So I've been taking it easy recently but I still noticed weird improvements.

Today while listening to Schönen guten Morgen (https://youtu.be/32M8qRGrUE8?is=U1uLBjiEPFPDI-Oe), I noticed something I haven't noticed in months.

My mouth/tongue was tired. Physically tired. I haven't felt like this since... I dunno A1 or something.

My mouth was instinctively trying to keep up with the song. And I guess I tried so hard that I actually tired out my tongue/mouth muscles.

Given the speed of the song I feel like this is a true improvement. A few months ago I wouldn't even dream of keeping up with it. But now it's within my grasp, a bit of practice and I might actually build the talking speed to shadow a song like that.

New month, new me: decided to make two changes this week.

First, I'm moving from regular study throughout the week to two big, chunky days that I take off work. I'll still be doing Anki on the regular schedule but since that's been winding down (I'm already down to only 90 reviews a day), it's going to be pretty quick soon. I noticed I was just always exhausted trying to cram together work and study in a day, trying to rush through work so I'd have enough time, and then just being a little fried while trying to study. We'll see how it goes later in the week, but at least work today felt so much more comfortable.

I know there's a bit of debate on being regular vs. not (aside from SRS materials, obviously), so I'd love to hear from anyone that's had success with longer study periods.

And then second, I'm setting aside Shin Kanzen Master's Grammar book this week. I'm two thirds of the way through it with three months to go, and I think I've been kinda leaning on habit by doing it as much as I have. Once I went through the catalog of new grammar forms to give me the foundation for the other books, the plan was to spread time evenly across Grammar, Listening, and Reading. That hasn't happened. Reading in particular I've barely gone through as I haven't been convinced of the book's actual instructional value, but it's still reps targeted right at N2 level. Not like I'm going to find better reading practice.

I feel like resorting to dictionaries in Norwegian is becoming rarer and rarer, and my Japanese reading is becoming more fluid. =D

Pretty bad. I'm not motivated. I dread learning all the different genders and the 9 different indefinite articles.....

But I really need to learn so I can stay here, i do not want to go back to America.

Pretty good, I’ve got a magazine I’ve been reading in my target language and I can understand almost everything given my familiarity with the subject matter and the amount of pictures. My reading speed is still a lot slower than English but that’ll improve as I read more and more. I’d previously read a few books in my target language and maybe understood 70%, but in the magazine it’s probably 90-95% comprehension.