Let me know when you find out. 
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I feel this exact way for reading 
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For Japanese, not Korean, but I started being able to follow and enjoy Slice of Life type shows WITH Japanese Subtitles at the 400 hour or so mark. Like actually watch for fun.
By the 800-1000, I could mostly do witbout subtitles. I know its a lot, and the number can be discouraging, but unfortunately with languages so far removed from English, it takes thousands of hours to hit proficiency.
Anyway, I updated my totals. I’m scaling back on listening to anything but Podcasts just to get my numbers back in line. But this is also why I went so hard at the start, so I would have the freedom to do this. I spent most of the day playing Persona 4 Golden, and while the part I am at is largely voice acted, I’m not counting anything with subtitles I can’t ignore. So games are out.
Favourite game of all time though, and really good for a learner. Wide variety of types of language, lots of voice acted segments, huge, huge amount of dialog, and most importantly, you can replay lines an unlimited amount of times.
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That is interesting, actually! Provided I manage to maintain 15h/month, it should take me 2 years to get there. Having a timeline makes it seem not so daunting, like there actually is a point where it gets better, even if it is a long way ahead.
Thanks for sharing!
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Yesterday I got caught up in writing fiction again (seems to have become a “write 3000 words per day” challenge to get everything out my head onto paper in a meaning full way 
pity I haven’t managed to do the same in Japanese) and today I’ve been out so only managed about 10 minutes for another chapter of 彗星とさいごの竜
Total so far: 13h 3m
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Weekly summary time!
8:43 minutes for the week, so a little under last week’s total. I’m going to set a soft goal of trying to get 40 hours this month, but it’s pretty soft since I’m happy with my progress so far, and that goal will only be a tiny bit of a stretch based on my progress so far.
I picked up a ton of new anime this week, as well as getting back to 僕の心のヤバイやつ S1 | L25.
I had a big audio book week (4.5 hours!) this week finishing up 明日の世界で星は煌めく | L28 today and continuing on with 本好き2, as well as a few listening-only books I’ve started.
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This got me curious, so I did some quick calculations. Last year I had 95 hours of audiobooks + 315 watched hours logged on Natively.
In my own records, I usually log shows at about half of their runtime due to open/end credits, and all of the time spent not talking, so taking that discount, I probably had 250 logged hours last year. Combining that with the 50 or so hours I’ve logged so far this year, plus a nebulous amount of listening in the past, I’d conservatively guess I was in the 500-600 total hour range. That being the case, I think I’d agree with @Triddy (and now it’s lighting a fire under my butt to get to that 800 or so mark 
)
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I was all set to be proud of myself for watching about 2 hours of Devil May Cry S1 | L30?? today, but the last episode I watched was quite literally 29 minutes of silence and like 1 of talking. 
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Update time!
The last few days I’ve been lacking motivation a little bit, so my listening has been a lot more passive. Still doing it, though. I’m not particularly worried. As long as I keep up the discipline and habit, it’ll come back. These things come and go.
I’ve been doing less Anime/Drama and more other stuff. I started listening to the ゆる言語学ラジオ podcast. Its just slightly above my level, but I can usually follow it and its quite interesting.
Otherwise I’ve spent a lot of time the last few days, and its the one thing I remain fully motivated with, recording myself and practicing my pitch accent and pronunciation. I haven’t improved in those 3 days, but I have a better understanding of where I’m going wrong.
Audio Visual is now back down to 43% for this year. Dropping about 1% a day. The only audiovisual stuff I’m doing are those breath of the wild streams. Though my desire to watch more series is rising, I’m going to try and get it lower first. The more hours I have in total, the less the percentages will fluctuate.
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Haven’t gone through the game history channel yet, but I did reach my 40 hrs goal! Mostly anime, but some comprehensive listening, manga explained explain in Japanese, and audiobooks. I tried わたしの幸せな結婚 | L31 - but wasn’t thrilled
As the anime goes, I’ve had a variety of challenging stuff:
- ベルサイユのばら S1 | L36 (1970s) - intense vocab, rough & fast enunciation (particularly the male characters) & I definitely needed subs
- 赤毛のアン S1 | L29 (1970s) - mix of vocab, antiquated speech style, sometimes rough enunciation, and odd vocal intonation patterns (specifically Anne - which I wonder if it’s a 70s thing, or meant to be a regional accent). I could get by without subs, but I’d be missing enough that I still wanted them
- ロックは淑女の嗜みでして S1 | L30?? - not so hard, but subs are still nice
- わたしの幸せな結婚 S1 | L30 - Edo period setting, so definitely some stopping for lookups, but not as bad as I’d expect
- Tho the audiobook for vol 1 was giving me more trouble
- 桜蘭高校ホスト部 S1 | L28 - has felt easier as I’ve gone, in part bc jpdb
In general while I still think listening with subs is very beneficial, bc of immediate feedback + vocab, I do feel like audio-only causes me to improve in ways that reading with subs does not. I may experiment with turning subs off, and only turning them back on for parts I miss
One video I’ve been meaning to watch is an old movie 螢の光 (1938), which is based off a 吉屋信子 story. While it has EN subs (and I can’t find a copy without) my challenge with it is actually word recognition moreso than comprehension. Even putting it to .75x speed, it’s still hard to catch what they’re saying. So given that, I think I will log it
As comprehensible listening goes:
- Sayuri Saying - I’ve been enjoying the conversational stuff. She has a YouTube channel and podcast, and collaborates with a lot of the other intermediate (N3+) YouTubers like MikuRealJapanese, YUYUの日本語, etc.
