Tag Yourself As Hogwarts Houses, Study Edition:

🌸 my first time bullet journaling! This was done a while ago! Also this is my first post on tumblr💕 🌸

IG: @_akadanie

↳ 05.20.19.

i always make my new weekly spread monday mornings, look how blissfully empty :’) currently annotating chinese textbook readings while watching “love is a bonus book” on netflix, i loooooove it so far ✨

hi i really want to learn kanji/katakana but i dont know where to start

Hi! Yeah, Japanese can be really daunting at first because it feels like there’s so much to learn and many places to start. I’m not sure whether or not you know hiragana already, but I’m going to list the way I started with Japanese kana (hiragana + katana) and then moved on to kanji. ლ(╹◡╹ლ)

Anything in bold is something I use/used/highly recommend!

1. LEARNING THE KANA ALPHABETS (HIRAGANA + KATAKANA)

I personally recommend learning the alphabets separately. Master one alphabet (I recommend hiragana first because it’s what you’ll use the most), and then move on to the next. I spent 2 days learning and mastering hiragana, and then slowly mastered katakana over a period of a few weeks because hiragana is everywhere, but katakana wasn’t an immediate concern for me. Obviously you need to learn both, but if you know hiragana you can jump into grammar, kanji, and other lessons while slowly mastering your katakana skills and becoming familiar with that alphabet through katakana vocabulary.

Here are some kana resources to try out!

Learn Hiragana: Tofugu’s Ultimate Guide *

Learn Katana: Tofugu’s Ultimate Guide *

Hiragana Drag-n-Drop

Katakana Drag-n-Drop

StickyStudy (phone app; on-the-go flashcards for learning kana)

Real Kana (quizzes you in different fonts to help you get used to different styles)

Practice katakana with Pokémon

* I’m not personally a fan of mnemonics, but I know a lot of people swear by them so it’s worth trying them and seeing if they work for you!

Both kana alphabets will become easier with exposure, so just keep practicing them over and over! 

2. KANJI

Okay, so I’m going to be honest – everyone learns kanji differently. Some people benefit from just writing them 100 times, other people need flashcards, and some people can see them 2 or 3 times and remember them forever. You’re going to have to find the best way to learn for you, but the following resources will at least get you started. The rest is up to you ^^

Japanesetest4you – a good way to learn kanji is in vocabulary words, so once you’ve learned hiragana you can jump right in to learning new vocabulary and mastering kanji along the way! I love this websites way of splitting vocab into JLPT levels

StickyStudy (phone app) – this costs ~$9.99, but is unbelievably useful because it has kanji split into grade levels, allows you to decide how many you see everyday, and so on. I also like that I can use it on the go!

MindSnacks (phone app) – also lets you practice kana, but can expose you to kanji in a fun, game-like format

WaniKani – people have mixed feelings about this website because it works for some and not for others, but the first 3 levels are free so you can get your feet wet and decide if it’s right for you!

Memrise courses

This N5 verb list – a good start to basic, common kanji you should learn!

TEXTBOOKS + BOOKS

Genki – as far as I know, this is one of the most popular textbooks for learning Japanese and I can vouch they’re really good. They teach certain amounts of kanji each lesson and expose you to those kanji continuously, eventually removing the furigana to force your brain to remember the kanji reading + meaning alone!

Basic Kanji Book – I’ve personally never used this, but I see it everywhere on langblr and it seems like a popular way to start learning kanji

When it comes to kanji, I think it’s important to understand how to read them and understand how they work in Japanese. Almost every kanij has multiple readings. Kunyomi (訓読み) is the Japanese reading and is generally used when one kanji is by itself, while the onyomi (音読み) is the Chinese reading and appears in compounds.

For example: the kanji 話, when by itself, is read はなし (story), or はな (as in the verb ‘to speak’ - 話す, hanasu). However, when found in a compound such as telephone (電話 でんわ), the kanji is read as わ/wa. I recommend reading Tae Kim’s Guide on kanji to further understand them! Understanding how kanji operate in Japanese was really helpful for my own learning.

I think it’s also important to remember that even Japanese people didn’t learn kanji all at once! They learned them by grade, learning anywhere for 80-140 kanji per year until they were in high school. These are called The Jouyou Kanji (常用漢字) and are essentially the 2,000+ kanji Japanese people are expected to know by the government. You can learn more about them here and here.

Good luck with your studies and I hope this helps! 

Thursday November 7th

Hope everyone is having the best dayyy, here with some notes from the other weeks in pink as always 🩷

Using kokuyo campus notebook <3

[8.11.19] very chilly in glasgow but very warm inside my fave café

ig: chavareads

new list of video essays i adore <3

her: longing to connect in the 21st century

the intimacy of everyday objects

the soul of a library

the green knight and david lowery's unique obsession with myth

minari: the beautiful tragedy

hayao miyazaki | the mind of a master

andrei tarkovsky - poetic harmony

the visual architecture of parasite

the most disturbing painting

in the mood for love: frames within frames

interstellar - humanity, love & fate

the magical realism genre in movies

entropy in storytelling

Hey, university student here. I’m having a hard time getting around to working on reading and homework due to depression and anxiety. Do you have any tips for developing discipline while taking care of my mental health?

Hi there, my love. First off, thanks for your message, as someone who also has anxiety, it’s been a lot to try and manage that as well as work/life balance. Some tips with developing discipline while taking care of your mental health are:

have set times each day where you know you for sure will be studying and cut off times where you know you will be taking care of yourself eg. studying from 5pm-7pm and from 7pm-8pm just do things that are for you and your mental health

seeing a mental health professional regularly, whether this be school councillor or psychologist. It’s so important.

journalling - I used to journal every night, now I journal every other night. I keep my diary on my bedside table and a pen with it so it’s convenient to do before I go to sleep

build a routine - I use THIS printable planner by @anoukostudies I’m currently making a video on how I plan so I’ll let you guys know when that’s out. As a subcategory of building a routine, have a cut off on devices and work at the same time every night to make sleep a priority.

exercise - I had REALLY REALLY low moods a few years ago, and I can honestly say that moving away from a toxic environment in combination with caring for my body through exercise and proper nutrition made me a MUCH happier person. At one point I felt like I wouldn’t be happy again, I was struggling so hard. We are built to move! If you currently do no exercise, even walking to the shops and back or going for a morning walk can make SUCH a difference to your mood and productivity.

I could do more but I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much so I’ll stick with this! Don’t get me wrong, I still struggle with my anxiety, despite doing all this. There are going to be good days and bad days no matter what but what you can do is some of these to make the bad days a little more manageable <33333 Thank you for this ask, my love!! I really hope this helps!!

does my moon look like a moon? 🌝

- ̗ ̀ study break ideas  ̖ ́-

if you have 5 minutes...

watch a TED talk

light a candle

paint your nails

put on a hair/face mask

splash your face with cold water

walk around your house

stretch

have a small snack

make a cup of tea/coffee

clear your desk

if you have 10-15 minutes...

watch a longer TED talk

watch a youtube video on studying/something educational

do some yoga

go for a quick run

have a shower

make a smoothie

power nap

workout

organise your desk

if you have 20-35 minutes...

watch a longer TED talk

watch one short episode of a tv programme

do a longer workout

go for a longer run

go for a walk

bake something

call a friend

if you have 40-60 minutes...

watch a documentary

watch one longer episode of a tv programme

go for an even longer walk/run

have a bath

have a one hour nap to help you remember things