#language learning log

Language Learning Log 2025 - Week 10 (02/03 〜 08/03)

Banner: this week was a little busy, but I still managed to find time for my hobbies, including reading Lotus in the Mountain by Linn Coldiron and playing Pokemon Legends

For Japanese this week, I:

Did Renshuu quizzes

Did kanji practice with Kanji Dojo

Read an NHK Easy article

Continued watching FFVII Rebirth playthroughs with Japanese VA/Subtitles

For Norwegian this week, I:

Wrote 〜200 words

Read a couple of short articles

Read 2x longer articles

Messaged my friend

Watched an episode of Bakemesterskapet

Other things I did this week:

Wrote 12228 words

Made chicken & sweetcorn soup

Ordered birthday presents for two of my colleagues

Got through work with no major mishaps

Continued reading Lotus in the Mountain

Exercised daily

Helped my new colleague with her lessons

My goals this past week were:

Make chicken & sweetcorn soup ✅ It was delicious! But I need to make more next time

Write 10K words ✅ Over 12K

Make a post about Japanese vocab ✅ Just a small one about words I keep forgetting

Continue watching FF7 Remake content in Japanese ✅ Again, not as much as I wanted because it was a busy week, but I watched a bit

Listen to/watch something in Norwegian ✅ Watched an episode of Bakemesteskapet

Get to 30% through Lotus in the Mountain ✅ I'm on 34% now :)

My goals for this coming week are:

Cook (idk what yet)

Watch more FF7 Remake content in Japanese

Listen to a Norwegian podcast or radio

Japanese

Renshuu

Read a short story

Italki lesson (30m)

Pokemon episode x1

Read part of an article

Grammar video

Norwegian

Read Rødstrupe

Kveldsnytt x3

Speaking practice

Read NaNo messages

Writing practice

Last week I mostly focused on French. I've been meaning to start watching Arte documentaries for the longest time now and I finally did it. I watched this documentary about nature and how it heals. It was very relaxing and some of the interviews were in Japanese, so I even got some unexpected Japanese practice!

I also started reading Notre-dame-des-fleurs by Jean Genet. It's very stream of consciousness, so I don't feel bad about not understanding everything. I highlight all the words I don't know and plan to review them once in a while.

im going through my old french work from college and its really sad to see just how much ive forgotten in the last few years.

It's also daunting to see just how much work i put in back then and still only hit around the B1 level.

One of my aims for the latter half of the year was to get my level back up to what it was at its peak in 2015 but looking through my notes its hard not to get discouraged by how far away that goal is rn.

^the version of me who made all these notes, that bitch could use the subjunctive meanwhile present-me's forgotten l'imparfait 😭😂

Language Learning Log 2025 - Week 7 (09/02 〜 15/02)

Banner: We had a lot of snow this week. This was taken last Sunday, and we had a lot more throughout the week!

For Japanese this week, I:

Watched FFVII Remake with Japanese VA/Subtitles

Renshuu quizzes

Read 1x news article

Reviewed kanji with Kanji Dojo app

For Norwegian this week, I:

Read a short article

Went through some recently learned vocab and started making a post

Other things I did this week:

Had a cold and was very brave about it

Wrote 15641 words

Watched Crisis Core cutscene movie (almost 6 hours long)

Covered irregular classes at the school an hour away from me

Shovelled around 70cm of snow from 4 car parking spaces

Made soup

Emailed the useless twats at SLC (again ughh)

Went to the 100¥ store for stuff I needed to organise my lesson materials

Organised the lesson materials I currently have + started making lists of I need to prepare

My goals this past week were:

Work out daily ✅ (Dragged my heels some days and ended up switching some things around on account of being sore/having a cold, but I got it done)

Continue watching FFVII with Japanese VA + subtitles ✅

Write 10K words ✅ (I had 2 days where I wrote over 3K and one day where I wrote over 4K!)

Make soup ✅ (It's pretty good!)

