I do know that this 多読 will be much lighter than usual, however. I’d like to spread my focus (something I’m absolutely terrible at and vow to fix), keep up grammar SRSing and translating and, most importantly, not burn myself out for the next some months. ( ´∀｀) So I’m aiming for more like 2,000 pages rather than my “usual” 3,000.

So yeah, here’s to a fun and successful 多読 and 2012!

I just didn’t expect it to last an entire month.

That’s not to say I ignored my studies completely; if October was an 8 in terms of Japanese exposure on a scale of 1 to 10, November was probably a 3. Certainly not a regressive month, but fairly stagnant, and I know I can do better.

So, it’s time to get back on track for the merry month of December. I’ll save the all-out Nippongoes blitz for January (the next Tadoku, of course!), but there are a few things I’m planning for the coming month which I hope to follow through on consistently and get some good study habits goin’ on again. Following my whims works well enough… until I’m lured down the dark alley where only scraps and crumbs of Japanese exist (see: a little ol ‘game called Skyrim, much of my political activism of late, as well as subject matter which is either far over my head in Japanese, or simply doesn’t exist). Therefore, the following:

• A dedicated day of anime. I’ve fallen behind for no good reason, or than the fact that I’m too lazy to actually sit down, choose a show and watch it. The bottomless abyss known as my laziness is a thing to behold. Thus, a dedicated day where I spend a good few hours watchin’ stuff! I’m gonna give Saturday a shot and see how it works out.
• Me, grammar deck, 50-100 new cards a day. There’s no way around it, y’all – either I’m gonna have to actively study grammar, or forever be grammatically retarded. The more I get into translation, the more this becomes apparent. The good news is that I have a solid grammar deck which is effective, thorough, and generally isn’t that torturous to review, so really, I have no excuse. This must be done if I truly want to make progress.
• Translate at least 100 lines a day. What’s a “line”? Translate what? Ahh, the mysteries of life. Nevertheless, it shall be so. (And it shall be awesome.)

These are realistic goals, and honestly shouldn’t bog me down. Let’s roll.

Also, have another mashup! http://ritobito.tumblr.com/post/13555498340

But you know what? That little fucker earned his keep all the same. Let’s go over my reading list and see what I got around to. I’m gonna color code it a little something like this:

• Green: Read to completion!
• Yellow green: Read partially, but a satisfactory enough chunk
• Orange: Barely chipped
• Red: Didn’t touch at all
• Blue: A NEW CHALLENGER HAS APPEARED

Books

• サクラダリセット
• 1Q84
• ダンガンロンパ/ゼロ

Manga

• PLUTO
• Berserk (think I read three volumes, the last of which was WORDS WORDS WORDS)
• 賭博黙示録カイジ
• ΠΛΑΝΗΤΕΣ
• 聖☆おにいさん
• Vinland Saga (roughly a volume worth)
• ヒストリエ (most of volume 1, but kinda lost interest)
• スレイヤーズ

Visual Novel

• Ever17 (finished – oh, was it ever finished.)
• 428 〜封鎖された渋谷で〜 (scratched the surface, but got tired of counting screens ♪～(´ε｀ ))
• Chaos;Head
• 彼岸花の咲く夜に
• うみねこのなく頃に (episode 4 completed!)
• Remember11 (left off exactly 25% of the way through)
• うみねこのなく頃に散 (barely scratched the surface, and will likely wait for the PSP remake)
  
• ひぐらしのなく頃に (PS2 version – again, counting screens was getting tiring)

And there you have it. A small portion also came from various web pages and articles, J-subbed stuff and a few misc games.

So as I mentioned, all went well from the start of Tadoku, up to around the 17th or 18th… when I blazed my way through the latter half of Umineko 4 (which was excellent), and then picking up where I left off in Ever17 (about a third of the way through) and eventually coming to the final arc, which had me in a stunned stupor for three straight days (where I must have logged 700 pages or more).

I feel like it’s necessary for me to talk a little about this visual novel here, since it so dominated my brain matter in ways few things ever have.

Simply put, Ever17 was: the best visual novel I’ve ever read; the best science fiction I’ve ever read; and quite frankly, some of the best fiction, period, I’ve ever read. This visual novel manages to make use of plot twists I’d normally hate to mind boggling effect, and plot mechanics I never would have even dreamed of. Holy shit.

I was instantly drawn to this game thanks to its precipitous situation involving a small group becoming trapped inside an underwater amusement park with only a limited amount of time before the whole thing implodes under massive water pressure. I tend to enjoy survival situations such as this either way, but the deep sea setting somehow does wondrous things with my imagination.

