss that right after. For more “advanced” beginners, like me, I can suggest the following book, you all probably know already: 窓ぎわのトットちゃん Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window byTetsuko Kuroyanagi. I’m still reading this book, but I think it’s a very good so far and though it is a “children’s book” it isn’t childish and very suitable for adults as well, but maybe many of you might find this book to easy, yet I do think it could be a fun read or little project for beginners, because even if it’s easy, I believe there are always things you can explore in more depth, especially when it comes to Japanese. Thank you so much Bunsuke for taking the time for embarking on these great projects and keep finding new material to keep it fun, challenging and interesting. I also love to hear about your Japanese journey (your challenges struggles, ways of studying, recommended books, interaction with natives etc. and maybe something about the kanji learning process. Have you heard about pitch accent? I just wondered how important is that? Anyone experience with pitch accent?
Hi Koppa, thanks for always being so involved and proactive in this community. I know people always value your comments a lot, so thank you!
I'll definitely share more about my own process in the near future. As for pitch accent, yes I'm always very aware of it, but I've never done a course or anything. I do think it's important but if you're an advanced beginner, it should be on the lower end of your priority list. I would say that getting a good grasp of how native speakers actually speak (sentence structure, word usage) is step 1, then melody of the sentence as a whole, and finally pitch. If you enjoy it or if you're a perfectionist (like me) then go for it. But it's absolutely not the case that you need perfect pitch to make friends or communicate your ideas. Some of the most fluent speakers still do not have perfect pitch, yet they give commentary on Japanese tv shows on the latest developments in world politics. So don't lose any sleep over it.
Thank you for your kind words and clear answer regarding to pitch accent. I think I will work on my vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure first, but will keep pitch accent somewhere in the back of my head.
I love love love the idea of more interactive projects. I'm not sure what I "want" (I didn't know I needed this newsletter until I subscribed to it...) but anything that helps us engage with challenging native material is welcome. Good luck and keep experimenting !
Just wanted to say thanks for the amazing resource that you've created, I've loved having a not too overwhelming amount of reading to do as part of my daily routine. Excited to see where you take the project next!
Thank you Nani! These texts are very hard for beginners so it says a lot that you are powering through them anyway. Hopefully you'll keep returning to previous installments and notice an improvement over time :) let me know if I can help with that in any way.
Hallo Nani, you have to start somewhere as a advance beginner, not totally beginner more N5/N4 level, I feel its good to look at text way beyond your level. Somehow it makes everything else much easier, and I did find that I improved more by trying to read the daily post and participating in the reading projects, even if I only understand like 10%. So good luck and welcome. Love hearing how you improve.
It´s amazing how time flies, and so do us through the world of Japanese learning. I vividly remember when I subscribed to the newsletter and received the first daily text. The difficulty of it shocked me. I could´t go past the first sentence and had to read the translation.
"How on earth am I going to read coherently more than a couple of sentences, let alone understand them and taste them as a literary or (and) academic piece??"
That was me at the very beginning. For me, whose main goal in the Japanese (lifetime) journey is to be able to constantly improve my reading ability, your newsletter has been absolutely amazing in doing so. It first started as an auxiliary tool, but steadily it has come to be somehow part of my daily learning life. I must confess it made me a bit sad to hear that the daily snippet routine is going to stop for now, but I know it is for the sake of making better and more varied content!
With regards to content suggestion, I´m really open to everything, but may I take the freedom to propose some kind of Japanese (creative-literary) writing workshop. It may be a bit adventurous, although I kind of feel that sometimes reading and writing go closely together. Having the chance to learn more advanced sentence structuring, semantic and grammatical choice leading to the creation of different emotional effects in text and, overall, develop our Japanese writing ability (of which I feel I lack to a great extent) from a Japanese literature PhD student like you would be, at least for me, so fascinating.
Of course, take it as a mere simple extra suggestion.
All that is left for now from my part is to deeply thank you once again for all the effort you are constantly putting into this project and this community.
Daniel, thanks so much for your generous comment! Creative writing is an excellent idea! Perhaps we can do workshops on Zoom for both reading and writing :)
Also want to say thank you like many here! This was a wonderful thing for someone who's been quite passive with learning Japanese. I guess one of the things I am curious about is your own journey of learning Japanese, it would be great if you could share some of that.
