Beginner level. Watching Japanese Ammo lessons on Youtube. Using the Tae Kim path on Bunpro.
Jump to the earliest post of 2021: #92
Used Bunpro again. Got to the second grammar point, which was about だった. I was familiar with that conjugation already, but not the other one next to it, でした. Decided to check out the linked resources to find out more. I guess Tae Kim teaches the plain or casual form of speaking, not the polite form.
One of the linked resources was a FluentU post, and after reading that one, I got a little distracted reading about how to learn Japanese through picture books and anime. There was also a post that gave advice on which anime genres would be useful for studying the language. I'm not big on anime, but mostly due to laziness rather than dislike. Maybe I'll try watching some when I'm more advanced.
One of the other linked resources in Bunpro was a Youtube video from Japanese Ammo. But it wasn't the first in the series, so I just decided to go from the beginning and watch Japanese Ammo 1. And I'm very glad I did. The teacher, Misa, talks about こんいちは at one point. She says that "konnichi" is an old way to say "today", which is now pronounced as きょう. Which makes so much fucking sense, because "today" is spelled with kanji that can be pronounced as こん (今, meaning "now") and にち (日, meaning "day"). I felt like an idiot because I should've realized that sooner. In fact, when I first learned that 今日 was pronounced きょう, I complained about it not being こんにち. Had to pause the video to get up to walk around and absorb everything.
Found out about Bunpro about a week ago from WaniKani Community. I was interested because its website said you can use it with Tae Kim, there's a free plan, and the monthly plan is currently $3. Finally decided to sign up today, and now I have 30 days to test out the premium features. I tried out the Tae Kim path, specifically the very first grammar point about using だ to express state of being. There were so many example sentences and links to other resources for grammar explanations. Very cool.
Read more of Tae Kim's Grammar Guide. Learned some verb basics. If the verb ends in an ある, うる, or おる sound, it's an う-verb. If it ends in an いる or える sound, it's most likely a る-verb. If it doesn't end in a る sound, it's an う-verb. And there are only two exceptions to all of this: する and 来る.
Worked on Tae Kim's Grammar Guide. Completed the second adjective practice exercise. It went surprisingly well, partly because I'm getting more used to Jisho. Got most of the answers correct. My only two mistakes were ones involving the identifier particle. But after rereading those sentences, I think I actually understand why they need to use が instead of は. Just gotta remember that the topic particle is only for introducing a new topic.