I’m not sure how to explain the brilliance of this VN without giving away elements key to its mindblowing-factor, so I’ll try to keep it short. It’s a visual novel that makes use of its platform to the fullest, taking advantage of the perspectives of the game’s two characters, the choices of the player and subtle details sprinkled throughout practically every scene which constantly hint at something juuust beyond reach and comprehension… Elements which all come together by the (very, very long) end to blow the reader’s mind into the stratosphere. It really is that good, and worth every minute spent reading through its various routes (yes, even Sora’s somewhat lame route!).

So yeah, do yourself a favor and read this mutha. Required reading for every fan of science fiction and visual novels as a platform, absolutely.

Now, the problem came after finishing Ever17, for you see, I’ve come to realize that there exists such a thing as Post-Mindblown Disorder (let’s abbreviate that as PMBD). PMBD is a phenomenon I’d experienced multiple times in the past, most notably with having finished Danganronpa and Steins;Gate; two incredibly mindblowing experiences, to be sure. It’s best described as a euphoria, a powerful high where I’m unable to do much but rave about how fucking awesome that just was, and everything else just seems bland by comparison. Perhaps there’s a mental fatigue element to take into account, as well, since invariably said mindblowing experiences will have me hooked for hours upon hours until completion, leading to a period of time where I’m simply unable to focus on heavy reading again for some time.

At any rate, I finished Ever17 on the 18th, and I never fully recovered. Such was my PMBD that I jumped straight into the game’s “sequel” (completely unrelated world, but same ‘Infinity’ series and author), Remember11, ignoring my existing stack of planned reading material. Whereas I had several days straight of 200-page days with Ever17, I’d only have a small handful of 100-page days with Remember11, ending up just under 2,900 pages – far less than I’d hoped, but pretty damn decent all the same.

It was good times. I still feel a little burned out from reading, so I’ll likely focus on Actual Studying Stuff for a while, including my foray into MCDs, something I’d been stubbornly resisting beginning for a very long while. Early impressions is that this is really enjoyable and effective, and super comfortable now that I’m getting good at reading. I’d also like to get back to the grammar deck, because that’s something I could always improve.

But for today, I plan to kick back and chill out. Good game, y’all.

You know the drill. Materials subject to change, as usual:

Books

• サクラダリセット (thanks to BDH殿!)
• 1Q84
• ダンガンロンパ/ゼロ

Manga

• PLUTO (thanks to sloppie先生!)
• Berserk (vol. 15 and up)
• 賭博黙示録カイジ
• ΠΛΑΝΗΤΕΣ (PLANETES)
• 聖☆おにいさん
• Vinland Saga
• ヒストリエ
• スレイヤーズ

Visual Novel

• Ever17 (about 30% complete, currently)
• 428 〜封鎖された渋谷で〜 (PSP)
• Chaos;Head
• 彼岸花の咲く夜に
• うみねこのなく頃に (episode 4; however, I’m very tempted to hold off and play the PS3/upcoming PSP versions for the huge benefit of voiced dialogue)

Though this list was originally a little on the light side, I’ve decided to go a little more nuts and flesh it out proper. Obviously, it’s not very likely I’ll get around to all of them, but I’m feeling especially enthusiastic on the manga side of things lately; better to have a nice stack of material ready to rock. In fact, it was just about one year ago that I began my very own extensive reading spree with Berserk, so perhaps this sudden surge of enthusiasm isn’t coincidental after all.

Looking back now, it’s mind boggling to me how far a year’s worth of extensive reading (albeit, in a rather on-again-off-again fashion) has taken me. Where once I struggled, now is largely natural and fluid. Material I’d thought permanently outside of my grasp is now accessible, comprehensible and enjoyable. Traditional study methods are mostly obsolete to me now; Japan is my overworld, native materials are my dungeons, words are my monsters and I am the adventurer. It’s sorta like 世界樹の迷宮 on scale 100, 1,000 times larger, and with less F.O.E waiting around every corner to crush my spirits (though those could be viewed metaphorically as rare kanji; R07 fricking loves tormenting me with those).

But enough about that – are you ready for the SPACE JAM? (´・ω・`) うぷぷぷ・・・

I can’t remember the exact date, but I’m fairly certain I officially began my studies with RTK sometime in (late?) August or early September of 2008. So, 2009, 2010, 2011… yup, that definitely makes three years. I can still hardly believe it. I’ve been studying this damn language for three full years now.

I’ve come a long, long way, and yet I have a long, long way to go.

I’m no guru, nor do I ever care to be a guru, and I’m certainly not the most qualified person in the world to give my expert opinion on the subject of language learning or the Japanese language in general; thus, my humble, jumbled mess of a blog chronicling my progress. So rather than write a behemoth of a post telling fellow learners what to do lest they fail forever like so many before them as a newly minted Language Guru On The Internet™, here’s a little ol’ collection of things I’d tell to my past-self, were I able to send a D-mail three years into the past (and inevitably end up breaking time-space as we know it).

