I think that is indeed effective, tho I burned out when I tried doing it with 本好き 1 (however I was also reading 3 other hard LNs at the same time, while trying to keep pace with the book club for a book I was only moderately into)
I would advise simplifying it to read 1x, listen 1-2x. I’m not sure there’s any real advantage to listening prior to reading, unless you think it will help with reading (which it might). Also maybe do it with just a portion of the track first, so you can get a better sense of whether it’s useful, and whether you might burn out.
Like any other case, I think the further away from your level you get, the less benefit (that’s the “comprehensible” thing in a nutshell, no?).
I did this when I was struggling with my reading being miles ahead of my listening. My process as I recall it:
Listen without text, see how much I get
Relisten with text
Relisten without text
I chose books that were unlikely to need many lookup while reading, but which were outside of my grasp for listening. I listened first because as you go through the book you should get a nice boost of later sections being more comprehensible on the first pass, before text. I listened again without text after (step 3) to basically test myself on what I had “learned” and force active recall.
It’s very intensive. It’s also very effective, or was for me - I got great results!
I missed yesterday report but it was the usual mix of Comprehensible Japanese, Frieren, YuYu and Bite Sized Japanese. Hours: 2.3
Today, similar with Comprehensible Japanese, Frieren, One Piece but also a bit of Dragon Quest overviews as I’m interested in playing Dragon Quest 1 in Japanese.
On the Gameboy version, the kanji + hiragana is low res and rough to read.
it looks good on mobile but the Japanese App Store won’t accept any of my credit cards.
Might just watch a play through on YouTube.
Sorry, I’ve been out for the day or would have replied sooner.
I have done this with reading (and still do occasionally for short stories or short chapters) and with listening/reading graded short stories earlier in my studying as well as more recently for YouTube videos with this challenge. It’s a method that Olly Richards (polyglot) swears by (he calls it story method learning).
My personal experience with it;
Pros:
Helps me to internalize grammar and new vocabulary as well as pick up correct particle usage with certain vocabulary in context
Helps me to understand the story better as I get to hear it or read it through more than once, I usually pick up new things each time
helps me to work out correct intonation/ pitch accent patterns for short phrases (I can’t always replicate it for longer ones)
If reading and listening, I can sometimes pick up the correct reading by seeing it (eg if I know the kanji but didn’t know how it read) or by hearing it (if I know the word but didn’t know the Kanji for it)
If it’s something you already know, it can reinforce your knowledge/ acquisition if done correctly.
I also found it allowed me to guess at what was coming next for certain grammar patterns though I’m still on shorter ones for listening.
Cons:
Can be dull/ boring very quickly
Can cause loss of focus if you’re repeatedly listening to the same thing multiple times
if you do sentence mining, you’re just doubling your work (I don’t really use SRS flashcards for learning, only for WaniKani)
You probably get more progress from a variety of content using similar words and phrases than from the one source.
I do only tend to use this for short things e.g. for listening, my longest section so far is only about 16 minutes repeated up to 4 times but most have been less than 10 minutes and I will repeat it as soon as it’s finished. First time is just to listen, second tome is to look up unknown vocabulary and grammar, third time to to understand while using the new vocabulary and grammar I’ve just looked up then I added an extra repeat in to just listen extensively again (3 times is what’s usually suggested though for either listening or reading).
Personal Reading version:
For reading, most of the time I read the chapter once extensively then again looking up all the words I don’t know and I will re-read each sentence after looking up their unknown words so I understand that sentence before moving on but I tend not to re-read again until at least a few months later.
Edit: I would say if your listening is lower than your reading, choose something you either already know or would find easy enough when reading as that does make the listening part more comprehensible. And make sure it’s a topic or book that you don’t mind listening to repeatedly. I have less tolerance for subjects I can’t stand than those that I have an affinity with or interest in.
Random question, are you using a Japanese game, or using a different language and just changed it to Japanese? I have a stack of old GB and GBA Dragon quest/ Dragon Warrior games but didn’t think they had different language settings. If I’m wrong though, that just opened up a whole host of new gaming possibilities for me
Unfortunately older games rarely have multiple language options because of limited space. They only put the relevant language for the market it was sold in onto the cart/disk. If you have European copies of older games then there might be multiple languages, but they would likely all be European languages.
If you have more recent games then they will more often than not have a ton of language options, though they aren’t always listed in the in-game settings. You may need to create a different language account on your console or dig into the settings on Steam/Epic games/etc. for PC in order to change the language.
Wow, thank you for the fantastic write-up, CatDQ! You mentioned some really good points I need to keep in mind if I go for this.