Go to the 100¥ store to get a ring binder, label stickers, wrapping paper and plastic wallets ✅ (I need a second ring binder because turns out one isn't enough, oops! But at least I got all the other stuff)

Start making a post about recently learned/reviewed Norwegian vocab ✅ (I'll try to finish it this week!)

Make at least one post about recently learned Japanese vocab/kanji ✅ (Rushed one on Saturday evening after realising I hadn't done it hehe)

My goals for this coming week are:

Create 8 new vocab picture cards + put them around the flat

Continue watching FFVII with Japanese VA + subtitles

Finish + publish post about recently learned Norwegian vocab

Write 7K words

Go to the 100¥ store for a second ring binder and organise my materials between the two

Language Learning Log 2025 - Week 19 (04/05 〜 10/05)

Banner: I had 6 days off from 01/05〜06/05 for Golden Week, and on Tuesday I went out for Mexican food with a couple of my colleagues. It was my first time having Mexican food in Japan and, while it's most definitely adapted for Japanese tastes, it was pretty good! I had a chicken quesadilla

For Japanese this week, I:

Read an NHK Easy article

Practised vocab + kanji with Renshuu quizzes

Practised kanji with Kanji Dojo

Had a 30-minute italki lesson

Watched several hours of Let's Play videos on Youtube (mostly as background noise) + noted some new vocab

For Norwegian this week, I:

Did nothing, oops

Other things I did this week:

Wrote 10019 words

Attended my first ever Japanese wedding (it was Western-style, but still!)

Went out to the cat cafe and then for Mexican food with some colleagues

Started back at work after 6 days off

Made wheel pickers for writing exercises

Made lesson materials

Taught 5 new classes

My goals this past week were:

Read a page of my nutrition magazine ✅

Review more N3 grammar ❌

Enjoy some kind of FF7-related content in Japanese ✅

Finish colouring one set of lesson materials I'm working on ❌

Cook something ❌

Write something in Norwegian ❌

Yeah I've been in a depression hole, but I think I'm starting to come out of it now. At least, I hope so!

My goals for this coming week are:

Make progress reading Crooked Kingdom

Review N3 grammar

Finish colouring one set of lesson materials I'm working on

Language Learning Log 2025 - Week 14 (30/03 〜 05/04)

Banner: I went to an izakaya with one of my new colleagues this week. The drinks had little ducks in them! When I got home that night I found min in my bag (oops) but when I tried to take it back they insisted it was a gift and I should keep it 😂

For Japanese this week, I:

Watched 6.5 hours of FF7 Rebirth Let's Play videos

Practiced kanji with the Kanji Dojo app

Studied vocab/kanji on Renshuu

Spoke Japanese while out and about (drinking and being with friends who speak less Japanese than me helps it would seem)

Wrote a short post in Japanese

Read a page of my nutrition magazine

For Norwegian this week, I:

Read an article

Other things I did this week:

Wrote 13853 words

Cooked honey sesame chicken noodles

Made picture cards for the months to use in my classrooms

Laminated shapes + colours games to use in my classes

Went for dinner and drinks with a friend

Walked 1hr 40 mins (round trip) to deliver name tags to a classroom

Went to the cinema with one of my JTs

Got through my first week of teaching for the new school year

Started working out daily again after a break

My goals this past week were:

Cook honey sesame chicken noodles ✅ Finally!

Finish my workout plan for April ✅ Let's goooo!

Finish making at least one additional set of month/day/date/season cards for my classes ❎ Finished months and dates, but still need to do days, weather and seasons

Draw at least 2 dragons (ideally 4) ❌ Did a rough sketch of one but definitely didn't get any finished, never mind 4!

Read 3 pages of my nutrition magazine ❎ Read one page, but in my defence it was quite technical and had a LOT of new and quite technical vocab

Read something in Norwegian ✅ Read an article

Write 12500 words ✅ More than 1000 words over :D

My goals for this coming week are:

Review nutrition magazine vocab

Read two NHK Easy news articles

Cook soup

Finish making additional days/weather cards for my classes

Read something in Norwegian