best of luck! once life slows down a little i plan to put more time into japanese, and i’ll probably go a hunt for the japanese dub as well. if i find anything i’ll let you know 
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I ended up getting the audiobook.jp free trial set up and started listening to また、同じ夢を見ていた today. It kind of feels like cheating because I just read the book, but I think having the story fresh in my mind is helping me listen better. I’ll try a story that’s new to me for my next audiobook.
I understood a lot of words/general plot progression, but certain details were getting lost for sure. I found it a little difficult to focus and my mind drifted a few times. I think I just need to practice getting used to the format.
I also found some clips from season 1 of the Japanese dub for SpongeBob, so I got some listening in there too.
Todays Listening:
また、同じ夢を見ていた Audiobook: 1.5 hours
Spongebob: 0.5 hours
Total: 2 hours
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I read along to the audiobook for that one. (As you know) Nanoka goes on super long tangents and it’s not always immediately apparent what on earth she’s talking about. It’s a super well done audiobook, but it’s probably a good thing you have the plot fairly fresh in your mind because I can’t imagine it’d be that easy to follow her narration.
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Do you remember what you were watching this on? I think I’m at that same stage you were so it might help me.
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Yeah she’s great at making sentences with a bunch of tangents and then negating the whole thing at the end to make you even more confused.
Having read the book is giving me a huge advantage in processing info. I’m just trying to train my ears a bit and carve out the parts that I can understand from listening only.
It will be fun to try a new audiobook after this, so I can see if I can actually follow along without prior reading.
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I think it might be YouTube?
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Yes, that’s it. Here’s the YouTube playlist. It’s also available on 音泉, but only the most recent 9-10 episodes
@CatDQ if you’re into Bocchi already, and wanna listen to Aoyama Yoshino (her voice actor) and the others (depending on the episode) being silly or over the top, earnestly responding to listener messages, giving personal anecdotes, etc, then it’s good. But just to be clear it’s just coincidentally what I was into at the time. I went in thinking “anything I can understand is a bonus”. I don’t know that it has any specific utility. Voice actor radio shows are in general great for that sort of “in and out of focused listening” tho, if you’re into that sorta content
I was also probably listening to stuff on the Sayuri Saying and Miku Real Japanese channels as well at that point, and that probably had more utility.
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Thanks, that makes sense. I think “in and out” listening is what I find less likely to burn me out. Bocchi isn’t something I have any real expectation of as I know almost nothing about it so if I can understand anything it’s a bonus and will show that I’m, making some progress. As for listening to Japanese voice actors etc having a laugh and responding to stuff, I have listened to a few things with that and always found it good when I could understand stuff even if I was only getting the gist of it.
Miku real Japanese is on my list for after I’ve finished Japanese with Shun and Nihongo con Teppe though I may also pick up listening to Sayuri Saying channel as well, thanks for the links
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So far, I have been listening to something everyday, but well… it’s only day 3. 
Just wanted to drop an audiobook recommendation for anyone seeking something very easy:
This was an engaging story but it’s very simple in terms of language and not very long. (I literally listened to the whole thing during my morning commute.) Would potentially make a great first audio-only option, methinks.
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Listened to chapters 1 and 2 of ハリー・ポッターと秘密の部屋 | L31 this morning. So far so good! I know this book slightly less well than the first, so it’ll be good to not be anticipating 100% of everything going in.
I can also vouch for this book!
Your morning commute is an hour and forty minutes long? 
I’m really sorry.
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It’s about an hour and I sped up the audiobook. 
but even 1:40 is a pretty short audiobook comparatively to what I have encountered in the past. (side-eyeing “Der Schwarm” with its 35 hour audiobook 
)
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Ty for the rec 
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Added to my wishlist. Sounds perfect.
