rigelmejo

[rigelmejo]

I just discovered this guy on Youtube: Jiro, Just Japanese

His lesson format reminds me of Japanese Quest, except much more Japanese much less English (which I prefer... I hate time spent on the language not being studied in lessons...I'm an impatient person). He has english captions so you can follow along easily, and he has a list of words taught for each episode (a lot of words per ep!) Which is what reminds me of Japanese Quest and Game Gengo's lesson video style, as both of those youtube channels also give spreadsheet lists of words taught you can review/check. Which is really nice and useful for reviewing later, or prestudying beforehand.

[rigelmejo]

531 hours and the intermediate rollercoaster is taking a dive again. I am listening to SaYe audiobook and I feel like I can't follow what's going on... despite following 4 hours with partial attention just fine yesterday.

I was at maybe the height of the intermediate rollercoaster (feeling good) around 520-525 hours.

Just fascinated how understanding (and the perception of how HARD it feels) goes up and down.

[rigelmejo]

I am playing Raidou remake (which is very fun!) Gouto is voiced now! My kitty detective partner!!!!

And I am listening to Nihongo Con Teppei as I level grind so just a lot of japanese in general. Found this playlist below, so if you feel like also listening:

[rigelmejo]

Question for people: does anyone have any listening-only Chinese resources that would be good for shadowing? Particularly sentences that would be useful to know how to say.

Right now I am leaning toward Spoonfed Chinese Audio files because its 7000+ sentences, all from iKnow site, all focused on conversational topics and common words, and minimal english (I want to hear as much chinese in as few minutes as possible for an ideal material).

Glossika Chinese has less sentences, and I know it bores me, and I wasn't that impressed with the kind of sentences glossika has. But it probably would be pretty useful for shadowing (as its designed for it), and it has a built in SRS in the audio only mode which would be more efficient than me just shadowing audio as I go only one time each...

I'm also eying Robin Homer's Guided Chinese Mandarin, because its free on Hoopla app and has spaced repetition built in. But I tried the first episode and wayyyy more english explanations than I need or want. I dont need english explanations... I just need the chinese sentences. ;-;

I ruled out using ChinesePod101/Innovative Languages courses because even though they're great, and free on Hoopla, and in depth, they're like an audio textbook. So there's a LOT of english explanations (75% of each lesson is English explanations). I just need the chinese sentences so I can shadow them...

[rigelmejo]

How to say this... I am particularly adept at making a study plan for myself to read a particular book ASAP. Because idk, reading just motivates me. And being willing to look up words while I read... I can really just get away with "cram study a few thousand words and a grammar guide" and then start intensively reading. That's a strategy that works really well for me, with graded readers as extensive reading practice until regular books are doable to extensively read.

So making study plans for improving my listening and speaking is brand new for me. I think the study plans I've made for listening is going okay... I hope my study plan for speaking also goes okay...

[rigelmejo]

Study Plan Notes 6/23/2025

For Chinese:

Continue 默读 audio drama, 撒野 audiobook, dubbed cartoons. Optional: continue Xiaogua Chinese, Chinese Podcast with Shenglan, Dashu Mandarin.

Continue reading Weibo occasionally. I have noticed I am LAZY if able to be (aka if I can skim to understand the main idea... I do, if I can listen instead of read... I do), so I should probably resume reading practice at 1200 hours. Maybe reading my print books (print books means I can't be lazy), or just watching dramas with hard subs like the ones I have saved to watch later.

Start speaking practice when I feel up for it. Probably soon, considering what I have been feeling like. I think I will practice by making a recording, as I notice when I write I end up looking up words and not fully practicing "what I can recall in my mind." Also again, I am LAZY and I will not practice proper speaking unless I make myself speak. Other ideas: shadow some chinese audio first for a while to get words into my active vocabulary and get in the habit of speaking more - maybe Chinese Spoonfed Audio, or one of the Hoopla audiobooks I found, or Glossika (my beloathed). Then get on Hellotalk and start/join a chatroom for Chinese.

