mariathemillennial

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Changing Things Up

Dear readers & subscribers to this website, I started this blog/website with the idea to write about language learning and create my own for learning Japanese. After a while, I added content about books and reading because this is also a big part of my life. Now I think that this has made the website a bit chaotic, so it is difficult for people to know what they are subscribing to. So after…

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The Bible Read-Along: Exodus

Dear readers, welcome back! In May, we read the second book of Moses from the Old Testament: Exodus. If you missed the notes on Genesis, you can read them in the previous blog post. I decided to split my monthly reading wrap-up and this read-along because the last article got way too long. Exodus (Shemōt) The Hebrew name (shemōt) comes from the first word of the scroll, meaning ‘’names’’. Later…

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Reflecting on Literature and Languages #9

April has been an exciting but also busy month for me. Finally, I finished writing my philosophy thesis and turned it in. I studied Japanese every day for at least an hour and tried to read as much as possible. The most focus was on reading The Divine Comedy (I am almost finished with Inferno) and the Bible. So, in this newsletter, I will officially kick off my Bible read-along, see the notes on…

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Reflecting on Literature and Languages #8

Hello dear readers, and welcome new ones! Time flies. Winter is already behind us, and Spring is in full bloom now. I hope your reading goals are going fine. I’m already a bit behind, but there is still enough time to catch up. During March, I continued reading The Divine Comedy. Together with Dante, I have visited the seven rings of Hell. Ten more cantos to go, and then I will be finished with…

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The Bible Read Along (Introduction & Schedule)

Introduction Welcome to the Bible read-along! Initially, I had not planned a read-along for this year, but with the start of spring, I decided to pick up reading the Bible again. The Bible has influenced many literary and genre works of fiction. It has been fundamental for some Western philosophers and their ideas. And it remains an influential book until this day. For these reasons, I always…

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Reflecting on Literature and Languages #7

Welcome into the new year! This is the first newsletter of 2025. I have combined January and February this time but I will try to continue writing one newsletter per month. Normally, I always have a reading slump at the beginning of the year. Last year, I had not finished a single book in January. But this is not the case for 2025. I started out strong and read three books in January and two in…

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25 Books for 2025 and Other Reading Goals

Reading goals are tightly connected to language learning goals for me. Because through learning languages I eventually can read more books in their original language and find books that are not yet translated. So it’s no surprise that I want to read some books in every language I am already fluent in and also the languages I am learning. Last year, I planned to read three books in Japanese and…

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Reflecting on Literature and Languages #6 (November & December 2024)

Dear readers and book enthusiasts, The new year has already started—2025! I hope that all of you had the chance to read some amazing works of literature, fiction, and non-fiction last year and that you already have some great reading plans for this year. I will soon post my reading goals and planned books, but first, I will summarize the last two months of 2024 in this newsletter. Read in…

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Favorite Books of 2024

Ready or not but 2025 has come. So it is time to reflect on the books that I read last year. 2024 has been a good reading year for me; I enjoyed most of the books, so choosing my favorites is a challenge. However, some books were a bit more exceptional than others because they were thought-provoking or contained new insights. Those made the list of favorites and are more likely to be reread in…

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You Like It Darker by Stephen King | Book Review

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ You Like It Darker is a recent short story collection, published in 2024, by Stephen King containing 12 stories. As the title suggests the stories in this collection are a bit darker than usual. The themes touch on the horror of life’s reality; child loss, grief, and generational traumas and misunderstandings. Of course, the supernatural…

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How to Start Reading in Japanese?

Reading in a foreign language is challenging enough, but reading in Japanese as a beginner learner is even harder. If you are not used to kanji and Japanese grammar, you will probably have trouble with reading and finding the right material to read. And at the same time, reading is one of the best immersion activities. Through reading you are able to learn kanji, vocabulary, and grammar in a…

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JLPT N5 Kanji

一 One 二 Two 三 Three 四 Four 五 Five 六 Six 七 Seven 八 Eight 九 Nine 十 Ten 人  Person    日 Sun 大 Big 年 Year 出 Exit 本 Book 中 Middle 子 Child 見 See 国 Country 上 Up 分 Part 生 Life 行 Go 間 Interval 時 Time 気 Spirit 女 Woman 前 In front 入 Enter 小 Small 後 Behind 下 Down 長 Long 学 Study 月Moon 何 What 来 Come 話 Talk 山 Mountain 高 Tall 今 Now 書 Write 名…

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How to Study Japanese Grammar

Most language learners, myself included, are scared of grammar in general and try to avoid it as much as possible. However, you cannot learn to understand a language without focusing at least a bit on the grammar part. You can know all the vocabulary in the sentence but still don’t understand the meaning of the sentence due to a lack of grammar knowledge. I would not recommend memorizing grammar…

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Reflecting on Literature and Languages #5

For some reason, October was the quickest month of this year for me. It flew by without me even realizing it. I hope you all had an interesting reading month, a great Halloween evening, and of course many opportunities to watch horror movies and read some scary books. I feel like I did a lot of reading this month, and even started two new books, but in the end, I only managed to finish two…

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The Scariest Movie of the Year

Watching horror movies has been my thing since early childhood. Especially during my teenage years, I binge-watched as many horror movies as I could find online. So yes, I have been spoiled regarding horror. Finding one that would actually send shivers down my spine is difficult. Despite this, I still get excited when hearing the rumors of the scariest movie of the year. As long as I can…

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Human Acts by Han Kang | Book Review

Buy Human Acts on Amazon 소년이 온다 In light of this year’s Nobel Prize Winner, Han Kang, I would like to review one of her books. Human Acts is, in fact, the only novel I have read from her; I had planned to read her other work, too, but so far, I haven’t. However, I can finally say that I’m familiar with the work of a Nobel Prize winner; I had to discover the winners from previous years after the…

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Bioethics, Orwell & Autumn

Reflecting on Literature and Languages #4 (September 2024) This is my fourth newsletter already! Time flies. September was a good reading month for me (I hope for you too). I have finished four books, and loved all of them! Most of my reading was thesis focused (so a lot of bioethics), however, since it’s finally Fall season, I have also tried to pick up some books and stories with an autumnal…