My Japanese Language-Learning Experience, Part Five

In the last edition of My Japanese Language-Learning Experience, I said that it was going to be part of "an ongoing series of posts detailing my Japanese-language-learning journey."

And then I proceeded to not write another one (this one) for almost THREE YEARS.

What have I been doing in the meantime, you ask? Well, aside from dealing with a worldwide plague, writing and publishing books, and recording music, I've... oh, you meant what have I been doing with regards to my Japanese language-learning.

The answer is...not much, sadly. I mean, I've still been watching anime (as you know from last week's post), doing a daily dose of an app called Drops (does one "do" an app? I have no idea), and watching an occasional YouTube video here and there, but I have to admit, I've been slacking. Badly.

Granted, I (and my band, Second Player Score) did sign on with a Japan-based entertainment agency and released an EP sung in Japanese, but other than that, I haven't been doing much serious studying (benkyou shite inai, I believe is the way to say that) at all.

The aforementioned worldwide plague was a factor, as I had discovered a Japanese Meetup group in Portland (the "alternative" I had hinted at in Part Four) and attended one session but then everything shut down. They continued online after that, but I had Zoom fatigue and just didn't feel into it.

But mostly, my own laziness was to blame.

So recently, I've decided to get back on track. I've started re-reading Speak Japanese in 90 days, and have been watching the YouTube channels Japanese Ammo with Misa and Learn Japanese with Tanaka-San. I even tried sample questions for the JLPT N5 (Japanese-Language Proficiency Test, easiest level) and got a 10/14...not bad, I guess (the picture above is my results).

Hopefully, I'll remain diligent about it and actually start to make some tangible progress. And maybe even write Part Six of this so-called "ongoing series of posts" before three more years go by...