Thank you for the wonderful posts over the last year. As someone who has been studying Japanese for 7 years now but still gets frustrated at times trying to engage with native materials, novels, podcasts and TV shoes, I love the encouragement of this self learning community.
Personally I like the idea of a reading club, and the interactive reading projects.
You're very welcome! I hope you'll join the next immersion reading project. I'm glad to see you're finding the community helpful. Thanks for always participating and commenting. By doing so you yourself are also helping others to keep motivated.
Hi Bunsuke. I support the new direction and trust what you're doing. I wanted to try to answer your question about what I'd like to see. I'm not entirely sure, but somehow for me, learning to understand sentences at a higher level that word for word swaps is key. I got some of that by daily seeing how you translated a sentence. I also learned from comments and questions from the group - those exchanges really helped me see broader. I'm so stuck right now in kanji, vocab and grammar study that something that assimilates this - like your daily snippets and the immersion readings you've guided -- really help. Thanks as always for creating this. IMHO, yours is a unique perspective and a completely new approach.
Hi Jim, thank you for the kind words. I completely get that having to learn a combination of kanji, grammar, and vocabulary is very challenging. I think that for each of these elements you need a different approach. When you're doing kanji, you're getting down to the nitty gritty, but when you're reading text it's better to take a step back and try to understand the meaning of the sentence as a whole. I know...easier said than done, but you're doing so well. Just keep at it and I'll keep helping where I can. Feel free to send in questions whenever you get stuck :)
I totally second this. Sentence formation is sometimes the hardest part of Japanese for me; I understand the words, but occasionally mistake the meaning of the sentence. And I'm definitely for diversifying into something you prefer.
The bad news is that it will take time. But the good news is that you're already in the process of struggling through these sentences. Because it's a slow process you might not feel you're making progress, but powering through these things (even if in the end you feel you still haven't understood) will pay off in the long run. Just trust the process and the results will follow.
Thank you for all your efforts and immersion programmes over the past year. Even though i do not comment or engage that frequently i do try to reap the benefits of your newsletter to my fullest ! It has even inspired me to start my own and I thank you for that too. About what type of content I would like to see most, well- this isn't particularly a type of content but a monthly list where you could recommend some good japanese books would be so nice !
Yes. thank you
You're welcome! And it's great you started your own newsletter! Is it Japan/language related?? You can share it here if you'd like! Also, of course I can send out some book recommendations, that's a great idea!
it is about books and the arts ! and thanks for calling the idea great i thought it was childish ;-;
where can i follow you?
I AM SO SORRY I WASN'T PROMOTING OR ANYTHING I WAS JUST THANKING YOU FOR THE INSPIRATION BUT UM https://zaikun.carrd.co/ its in this carrd, the second column. i couldnt post the original one because that is unneccessarily long :o
How inspiring you started your own newsletter. Good luck and hope you have lots of fun.
THANK YOU !
Dear Bunsuke and fellow members,
What a lovely idea Bunsuke! I will go along with whatever others suggest. Knowing that there are quite a few members who already have a thorough knowledge of the Japanese language and literature in general. I agree the reading projects were really fun, plus you get to know each other better and learn challenging stuff you won’t find in a text book. As you know I enjoy reading Murakami Haruki, but any good literature book is fine. If you would add audio or video, it might be fun to read or listen to you (or others) read a small passage and discuss that right after. For more “advanced” beginners, like me, I can suggest the following book, you all probably know already: 窓ぎわのトットちゃん Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window byTetsuko Kuroyanagi. I’m still reading this book, but I think it’s a very good so far and though it is a “children’s book” it isn’t childish and very suitable for adults as well, but maybe many of you might find this book to easy, yet I do think it could be a fun read or little project for beginners, because even if it’s easy, I believe there are always things you can explore in more depth, especially when it comes to Japanese. Thank you so much Bunsuke for taking the time for embarking on these great projects and keep finding new material to keep it fun, challenging and interesting. I also love to hear about your Japanese journey (your challenges struggles, ways of studying, recommended books, interaction with natives etc. and maybe something about the kanji learning process. Have you heard about pitch accent? I just wondered how important is that? Anyone experience with pitch accent?
