I agree that one improves mostly by doing something one enjoys, i.e. listening and reading interesting stuff. If you don’t mind, I have one question however: how did you get to the level of understanding enough of it, so that you can read without looking up 90% of the words? How did you start at the very very beginning, where you basically knew nothing at all?
I’m guessing by building up vocab before starting, but it’s kind frustrating to learn lot’s of phrases and stuff on memrise without context.
It might be because they don’t want to be recognized - lots of really really famous people in Japan and South Korea especially have to disguise themselves in public, otherwise they will get harassed and stalked by fans. So they’re probably playing it very safe.
Although, I have no idea what you mean by “they have plenty of videos where they don’t have a camera”?
(^-^)"
Thank you very much for this answer! Along the vein of thought of listening to what you find interesting, I found this thread http://forum.koohii.com/thread-5572.html which has recommendations based on different topics, and figured I’d paste it here for everyone else to see. I’ll be sure to check out jiyuu na radio + Yamanaka’s (? I’m awful with name readings) stuff too!
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That compilation of ressources is incredible… Thanks!
I think it’s probably because they don’t want to be recognized by friends or coworkers online, or something. Privacy reasons. That was my first instinct. Because Mitoku didn’t sound like she was sick at all.
I think I covered that in this thread, have a read. 
@AnimeCanuck Right, it has to be some sort of reason like that, Roa does it too. Perhaps they’re shy people or just want to have privacy.
Thanks! 
Yeah. I tried watching a couple of Roa’s. Even though she’s fast, I can understand her - but she’s eq’d herself too quiet on the one video I saw (her first Pokémon Moon one), which was even worse when the game sound kicked in even louder than her. Her mic doesn’t appear to be as good as Mitoku’s or she was seated too far from it in that video. So I went for one that she’s not videoing herself in (so it’s not muffled) and she’s really easy to understand (Gravity Daze 2 - episode 1). So I think I’ll follow that thread of videos for now. : D She’s a bit too fast at times, but when it’s something I’m really familiar with (ありがとうございます！) I have no trouble at all understanding her even at her high-speed. Thanks for both recommendations!
You’re welcome! Mitoku playing Mario Maker is like the cutest thing ever, she’s so bad at Mario. Lately my favorite videos from Roa have been the 塊魂 videos. Oh and I believe the Pokemon Moon things were livestreams so they don’t have the usual production levels.
She plays Katamari Damacy!? That game… XD
HAHAHAHA… I’ve got a couple of those, I remember first being introduced to it in University (and playing it with friends)…
So ridiculous. That makes sense about the Pokemon games. *nods*
How does one listen to podcasts? I don’t have any apple products, but I have an Android tablet. I only opened one of them (and really liked the sounds of it) from the Koohii thread maybe (or maybe from here, idk) and I don’t think there was a download button anywhere? Do people use apps? I feel clueless.
I’m not totally sure either. I too am without Apple products. I’ve listened to the odd thing over SoundCloud - and for that you need an active internet connection.
I don’t know about any that you can download (although some people on SoundCloud do make their things available for download). Once downloaded, I’m sure you can listen with whatever software you listen to your mp3s with.
Yeah, it’s the downloading part that’s the problem. I don’t even know much about podcasts or what they are, like radio-esque things, but not on any radio channels, basically? On various audio sites and/or blogs and/or personal/individual sites?
Like if it’s on SoundCloud or YouTube, I can probably download it (there are sites that let you download YT videos with video or just audio), but if it’s on a site like the one I went to, do I just have to have an active internet connection, and never open any other apps (or it would stop playing)? Because I want to be able to potentially do other things while listening…
Audio podcasts are basically Internet radio shows that air periodically and are published on some websites or services like iTunes, usually they have their own feeds (if you’re familiar with RSS feeds) that you can then use different podcaster apps/services to subscribe to. Most music player softwares on PC can be used to open and download these feeds. Since you mentioned that you use an Android device, check out Podcast Addict. I like it for podcasts, it’s a bit hard to navigate at first but it’s really light-weight and it even let’s you play just audio of Youtube videos which is nice when you just want to listen.
山中さわおの fool on the planet | YAMANAKA SAWAO official web site Here’s an example of a podcast that is published as a RSS feed (you can copy the RSS feed link to any podcaster software and it’ll download new podcasts whenever there is one) on their website and on iTunes.
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You can buy the yellow kiku book from white rabbit press, it is truly excellent and has a lot of practise for every section
Podcasts are just any audio recording, usually released on some kind of schedule, that is between a few minutes and a few hours long. You can listen on a website, through an app, on YouTube… Just google around a bit.
So glad someone recommended Mitoku’s Let’s Play channel. Watching her play Fallout 4 is such an awesome mixture of two of my favorite things put together – plus, it’s hilarious to listen to her flip out over the Radroaches XD