🔊 🎙 Listen Every Day Challenge - Fall 2022 🍁

Nov 30, Wed of Week 10 of Fall 2022 :maple_leaf:

Today I watched an episode of Pokemon. As contrived (and absurd) as ever.

I tried to read up grammar points on 「同時」 and ended up watching grammar Youtube searched via search engine. Having human teacher, as a visible part of the video, is a big plus. I also looked at each creator’s channel.

I listened to かがみの孤城 December Chapter Part 2/3, where I read a little into, then I listened ahead.

I am reluctant to call watching with a good sub, or VN lines with audio, as listening; because reading comes like some deci-seconds before, so reading first; while the time interval between reading and listening isn’t wide enough to depend on listening ability. I don’t necessary comprehend sentences immediately, but Kanji are already a big hint.

However, with inexact sub, like non-Japanese Netflix series, with JP sub and dub, that would count as listening.

Listening with transcripts would generally count as listening too.

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Surface level only I’d say. 整 deduces a lot from people’s emotional behavior, rather than strict logic, and he himself is an emotionally complex character compared to 裏染 (I think that’s the kanji, too lazy to check) who is just…kind of a jerk. Maybe he’ll have some character growth and shock me, but I kind of doubt it.
But the general archetype of ‘super smart can easily see through a mystery / Sherlock clone’ dude is ridiculously common in Japanese media I’d say. A show I watched this year called something like サイバー犯罪 had it, 硝子の塔の殺人 had it albeit a woman, 少年探偵団 had it although not so arrogant, 押井刑事 inverted the trope and the detective was always wrong, 金田一少年 has it…I could probably give more examples :joy:

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:sound: 11月30日
YUYUの日本語Podcast , Vol. 39-42.


I guess the challenge is officially over but as always I plan to keep listening/posting until the next one.

For me personally when I watch anything I count it as listening even if I use subs, because I’m actively trying to catch and understand what is being spoken while using the subs as assistance. For that reason I never count reading subs as reading, but as was already said, everyone counts different things differently :slight_smile: . I guess I could say that I count as listening anything that I do that forces me to actively put emphasis on comprehending spoken language, and as reading anything that puts the emphasis on written language. Listening to something without any sort of aid feels slightly different though so I can’t really say which one is better, I just mix them both regularly (mainly just pure listening, as I already do reading aside). In the end I guess anything works. Personally I think forcing myself to try to understand spoken speech without any aid is necessary too (as was reading without furigana at some point), so I listen to podcasts and such to try not to abuse subs too much. But one has to enjoy what they want too and sometimes the level is too high yet to turn them off, so I use them to enjoy and study at the same time just to make it a bit more accessible for the time being. I count all of this as listening. There’s some media with overlap, like video games, which for me I count as reading when I play them, and listening when I watch someone play them while they’re narrating or commentating. Back then, Satori Reader was reading for me even if I listened to the stories after reading them, because I was using the audio to assist my reading. Playing VNs for me is purely reading even if again the audio can assist my reading. And for movies or occasionally anime I usually watch with subs, but watching some without them is a fun experience too, as it allows me to be much more focused on visual details or the acting (though I don’t do it often, at least yet).

If the reading is mainly supporting your listening, in my opinion you can perfectly count it as listening. How effective it is to learn without subs/transcripts as opposed to no aid at all, I really have no idea. Whatever makes you output more hours of study long term is what’s important anyways, I’d say. I myself have had to adapt my own definition of these challenges just so I could artificially increase the amount of study I do and reduce the self-imposed pressure :joy: . I’d say it has worked perfectly for me. If a broader definition of listening helps you get more listening in then it’s fine to define it by whatever terms you prefer even if it’s not strictly accurate.

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Oops, sorry, yes, I agree with everything you said. When I said “detectives” I actually meant the police. :sweat_smile: They seemed equally incompetent and intent on arresting the first person they came across in both cases. The amateur detectives are totally different, although both very perceptive in their own ways.

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Haha, thanks everyone. Seems like opinions vary widely as I expected. I agree with the distinction with watching anime and subs and reading book with audiobook not being the same. I’d group the latter with reading as well. So I’ll keep watching w/ subs in here since most people usually group this with listening anyway.
But I also agree with needing to listen to stuff raw though I can relate to quitting when I can barely comprehend anything but the subtitles lift it above that threshold where I keep at it. Just need to find that material that’s easy enough without.

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:fallen_leaf: Day 61, 30 of November :maple_leaf:

:headphones: Back to my Home Post

Last day! Watched episode 12 of あかがみんクラフトclassic and there was some fun confusion about the words 掲示板(けいじば) and 提示(版)(ていじ(ばん)) with the latter not being a real word but being confused for the other one. Apparently the kanji are too similar even for native speakers. :sweat_smile:

Over all I’ve completed 48 days out of 61. It was really tough trying to find something interesting and I’m sad to say I haven’t really found anything I want to continue listening to… I’ll have to join the challenge in January to try again, but for now I won’t continue in December.

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I managed to listen to something every day, and I have a few new things in my podcast list and youtube channel subscriptions that should help to nudge me into continuing to do a bit more listening in future, so I count this as a success.

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:fallen_leaf: :headphones: softlyraining’s leaf pile listens :maple_leaf: :studio_microphone:

November 9th 〜 November 30th:

I knew I fell off the radar when it came to posting, but seeing the date of my last post still surprised me. Long story short, a combination of health issues, motivation struggles, and general busyness kept me away. I still tried to listen to something each day, and I think there was only one day where I failed to listen to something in Japanese, so not bad.

