Okay, I’ve finally set up and updated my home post! I was on vacation all last week, and I did very little listening, so I’m starting this month off behind. 
I’m at 3 hours currently.
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And then I said
you know, like a liar.
Ah, I am doing so poorly this month. I’m not even at two hours 
Listening just isn’t hitting the spot at the moment. Reading? Yes. Conversation classes? Yes. Grammar study? Occasionally. But listening is so hard.
So here I am, posting this update in the hope that I will feel embarrassed and start listening out of shame (but I won’t. I have self-compassion’ed a little too close to the sun and no longer care about public humiliation.)
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I’ve had plenty of on/off alternating months like that. Sometimes you’ve gotta just go with the flow. Just under 3 weeks left in September, so still plenty of time to get some in. 頑張って！(Or maybe just enjoy the reading)
Idk what you’re reading, but would reading along to an audiobook help?
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I’ve never actually tried audiobooks, it’s a scary monster that lives in my closet.
Supposing I can understand everything that I am reading, can I keep up with the speed/pace? And since I won’t be understanding everything, do I need to pause the audio for each lookup? Because I do a lot of those…
Of course I could also listen to an audiobook without reading, but then I feel like my comprehension would drop very low.
The same thing happens sometimes when watching dramas, I have Korean subtitles on and what I understand mostly comes from reading the subs, not understanding the audio. I feel like in that case I’m not really working on my listening comprehension.
Realistically I know I’m overthinking it, and this mental barrier is of my own construction, but audiobooks are scary 
Still, like you said, 3 weeks left is plenty!
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That’s fair… I remember when I was in a similar place. My advice would be to look for something low level that you’re not super invested in, and just try it. I found that pausing for lookups got really tedious, even with tappable earbuds. But now that I have Kindle & my listening skills are better, I will just tap-lookup while the audio continues, if I can’t get a word.
Following at speed will probably be a challenge at first, but you can always slow down the audio slightly
There is some benefit to audio comprehension like this, but there’s a part of audio comprehension that will only improve from audio-only. Just like there’s a part of reading comprehension that will only improve from text-only. But personally anime with subs helped me along with both - provided whatever it is was at a reasonable level.
It might, but if you pick something easier & stay at it, it will eventually get better. So if you think of it in terms of a listening exercise, rather than trying to actively read/fully comprehend the book, it’s still productive.
Anyway not saying you need to do audiobooks or anything. If it’s not right for you rn, then no need
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I think that would be a good way to look at it at least for the first audiobook, as a listening exercise that I would approach the same way I do podcasts (no lookups), and don’t expect 90%+ comprehension.
I’ll look into it, because I think it could be a fun way to do some listening, and I’m sure I’ll eventually take the plunge. Thank you for the advice 
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Not sure if you’ve already tried them but audio dramas are easier than audiobooks because they are speech only, no prose and with lots of different actors and sound effects you can follow whats going on with less effort.
I found this one the easiest and listened to season 1 and 2 twice over when i was first trying to build a listening habit.
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Oh thank you!! I’ll give it a try!
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I love this for you. Never change. 
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This is so perfectly put; I need a post of this or something.
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I saw that @taiyousea has been doing a Level + 1 listening challenge with audiobooks, and I wanted to scope out what such a challenge might look like for me, in terms of what books I already own or what books I’d potentially be interested in. No commitments yet, but I don’t have my official study log license so I thought I’d just post here instead.
I’ve finished just a few books already as audiobook-only, so I’m going to list them in parentheses (book title) so I can keep in mind that benchmark experience. Anything not in parentheses is something I already own but haven’t listened to yet and was set aside as a potential audiobook-only read in the first place.
