Continuing on our challenge to ourselves to boost our listening skills, the May 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.
Have started off with what’s probably been my most intensive listening practice so far! Watching シムーン S1 | L31 audio-only, and then rewinding any line I don’t get 1-5x (and optionally checking EN subs to try to reverse engineer the words). Added any looked up words to jpdb & Anki deck.
Even with this, there’s still times I can’t figure out what the actual words being said are. Anyway I might consider doing this with モーレツ宇宙海賊 S1 | L30 (which there are JP subs, and a jpdb deck for), or maybe just anything I watch? Update: I tried it, but there’s a lot of obscenely fast sci-fi/spaceship jargon, and there was no point for that particular series.
Starting July off string with an hour and a half of 推し、燃ゆ | L35. I’m not quite able to fully absorb the language and imagery, since I’m choosing not to pause often to look stuff up, but I’m enjoying what I’ve read so far. I should be able to finish it in probably two more days, depending on how long I listen tomorrow.
I originally had a goal to finish two audiobooks before starting 本好き4 with shitsurei, but now I’m thinking I can do three. Not sure what my next one will be.
Watching this month off with the first ever 仮面ライダー without subtitles at all, feeling truly inspired from the time I sat down and intensively watched OOO at host family’s through presumably a Japan-exclusive streaming service, even though said streaming service just didn’t have any subtitles at all? I wish I could understand more than 10% of this.
I should probably go back to ふたりはプリキュア at some point.
Also trying this routine with those bilingual language learning books where I listen without reading, then listen with reading (underlining unknowns), read without listening (with in-book lookups but hardly ever looked at the bigger translation), and then listen without reading again but even though I recognized more the second listening without reading, I was still really distracted?
Been listening to ハリー・ポッターアズカバンの囚人 | L31 after finishing 推し、燃ゆ | L36 . It’s going pretty okay so far; I have a hard time parsing some of the narrator’s more gravely voices, and sometimes I’m just not sure what he’s saying, but I’m still able to follow along relatively well. My knowledge of the English has gotten pretty rusty, which helps me figure out my comprehension level.
Headed to Mexico at the end of the month so I hope to prepare as much as I can tho I should’ve been doing for the past year to compare w my last trip lolol rip
Plan: Podcasts, SpanishBoost gaming, prob some Dreaming Spanish
This month is being very busy, but I started watching 커피 한잔 할까요? S1 | L27?? and am now at around 2 hours. I’ll have to make an extra effort to fit in more hours, otherwise I will never got to 10.
Anyway, the show is nice, I am watching it on Viki where it has “36% Korean subtitles”. I didn’t know what that meant at first, turns out the episodes have subtitles during the first third, and then you’re on your own.
I don’t mind it as it’s not too hard, and I don’t mind missing all the technical coffee talk.
I believe viewers can add the subtitles! They have some official translators but I think there’s also community volunteers so someone is probably in the middle of working on it.
On track to meet my goal of 35 hours.
I actually joined a gym this past week, so I’ve been walking around the parking lot (probably looking crazy) and planting flowers on Pikmin Blooms before exercising. I hate the idea of a treadmill, so this is how I’m ~warming up~ lmao.
I can’t listen to podcasts while actually working out, sadly, as it takes too much focus and I don’t end up getting good input nor a good workout. So I will try to listen during walks and maybe post workout stretching
This week will probably be my last opportunity for input as I will be traveling next week. So I will need to grind out the final 10 hours of my goal in the next 7-8 days 🫨
Ooooh I see! It seems strange that they would upload their work before finishing, but at least it explains why the subtitles stop so suddenly.
Always and forever grateful to community translators
Finished ハリー・ポッターアズカバンの囚人 | L31, and I’m now officially at 3 audiobooks finished before starting 本好き again! And with just under two weeks to go until we were going to check in, I’m betting I could fit in another audiobook pretty easily. I’m not 100% committed yet, as I don’t have anything definitely lined up (might be 京都寺町三条のホームズ or 穏やか貴族の休暇のすすめ。2 | L32 if I do go the audiobook route), but I also may or may not start 天官賜福 S1 | L30??.
It does make subtitle progress go faster I suppose!
Also I started watching study group on viki with Korean subs and they are wrong in some places despite it being set to 100% completed Korean subs 🫨😭
23.5 hrs of anime, 5.1 hrs of non-anime so far (I expect the latter to increase a good amount soon). Thanks to rewatching シムーン twice, my 字幕なし anime count is slightly higher than my 字幕あり count for once. Speaking of, I started in on the voice actor radio sessions from Simoun (it’s just Nebiriru & Rodoreamon VAs afaict). The 1 episode I listened to so far was pretty easy to understand most of the time… been a while since I listened to a VA radio show.
Otherwise finally resumed watching 空の軌跡FC Trails in the Sky FC (Vita version). In terms of text density, this is basically equivalent to an audiobook, and it definitely feels easier to understand in realtime than back in December
It’s funny - I didn’t set a goal this month, but I’m nearly past last month’s combined numbers (and past the non-anime count from then)
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I listened this day, but didn’t hit the hour+ mark.
Bonus Spanish listening:
Bonus Mandarin listening:
Not sure what my next one will be.
Is that a work-in-progress or did the poor transcriber just give up after a while? This is the first time I hear such a thing.
25 hours
I’m not 100% committed yet, as I don’t have anything definitely lined up (might be 