For French:

Listen to InnerFrench podcast, listen to Francais Par Le Methode Nature (and shadow). Optional: read Francais Par Le Methode Nature (again) and maybe speak aloud to practice speaking more.

Watch whatever else I feel like. Maybe Lupin and Lady J on Netflix. I find some youtubers are already quite understandable to me, so if anyone has any French speaking youtuber channels they like, please feel free to recommend them!

I realize I need to shadow probably, to develop speaking skills.

Alternatively, I found this audiobook on Hoopla and I'm kind of curious (and you know me - when I want to review something I'm very motivated). It is 60 hours so it is either VERY information dense and in depth *which would be ideal for me, OR a fuck ton of English explanations and slow paced as fuck *which would result in me reviewing it as bad.

For Japanese:

Honestly... keep watching Peppa Pig, which I find really understandable right now. Learner podcasts: Nihongo Con Teppei and Yuyu's Podcast and Japanese with Shun. If I feel like doing a LOT. I don't have time for japanese much right now, so this will be for whenever I get back to it.

Keep playing my Yakuza games with English subtitles and listening to the dialogue to see what words/phrases I can recognize.

Eventually, down the road, listen to condensed audio of Final Fantasy X, Death Note, and watch ALL THE LETS PLAYS I HAVE SAVED on my To Watch on youtube!

And if I'm feeling ambitious, play Yakuza Ishin and Yakuza Kenzan in japanese. Since I have them. Maybe some other games in japanese too, who the fuck knows. Does anyone else feel like Japanese Yakuza Ishin plays smoother than the English re-release they made? Or is that just me.

Stretch goal... watching the fucking japanese dramas I own on dvd like Death Note, My Beautiful Man, Miss Sherlock, Criminologist Himura...

Progress Updates Below:

撒野 is understandable enough to follow the main ideas of the plot with partial attention. I don't catch all the details unless I'm paying full attention. Fighting my own perfectionsim, I have decided to simply listen to it. (527 hours)

默读 audio drama is understandable now. I know enough of the plot it is obvious which scene is which. I love it. I was also really excited to understand the Free Talk season 1 special episode with the actors. (527 hours)

Some Dashu Mandarin podcast episodes are understandable now. I am not super interested in some of them though. I may keep watching the ones I'm intetested in. I do think there's some podcast type words that I don't regularly encounter in audiobooks. (527 hours)

Some French youtubers are understandable now. It's wild to me. I saved some true crime and history video essays to listen to. (4 hours)

French shows on Netflix feel ridiculously hard/I have to focus intensively, like La Foret. I did watch Monster anime dubbed in French though, and that was doable - although the french subs not matching the dubs at all fucked with me. (4 hours)

Peppa Pig Japanese is much easier to understand now??? Despite me doing no fucking listening practice since I last tried. (5 hours)

Japanese Lets Plays are also much fucking easier to follow with partial attention now. (5 hours) No idea why. I genuinely think somehow my Chinese listening practice is also improving my Japanese listening skills... somehow. I have a few thousand Japanese words in my head I have studied in the past, and despite not being able to recall them off the top of my head... when I hear Japanese they jump out as recognizable. It's weird. I am going to enjoy coasting on this improvement-for-no-japanese-study. Unfortunately, this means I now have good enough Japanese listening skills to simply listen to the stuff I wanted to listen to (lets plays) and so I have no excuse to avoid doing it. I mean my excuse is I'm busy lol. But before this, my excuse was "I need to listen to 1000 boring podcast episodes of Nihongo con Teppei before i could even TRY lets plays without auto captions" and well... now I don't really need the boring learner podcasts if I don't want to. Avoiding the boring learner content was a big reason I was avoiding Japanese listening. I hate being bored lol.

So without that excuse... I really can just do something "fun" to practice Japanese any time I want to... there is nothing holding me back...

I can do something in Japanese whenever I feel like it...

