Hey all,
Continuing on our challenge to ourselves to boost our listening skills, the December challenge is ready for signups! Set whatever number of hours feels like a reasonable goal for you and feel free to share the things you’re listening to, your successes and setbacks. We’re in this together 
All languages welcome!
This post will be a wiki so you can add and update your own hours.
Goal: 60 hrs of Kansai-ben. November Challenge
| オーディオブックやドラマCD | ch/track | 分間 |
|---|---|---|
| セトウツミ 2 |
| ゲーム | 分間 |
|---|---|
| ラブ★コン |
| アニメ、テレビ、映画 | 話 | 分間 |
|---|---|---|
| ラブ★コン S1 L27 | 9-11 | 45 |
| カーネーション | 62-63 | 110 |
| じゃりン子チエ S1 | 17-19 | 45 |
| ちょこっと京都に住んでみた。 S1 (series) |
| ユーチューブ、ポッドキャスト、他 | 分間 |
|---|---|
| ユーチューブ | 771 |
| ポッドキャスト | |
| Shadowing | 30 |
| 会話レッスン | 540 |
| 関西弁 | 分間 | 時間 |
|---|---|---|
| 1540 | 25.6 |
eefara’s home post
 |
Dec |  |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
01  |
02 |
03 |
04 |
05 |
06 | 07 |
| 08 |
09 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
| 15 |
16 |
17 | 18 |
19 | 20 |
21 |
| 22 |
23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 |
30 | 31 |
I listened this day, but didn’t hit the hour+ mark. : I listened to an hour or more this day!(Calendar stolen from the Listen Every Day Challenge on WK.)
Listening Log
Total time: 34h 5m 16s
12/08:
穏やか貴族の休暇のすすめ。3: 39m 34s
12/09:
穏やか貴族の休暇のすすめ。3: 1h 30m
12/10:
穏やか貴族の休暇のすすめ。3: 1h 06m 32s
12/11:
穏やか貴族の休暇のすすめ。3: 1h 53m 10s
12/13:
穏やか貴族の休暇のすすめ。3: 1h 53m
12/15:
穏やか貴族の休暇のすすめ。3: 1h 37m
12/16:
穏やか貴族の休暇のすすめ。3: 1h 15m
12/18:
変な家: 30m
12/04:
Nihongo con Teppei, eps. 207-208: 41m 04s
12/05:
Nihongo con Teppei, eps. 209-210: 41m 04s
12/05:
Nihongo con Teppei, eps. 211: 20m 30s
12/12:
テレビゲームの中林, ep. 260-261: 1h
Japanese with Teppei and Noriko, ep. 581: 19m 40s
12/17:
YUYUの日本語Podcast, ep. 413: 33m 32m
Japanese with Teppei & Noriko, ep. 210: 15m 23s
12/19:
Nihongo con Teppei, ep. 212-213: 41m 04s
12/20:
YUYUの日本語Podcast, ep. 411, 1-4: 2h 4m 39s
12/21:
YUYUの日本語Podcast, ep. 5-6, 384: 1h 46m 10s
Nihongo con Teppei, ep. 214: 20m 23s
12/28:
YUYUの日本語Podcast, ep. 7-11, 384: 1h 26m 47s
12/01:
D.Gray-man S2, eps. 41-44: 80m
Skip Beat! S1, ep. 1: 21m
12/02:
D.Gray-man S2, eps. 45-47: 60m
Skip Beat! S1, ep. 1: 20m
日常 S1, ep. 1: 24m
12/03:
D.Gray-man S2, eps. 48-52: 100m
12/04:
Tales of Zestiria the X Specials, ep. 1: 23m
12/08:
Skip Beat! S1, ep. 3: 21m
12/10:
ふらいんぐうぃっち S1, ep. 1: 23m
12/12:
ふらいんぐうぃっち S1, ep. 2: 20m
12/18:
ふらいんぐうぃっち S1, ep. 3-6: 1h 20m
12/01:
【保存版】読書好きが約１年間で読んだ本【2023年7月-2024年9月】: 26m
12/03:
1円で買った『危険度100％ゲーム』が衝撃のゲーム内容だった: 36m 27s
12/04:
スーパージャンプ100回連続成功まで◯◯時間かかる？｜スーパーマリオRPG【みんなのけんしょう】: 32m 32s
【超検証】ポケモン史上最高難度施設を全制覇できるか？｜ポケットモンスターエメラルド: 1h 10m
12/05:
【超検証】ポケモン史上最高難度施設を全制覇できるか？｜ポケットモンスターエメラルド: 35m
12/11:
20年前にサンリオがポケモンを真似して作ったゲームが面白い: 27m 15s