| Level | Audiobook |
|---|---|
 15 |
|
| 16 | |
| 17 | |
| 18 | (レンタルロボット | L18) |
| 19 | |
| 20 | |
| 21 | (放課後ミステリクラブ 1金魚の泳ぐプール事件) |
| 22 | |
| 23 | (華麗なる探偵アリス&ペンギン | L23) (ふしぎ駄菓子屋 銭天堂 1 | L23) |
| 24 | (星の王子さま | L24) |
| 25 | (最弱テイマーはゴミ拾いの旅を始めました。 | L25) |
| 26 | |
| 27 | (変な家) コーヒーが冷めないうちに | L27 世界から猫が消えたなら | L27 |
| 28 | 殺した夫が帰ってきました | L28 |
| 29 | |
 30 |
(ハリー・ポッターと秘密の部屋) むかしむかしあるところに、死体がありました。 | L30?? |
So despite the seemingly-respectable number of audiobooks I’ve listened to as pure audio already on this list, I was never very happy with my comprehension with them in the first place. I’ve listened to a whole lot of other things since then, so (hopefully) things have improved since and I’d be happier on a second go-round.
The earlier levels might be difficult to find content for… They might need to be short stories up until a certain point.
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are you considering making one?
Personally I would just start from L20, but will be interesting to see what you find, if you start from earlier (assuming you actually do this challenge)
I got curious what a kansai version would look like, and well there’s only 12 books (8 if you put it to Major Element only)
| Level | book | notes |
|---|---|---|
| 23 | セトウツミ 1 | L23 | manga, full Kansai |
| 四つ子ぐらし 1 ひみつの姉妹生活、スタート! | L23 | 1 of 4 MCs speaks | |
| 26 | ちょっと今から仕事やめてくる | L26 | I’m sure I don’t want to read this |
| 29 | 心に折り合いをつけて うまいことやる習慣 | L29 | narration kansai and soothing |
| 30? | 能面検事 | L30?? | |
| 31 | 京都寺町三条のホームズ | L31 | one MC speaks Kyoto |
| 猫を処方いたします。 | L31 | ||
| 32 | 汝、星のごとく | L32 | |
| ツミデミック | L32 | minor element | |
| 35 | ぼぎわんが、来る | L35 | moderate element |
| 36 | 月光ゲーム―Yの悲劇'88 | L36 | dialogue, can’t tell number of characters from skimming |
| 40 | 卍 (まんじ) | L40 | I’m halfway through |
Idk whether I’ll start this, but セトウツミ 1 | L23 and 心に折り合いをつけて うまいことやる習慣 | L29 I will likely start soon. The former is a manga, the latter a sort of memoir & self help book I think
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Nah; I feel like I wouldn’t have much to say, I guess.
L20 would also be a good beginning point. 
I put L15 down as kind of a temporary starting point, so I’m not super attached to it or anything.
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Expect more kansai-ben from the side characters than from the MC. 家頭清貴 speaks Kyoto-ben only very occasionally.
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Ohh good to know. Do the side characters have a lot of lines? Or is it not something I’m likely to get a lot out of, if I read it? (It’s on my eventually 
list rn, regardless of the dialect)
I’m well past my goal at this point, but also got tired of tracking the individual things… so maybe I’ll approximate an update at some point. But anyway, I met my goal for the month, and still continuing with all the listening and shadowing. So yay 
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I’ve been perpetually behind my minimum goal this month since I listened to very little at the beginning of the month. -.-; Very slowly catching up, but that requires me to listen to more than an hour each day, which I find difficult to set time aside for.
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You might have mentioned it before, but do you have a specific time when you do your listening? While commuting, doing other chores, or do you set time aside specifically for listening and nothing else?
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On days when I need to go into the office for work, I can get 40 minutes of listening done during my commute, and generally finish up the remaining 20 minutes once I’m back home for the day. On days I can work from home, I used to do my listening first thing in the morning when I woke up (I’ve been waking up a bit earlier to have more time in the mornings), but that slot was taken over by something else. These days I just kind of try to fit in the listening when I have time, either during the work day if things are exceptionally slow, or after dinner. Weekends are a bit of a toss up, depending on how I’m feeling. 
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I see, commute time is always a good time to do immersion.
I like the idea of waking up earlier to listen to something, I might give that a try! I tried doing the same thing with reading, but I found it too hard to do that early in the morning. A learner’s podcast might be okay though. Thanks!
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