Biggest takeaway this month is: my listening goals for Chinese were reached at about 500 hours of listening this 2025. I can now listen to danmei audiobooks of some things to keep learning. It should be very easy to keep studying Chinese now, as I have lots of stuff I want to listen to. I think my listening is around my reading level now. So I can listen or read extensively to continue improving. For speaking/production skills, I personally think I NEED TO SHADOW. I think shadowing will be the quickest route to making myself speak and practice speaking, because when I try to recall from my own mind I often have to look up words still and the grammar is all over the place. I think after some shadowing, words would come faster/easier and grammar would be more regular. That's my current theory.

[rigelmejo]

I think I may just... go through 撒野 totally, then maybe go through it again another time. It is perfect for following the main idea, and has so many words and sentences I'd like to say... and I feel like repeatedly listening to it would be useful for learning how to say and listen to a ton of basic things...

And much more suitable than modu or the other crime novels I listen to.

I really think what would be best for practice is... a novel super heavy in dialogue, set in regular daily life. Anyone have any ideas for novels that would fit that specification? Maybe a modern danmei or romance novel/audiobook? The ones I know of have way more narration than dialogue...

[rigelmejo]

100 hour CI update

I’m so excited to finally be typing up this post. I am currently sitting at 102 hours of comprehensible input tracked as of today. I feel like these first 100 hours have been such a rollercoaster and it’s amazing to realize I’ve really only just scratched the surface of my language learning journey.

I feel like the biggest change has been in my mentality and the way I view the process of language acquisition. I definitely did not have a realistic idea of what goes into learning a language, but thanks to massive amounts of reading and research during this process I have come to have a whole new philosophy for how I approach languages, and it has made this whole thing that much more exciting.

Things have been changing so rapidly here at the beginning, but I’m finding my rhythm. I think the biggest thing is learning to do this in your own highly personal and stylized way. I plan to prioritize Spanish as much as possible over even English, and my ability to do that will increase over time, no matter what someone elses roadmap says about doing what when. I already don’t match up to the roadmap so ill just be going off on my own. that being said I think dreaming Spanish is a great platform for bridging the gap into understanding, and I actually am having fun grinding this learner content. ill probably keep the platform for another year or until 500h whichever comes first.

Some random notes I jotted down on the way:

- 8hrs: I feel like knowing basic grammar and vocab through my previous classroom study is really easing the way during this beginner stage. I have a very low tolerance for ambiguity, which I know I have to build to be successful in this method. I don’t mind missing 1-3 words in a video but one word per sentence is enough to exhaust my mental power quickly. I’ve taken to watching superbeginner on 1.25x speed and occasionally mixing in beg level. The key is just time. And the time will pass anyway, might as well learn some Spanish!

- 15hrs: had an “oh” moment finally internalizing what all the redditors meant when they said beginner GRIND. I’ve been waking up earlier (because I have a new puppy <3 and I prefer to walk him super early) so getting time in ASAP really helps. I’m focusing on learning to watch the videos for content, and breaking the habit of translating every word. I want to watch the same way I do English content, and let the meaning wash over me. I think this is going to be key.

- 25hrs: I decided to buy the premium because I feel like DS as a main course is going to be the easiest way to carry myself to the 500 hour mark along with all my other supplements

- 30hrs: I’m definitely an interest over comprehension person. I feel the need to increase my podcast stamina. I am convinced that studying the basics has made this beginner phase smoother and more efficient for me.

- 58hrs: I’m hitting my stride, and feeling the burn. my mental muscles are flexing. I want to work up to 3 hours a day and officially join the ranks of the speedrunners XD some intermediate/difficulty 50 videos are around 80% comprehension, but it’s a struggle so I want to stay well below that for the time being. I’ve been watching twilight slowly and steadily lol. its shockingly comprehensible, because ive seen this movie so many times, and the dub is relatively simple. I still have to watch it in parts though because my stamina is not very high yet. I’ve watched it about 5 times now, and its very helpful to hit my daily goal. I’m getting more excited about the future.