And by “little”, I mean I had intended for this post to be around 500 words long, not over 2,400. I guess I had a little more to say to my past-self than I thought. Welp, here goes.

• The concept of fluency

The concept should be the last thing on your mind. Strike the word from your vocabulary immediately. Fluency isn’t memorizing a few dozen phrases, nor is it the native-like perfection many seem to believe it is. It’ll come in time, but until then, so much as contemplating it (or its ever-changing definition) is just a waste of time, energy and motivation.

• Progress and comparisons

This was actually gonna be one of the major points of this post, until I stalled and Khatz summed it up far more elegantly. I could go into further detail, but lemme simply say that I’ve found few better ways to kill my motivation and momentum than comparing my own progress with that of someone else.

Trust me when I say that it’s always apples and oranges, and that putting in the time and effort will always result in progress.

• Language learning forums

While a great place for resources and information, it’s incredibly easy to fall into the trap of spending more time talking about a language than actually learning a language. Take it from me, who felt the need to try every bleeding edge study method I came across on these forums, not to mention spending far too much time reading and discussing about said methods and theories and so forth.

Plus, there’s always a vocal minority (often quite small, but somehow appearing in every single thread) that will stop at nothing to spread their vitriol and discouragement, which is often subtle enough not to be immediately apparent. They’re not pleasant to associate with, and they’re not gonna help you with much of anything.

Sooner or later, those forums have gotta go. You won’t miss out on anything revolutionary, trust me.

• Focusing on too many things at once

There’s an expression that goes along the lines of, Keep It Simple, Ya Dipshit! I call it KISYD for short. It exists for a good reason.

With few exceptions, I’ve found it far more difficult to spread my time around several different things, than to simply focus on one thing to completion. It’s not even that I’d be spreading an equal amount of time between those several things, and the one thing; consistently, that one thing would end up getting two, three times more time invested. When attempting to focus on those several things, I get overwhelmed and end up doing a whole lotta not much, instead. I don’t know why this is. I guess I just wasn’t made for multitasking.

• SRS is not the be-all-end-all

Longtime followers are likely well aware of my love/hate relationship with SRS. We’ve had good times and bad, that fickle mistress and I.

I’ve yet to stick with a single deck for longer than a few months (with the exception of my original RTK deck) until ultimately tiring of it, rarely actually restoring an abandoned deck. I believe this is sort of related to my inability to focus on much more than one damn thing at a time; it just becomes bothersome for me, or feels like it’s outlived its usefulness. As I type this, I’m working on a beefy grammar deck which has been pretty successful, but I’m sure that it, too, will go the way of many decks before it, and ultimately meet its fate in SRS Valhalla, where SRS decks do… whatever it is they do in SRS Valhalla.

SRS has been undeniably useful, and even my on-again-off-again habits have gotten me some great results. But for me, lots of reading has had just as great an impact on learning, if not greater, and doesn’t punish me with dozens of expired cards if I dare to miss a day or two.

• Ignoring grammar

If there’s one particular thing that hardly ever fails to bore me to tears, it’s studying grammar.

To this day, I couldn’t tell you exactly what function を takes and how it interacts with and modifies nouns and verbs and humdingers and what have you; that stuff is pretty meaningless to me. I generally have a good feeling for how it and other grammar points work, but I couldn’t explain the finer details. The same goes for English grammar, quite frankly.

And you know what? That is awesome, and mostly the result of not worrying about reading through grammar books and the like, and simply sitting back and letting the language sort itself out for me.

But just as ditching SRS entirely hasn’t worked very well for me, so has ditching grammar study entirely. I’ve attained a good, natural feel for a sizable chunk of Japanese grammar, but there remains an even larger chunk that I feel will require a bit more deliberate study in order to really get down. Especially in my recent translation escapades (more on that in a week or two) where precise grammar knowledge is vital, my weak points have become all the more apparent.

This doesn’t mean I plan to bust open those books explaining all the raw and dirty technical details and functions of this and that, oh heavens no! Simply reviewing grammar-oriented sentences and taking note of the various bits and pieces that cause a sentence to mean such and such is more than good enough. I’ll gladly leave the technical nuts and bolts to the linguists and more grammar-minded learners among us; I’m certainly not one of them. However, I do feel that the occasional review of grammar is necessary to get a really solid handle on some bits I’d completely miss through pure reading.

• A little English don’t hurt

Touching on a previous post briefly, it’s been my experience that complete and total Japanese immersion isn’t necessary for rapid, efficient language learning; not to mention is a bit impractical. In fact, I’d go so far to say that deliberately introducing some English into my diet has been beneficial. I remember how much I’d stress and beat myself up over bits and pieces of English language stuff, such as movies and news articles, thinking I’d never make true progress without shutting out English completely.