【８番出口】◆何も知らない友人にゲームを送りつけて遊んでもらうシリーズ◆part1: 9m
12/29:
【８番出口】◆何も知らない友人にゲームを送りつけて遊んでもらうシリーズ◆part1: 45m
【８番のりば】◆何も知らない友人にゲームを送りつけて遊んでもらうシリーズ◆part1: 51m 30s
美容師のため口注意する奴: 6m
127m + 104m + 136m 27s + 23m + 41m 04s + 32m 32s + 1h 10m + 35m + 41m 04s + 20m 30s + 21m + 39m 34s + 1h 30m + 1h 29m 32s + 1h 53m 10s + 36m 15s + 1h 39m 40s + 1h 53m + 1h 37m + 1h 15m + 33m 32s + 15m 23s + 1h 50m + 41m 04s + 20m 23s + 2h 4m 39s + 1h 46m 10s + 1h 26m 47s + 45m + 57m 30s
I need to total up my year total so far, see if I need to try to meet a specific hour goal this month to hit any nice round numbers.
Edit: Okay, here are my month totals:
| Month | Listening Total |
|---|---|
| January | 42h 01m 40s |
| February | 39h 44m 26s |
| March | 42h 34m 46s |
| April | 30h 22m 22s |
| May | 21h 11m 47s |
| June | 32h 57m 59s |
| July | 42h 58m 33s |
| August | 36h 5m 13s |
| September | 30h 0m 22s |
| October | 42h 10m 53s |
| November | 36h 0m 0s |
| Total | 396h 8m 1s |
Oof, May was a bad month for me. Anyway, my original listening goal this year was 360 hours, so 
, that’s easily checked off! And if I happened to do well, my stretch goals were 430 hours and 500. I need 34 hours to hit 430 total, and 104 to hit 500 (
), so I think I know what number I’ll be aiming for this month, haha.
I’m gonna list some listening stuff I’d like to finish this month as a bit of a checklist for myself:
Finish reading/listening to the 穏やか貴族の休暇のすすめ。3 | L32 audiobook
Finish watching D.Gray-man S2 | L23??
Read/listen to the next 本好き book with @shitsurei (may not finish this month)
Start and finish D.Gray-man HALLOW S1 | L30?? (Might see if I can read this arc in the manga before watching)
| Source | Type | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Comprehensible Japanese | Youtube (JP Learning) | 114 min |
| Nihongo Con Teppei (92-148) | Podcast (JP Learning) | 229 min |
| Speak Japanese Naturally | Youtube (JP Learning) | 11 min |
| Sakura Tips (26-38, 40) | Podcast (JP Learning) | 70 min |
| Japanese with Shun (7-14) | Podcast (JP Learning) | 53 min |
| YUYUの日本語Podcast (1-2) | Podcast (JP Learning) | 32 min |
509 min = 8.48 hr
The numbers 
The consistency 
I’ve been sick and apartment-sitting for some friends this past week, so I’ve had an abundance of listening time. In exchange I’ve done 0 reading this week. 
Whoops, thought you meant my current month numbers. Yep, it really adds up over time! 30 hours or so doesn’t feel like much in the grand scheme of things, but if you do it 12 times in a row…
Highly recommend reading that arc before watching it. They really don’t do it justice.
Anyways, considering adding a listening challenge as well. Bit nervous as I’m normally a lurker, but really need to start buckling down on more immersion.