Today’s listening practice was a short news clip about a new コンビニ that opened up that has virtual clerks.

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November 30th!

Today I started Ajin Season 2, and watched 3 episodes.
I’m still really enjoying it, and being ill the last few days has given me some extra time to watch stuff so its been a good way to end the challenge!

(Home Post)


End of Challenge Summary: 100% :tada:

Oct
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
Nov
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

As usual, I didn’t do as much focused audio-only listening as I’d planned to do, but I did manage to listen every day, and had lots of fun.
Thanks everyone for keeping me motivated with your updates and sharing of resources - and of course big thanks to @omk3 for hosting. :slight_smile:
I hope to see you all in January for the Winter Challenge!

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Summary Post

Challenge Wrap-Up
Wao, I did not do great :sweat_smile: All my traveling the past couple of months definitely wrecked any momentum I had for both this and the Read Every Day challenge. I listened on 12 days during this challenge, which is somehow even worse than my dismal 26 days last challenge :joy: I think my listening sessions this challenge were generally longer than the ones I did last challenge, though. The majority of my sessions this time around were ~45 minutes to an hour. So that’s something? Definitely the longest I’ve ever sat through any Japanese-language thing without English subtitles. The key is picking something I already know, or something that is enjoyable regardless of how terrible my listening comprehension is :joy: I really don’t know if this is actually helping my listening ability…but listening to something has to be better than listening to nothing, right? right?

Congrats to everyone who made it to the end :clap: I will be breaking in December, and may start the next one late (in February), tbd. My irl life suddenly feels so busy, I have some type of travel planned every month until March and so much work stuff coming up too :see_no_evil:

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I listened to things most days, looking at my habit tracker I missed 8 days since October 1st. Today I watched this video: 【日本の事件】川で発見された高校生の遺体。犯人の身勝手な動機とは - YouTube
It was a depressing watch. I’m really not into true crime to be honest, I prefer reading and hearing about fake ones.

If I come across interesting videos and such I may continue to toss them in this thread, and if anyone opts to update the thread I’ll continue to read :slight_smile:

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So far today I’ve listened to half an hour or so of Teppi. I’ll do a bit more N5 practice later this afternoon.

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Dec 1, Thu of Week 10 of Fall 2022 :maple_leaf:

Today, I watched a Youtube episode on 「程度」. I have planned for くらい and ほど, so 1 clip covers all – 【N3文法】くらい vs ほど <#11/20> - YouTube. Otherwise, I don’t have much time today, so hope for the best tomorrow.

For me, this challenge is about kickstarting what I wanted to be able to, and figuring out the way. I feel I have been successful somewhat, but this is just the beginning. Unforeseen obstacles are expected.

I would continue daily regardless of the duration of the challenge, so it would be nice if this thread is still a good place to post.

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December 1 seems like a good opportunity to start joining these challenges for real and I’ll also just keep posting here, seems like that’s the way to do :smiley:

Thus some goals for (mid) December:
Finish Akebi-chan no sailor-fuku, Mob Psycho 100 live action, Rewatch of Shin Atashinchi and continue Amachan.
I want to watch at least 4 episodes or so per day

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:sound: 12月01日
YUYUの日本語Podcast , Vol. 43-45.


Quick update.

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December 1 :arrow_forward: :film_strip:

I was going to limit my listening to the short video of origami instructions for the advent calendar, but I did watch one more episode of ミステリと言う勿れ after all. It continues to be good fun.

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Finding conversational streams on youtube has been the best. It’s such chill listening practice, I’m getting tons of regular expressions (ie, not literary) and the comments in chat have been introducing me to new words or showing me words I know in new contexts. Fantastic.

This is the one I’m currently working through: 【雑談配信】まったりお話ししましょう!お気軽にコメントください - YouTube
Yesterday the bit I listened to he was talking about 90%+ (don’t recall exact, 96% I think?) of the subscribers on this channel were women, whereas on his main channel it was closer to half. He also said he noticed every time he did a video game stream his sub count dropped and he wondered if the two were related.
Some people put in chat that they don’t care so long as they can hear his voice. Dude does have a nice voice, but that came across as thirsty to me :joy: I don’t know if it comes across that way to Japanese people, though, I’ll have to ask someone.

The portion I listened to today rambled over a few things but ended up talking about coffee, energy drinks, and how he can’t pee when a guy he doesn’t know comes into the restroom :joy:

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It really depends. When I first started playing games in Japanese, I had a lot of experience with WK but no real practice with listening. It just all became jibberish to me. SO my listening was pretty useless and at that time I was just “reading.” Now, it is a bit of a hybrid. Sometimes I have a lot of focus on the visuals, and not the subs, or what was said was so basic I don’t need to confirm. I feel pretty confident in my listening skills most of the time depending on the content. It really depends on where your focus is and if you could replicate the success without the aid. Now, even with subs I consider it listening practice because I often listen and check to see if I missed something.

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:sound: 12月02日
YUYUの日本語Podcast , Vol. 46-48.


Quick update, part 2.

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I found a channel which has really pretty videos about old Japanese legends, seemingly with a horror bent? So anyways paging @omk3 :stuck_out_tongue:

That’s the one I watched today. I will call out that there is animal death in this video (not pictured graphically), but it’s not human on animal cruelty. Also there are hard subs shown on the screen, but soft subs are available if anyone wants easier lookups.

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