The real problem arises when one gets too comfortable and lazy with their native language stuff, which is so accessible compared to the foreign stuff; that’s how it always worked for me, anyway. In that regard, sticking to as much Japanese as possible while limiting English to a minimum is certainly a good idea.

However, just as keeping one’s foreign language sharp with a steady flow of foreign language material, it’s also super important for someone like me, who writes a lot and aspires to translate professionally, to keep my native language sharp with a trickle of English language material. It’s a difficult balance at times, and something I’m always careful with; I find that, if I get in a certain amount of Japanese reading/watching/etc., it’s fine to reward myself with some English language news articles, or a podcast, or whatever else I’ve been itching at. Balance is key.

• You don’t need 99.999% comprehension to enjoy stuff

I remember reading, multiple times, on one of aforementioned language forums that one shouldn’t read something unless they understand something like 95% of the vocabulary. That’s knowledge of 19 out of 20 words. If I’d taken their advice rather than diving headfirst into comparatively difficult stuff like Berserk and Umineko (the latter of which I probably had 70~% comprehension on for a good while, now well above 90%), I honestly wonder where the hell I’d be right now.

I’m consistently amazed just how thoroughly I end up enjoying something which has a relatively high amount of unknown vocabulary. Occasionally, I get a feeling of, “man, I really should be reading something easier… I’m gonna miss out on all kinds of stuff and be hella confused!” Yet of all the things I’ve read to completion so far, I’ve yet to run into that situation, and in fact have gotten my mind blown into orbit regularly by the incredible plot twists and turns of masterpieces such as Danganronpa and Steins;Gate.

Of course I miss out on details here and there, but those hardly matter in the grand scheme of things. Enjoyment trumps all, and one should never let an arbitrary number stand in the way of one’s enjoyment.

• Put down the dictionary

Ditching the dictionary has been one of the most successful changes to my routine. There was a time when I’d use AGTH to look up damn near every unknown word in Umineko, and I began to notice a pattern: I’d be looking up the same word a dozen, two dozen times, sometimes even more, without the damn thing committing to the confines of my brain. As soon as I let up and just focused on reading, not worrying too much about readings and skipping over bits I couldn’t decipher, those words actually began sticking. Furthermore, many words I’d normally have looked up just started making sense. And best of all, no having to interrupt my reading to look stuff up!

There are times when looking up a word or two may be necessary, sure. I’m a fan of looking up anything that jumps out as “interesting” to me, be it a combination of unusual kanji or just something out of the ordinary that piques my curiosity. Perhaps a word comes up that I’m sure is vital to the story. In those cases, I’m perfectly fine taking a minute to look up and jot down a word. But in most cases, it’s just not necessary.

Tying in with “you don’t need 99.999% comprehension,” obviously if you’re not missing out on too many words, that may be a problem. In that case, I’d recommend reading something easier unless you seriously have the will to trudge through difficult material (with or without the use of a dictionary).

• Keep a decent attitude

I used to be one pessimistic mutha in regards to learning this language. It just doesn’t help; not me, not anyone else.

• If it sucks, ditch it

That means you, Liar Game TV drama. Dear god, that was terrible. It would be almost a year later that I’d actually watch another live action drama.

Forcing yourself through something you don’t like is NOT a good idea. These are the things that cause people to quit learning a language, completely.

• Don’t neglect your listening

Now that I really sit down and think hard about it, it doesn’t really make much sense to focus on reading comprehension before listening. Of course, who better to flip the proverbial bird to conventional wisdom (practical as they may be) than me?

On the other hand, reading brings tons of benefits, and is probably the best way to build vocabulary, without which one can only go so far. But even years later, my listening is still pretty damn lousy and I feel like it shouldn’t be that way. Even passive listening, be it from podcasts, audio books or random TV channels going in the background is much, much better than nothing.

• Don’t let fear mongering scare you away from speaking and writing

Gotta admit, me and Antimoon disagree pretty strongly on some things, and this is one of them.

The theory is that speaking too early will reinforce incorrect language to the point that said mistakes become incredibly difficult to get rid of. There may be some truth to this, but this hasn’t been the case in my experience.

“Avoid mistakes,” they say. “Mistakes are bad,” they emphasize. Okay, but speaking is a skill very much independent of comprehension and requires practice and use to strengthen; and, yes, mistakes are inevitable, especially for a native English speaker learning such a fundamentally different language as Japanese. However: those mistakes are not a big deal, and I guarantee that a learner with an input-based approach to language learning will overcome those mistakes.

Plus, not only will writing and speaking will shine a bright spotlight on pretty much every weak point in your language (that you can then focus more time on), but in my experience, output is one of the major things that cements the language and truly moves it toward the realm of fluent and natural. Speak when you want to, and don’t let any fear mongering prevent you from it.

～

I think that’s just about it for that.

But ah, I had much to tell my past-self, but what of my future-self? Actually, not a whole lot; I’d rather focus on the present and work with what I got right now.

