Managed to watch 2 episodes of Terraced house (2016 series, think it’s boys & girls in the city) and listen to the next chapter of ふしぎ駄菓子屋・銭天堂 so clocked in just under an hour and a half of active listening. I caught most of the first episode but kind of lost the plot on the second
I also listened to 80 minutes of Japanese music between driving to and from work today. Found I picked out a few more phrases and words that I didn’t hear previously.
The sort of general consensus that Imm hearing around improving listening (even from those in the language exchange I was at yesterday) seems to be just listen and try to understand, don’t focus on picking it apart piece by piece. So I think my issue is lack of patience, and I just need to take a breath and remember how far I’ve come. I’m thinking maybe I just need yo be more active with listening and go back to having stuff going in the background all the time even if I’m not focusing on it fully and then set aside time for active listening and trying to listen to more comprehensible content.
So once this challenge is finished, I think I’ll be looking to shake up my routine again and try to get more listening in regularly to try to boost that.
Another big anime day for me. I ended up starting Dragon Ball and watched 3 episodes (I’ve never seen anything from any of the shows except random YouTube clips). It’s actually really easy to follow except the audio from the copy that Crunchyroll has is atrocious. Sometimes I can barely hear what they’re saying even with headphones on. So I might need to see if I can find a better quality version… somewhere …
Day 22:
Listened to 30 minutes of Shinobi Japanese short stories, now I’m on intermediate level stories so hoping they are a bit longer.
I also listened to 100 minutes total of Japanese music going to and from work, and driving to the shops. (I’m documenting music but not counting it for the total hours since it’s mostly passive).
Yesterday was a terrible day for my Japanese. I got completely distracted on my computer and didn’t really pay attention to the time until it was almost midnight. I quickly watched a 3 minute episode of ゆるめいつ 3でぃ S1 | L19 just so that I could say that I watched something.
Today was a strong rebound. I almost have whiplash. I watched 3 episodes of ドラゴンボール S1 | L23, ゆるゆり なちゅやちゅみ！ | L20, and started 美少女戦士セーラームーン | L24. I only meant to watch a single episode of Sailor Moon, but I managed to squeeze 4 episodes in, finishing just before midnight.
Totaled just shy of 4 hours today. Went from my lowest watch-time of the month directly to my highest. lol.
Finding the better audio version is a must with Dragon Ball. The difference in audio quality is pretty extreme. Unfortunately, the good audio is not officially released outside of a recent release by AB Groupe in France (I don’t think they’ve released the entire show with the good audio yet either, but I could be wrong), so you’ll have no choice but to look “somewhere”.
My biggest breakthrough in listening ability is always after conversation practice with natives. There is just something about 1-on-1 or group conversations where you’re an active participant that sends strong signals to the brain about the importance of understanding the funny sound waves the other party is making with their articulatory organs.
I found they jumped in difficulty around level 3 of Intermediate. I was going through them at 5 mins per story and at this point it jumped to 15-20 minutes! It could just be me though
I’m now stuck at the end of Level 4 - the next level won’t unlock! I’m going through some of the Beginner level stories, to see if that will help, otherwise I’ll have to get in touch with the dev.
I’ve just hit intermediate level yesterday but should level up across the next few days so will let you know if I figure out how to get passed it.
Edit: I’ve just tried to hit level 2 for the intermediate and it asked me to take a quiz or complete the earlier story and it turned out the quiz answers hadn’t completed. If you get something like that blocking the way, check if the stories have a tick or if they have a green progress bar. If it’s the progress bar, try redoing the quiz and it may unlock.
I did notice that after my 2 hour conversation meet up on Tuesday I was reading a bit better and hearing a bit better.
Day23: managed 30 minutes of listening using Shinobi Japanese app. Friday is always a tough day because of my long shift but hopefully tomorrow I’ll get more time in.
I’ve started this book, listening on Audible (happily, I could use one of my regular Audible UK credits to buy it) and I’ve got the ebook sample chapter as a backup.
I gave the 5 minutes audiobook sample a go and found it reasonably understandable, after several listens.
I’m really excited by this!
Not sure I have the remotest chance to be able to catch-up with the bookclub as they’re 7 weeks in already, but I’ll see how it goes.
Bite sized Japanese podcast - 1.2 hours
京都寺町三条のホームズ | L29 1.1 hours (only 16 minutes through the audiobook though )
I missed the last two days due to a mix of social engagements and just bad planning on my part, but I got over 3 hours today from various sources (audiobooks, youtube, tv shows, partial movie). I was thinking tomorrow would be an all day listen fest but I may have been roped into an errand by a friend tomorrow We’ll see how it pans out
Went to Saitou Chiwa’s panel at AnimeNYC. I understood a lot of it, and didn’t understand a lot of it. Sometimes she spoke really fast, and 4-5 long sentences at a time, before they translated it. Overall it was amazing, but my comprehension is still まだまだ. I was sad that I couldn’t understand fully understand the 暁のヨナ line she did, so I guess I’ll have to rewatch that. I might try to look up other interviews with her. I also got to speak with her briefly, which is the first in-person Japanese conversation I’ve had with someone.
I’ve been slowly trying to translate parts of ガルクラジオ 19 to share with a friend (Kondou Reina was the guest, and plays my least favorite their favorite character). Even though she speaks very clearly overall, it’s still really hard to make out everything she (and the others) are saying. It’s made me realize that my understanding in some places was a bit looser than I thought. Sometimes YouTube’s auto-subs are a little helpful for parts in not getting yet. Other times, they’re clearly wrong
I finished 優しい死神の飼い方 | L30 yesterday, which game me another 12 hours something. (Can recommend the audiobook but be prepared for sadness.)
Today I have 3 more episodes of ゴーストハント S1 | L26 planned and depending on whether I can motivate myself out into the heat I might continue listening to 天国の犬ものがたり~夢のバトン~ | L21 because clearly I have a masochistic streak when it comes to emotional stuff.
Managed an hour of active listening using Marugoto audio.
Then spent the next 11 hours playing Fallen Order in Japanese, figured out you need to change the console language as well as download the language pack so now my PS5 has everything in Japanese. Might be good for my reading
Only counting the hour of active listening though.
Honestly it probably will, cuz you’re gonna encounter a relatively small set of vocab repeatedly. So eventually it will become automatic. And you’ll get good at figuring out what questions it’s asking you. Will probably be confusing for a while tho. One thing that’s useful: take photos of all the relevant stuff in English, which you can reference when you’re confused over the JP
I’ve long had my phone in JP, and go back and forth with my computer (the things I use it for are more complex and less frequent, so I can’t always take the time/energy to sit there and figure it out)
My switch is usually in Japanese but I use it less frequently. I tried it with my phone but had problems trying to fix something at one point so leave it in English now.
I’m usually pretty good at working out what the settings are and worst case scenario I can just switch it back to English if I need something
I did find myself starting to understand the stuff in the game but not sure if it was because I was still listening after so long or because it was easier words and phrases. Guess Imll find out tomorrow
)
We’ll see how it pans out