- 71hrs: I have been thoroughly fixated on the DS reddit since starting this journey, which I can thankfully feel beginning to fade. the reddit page has been essential for me so far, but im starting to see the patterns in what people say and do on there, so while I still enjoy reading peoples stories, its less about trying to learn Spanish “perfectly” or “the right way” cause I finally figured out theres no such thing. im learning not to obsess over every minute/hour and just letting it all wash over me. some days I don’t hit my goal and that’s fine. everyday is a drop in the bucket and I have plans to build an ocean. I am creating a Spanish brain for myself and that’s going to take time. I will focus on smaller concrete goals.

developing my “feel” for this process has been a delicious challenge, and im excited to keep going. its also making me excited for the future of my other languages, now that im developing my own technique, im sooo ready to try and apply it elsewhere, but I really want to get my Spanish to a decent level as quickly as possible, so I know I need to keep my focus narrowed for the time being. once ive switched all my hobbies over to Spanish and am happily swimming in my pool while it becomes an ocean, then I will come back to the other languages I love. after this point, I slowed down substantially due to some changes in my life which made everything more complicated. im just happy that I am able to look at the bigger picture and know that ill be with Spanish for a long time so small setbacks are inconsequential. and I am now getting back in the swing of things, and I actually think taking breaks is good for a brain undergoing such a massive undertaking.

BREAKS ARE IMPORTANT!!!!!!

some days are just better than others when it comes to learning. being able to step back and take days where im barely getting any minutes (or none at all lol) has helped me relax into this process, and has probably helped my brain learn more efficiently as a result. I want to take a long break, maybe 3 days to a week or so, every 100 hours to let my brain consolidate things and just breathe because I can get kind of intense about this and forget to see the forest for all the trees. ive read about how taking longer breaks from intensive immersion can be helpful.

other domains

speaking: I live in an area with a high hispanohablante population, so I just plan on letting any speaking happen organically. ive been able to toss out a couple of random words or numbers to help customers at work and even that gave me such a happy feeling, i can feel in my bones that every little bit does count <3

I also talk to myself A LOT and have a very active inner monologue so if any Spanish comes out spontaneously ill let it flow, but I don’t want to put to much brain power to it. ive noticed Spanish wants to come out on its own when ive been putting in higher hours.

reading: other than occasional subtitles or random instructions no real reading yet. I plan to start around 300 hours maybe sooner. vague plan is to just binge some educational content and work up through grade levels until I can start working my way through some fanfic, which is my mid-tier goal hehe.

writing: again no focus here. just random words here and there. when I start reading I think ill make more of an effort. once I get to a high enough level I want to start studying some grammar, because I remembered that I actually enjoy studying languages in a linguistic sense >.< and studying in spanish will be EXTRA rewarding, and enhacing my reading and writing at the same time.

final thoughts

ive felt like the online learning community has been soooo fun in helping me on this path and believing in myself and my abilities. but a HUGE lesson has been COMPARISON IS THE THIEF OF JOY!!!

its fun to compare notes and share techniques and resources, but as soon as you feel like you “have to” do some specific thing a certain way or you wont succeed TURN BACK YOU’VE GONE TOO FAR!! lol

just figuring out what you REALLY want (not what you think you should want), from hobbyist to effectively replacing your native language, is the biggest piece of the pie IMO. this has been so long and rambly but im enjoying myself and im happy to answer questions :)))

much love to all the language learners out there. wherever you are or wherever you end up, i hope you've had some fun!

[rigelmejo]

米粥日记6月22日

我可以试试写一些。我猜知道1000-3000单词我可以说话，但是我可能阅读8000多少单词。

今天六月二十二日。我会请假工星期一，星期二和星期五。我周末会去湖边。

我有一个面包过敏，还有更些过敏。过敏最大是土豆。如果我吃土豆，我必须出去医院。面包过敏过程我成为红色和咳嗽，当时我吃药，才我还好。

昨天我吃过太面包，所以我现在很疼。苯海拉明不多了帮我。

我希望明天我更好。现在我很疼。不好。我难过。

[rigelmejo]

Doodle in my planner to keep me going 💪

[rigelmejo]

Question for anyone learning French: do you study the article with the words?

