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cjet79  2mo ago (text post)   2804 thread views

Maker's Monday

Trying out a new weekly thread idea.

This would be a thread for anyone working on personal projects to share their progress, and hold themselves somewhat accountable to a group of peers. We can coordinate weekly standup type meetings if their is interest.

@ArjinFerman, @Turniper, and myself all had some initial interest.

Post your project, your progress from last week, and what you hope to accomplish this week.

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My three big projects at the moment are picking up piano after 20 years of not playing, studying for the JLPT in December, and training to run a 10k in November.

They’re all going well so far! I’ve been surprised how quickly piano has come back. I can already run 10k but have a target time so will be working on getting my speed up the next few months.

I have been playing a lot of Unicorn Overlord lately and am also kicking around an idea for a prototype that might improve on it in a few key ways. Happy to share details if anyone is curious.

I've passed unofficial N5s for the JLPT. Still working through Genki and WaniKani. My Arabic is better than my Japanese, but mostly because I practice conversation in Arabic and right now all my Japanese is self-study.

Good for you on re-learning the piano. I've found it difficult staying disciplined enough to practice 30 minutes to an hour everyday, which realistically is what is required to learn an instrument. I dabble in the piano from time to time as an adult, but man...learning an instrument is just so damn hard. As I get closer to middle-age, I'm much more impressed that I used to be by those who can play any instrument.

I’m not sure it would be feasible if I hadn’t put in time when I was a kid. Being able to jump in and play something simple but enjoyable immediately skips a lot of potential pain.

The available training apps are pretty cool though and I’m finding them helpful. Very different than when I was a kid.

What level JLPT? I am looking to take on the N3 this year.

N4! I’ve been going kanji for several years and started taking conversational lessons last year working through Genki. Are you studying on your own or in a class?

On my own using Renshuu, reading manga, listening to japanese youtubers, and (recently) reading web serials. The reading is slow going, but I like to think I can get 60-80% of the meaning before looking things up.

I do have an ace up my sleeve though, I was an exchange student to Japan over a decade ago so I have a lot of memories of how things are supposed to be pronounced or the contexts they are said in. Learning the actual reading/writing/kanji has had a lot of "oh, that's where that word comes from".

Have you tried any of the practice exams yet? I took a practice N4 a couple months ago and it ended up being both easier in the multiple choice and harder during the listening section than I expected.

I know what you mean. The last time I was there it was mind blowing to see various kanji I’d learned in a vacuum in use. Helped so much with meaning.

I haven’t taken any practice exams yet, I am just doing what my tutor tells me. I am practicing reading more with examples from Genki which is nice. We still have some grammar to get through I think from Genki 2.

Amazon has practice tests for the various levels that I found really helpful to focus in on the types of questions that will be asked. The one I used came with a CD for the audio portion, so you may need to get a USB-CD drive if you PC doesn't have one. They're shorter versions, so they take about an hour or so to do, but doing the N5 and N4 tests at the start of this year is why I had the confidence to push myself for the N3.

What does your tutoring entail?

Oh nice, I’ll take a look at those.

We’re making our way through Genki but each session is usually 30-40 minutes of conversation with occasional grammar discussion, then 20 minutes working on a textbook section.

Good luck on the 10k. Once upon a time I ran, but these 40 year old knees don't do it anymore.

Unicorn Overlord was a very pleasant surprise. I immediately craved more games like that, and found that there aren't any. A shame.

Yeah it seems ripe for some iterating on the formula especially since the studio doesn’t seem known for follow-ups.

I’ve had some tibia troubles but fortunately am near unpaved trails which help with the impact.

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