Hi Koppa, thanks for always being so involved and proactive in this community. I know people always value your comments a lot, so thank you!
I'll definitely share more about my own process in the near future. As for pitch accent, yes I'm always very aware of it, but I've never done a course or anything. I do think it's important but if you're an advanced beginner, it should be on the lower end of your priority list. I would say that getting a good grasp of how native speakers actually speak (sentence structure, word usage) is step 1, then melody of the sentence as a whole, and finally pitch. If you enjoy it or if you're a perfectionist (like me) then go for it. But it's absolutely not the case that you need perfect pitch to make friends or communicate your ideas. Some of the most fluent speakers still do not have perfect pitch, yet they give commentary on Japanese tv shows on the latest developments in world politics. So don't lose any sleep over it.
Thank you for your kind words and clear answer regarding to pitch accent. I think I will work on my vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure first, but will keep pitch accent somewhere in the back of my head.
I love love love the idea of more interactive projects. I'm not sure what I "want" (I didn't know I needed this newsletter until I subscribed to it...) but anything that helps us engage with challenging native material is welcome. Good luck and keep experimenting !
Hi Jon! Yes, I'm excited that you're excited! Hope you'll join for the next reading project as well :)
Just wanted to say thanks for the amazing resource that you've created, I've loved having a not too overwhelming amount of reading to do as part of my daily routine. Excited to see where you take the project next!
Thanks so much Thom! Haha stay tuned for more ;)
Thanks for your hard work and good luck. I am a beginner, so the content is very hard for me, but also rewarding .
Thank you Nani! These texts are very hard for beginners so it says a lot that you are powering through them anyway. Hopefully you'll keep returning to previous installments and notice an improvement over time :) let me know if I can help with that in any way.
Thank you. I will definitely stick around.
Hallo Nani, you have to start somewhere as a advance beginner, not totally beginner more N5/N4 level, I feel its good to look at text way beyond your level. Somehow it makes everything else much easier, and I did find that I improved more by trying to read the daily post and participating in the reading projects, even if I only understand like 10%. So good luck and welcome. Love hearing how you improve.
Dear Bunsuke:
It´s amazing how time flies, and so do us through the world of Japanese learning. I vividly remember when I subscribed to the newsletter and received the first daily text. The difficulty of it shocked me. I could´t go past the first sentence and had to read the translation.
"How on earth am I going to read coherently more than a couple of sentences, let alone understand them and taste them as a literary or (and) academic piece??"
That was me at the very beginning. For me, whose main goal in the Japanese (lifetime) journey is to be able to constantly improve my reading ability, your newsletter has been absolutely amazing in doing so. It first started as an auxiliary tool, but steadily it has come to be somehow part of my daily learning life. I must confess it made me a bit sad to hear that the daily snippet routine is going to stop for now, but I know it is for the sake of making better and more varied content!
With regards to content suggestion, I´m really open to everything, but may I take the freedom to propose some kind of Japanese (creative-literary) writing workshop. It may be a bit adventurous, although I kind of feel that sometimes reading and writing go closely together. Having the chance to learn more advanced sentence structuring, semantic and grammatical choice leading to the creation of different emotional effects in text and, overall, develop our Japanese writing ability (of which I feel I lack to a great extent) from a Japanese literature PhD student like you would be, at least for me, so fascinating.
Of course, take it as a mere simple extra suggestion.
All that is left for now from my part is to deeply thank you once again for all the effort you are constantly putting into this project and this community.
Best regards
Daniel
Daniel, thanks so much for your generous comment! Creative writing is an excellent idea! Perhaps we can do workshops on Zoom for both reading and writing :)
What a lovely idea, the creative writing! And good to know there is hope for me, sometime I feel like I'm a slow learner, but all beginnings are hard.
Also want to say thank you like many here! This was a wonderful thing for someone who's been quite passive with learning Japanese. I guess one of the things I am curious about is your own journey of learning Japanese, it would be great if you could share some of that.
Thanks so much, MoodyPond! I'll definitely share more of my own language learning journey in the near future, so stay tuned :)