So studying "une femme" or "la femme" instead of just "femme"

[rigelmejo]

I may be posting little journals or audio journals sometime soon. I do want to get better at speaking Mandarin. And I need to practice a lot to do that. (Which my goal is ~100-200 hours of practice? Some probably with a tutor or in a language exchange)

I think listening has given me a lot more vocabulary jingling in my head, and if I just speak/write more then more words will turn into active vocabulary I can recall.

[rigelmejo]

So if you ever are like "why the fuck can't I do my goal X activitiy after studying Y months/years?"

I encourage you to sit down and determine roughly:

1. How many hours you've actually studied in those months/years? (and if it's nowhere near the hours recommended for say a goal of reading or speaking at B2 level then perhaps consider planning to increase study hours)

2. How much of your study plan is spent focusing on practicing the goal skills? (If your goal is to speak to people at a B2 level, and you have never practiced speaking - or even shadowing after a dialogue - then perhaps change your study plan to Include some speaking related practice).

[rigelmejo]

So far it looks like a majority of people are studying Mandarin, which makes sense as I post the most resources for Mandarin. (I do also have "#french resources" and "#japanese resources" tags if you are looking for those posts).

Also I made a typo in the poll :/ and forgot to add 'Mandarin and French' as an option ToT

Curious, since a lot of you seem to be studying similar languages to what I am studying.

[rigelmejo]

Lilo and Stitch is so good, they are at a renfaire now?! I dont remember most of these episodes, despite loving the show as a kid and definitely always watching it. Maybe I somehow missed some seasons growing up? You know how cable was. If you didnt see it when it aired, you'd have to get lucky and catch reruns

520 hours into listening btw. Having a great time with cartoons and Modu audio drama.

[rigelmejo]

Anyway sime advice related to language learning - if you are working on your listening skills, and learner materials are boring you/burning you out (despite probably being the most suitable easy materials to learn from)

Try out just searchung some childhood cartoon dubs on Bilibili.com - Kim Possible, Catdog, Lilo and Stitch, Sailor Moon, Inuyasha, Hikaru No Go, Death Note, whatever you used to watch. Cartoons being visual mean you will find it much easier to understand lines in context, and your past memory of the show will also mean you mostly follow the plot. It's an enjoyable nostalgic way to get some listening practice in.

I've been watching a LOT of cartoons on bilibili this past month. It's less focus intensive than learner podcasts (which have no visuals) and audiobooks (which have no visuals).

Easier material, if you aren't at the cartoons stage yet... CI lessons, cartoons for toddlers (if you're particularly nostalgic for any then perhaps pick ones you liked when little), and movies for toddlers to young children (think Pixar, Disney, other movies for young children that have enough of a plot you can enjoy as an adult too).

If anyone has any Mandarin cartoons to recommend, please let me know!

[rigelmejo]

So I'm watching Lilo and Stitch mandarin dub and episode 14 Jumba and Pleakly get married. It all started with Pleakly being pressured to marry and get a wife (you know, our friendly a-yi Pleakly who dresses in dresses most of the time) and Nani tries to help him out then its discovered David is her boyfriend, so Jumba decides to help him out. Anyway Pleakly's family finds out its all a lie, Pleakly promises he's happy not being married and knows his family loves him. Anyway I never realized how forward thinking Lilo and Stitch was as a child, I feel like Disney would fight to not air this nowadays.

Also no wonder I gravitated to this as a preteen. The idea of not wanting to tell ur parents about who you are, afraid of the pressure they'll put on you, very relatable to kids/teens in the closet.

Of course, Lilo and Stitch themselves arw very relatable to any children who've ever been the weird kid, the lonely kid, the kid who just wants a friend. And the show is very family is the people who love and cherish you. Whether they're related or the friends you make.