I’ve recently been rewatching a show but with Japanese audio and subtitles (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners for anyone wondering). I’ve noticed that words that I struggled with remembering before, have now “locked into place” because I saw them used in context (“in the wild”). Granted, I don’t understand half of what is being said, but if you can get over sitting through a show without understanding much, then please try this. It’s helped me a lot, and I’m going to continue.
P.S., I’ve also been able to start reading faster because of it, so although I feel a bit stupid when doing it, it’s worth it.
Yeah, being able to interact with your target language in a natural/non-textbook way is super important. Textbooks, and even WaniKani, can be great resources, but there’s nothing like seeing what you are learning “in action.”
Yeah I was doing that with the Viki app, but unfortunately a lot of the shows the learn mode doesn’t work. The ones where learn mode does work is really helpful as then I can click on the Japanese word in the subtitles to see what it is in English and doing that automatically pauses the show for me.
I had completely forgotten about the existence of Viki - and somehow did not realize that there was a Viki app either - so I will have to look into it.
Yes it’s absurd how good this works. There were a couple of long words which I could just not remember. Started watching Monster on flix and some of those words kept coming back. Now I remember them perfectly, even with the voice that said them in the Anime
Trigger shows are pretty easy, but Cyberpunk has more out there vocab. I thought it was pretty solid. But yeah, audio and subtitles + the visual aids is very powerful. I stopped reading recently but turned subs back on for Netflix and noticed my comprehension is getting better when I go back to reading here and there. I’m in a bit of a slump now, but doing this has kept me feeling like “I have definitely made enough progress that I can enjoy this.”