I would like to be in a position to pass the JLPT N1 by around this time next year (having made a similar vague goal last year to be near N2 by this time now, I believe, which I’m damn near, if not at, or beyond), but whether I’ll actually take said test with the closest test center being a good 8-hour drive away in Atlanta (seriously, nothing in that big ol’ mass of land called Texas?)… well, we’ll see. N1 is something I’m set on passing eventually, and I can honestly foresee a day in the not-all-that-distant future where such a reality will be a thing.

As for words to my present-self? Keep reading, keep listening, keep writing tweets in questionable otaku-flavored Japanese, stick to a bit of SRSing regularly because it will pay off, and ditto with translation even if it’s difficult now. That’s really about it.

Obviously, July was dedicated almost entirely to reading. But what of August?

Coming into the new month, I still wasn’t sure. I only had a vague outline in my head made up of something along the lines of:

• make sure to output Japanese a whole lot more,
• keep up my listening one way or another and
• seriously get my hands dirty with some translation practice.

So I’ve decided to run with it and see how it goes. Likely, I’ll veer off into one of those more heavily than the rest, because that’s just how I roll. This is on top of my usual daily tasks such as reading visual novels and books, playing games and so forth, and my notorious on-again-off-again SRSing habits (which seems to work great for me, believe it or not).

The above makes up what I currently perceive as my weakest points in Japanese, or ways to potentially strengthen my weaker points (in the case of translation, which is a different beast entirely, but absolutely helps me gain a greater understanding of things I’d normally skip over).

If I could get my output up to a level close to my reading comprehension, I think I’ll have finally arrived at a place I can call functionally fluent. As it is currently, I struggle. I can get my point across, but it takes a while to piece together an acceptable sentence, and even then, I often go back and notice errors that seem silly in retrospect. Massive amounts of input has done wonders in building up my vocabulary and grammar knowledge, and has granted me a great deal of insight into what “feels” right and wrong, but putting it all together in a way that fits is still a bit of a problem. Sometimes, even on a relatively basic level – using は where が would be more appropriate and vice versa; using conditionals incorrectly; conjugation. I could read through hundreds of books, listen to several thousand more hours of Japanese, and still have these problems, so I’m pretty sure the only prescription is more cowput. I’ma get my O face on, y’all. Apologies to my Twitter followers in advance for the tangled mess of Nippongoes to come, but oh, it’s comin’.

On the listening front, things have actually improved massively since the last time I bitched about my poor listening comprehension. It’s really all about the time you put in with listening comprehension, more than anything else, something I’ve been sorely neglecting since I began my focus on reading. Visual novels seem to be the best of both worlds, with a great deal of text and, quite often, voice acting as well (with text accompanying, of course). I have a huge backlog of animays to dig through (which I’ve made a decent dent in since the end of Tadoku) and at least one visual novel to continue, so this goal should be taken care of with a minimal amount of effort – just the way I likes it!

As for translation, well, this is one of the big reasons why I’m studying the language in the first place. I’ll get more into that in a future post, but in the meantime, there are many, many amazing gems that deserve to be– nay, need to be unearthed and introduced to foreign shores, and I’m going to help make this happen. Trust me when I say that good things are bound to come from this.

Basically, I’m pushing forward full steam ahead.

Anyhow, my list of reading material by the end looked a little something like this:

• NHKにようこそ！(novel)  – Complete
• Steins;Gate (visual novel) — Complete
• 人間失格 (novel) — Stalled
• うみねこのなく頃に4 (visual novel) — In Progress (still)
• Ever17 (visual novel) — In Progress

Not exactly the most diverse of lists, surely, but the experience was every bit as rich as any of the previous Tadoku (or perhaps, Tadoki?!).

This time around, as planned, I used the dictionary less than I ever have. My reasoning behind this decision is beyond the scope of this post, but suffice to say that it worked out spectacularly well. I don’t recall having looked up a single word for NHK, even. I did hit the dictionary a few dozen times for Steins;Gate (a manly man’s visual novel of sizable girth, mind you), but with few exceptions, these look-ups were out of sheer curiosity of a particularly interesting word (most likely containing an unknown kanji, which I eat for breakfast) rather than a compulsion to know every single unknown thing I come across. Pretty sure I only looked up two words in Ever17, despite its surprisingly technical vocabulary, though I’ve really only skimmed the surface of that badboy yet.

I’d wanted to read 人間失格 as well, but just couldn’t really get into it – or rather, I was really craving another visual novel to fill the Steins;Gate-sized void in my heart and 人間失格 wasn’t up to that task. I was encouraged to discover just how readable this book was for me, though! I once thought classic Japanese literature would forever be beyond my grasp, but it just goes to show how far I’ve actually come.

