No More Dabbling

Getting Serious About Japanese

📅 Study Log 2026 | Week 14/53

The weekly study logs are officially back in full swing! I’ve really enjoyed writing them over the past month, so I’ll keep them going. Writing each week has also helped me stay consistent in using my language planner.

I use my planner to map out what I want to study and to keep track of what I actually do each day.

A few days ago, I shared my March & Q1 recap, and now that we’re fully in April, I’m starting to put some of those plans into action.

🥐 French

A few months ago, you all voted for me to read Le Café du temps retrouvé, and I finally finished it this week! It feels satisfying to work through the target language books on my physical bookshelf.

I also started Dylane’s pronunciation course. My goal was to get through the first five lessons this week, but I completed three. I’m liking following along with them because the videos are short and informative.

Alongside that, I’ve been using her Short Stories in French book. I’m thinking of turning the new vocabulary at the end of each story into visual vocab lists as a fun activity.

On that note, I’ve also been playing video games in French. One of the most recent was a demo for InKONBINI, which comes out at the end of this month. The audio was in Japanese, and I chose to play with French text. In the game, you run a convenience store. There are lots of little things to read, like the labels on products, and you also get to interact with customers. I found it to be relaxing, and I can’t wait until it comes out.

🍜 Japanese

I definitely turned up the intensity with my Japanese this week. My dabbling days are over, and it’s time to get serious.

This is mostly because I’m officially registered in a Japanese class that starts next week!!

I had a bit of a panic moment realizing how much I don’t know, which sent me into a mini study frenzy. My original plan was to review the first few Genki lessons and complete the workbook exercises.

Everything was going fine until I realized I was staring at a hiragana chart 95% of the time while writing my answers.

I can read hiragana, but my ability to recall how to write it from memory was nonexistent.

I started using the Tofugu Hiragana workbook (I had already begun the Katakana one last month), and it’s been helping a lot with recall. So far, I can confidently write the A, K, S, T, N, and H rows. My goal is to finish both the hiragana and katakana workbooks next week.

Have you ever had a moment where you realized you needed to go back to basics?

✨ Language Wins of the Week

• Finished reading Le Café du Temps Retrouvé

• Started using my planner consistently

• Humbled myself and went back to practicing hiragana writing

📅 Next Week’s Plans

🥐 French:

• Watch lessons 4-10 in the French Pronunciation Course

• Read stories 4-6 in French Short Stories Vol. 1

🍜 Japanese:

• Complete Hiragana & Katakana Workbooks

Thanks for being here, see you next week!