Read Real Japanese Essays again today. 料理 角田光代. Listened, listened reading along, thorough read through, listened again. A noticeable step up in difficulty from the previous essays.
2 episodes from Nihongo Con Teppei. The first epidoe was easy to understand, but I found it hard to grasp the meaning of a few words in the second ep. I found some fun listening resources that I want to try, so hopefully my listening skills improves before I get to them.
Today I watched the latest video from Speak Japanese Naturally:
About flowers in bloom at a place near Mt. Fuji. This place looks amazing, I love the view of Mt. Fuji, with the pink flowers and the trees backing it all with a perfect strip of clouds.
Also found it amusing how there was a ton of Peter Rabbit merchandise, wasn’t really expecting to see something so English in the middle of Japan.
okay, I just looked it up, seems that Japan is actually mad about Peter Rabbit
I understood quite a bit I think, the Japanese subs really help! I think this has quickly become one of my favourite channels.
I also listened to/watched two vids from @windupbird’s collection of cute animal videos:
On the capybara mandarin sequel, does the woman talking have a capybara as a microphone?!
so cute (I also love how disappointed the crowd sounded when the mandarin tumbled
Oh man, looks so good. I hope it was devoured good!
Nihongo con Teppei - Episode 17 - 18
Finally caught up to where I last left off. I appreciate the format of easy first half and then somewhat more difficult, conversational later half. I’m looking forward to when I’m relistening to this many years later.
That gives me an idea: I think I’ll set myself the goal to revisit certain things at the beginning of each year of study. If they become too easy, I’ll move on from them. But for 日本語こんてっぺい I want to see next year how much I can understand from these early episodes. Maybe I’ll do one early episode and one where I’m further along the line for comparison?
I have been enjoying the 硝子の塔の殺人 audiobook a lot. I’m not sure if certain voices got less annoying or it’s just that I’m enjoying the story so much, but even when they shout and shriek excitedly I don’t mind at all. And the narration in between the dialogue is nicely calm and even. A very good balance.
May 4th
What did I listen to?: Akane Korea travel vlog
How much time did I spend listening?: ~13 min
I saw this video pop up as a recommended video - what a lovely intersection of my interests xD I have not been to Korea but am curious how it would be to go there so this was right up my alley ^^ The WowPass seems hella convenient, I would definitely use that lol
I want to eat this so bad?? It looks amazing 牛丼 is low-key one of my favorite foods, I wish that I was in any way skilled enough to make that (you say not particularly hard to make but respectfully all cooking is hard to me lmao)
OH MY GOODNESS I think so That’s adorable, I didn’t even notice
I watched a video by Speak Japanese Naturally where she went to the National Art Center in Roppongi. The video was fun and very interesting to watch and I was surprised by how much I could understand. She visited an exhibition featuring art by high school students and everyone seemed to have worked really hard on their artworks. It was an impressive exhibition (especially in contrast to what my classmates and I used to draw in art class back in high school…). Does anyone else feel like you’ve gotten better at ignoring subtitles in order to get more out of your listening practice? Ignoring them feels a lot easier now.
Afterwards I watched Ken’s conversation about Okinawa which was pretty difficult but I think I understood more than last time. I would love to visit Okinawa one day but my itinerary is already packed.
Last but not least, I ended my listening practice with episode 14 of Japanese with Shun.
May 3rd
I didn’t watch any videos but I listened to the Nihongo con Teppei episodes 166-172 while taking a relaxing bath.
May the 4th be with you
I watched Naoko’s packing vlog and it was easy to understand for me. I like that she uses a lot of synonyms and visual aids to help her viewers understand what she is talking about.
After that I tried Shun’s Osaka vlog and my understanding was alright even though the video felt a little more difficult mainly because he talked faster than Naoko. The video itself was kinda boring though. There were a lot of awkward pauses where he tried to break the silence with filler words. But I did like the funny looking hotel at 8:51.
May 5th
I watched another video by Speak Japanese Naturally about Mount Fuji and Shibazakura. The place looked extremely beautiful but the difficulty level seemed to keep changing quite considerably for me throughout the video. Some parts were easy to understand while others were pretty tricky.
Next I watched a Comprehensible Japanese video about extensive reading. I was happy with my understanding and it was interesting to learn about Yuki’s experiences learning english. I really enjoyed this video.
Then I tried Akane’s Aichi vlog which was very difficult for me. I could kind of guess what topic she was talking about based on what I was seeing but most of the time I was pretty lost.
Nihongo con Teppei - Episode 19 - 20
Two episodes about traveling. Admittedly not a topic I really care about. People just go backpacking in a foreign country? Lol I can barely leave my house.
I had a lesson with my tutor today, so I’m counting that as my listening practise today.
We did some N3 level exam style questions, and also talked about lots of stuff, including our favourite types of weapon, and borrowing clothes from our sisters.
Spent a lot of time reading, but not so much time listening lately
5/4 - 1 episode of Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 - still with english subs, but trying not to use them too much when I can avoid them. also watched about half of an episode of skip and loafer without english subs because, inexplicably, there were no english subs for the new episode
5/5 - オフコラボ!2人で手料理作るぺこおおおおおおおおおお! - pekora cooking stream with AZKi; hololive cooking streams are always… eventful Pekora’s knife handling is absolutely terrifying. I only watched ピーマンの肉詰め prep part, might try that out at some point.
In love with this pokemon plate
Oh and the 牛丼 was delicious and devoured with great vigor! I’m going to try making it again soon with some tweaks, definitely a nice one to add to the repertoire.
Edit: i lied, i made the 牛丼 tonight because i have zero self control added shiitake mushrooms, a little bit of sugar, and some red miso and it was, I don’t think i’m exaggerating, one of the most delicious things i’ve ever cooked. still some ideas to improve/tweak it, but I want to watch some more videos first!
May 5th
What did I listen to?: Speak Japanese Naturally (thanks for linking @Zakarius )
How much time did I spend listening?: ~13 min
I went to visit Mt. Fuji and see the shibazakura today~ Gosh that was so pretty Did I understand it? …Not really Definitely needed those Japanese subs. But it was pretty! I think the pretty low-key distracted me from listening at times lmao
Missed posting yesterday but didn’t miss listening. Just barely. Did the grocery shopping and listened to whatever Edgar Allen Poe translation I’m in the middle of, on the drive there and back. Didn’t even get enough information to figure out which story it was.
Today I listened to Nightmare Before Christmas and then fell asleep
こころ (夏目漱石) : (下) 先生と遺書 Ch.53-56 (end). tbh, with this series, I listened to sosekiproject’s tracks and repeated in audiobook.jp, which use different narrators. sosekiproject chops indeed made it easier to start in the middle and rewind.
YUYU on childhood video games.
歴史 [50-53/90] - ヨーロッパ・侵入. Not much today because they aren’t Japanese (but Chinese are still something).