And oh, what’s this? Umineko somehow worked its way into the list! I’ve certainly not giving up on this “little” fellow, and decided to flip through to see how manageable it would be without the ridiculous quantity of dictionary look-ups I’d given it in the past. Again, I’ve come a long way and it actually seems a lot closer to my level now. However, エンジェ is still a very uninteresting character to me and I was unable to keep my interest. Perhaps one day when you’re voiced, Umineko… perhaps then.

This Tadoku also marked the first time I largely ignored competing with my kuh-raaazy peers, and simply looked to beat my last record. Turns out that 3,000 pages (roughly 100 a day) is just about optimum for me, and will probably be my target for each Tadoku from here on out. Thinking about it, 100 pages of Japanese a day is still a little mindblowing to me – I’m the kind of reader who chips away at one chapter a night before bed in my native language (at one point or another, anyway), so unearthing my innate ability to plow through 100 pages of Japanese a day for 31 days is… really something I can’t describe. Was amazing to me when that number was 50, and even 30. Not to pat myself on the back, though – one of the coolest parts of being involved with Tadoku every 3 months is seeing just how much everyone has improved. It’s incredible seeing those numbers of pages logged doubling, tripling since the last competition. Seriously shows the effectiveness not only of the extensive reading tadoku principle, but also the effectiveness of the competition aspect (personal or otherwise) of Tadoku. Color me impressed.

Oh hey, let’s touch on some of the stuff I read, for the heck of it.

NHKにようこそ！

NHK is somewhat special because it marks the first true novel (light or otherwise) I’ve read from cover to cover in Japanese. Somehow, the accomplishment feels a little less impressive after having completed three Umineko visual novels of greater length (and far greater difficulty), but hey, it’s something! More importantly, I loved the heck out of this book and it surprised me on multiple levels.

NHKにようこそ！is a dark comedy about the miserable life of a young man and his misadventures in attempting to escape from it. At first glance, the story sounded downright depressing (and not all that far from home at times), so I’d ignored it despite the anime adaptation being recommended to me numerous times. Indeed, the story is depressing – the cast of characters each has his or her massive collection of skeletons in the closet, from the crippling depression, paranoia and isolation of its main character, to the themes of suicidal tendencies, mental instability, sexual deviance and drug use of his peers.

In fact, this novel contains more illicit drug use and detailed description of said drugs than I’ve encountered in any (perhaps, every) Japanese medium so far. I suppose the world of novels can afford to be more open than the fiction of manga and television about the reality of drugs, but I felt these scenes (which are apparently cut from the anime entirely – bah!) were important in further establishing the human elements that make the characters of this book so damn enjoyable and easy to identify with.

Bleak subject matter aside, the ridiculousness that occurs between the many, many downers of this book as well as the witty, humorous dialogue of its characters almost always keeps the mood hovering well within the realm of comic. It takes a talented writer to turn the screwed up situations of Satou and company into something we can laugh at – perhaps laugh with would be more accurate, as they always seem aware of just how ridiculous things are – but author Tatsuhiko Takimoto pulls it off beautifully.

Highly recommended, and a moderately easy read to boot.

Steins;Gate

Perhaps fueled by an insatiable hunger for more eccentric protagonists, I dived into this puppy shortly after finishing NHK. I’d actually completed the first chapter some weeks prior, so I knew exactly what I was getting myself (back) into.

Steins;Gate is a time travel-themed science-fiction visual novel, but the time travel elements are executed in ways I’ve never even imagined, and consistently blew my mind into the stratosphere. Most fascinating to me is the fact that S;G not only uses heaps of real scientific theory (quite liberally) to explain the phenomenon of time travel, but also real-life conspiracy theories such as the exploits and predictions of John Titor. It’s a super intelligent, brilliantly written visual novel that, while certainly taking more than a few liberties, successfully suspends disbelief often enough to almost make the events of the story seem plausible. Almost.

I’d rather not go into great detail about this VN, as I believe it’s best left up to the reader to experience how the story unfolds, and how manipulation of time – even the seemingly limited act of sending text messages to phones back in time – ultimately impacts the story. Simply put, this is a story of cause of effect – for every action, there’s a reaction; the butterfly effect; karma, even (in fact, one can probably draw some fairly convincing philosophical parallels, but I’ll leave that to sharper minds and/or bored English majors).

Steins;Gate was actually the first visual novel I’ve read with fully voiced characters, and quite honestly, it’s difficult to imagine trudging through another non-voiced VN any time soon (Umineko being a lucky exception), because the voiced element helped my comprehension tremendously. I really can’t overstate just how beneficial a voice acted visual novel can be to a learner of Japanese. I hadn’t intended on beefing up my listening comprehension during this Tadoku, but by the end of S;G, I could seriously feel a massive difference. It doesn’t hurt that the voice acting in this game is utterly incredible, most notably that of the main character, whose over-the-top eccentricism took me a while to warm up to, but ultimately became one of my all-time favorite protagonists.

