Sounds rough. Yeah, don’t let it bog you down. I barely understand a lot of English (my native) language poetry… trying to squeeze the beauty out of language can really lead to deep cuts. Tho it surprises me that the textbook showcases ones that hard.

Sounds like you’re well on the way! Great job on the B1 placement, and good luck on the deadline. Let it motivate you!

Hope you’re able to find something enjoyable! If those are too basic, there’s also Tsubasa Bunko stuff, which is more novel-y, but with furigana and occasional pictures. I picked up a copy like that of a novella (時をかける少女) and it seems like a good step, but ultimately my ability’s just not there yet. Right now I look at that and (even though I can figure it out if I take my time and have a dictionary), it’s like ‘ahhh, so many words!’. For me, I just gotta keep grinding. Even the level 3 Tadoku stuff (30ish pages with quite easy language) takes a lot of stamina to get through.

Yeah, right there with you on that! Can’t wait until the point where reading better books is more comfortable.

Are you already aware of https://tadoku.org/japanese/en/free-books-en/ ? They are children’s book that have pictures, but they aren’t manga. And they cover a range of levels starting very low.

The Ink Spots are an interesting case. They’re a vocal group from the 30s. Not only did that group Theseus itself and then dissolve by the 50s, but afterward there were legal disputes. A bunch of the past members claimed rights to the name. Courts ultimately said ‘nobody owns the name, you can all use it’. So anybody with any connection was going around performing as The Ink Spots, and those groups were also changing members. Over the decades there were probably multiple fully Theseus’d versions of the group going at the same time.

Andrew Hickey has a good podcast episode on it that you can listen to/read. https://500songs.com/podcast/the-ink-spots-thats-when-your-heartaches-begin/

Here’s a couple I’ve seen around, tho I haven’t dived too deep:

• OpenGameArt (Usually kind of a mixed bag on quality, but the site has good concept and intentions)
• https://musopen.org/ (public domain, classical stuff, also a bunch of sheet music if you want to do things the hard way)
• https://degitx.com/ (an individual that produces rock/metal/chiptune kinda stuff and puts it out under CC licenses)
• https://gravitysound.studio/ (Had it bookmarked, but it seems the free page is gone or at least moved. Looks pricey, and terms don’t seem clear)

I also sometimes consciously dislike things because of annoying ads.

But it doesn’t matter. The overall result is that now you’re aware of that brand, you have a place for it in memory. After time passes it will be The One I’ve Heard Of unless you’re dedicated to remembering to avoid it. There’s something called the Mere Exposure Effect - it mostly works and they know it. :(

I haven’t tried it. What aspects make it different from what Loops or Pixelfed are already doing?

Sad to me a lot of times means stuff about time passing and getting older or things changing, so most of these are along that line. Some of the ones I think of first:

Time, Fat Old Sun, and High Hopes by Pink Floyd

In My Life by The Beatles (also Ozzy)

Hurt by Johnny Cash (orginally NiN)

Preaching the End of the World by Chris Cornell

There Was a Light Here by Demon Hunter

Thanks!

But yeah, it is rough. No wonder they keep it a secret, lol.

I have occasionally. I’ve got Google Play on my phone and I used to use a small tablet to do some reading.

Ultimately I find much better success rates reading a paper book. Having a single purpose item laying around helps motivate me, and the low-tech approach reduces distraction.

Had no idea they had an app. After peeking at that page, I still don’t. Do you just mean it’s a PWA, or is there a native one?

But yeah, agree that their UI/UX does not make it much fun. Still a great resource.

Any creative work qualifies? Music is pretty approachable. You can learn a few basic theory things to get ideas, or just play around with random notes to see what sounds good. Don’t have to be any good, you can get LMMS or another midi editor/tracker and write it without skill at an instrument.

For writing prose in particular, maybe short stories would be easiest? Just because they aren’t so long. Still takes creativity for ideas tho.

Idk, I think an important perspective is to remember it doesn’t have to be good (assuming you’re doing this for fun or learning, not as a job right away). Just create. Then, you’ll look at what you made and see how it sucks and get ideas for what to do differently next round. You mention not having the skills, but you can just try to do all things and see how it goes.

Love the Pokemon games for language learning! Enjoy the playthrough!

Fair enough! While I do have problems with Oracle as a company that would prevent me from considering their services, my comment above this is just in jest about the post being in this community.

Not meaning to be seriously dismissive or judgmental of the question. I totally understand using whatever resources are available.

How did that happen?

Wrong comm.

… or is it? Using Oracle non-ironically?

Personally, I finally started digging back into my Japanese textbook. I enjoy going through the lessons, and this chapter (15 of Genki) was pretty quick. That and got through my Kanji and Anki card review backlogs (tho my JPDB stack is still backed up). Always nice to be mostly caught up!

Also picked up another Spanish language novel (Marina), going to try and keep up with one of the book clubs on Natively. I’ve mostly switched to Japanese, but for reading my Japanese isn’t high level enough for long form yet. Might as well be reading something not English.

Some pre-top 8 things that happened:

Mine does happen to be maple. There are big differences in what’s ok for that?