Reflecting on Literature & Languages Newsletter #1 (May 2024)

Newsletter Introduction

Welcome to the first newsletter of Literature and Languages!

The idea is to send out a monthly newsletter about the books I’m reading and also about my language-learning journey. When the publication starts to grow, new things may be added. For now, we will keep it simple.

If you have any recommendations, please respond to this newsletter and leave it behind. I’m always looking for good advice on reading and language learning myself :)

Reading

May has been a successful reading month for me. Mostly, because I had to read multiple books for my Master’s thesis and internship (philosophical/ ethical non-fiction), but I also had the time to read some interesting fiction.

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann 4/5

Non-fiction, but reads as a suspenseful thriller. I like reading about historical events, especially when they are filled with darkness and controversy (like most of them are). This book is about George Anson’s journey around the world in 1740. He was leading the expedition (with the intention to attack Spanish ships in South America), around Cape Horn, with a convoy of 152 ships including six warships. One of those warships was The Wager. You will read about all the hardships and discomfort that working people on these ships had to endure. And about the wreckage of The Wager and its crew ‘’survival’’.

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks 4/5

I don’t even know how to explain this reading experience. It was uncomfortable but nicely written. The main character is a horrible piece of human being, but in the end understandable to some degree. The murder scenes had me on edge; I saw them as a movie before me and I wished I could stop them from happening.

Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin 4.5/5

A horror classic! I loved this one. I have been thinking about reading this book for ages, and now I finally picked it up. The story is quite famous, but still here is a short synopsis. A young couple, Rosemary and Guy, are looking for a new apartment in New York. They already signed a contract but suddenly a new opportunity opened up; the apartment Rosemary always wanted was for rent! An old building full of history and prestige, very famous among the locals. She gets what she wishes, at first at least. But then they have to deal with weird neighbours and strange occurrences around them.

The atmosphere in this story is amazing. And if you would like to dive deeper into cults, strange apartments and the occult, I would suggest combining this reading experience with the Netflix showArchive 81! Many aspects of this show are based on this book and it gives the same gloomy atmosphere, making the whole experience of reading this book even better. I had watched the show around a year ago, but only now realized how much it resembles the book. A rewatch is coming :)

What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets by Michael Sandel 4/5

If you are interested in how markets and money are infiltrating our daily lives, then this is the book for you. Sandel’s writing is clear and easy to follow. He gives multiple examples for his arguments and describes many practices involving markets that most of us are probably not aware of. I was very surprised by some of his examples.

October Screams: A Halloween Anthology 3.5/5

A short story collection (on Kindle), all stories involved Halloween. I know that now is not the best time to read Halloween stories, but I started this anthology a while ago to figure out what kind of stories were included and what the writing level of the authors was because I was interested in writing for them as well. I liked some of the short stories, but most of them could have been more memorable. A fun one-time read.

Currently reading

• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (in Russian)
• Moral Repair: Reconstructing Moral Relations After Wrongdoing by Margaret Urban Walker
• Autonomy and Trust in Bioethics by Onora O’Neill

If you are struggling to read long classics, like The Brothers Karamazov, and need some extra information or motivation, then I would suggest the following YouTube channel: Benjamin McEvoy.

On this channel, almost all important classics have their own video containing tips on how to read such a work and also valuable background information on the time period, the author and just the general setting.

Language Learning

In May, I mostly focused on Japanese. Unfortunately, I have too little time to also work on Spanish.

For Japanese, I continued using Anki as I did in April. As you may know, Anki is a free flashcard app where you can make your own deck or use the available decks online. For now, I’m mostly using premade decks and I have one deck of my own where I collect new words from the content I watch or read. The premade decks that I currently use daily are:

• Core 2k/6k Optimized Japanese Vocabulary
• All in One Kanji
• Heisigs RTK 6th Edition (Sories, Stroke Diagrams and Readings)

The main focus is the first deck because I want to expand my vocabulary; so far, this deck is perfectly designed. It contains the keyword to learn, a sentence to put the word in context, and audio for the word and sentence.

The second deck provides the learner with more than 2000 kanjis. The cards contain the kanji with related words, main radical, JLPT level, Jouyou grade, frequency number, references to dictionaries (for example a link to Jisho), and a story to remember the kanji. To be honest, this is way too much information. So I only go through it for new kanjis. But often I only test myself on the meaning/keyword of the kanji and a couple of readings. The reverse cards (meaning first and then the kanji), I write out in my notebook to test my recalling and writing ability.

The last deck is also focused on kanji, but it is less overfilled with information. It follows Heisig’s kanji learning method and order (from the book Remembering the Kanji 1). And it contains only one card type: meaning first, so you have to recall the kanji and write it out. This is a bit more challenging, but very effective for learning how to write and also way better for the memorization process.

Furthermore, I have been watching native content on YouTube and sometimes using the MochiKanji app and the Kanshudo website.

On Kanshudo (also a highly recommended resource), I finally finished all the beginner lessons and started on the first intermediate lesson.

My goals for June are:

• To read 5 pages in Fushigi Dagashiya Zenitendō (ふしぎ駄菓子屋 銭天堂)
• Reach level 8 on WaniKani
• Continue using (daily) the Anki app
• Finish 3 intermediate lessons in Kanshudo
• Finish 3 lessons in Remembering the Kanji

I hope you enjoyed this first newsletter! Good luck with your readings and language learning and until next month :)

The newsletter will first be published on my website and later on republished here on Medium.