As for language difficulty, Steins;Gate can get a little brutal, especially during the scenes involving SCIENCE!, of which there are many. Some rudimentary knowledge of the theory they go into certainly helped me, but I’d be lying if I said that a few of the science-y scenes weren’t a little hazy to me. Scientific terminology aside, though, S;G didn’t pose much trouble to me. Unlike, say, Umineko which goes into incredible detail with abstract concepts very frequently, S;G is much more straight-forward and dialogue-based in comparison.

Though I can’t claim to have read all that many visual novels yet (Tsukihime in English several years back and three and a half Uminekoes and currently making my way through Ever17), Steins;Gate easily reigns as my most memorable one yet. It’s not without its flaws – pacing feels awfully trudging at times, and I wasn’t a big fan of two of the characters (take a guess which ones!). Some may find it difficult to stick with the (nearly) first half of the visual novel that is dedicated to establishing characters and building up for the (ultra-exciting) latter half of the story, which tears it all down mercilessly with hardly a pause. By the end, though, trust me when I say that these are all trivial complaints, and holy crap you need to read this. I plan to marathon the anime shortly, which is superb from the two episodes I’ve seen so far.

Ever17

This is a visual novel I’ve heard many speak highly of for some years now, yet one I knew little about until recently. Turns out the story is right up my alley – like Steins;Gate, Ever17 uses plenty of gen-you-wine science to establish an almost-believable situation. In this case, a group of people become stranded in an underwater amusement park of sorts known as LeMU, with only a matter of roughly 6 days to escape. All the while, various sections of the park are falling apart around them to ever-increasing water pressure and mechanical failures. Of course, all the while, mysteries abound… which I’ve only scraped the surface of.

I can’t really give a more thorough review of the VN yet, as I still have quite a bit to go. I can say that it immediately clicked with me and I’m really enjoying it, however. It begins almost deceptively whimsical – this is an amusement park, after all – but unlike, say, Steins;gate, Ever17 gets into the thick of things very quickly. Compared to every other VN I’ve read so far, E17 is relatively fast paced and seems almost a little jarring in its transition between scenes at times. Even so, this is an incredibly meaty VN with about as much text as Steins;Gate, so there’s room for a massive amount of substance in this sucker.

Ever17′s language level seems to begin on the easier side of things, but quickly becomes quite difficult when it goes into the technical side of LeMU, or during one of the several medical-related scenes and explanations. I was honestly expecting an easier, more relaxing read as Steins;Gate, but Ever17′s language might quite possibly be the more difficult of the two!

At any rate, as of right now, I’m working my way toward one of the endings and have tons more to see, so I’ll have to leave it at that for now. Excellent, highly recommended visual novel (with voice acting, I might add) all the same.

I suppose that just about wraps things up. I have a heck of a lot more to post in the coming days, especially regarding a certain anniversary, and current/future plans, among other things. For now, I think it’s high time to veg the heck out with some of the many animu episodes I’m behind on.

And how was yooour Tadoku?

As for myself, like always, I’m trying to stick to a steady pace – in this case, roughly 100 pages per day. For the most part, it’s been going great, and honestly, it’s a bit difficult for me to believe that only a handful of months ago, I was struggling to keep a pace of 30, 40, 50 pages a day (bit of deja vu here). Of course, reading NOT-UMINEKO seems to help a bit.

I’m currently a bit ahead of pace for my previously stated goal of 3,000 pages. Making the top 5 looks to be all but impossible at this point unless I crank that goal up by a few thousand more pages, which doesn’t seem all that likely (or healthy) at this point. We’ll see – I predict I’ll probably end up between 3,500 and 4,000 by the end, momentum (and awesome reads) willing.

As for my reading material, it’s looking a little something like this:

• NHKにようこそ！ — completed on day 4 (or somewhere around there)
• STEINS;GATE — in progress, maybe 3/4 of the way through? I expect to be finished in a week or so (the vast majority of my pages have come from this badboy)
• 人間失格 — in progress, surprised to discover how readable it is, though I most likely won’t get back to it until after I finish S;G

Throw in a few J-subbed episodes of Jin season 2 and that puts me just under 1,700 pages currently. Not bad!

Many more thoughts to come, but I’ll probably share those in early August. For now, I have some reading to do! (ノ｀Д´)ノ彡┻━┻

I knew I’d have a pretty hefty amount of material to read (and play) through this time around, and indeed, such seems to be the case. Heck, I could probably name half a dozen different games alone. Add to that stack a number of light novels and short stories I’ve been dipping into, one or two visual novels (though nothing nearly as difficult as Umineko or most VNs by nitro+, mind) and maybe even a manga, and I should be quite busy this coming month of July.