Today:
少女終末旅行 S1 | L24 Still cozy and easy. 2.1 Hours
京都寺町三条のホームズ | L29 Week 8 - 58% 0.5 Hours
マブラヴ VN 1.1 Hours
Today’s total: 3.7 hours
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day 3
today i watched the first 2 episodes of hometown cha cha cha for a total of 151 minutes! i’ve watched every episode except the last at least 6 times now. maybe this time i’ll finally watch it (i won’t).
today : 151 minutes / 2.5 hours
total : 5/30 hours
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Day 3:
Managed an hour of Japanese with Shun (episodes 14-20) before my lesson. Then a further 98 minutes after my lesson (Japanese with Shun episodes 21 to 31) and then decided to listen to レンタルロボット (1 hour and 53 minutes, I had to slow it to 0.9 to be able to keep up) suggested by Biblio and vouched for by Eefara.
There were a lot of parts I was unsure of but I was able to get the gist of what was going on so added the book to my list of physical books to buy since I only bought the audiobook. I will need to revisit this and see if I’ve improved. I also think the longer sessions are making me zone out on certain things so will look to try doing shorter sessions more frequently and see if that helps.
Total listening today - 4 hours and 31 minutes
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I saw the screenshot before I read the message and was like “I don’t remember righting this” hahaha
Since I saw this picture I started using it everywhere lol
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Today I did 1 hour of listening to a random audiobook about 古典. The book was about why the author thinks classics should still be taught at high school vs. arguments that they are worthless and should be replaced with more useful stem topics.
The author didn’t really convince me yet, but I guess that’s what the entire rest of the book is for.
I also decided I will track time spent shadowing in addition to general listening hours this month. Yesterday I did 15 minutes and today I did 25, which is about as much as I could stomach. I wonder if I will gain stamina over the course of the month?
In general, I feel that I speak English using the space in the front of my mouth more to articulate and project sound, but Japanese is kind of more in the back towards the throat with the sound being projected from there? 
Also, I’ve realized for a while now that the カ行 “k” sound is different from English, but I didn’t realize that the き sound specifically is actually palatized until I googled around today and found some place of articulation diagrams. I’ve taken some formal Russian classes before and the concept of palatizilation is taught basically immediately when you learn the alphabet since it creates distinct consonants, but in Japanese no one has mentioned it ever? Is it just me or is the attitude towards pronunciation from a lot of Japanese resources kind of like “eh good enough, kanji is already hard for you so let’s not overwhelm you more” lol 
. Anyways everyone, think of me and listen for the “k” sound and especially き this month haha.
This is an article about it in English (this guys YouTube channel is also an amazing resource for grammar and learning Japanese phonetics in Japanese!) for funsies:
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I never thought about it before, but … I feel like… some/all of my English Ks are palatized? And maybe so are my カ行s? Are you an American English speaker? Am I just weird?
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I too, think that I, palatize my K sounds in all languages. (middle/back of the tongue going for the roof)
@bungakushoujo are they not pretty much the same as German Ks to you?
Kanne
Kind
Kunde
Kern
Koma
Now I wonder about my English pronunciation.
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I think the stan
I am not a linguist but I think these are the differences based on my own experience and some phonetics studying/research over the years:
K sound
Standard American “k” sound:
Not palatilized, velar and voiced → on the soft palate at the back of your mouth and there is a little puff of air
Japanese “k” sound:
Velar, also plosive (air stops for a second then explodes like a mini っ), but not voice so no puff of air. き is palatilized so your tongue slides forward from the gummy soft palate bit to the hard palate slightly.
German “k” sound:
Seemingly similar to the American English one, but your tongue should be further forward in your mouth (it’s different from the American English k and sounds a lot brighter and clearer, at least in hochdeutsch. Side note: I hear a lot of Germans get this wrong in American English but it’s not a dramatic mistake the standard German L sound is another one that’s more forward and brighter than both English L sounds, but the Austrian L is another story entirely haha)
Anyways oops I didn’t mean to derail the thread with some phonetics stuff.
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