So far I’m thinking this: the book I pick needs to be relatively easy to read (for me), have shorter audio tracks (so short chapters, potentially, or is breaking down longer chapters into shorter chunks) (10-15 minutes might be the sweet spot, though the shorter the better), and is something I haven’t read before (more to help with keeping my own interest than for comprehension reasons).
Not sure yet if I already own any books that meet all or most of those criteria; I’ll have to do some research.
That was what I thought, no worries then. I do have a few Japanese specific cartridges or emulations of older games (mostly Pokémon or 7th Dragon) so I’ll need to make do with those. I think I also have an old Tamagochi cart somewhere, I might actually be able to read some of it, maybe
No worries, glad I could help
Most of the stuff I’ve used it on recently has been YouTube videos so if they have the option of correct subtitles and you find the content interesting enough, that also may be an alternative option for you if your books don’t bring anything to mind. I was specifically looking for beginner comprehensible input but did find intermediate stuff and advanced stuff as well.
On a more “my listening challenge progress” related note, since it’s just hit midnight, I didn’t manage to do any of todays listening (since I was out for most of the day) so will try to pull things back tomorrow with some extra alongside my lesson
I also didn’t manage to do any reading except for a few words on the DVDs and laughing at a guys leg tattoo while in the city. Maybe it had a deeper meaning to it that only he would know, but it reminded me of Xiaomanyc with his “Kung pao Chicken” tattoo
In college I had a coworker who was showing off his newest tattoo to everyone: 性別 on his lower stomach. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I don’t think that was really what he wanted it to say there
I finished the audiobook for 死神と天使の円舞曲 | L29 (conclusion: the first two books are good, skip the third) and rewatched a random episode of a tv show. I think I know what audiobook I’m going to do next, but I’m letting my mood carry me tomorrow.
At 21 hours for the month, so pretty well on track still
My rule of thumb is 4-5 levels below my comfortable reading level for listening only and 4-5 levels above my reading level for listening while reading.
Listening only is actually also a good way to train your brain to accept ambiguity if you are struggling with that. (I don’t. I struggle with the opposite of forcing myself to not whitenoise too much. )
I added からかい上手の高木さん S1 | L20 to my no subs anime, so I’ve been watching Cardcaptor Sakura, Wedding Peach and now Takagi-san.
I ended up shelving 華麗なる探偵アリス&ペンギン for now and started the next book in the 放課後ミステリクラブ series instead. I wasn’t so much disinterested but rather decided that I didn’t want to have to learn a whole new cast of characters. Since there’re only 4 books at around 2 hours each, I can probably knock out all of the mystery club books by the end of the month and then get back to アリス&ペンギン afterwards.
I finished the last ~40 minutes of 放課後ミステリクラブ 1金魚の泳ぐプール事件 | L22, and I think I’m going to try my experiment of listen/listen+read/listen with 文庫 デルトラ・クエスト 1 沈黙の森 | L26. If worst comes to worst and I end up hating the method, the book should still be easy enough to finish with listening only.
I think it’s been answered subsequently, but yes for sure with older games you need the Japanese version.
The good news is most Nintendo handhelds are region free (it’s just the 3DS and DSi that are a problem), so you might not need to buy any new hardware.
I have just come back from Japan and there’s an overwhelming supply of old games in places like Bookoff.
I used Delta from the App Store to demonstrate what the text looks like.
Found kind of a weird option: 屋上の百合霊さん
【Liar-soft】 playthrough. It’s a VN I’ve had on my list for a while apparently, and at least on mobile I can straight up ignore the text and just glance for the scene changes - particularly when I put it in small mode
I was hoping I could find a version of Fate/Stay Night with narration too, since I’m currently reading that, but not luck so far. If anyone knows of one, plz lmk!!
Anyway this is reinforcing how much I dislike listening to things above my level - that normally have text - without text. B/c I don’t have a clear way to gain the knowledge I don’t have. It’s easier to accept with radio shows or stuff like that, but for VNs or audiobooks, I find it irritating. Edit: also with VNs text is an intended part of the experience, and kanji usage with alternate readings can be particularly relevant, at least for stuff like Fate
But I have to admit, it felt almost more like background noise as too much is always going on that series, is hard to keep up.
Thus not sure of the efficacy…
I’ll probably finish this one then jump to either again 本好きの下剋上 or something else
Not sure about the DSi, but the region lock on the 3DS is completely in the software, so you don’t need new hardware for that either. I jailbroke my 3DS and can play Japanese games on it just fine. Not that I have many.
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