A sampling of things in Tha Stack, tentative as always:

(Light) Novel:

• ＮＨＫにようこそ (a few chapters in already)
• 精霊の守り人
• スレイヤーズ！
• キノの旅
• 政治少年死す
• 人間資格 (a stretch, but short enough that I may manage it)

Game:

• Xenogears (currently about 6 hours in)
• 水滸伝１＆２
• Shining Force III

Visual Novel:

• Steins;Gate (a few chapters in)
• Ever17

Manga:

• Berserk (but of course)
• about two dozen others in my stack I know I’ll probably never read

I suppose I’m going for more of a kitchen sink approach this time around, though I’ll probably settle on a select few – my money’s on NHKにようこそ and Steins;Gate primarily, perhaps with some Xenogears here and there (super wordy RPGs are always welcome). We’ll see!

As for my goals, I’d certainly like to top my last page count, and making the top 10 again would be nice (though being July, I expect the competition to be much more fierce). For the moment I’m thinking 3,000 pages and making the top 5 would be my goal this time around, though as we all know, the actual reading is the true goal in Tadoku. If I’m able to complete even a few of the above listed novels or games, I’ll be quite content, no matter my page count or ranking.

That being said, I’ma totally crush some skulls.

What will yooou be reading? And if you’re not registered for this Tadoku, why not? (ノ｀Д´)ノ彡┻━┻

But I’ve also come to realize a few key things:

• There are simply some things I can’t do in Japanese that only exist in English, and
• A little English not only isn’t an impediment to my studies, but actually beneficial.

Those may or may not apply to other learners, of course. I like to keep up on the wacky world of Western politics and news, for instance, which is covered to the most (often nauseatingly) minute detail in the western kingdoms by a huge variety of sources, independent and otherwise. Short of a handful of bilingual bloggers, I just can’t get this stuff in Japanese. The issue of independent journalism and news is a whole other can of worms I’d rather not get started on, but to my knowledge, just doesn’t exist in Japanese as it does in English (though at the very least, Democracy Now! has a Japanese version, with a select picking of stories translated and subtitled). Certainly, I’ve cut back on my news addiction significantly in the past year, these days usually only skimming my Twitter feed for the most interesting and outrageous headlines, but to date, this isn’t something I’ve been able to replace.

Fortunately, that’s one of the few exceptions I can think of that I haven’t been able to replace completely. The majority of my RSS feeds are still English sites, but since I’m God-Emperor of Skimming, I don’t find myself spending much time in Google Reader these days.

As for the second point? Well, a few things. I very much intend on getting into translation in the near future, for a huge number of reasons I’ll outline in a later post, but a translator needs to have some degree of writing skill, creative or technical or otherwise. Keeping a steady trickle of English in my daily diet (both reading and writing) ensures that I keep my native language honed and sharp. As an example, I’ve been reading roughly a chapter a night of A Clash of Kings, and occasionally poke through works of non-fiction such as the excellent Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein (and if anything like that exists in Japanese, do let me know!) – I constantly take mental notes of interesting prose, grammar, expressions and words with the intent of possibly using said things at a future time, no differently than in my Japanese studies. I know I’m stating the obvious here. Nonetheless, I feel that it’s critical to keep my English as sharp as possible, through a trickle of reading and writing.

Another example: Recently, I began reading some political articles translated into Japanese from my favorite journalists and writers, such as Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein and Robert Fisk. This being my first time seriously trying to read some heavy political stuff, I expected to be overwhelmed, but was shocked to find that each article I read was surprisingly lucid and easy to follow. I quickly realized that it was thanks to my existing knowledge in English of all of this relatively difficult political terminology (and their fairly logical Japanese counterparts) that allowed such clarity. Not exactly a divine epiphany, surely, but I can thank my past and ongoing English reading for such a smooth ride. The bridge between two languages can be a thing of great convenience if one allows it to be, rather than burning it completely, I believe.

I also believe that a positive side effect of my Japanese studies is the strengthening of my native English tongue. Why this is, I couldn’t really say – perhaps I can thank the many new words in my Japanese vocabulary for giving me new insight on my existing English vocabulary? Maybe the language part of my grey matter is just getting so manly-badass that my English is rippling with muscles as a result. I’m sure this isn’t a unique phenomenon, and I’d be curious to hear what others might have to say about it.

There’s also the question of practicality (and er, being an asshole). Should one truly feel guilty for (say) watching a movie once in a while along with friends or family in English?

Finally, I feel like there’s a bit of a limit, or perhaps more accurately a diminishing return on massive immersion. For myself, anyway, I just get exhausted after some time and feel refreshed returning to the world of English – for just a little while.

We have a powerful arsenal in our native tongue, and I think it’s a waste not to realize its power in learning a foreign language, even as that foreign tongue approaches advanced levels and higher.