Welcome to the forums, nice to meet you!
Ah, are you referring to Hallow? I’ve read the arc in English, at least, so I’m familiar with it there. I’m hearing a lot of talk online about how poorly Hallow adapted it, though, so I’m getting a bit nervous. That’s one reason I figured I’d wait before watching it; gotta refresh myself on those chapters so I can be properly disgusted when I get to them in anime form, haha.
(Oh, somewhat unrelated, but looking at your books, I see you have the first reverse novel! I’m always excited to see people reading these, I thought they were really nice side stories.)
Depending on your current listening level, normal listening habits, and how well you respond to year-long challenges, I could definitely argue one way or another in terms of how I approached my listening this year (30 hours/month minimum). My listening has definitely noticeably improved, but an hour missing from your day if you don’t care to be listening to something can be tough.
Well I’m off to a rough start, with only 6 hrs for my first week. My Japanese time has been substantially reduced, due to some personal circumstances, and also some of my recent listening time went to ソードアート・オンライン 6 - which netted me a conversation in Japanese with someone, while I was read-listening on the train.
After this week I’ll take a look and see if my goal is still realistic. I’m also wondering whether I should change my focus back to being any Japanese rather than kansai-specific, since I’ve already meet my initial aim with this whole “just Kansai” thing. Plus I’ve in general shifted to including more Tokyo-ben resources again… But maybe that’s a reason to keep the Kansai-only limitations, so I don’t lose the progress 
I feel like I probably shouldn’t adjust my hours goal either way. The whole point is it’s supposed to be a challenge, and it’s not so far as to be unreachable yet
Oh good! If you’ve read it in English, that certainly helps a lot. I just get a little sad when new viewers watch Hallow and go “…that’s it?” due to how it was handled. And likewise to your comments on Reverse, I was just excited to see someone remembers D.Gray-Man! It’s my favorite series.
Regarding listening, I definitely need to start on it. I work and live in Japan and communicate daily in Japanese, and while that means I’m not completely new, I’m hoping to take N2 in July and I’m a little terrified.
I’m always excited to meet a fellow fan in the wild!
There’s a relatively large population of people here and on Wanikani who’ve taken the JLPT who I’m sure would be happy to share any tips/tricks/study methods! I know that @shitsurei in particular just took the N2 this past weekend; they’ve been maintaining a study log of their N2 study this past year which might be interesting to check out.
Although I am currently feeling awful about how I did, so maybe don’t give up at the end like I did
Okay, finally went back and totaled my hours after almost five very busy days not doing so. I’m at 31 hours listening to this month, so just 3 more! I’m so close!
Coming up towards the end of December, and I’m only at 25 hrs
I’m not really sure whether I personally wanna do a listening challenge in January or not, at this point. Though I can still run the thread.
Here’s my stats since I began:
Standard:
| 2024 | Hours |
|---|---|
| Nov | 55 |
| Dec | 45.2 |
| Total | 100.2 |
| 2025 | |
|---|---|
| Jan | 22.1 |
| Feb | 25.4 |
| Mar | 54.8 |
| Apr | 68 |
| May | 22.4 |
| Jun[1] | 27.9 |
| Jul | 41.9 |
| Aug | 21.1 |
| Sep[2] | 35.3 |
| Oct | 76.3 |
| Nov | 57.1 |
| Dec | 25.6+ |
| Total | 477.9 |
So that’s close to 600 hrs since I started. I think it’s safe to say my audio comprehension has improved substantially in the last year+. I’m very okay watching/listening to audio-only things, in a way I wasn’t back then. Even my Kansai-ben on a greatly reduced month feels comfortable. Sure there’s still room for improvement, but idk that I need to track it this like this, so much as just getting back to reading (and listening to) harder stuff. Who knows? Maybe I’ll change my mind in 4 days 
I’d appreciate a January thread, if you don’t mind. Pretty sure I’m going to continue punishing myself working on my audio next year.
Done
Thanks!
And I’ve just now officially completed my year goal of 430 hours!! Time to take a two day break, then start the cycle all over again!