- She has a subscription plan where you can get full transcripts. There are a some episodes with free transcripts
- for ppl who are into shadowing, Miku has a very extensive & excellent course organized around grammar. I benefitted from it a lot, back when I was doing that
- 鋼の錬金術師 & Yotsuba read-alongs from いろいろな日本語 are great. It’s stuff I could understand on my own, but having the JP explanations is cool, and there’s occasional small things I missed
I think I’m gonna add a secondary 20 hrs of non-anime content goal, to expand my horizons a bit.
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My current vibes hypothesis is that subs are actually better for reading improvements (it demands that you keep up with the speakers or the subs aren’t going to be helpful) and that audio only is better for 聞き取り (I can’t think of a good way to say that in English…yes I’m apparently one of those people now 
). I actually tend to do my audio only to audiobooks and podcasts because I prefer it there. I guess because there isn’t the assumption that you’re also watching something so there’s often more context? Not sure, but tl;dr I know what you’re saying.
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They do help with that to some extent, ime. Audiobook speed is a bit (or a lot) faster than I read, but I can keep up, even at a fast pace. Anime I have no trouble keeping up, unless it’s too complex. On the same token tho, reading without audo involves skills that reading with audio won’t necessarily improve much.
If it’s at a comprehensible level, sure. If you’re using it for something that would be a bit too hard, then I’m not sure I agree. You may be right tho.
That’s fair. I’ve only being doing it with anime out of necessity (Amazon JP almost never has subs, and occasionally other things don’t)
I don’t like doing it for audiobooks, bc I find I miss things, while tricking myself into thinking I’m understanding more than I actually am. Tho if it’s easier level or something I don’t really care as much about… There’s a few audiobooks without physical ones as well, come to think of it 
I did used to do more 声優ラジオ type stuff, but haven’t been in the mood lately.
Me when translating things: how do I even English?
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I started rewatching マリア様がみてる S1 | L27 (audio only) - and I can recognize the words much better now than back in September. Back then I’d miss sentences, and now just a word or two that I couldn’t make out (plus a few I looked up)
Tried 裏世界ピクニック 1 ふたりの怪異探検ファイル | L33 - got 46 min (mixed text & audio only), and concluded “not right now”. Started 明日の世界で星は煌めく 2 | L28 tried a few min with & without text, and concluded I’d rather do it with text - since that will also help my reading (which is always my main priority).
Discovered a mangaka I like (Kashikaze, author of ロンリーガールに逆らえない 1 | L22 and キミが吠えるための歌を) does some 恋バナ v-tubing with other yuri mangaka - so I might give that a try for some audio-only
I’m thinking of doing audiobooks just w/ things that are at a comfortable level (< L30) going forward - since I’ll feel less inclined to procrastinate them, and will get through them quicker - thus doing (slightly) more!
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I finally finished 무브 투 헤븐: 나는 유품정리사입니다 S1 | L21?? and was a crying mess during the last episode.
Language-wise I didn’t find it easy for a couple of reasons:
- Very specific vocab around guardianship and other legal themes regarding that.
- The MC speaks very fast, using very formal language, and his uncle speaks very fast in a very casual and mumbly way. The only constant here is speed.
- It’s hard to read subtitles when you’re crying
Total so far: 9h51 minutes.
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Oops, turns out this isn’t the one that’s based of Nobuko’s story - that’s 花つみ日記 | L30?? which is based off of 天国と舞妓 in 小さき花々 花物語 | L39 and happens to be the story I’m about to start! That movie (at least what I found on YouTube) has terrible audio quality, so I’ll continue it after I read the book.
Anyway I finished 螢の光, and I’ll log it at half time I think.
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Weekly update:
- 4h40 of Nihongo con Teppei Original podcast (now at episode #105) — in passing, I am glad that I am currently going through the Originals with a constant runtime of 20 mins, instead of something like Nihongo con Teppei Z where the runtime fluctuates from one episode to another.
- 3h44 of Antihero
- 26 mins of Christmas-themed videos by みことね because April is definitely a good time of the year for watching Christmas videos, am I right?
Watched YT Video links
In other listening-related news, I finally passed the kotu.io pitch accent minimal pairs test with over 98% accuracy!!
It only took two years of trying 
In light of this, I’ve started going back once again through Dōgen’s pitch accent course only to realize that I am still garbage at actually determining where exactly the pitch drops. It shouldn’t come as a surprise but it is indeed a lot harder when you have to pick between more than two predetermined choices…
Adding up this week’s numbers to my running total puts me at 29h08. Way past my initial goal of 24h…
There is still half a month left so let’s stretch the goal to 72h.
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I should really play around with that more.
Nevermind.
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Weekly update! Actually already reached my goal of 20 hours 
of course I will keep going to see how far I can get this month.
This also means I reached Level 3 on Dreaming Spanish, which doesn’t really mean anything but can help maybe find other resources for my level. I’m still a beginner, but I’m finding now I can notice a lot higher comprehension with upper beginner and even intermediate resources.
I am still really only using the Learn Spanish and Go podcast. I have two new friends I listen to everyday idk what to do once I catch up to the 250+ episodes out rn…but maybe by then I’ll be able to understand more difficult podcasts/content
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While trying to register a new account on some service, they sent me a voice message on my phone number with a 6-digit code. The problem is that my number listening skills in Japanese are apparently so bad that I couldn’t process and memorize so many numbers that quickly and I am now locked out 
I remembered the first three digits and that’s it.
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I find those hard even in English. Hope you manage to get the account thing worked out
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