Good day Natively watchers, I hope you all are making great progress with your listening skills.
Recently, I have been watching this Minecraft/Roblox channel called まいぜんシスターズ . I find most YouTubers/Vtubers hard to understand, but for some reason their videos are easy to follow. I think that the target audience of the videos are children, so that might be part of it. I almost forgot to watch Kanon yesterday because I was so immersed in their videos. It feels good to watch something in a foreign language and totally forget that it’s in another language.
I found another channel that I find watchable. The avatars are super cute. I’m starting to think that this kind of 1-on-1 channel (like maizen) is easier to follow than when it’s just one guy monologuing or those group channels where a bunch of hyper gamers are constantly talking over each other (you know what I mean ).
Good day, watchers of natively. Today, I finally finished watching Kanon. Though, it took me 3 weeks because I seriously don’t do enough listening. It was a much more pleasant experience than shows that I have watched in the past. When I started out, I used to somehow strain really hard trying to catch whatever little word I possibly could, and ended up getting headaches from doing so. Now, I feel like I can just relax and grasp just enough to stay entertained and enjoy the story. I even ended up getting a bit teary-eyed at some points. I’m going to start season 3 of からかい上手の高木さん now.
This is an undeniable truth. Instantly subscribed.
I finished this not too long ago. It took me way longer than it needed to. Probably a combination of not really caring too much for slice of life and being busier nowadays. I started がっこうぐらし! and based on the first episode it seems pretty easy (and also not as boring). I think I’m just gonna go back to watching a bunch of 魔法少女 after this one since that stuff can actually keep me interested.
Are you guys watching anything? This thread has been pretty quiet. I guess we’re all just too busy reading.
If you enjoy the anime, I recommend reading the manga afterward. It’s not too long (12 volumes) and as much as I enjoyed the anime, the manga feels more complete (because, well, it is complete).
I just finished rewatching Saiki K with Japanese subtitles. This show was pretty tough. There were sometimes entire scenes where I couldn’t follow the conversation. I only got through it because I’d already seen it, so didn’t mind missing things here and there.
I haven’t picked what to watch next with Japanese subtitles (I’m watching Macross F with English subs). I’m leaning towards Akebi-chan no Sailor Fuku. The other option I’m considering is Paripi Koumei, though after listening to a few minutes of it I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I think the main character might be really hard to understand…
I think it’s also that there’s a decent overlap between here and the WaniKani forums. I post about my listening over there and kind of forget we even have a thread here. Anyways, I’ve been watching anatomy videos with a cute animated cat:
And also working through the several seasons of 古畑任三郎. It’s a formulaic 90s cop drama that changes setting each episode so it’s good for light vocab stretching. I went to youtube looking for a trailer or something to show and couldn’t find one, but did find videos that were 45 min long which is coincidentally the length of each episode
I’ve yet to read any manga but that does sound like a good idea. Probably more enjoyable than reading novelizations. I guess I’m going to have to get over my mangaphobia sooner or later.
Yeah, that seems to be the case. I guess there isn’t much here on the Natively forums that isn’t already over there. I don’t use Wanikani but I check Natively every day so I just check by the forums while I’m here.
How good is your comprehension of that kind of content? I don’t think I would be able to follow anatomy videos too well, even in English.
I was never into comics or graphic novels, so I was reluctant to try manga at first too. I did anyway just for some practice, and I was really surprised to find that I enjoyed them a lot! You might find the same for yourself.
Pretty good actually! I think it’s worth noting that in English my primary reading material is nonfiction works like Stiff, Rabies, The Ghost Map, and so on. I have an amateur’s interest in medical science which I just ported over to Japanese If you already know the systems and functions being mentioned it’s mostly a matter of mentally mapping those over when watching the videos, provided your grammar base is strong enough to support the rest.
I’m trying to get my passive medical vocabulary up the point where I can read similar books in Japanese to what I read in English without too much strain. It also helps during autopsy scenes in crime shows
Do you not like slice of life in general? Or more specifically comedy slice of life? I’m asking since earlier in the thread you asked for easy recommendations, but most of the easy stuff I’ve watched is slice of life.
I didn’t have any particular plans to read that book, but that makes it sound more interesting for sure! An author I’m starting to really like is 知念実希人 who is both a doctor and an author, and as a result his books tend to be a bit heavier on medical content.
I guess that’s the problem. I want to watch easy stuff and also not-slice-of-life stuff but there doesn’t often seem to be much overlap between the two. At this point, I think it’s best to just watch whatever can hold my attention long enough for me to finish it.
I thought Kanon was alright so I definitely should!
I started watching 明日ちゃんのセーラー服 a few days ago. I’ve only watched three episodes so far, but I like it and it’s pretty easy to understand. As usual I have it playing with Japanese subs to supplement.
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I’m going to start season 3 of 
If you already know the systems and functions being mentioned it’s mostly a matter of mentally mapping those over when watching the videos, provided your grammar base is strong enough to support the rest.
