So I watch a lot of anime. Shocker. The other day I was watching Aggretsuko on Netflix and something clicked. I started to hear all the little sounds to the words. Still not understanding anything, but I could now hear all the sounds instead of a blur. Then I found I could identify some of the words I was learning on WK. “Hey,” I said, “she just said the word for ‘fix’! I know that one!” I think it helps that Aggretsuko has real-life vocab instead of “anime-vocab” (work/relationship situations rather than giant robots powered by determination or some such). I can’t wait until the sounds form words for me.
P.S. - how do I put Japanese characters in my posts? Do you all go to Google translate and copy and paste?
That is so awesome! I’m having the same experiences with being able to understand the actual sounds that now make actual words!
You can add Japanese in keyboard settings. There may be a post here that explains how or Google it, right? I can’t do it on my work computer… lack of admin privileges and all that but my phone, Ipad and laptop do!
You can probably activate your work computer’s Japanese IME without admin privileges. Since it adds a small toggle near the time on WinOS you may be the only one who ever knows about it.
Aggretsuko has nice vocab. I also listen to japanese news, talkshows and other real life stuff to improve my listening. Below there are some example channels from youtube that i follow.
Start supplementing with grammar if you haven’t already! You’ll start to catch grammar structures… and you’ll be thoroughly puzzled by hearing grammar structures you don’t know!
nice to hear. i’ve been able to start picking out some words here and there when watching Japanese content, always a good feeling. Though most of it still sounds like gobbledegook - i always turn youtube videos to .75 speed just to try and pick out more words and phrases
I have been rewatching things I watched before I learned Japanese, and it is so much fun being able to understand without English subtitles. Of course I already know the story quite well, so i can watch it without losing the plot, but I sometimes get surprised by a turn of phrase, or I pick up a word I learned recently.
Also reading along with Japanese subtitles is good reading practice, though it is more a support for the audio. My reading is not yet so fast that I can read a whole line in the second it flashes onto the screen.
Slice of life definitely is a good genre to do this with. Also live action dorama fit really well, since those also tend to stay in the real world. I bet sports anime would be doable as well. Though the only one I ever watched is テニスの王子様, which I have been rewatching. I can only find it with English subs, but I can partly crop them out on my phone. I’m guessing I am picking up about 60-70% perfectly, a little more here and there.
Since you’re on Netflix, try Good Morning Call. It is terrible high school drama, and definitely overacted, but mostly clearly spoken and funny as well, if you like that kind of thing.
Nice! One of my first experiences with that was when I was watching The Ring and someone said 「おかしいとおもわない？」
I was especially excited because we’d never used the plain negative form of おもう in class. Moments like that will definitely help keep you going if you’re exclusively self-teaching
I’ve subscribed to TV Japan, and it is great for listening for vocabulary and grammar points I’ve learned. The more I learn, the more I hear. Great practice for me as far as listening. They also have lots of Japanese subtitles and I keep trying to read them. Can’t usually read all of a line yet, but I have seen improvement in that, too.
Maybe I should be embarrassed, but I’m not. I loved this show. And My Little Lover. And Love in Tokyo. I told my coworker and he stared at me silently for a moment, expression blank. “Does your wife know you watch shows about Japanese schoolgirls.”
Me: “Uh, when you say it like that…”
I’ve been having the exact same experience for a while now. The great part, is it only gets better and better as you recognize more.
I had trouble distinguishing individual sounds and words; everything just blurred together for me. But after months of studying, more and more has been sticking out and parsing for me, and even words I don’t know, I still hear their parts and I’m starting to recognize when a certain sound is part of a word or when it’s a particle or something.
I still remember watching Shingeki no Bahamut, and, over the course of a single scene, some repeated dialogue went from “blah blah blah” to “chee chada” to “父だ.” I was like
