Foreign Journaling

23 Sep, 2026

At the beginning of this year, as soon as it came out for the West, I've tried out the Hobonichi App to do some light journaling without ever stopping writing on paper. This is something that's suggested by the Hobonichi staff as well as one of its use cases: write down some lines to recall it better when you have to write it down, or just save pictures and tidbits of information that are usually roaming aimlessly in your phone. Unfortunately, this has made my phone much more untidy because I don't want to pay a subscription to have my pictures saved in the cloud and it only saves the one you pin, so... my use has been a bit weird.

At some point, I thought it'd be a good idea if I started journaling in German: short sentences every day, practice makes perfect and being consistent does wonders! Except I've encountered a couple of issues in my months I've done so:

1. Checking a dictionary tab on my phone browser and navigating back to the app is a pain in the ass, since I'm not proficient at all right now;
2. All my entries are unchecked, so if I make any mistakes it's on me. I sometimes went back to review the older entries, but it's not perfect at all;
3. The app is kind of slow. This makes point 1 worse.

You can guess how it ended: I'm much more consistent in my physical journal than in the app, where I've stopped writing since before summer. Ouch.

I think I've gotten much better at German lately, but only in reading and listening: actual production is still clunky and I lack a lot of exercise, beyond what I'm doing for classes. I knew of HiNative and I also know it sucks very much¹, so I looked for an alternative and came across LangCorrect. Oh joy! Exactly what I needed! It's a bit of a shame I can't do it in the Hobonichi App, but just one entry later I feel like I know so much more. I also feel very humbled. And a bit useful after correcting some posts in Italian.

It also made me think about two things:

1. I like reading mundane blog entries, which is why I enjoy reading random ones here on BearBlog;
2. What I write in my physical journal, what I write in here and what I write there are very different.

My daily journal is my world. I open my heart to it and tend to it, love it dearly, it's a bundle of feelings not only put on paper but also expressed through rituals. A paper journal is a special thing.

This blog is just whatever. It's a window between me and the world, a window tightly locked because you're free to read but I'm not exactly looking for a conversation. You can tap on the glass, you can watch, or you can leave. Some things I can show because I want them to be seen, but it's safe because I'm still behind the glass.

The entries on LangCorrect are more like a monologue in the park. I expect people to come up and strike up a conversation (I mean, I'm there to be corrected at least), so I feel like writing mundane stuff I'd still like to share. It's something I do in the other two places as well, but there's still a different intent behind it.

#learning