You can click the three dots to the far right of the like button and select “Open Transcript”. That will show the entire script and allow you to click on a line to replay that section of the video!
You can slow down the video if that helps you understand the speech better.
If you can download the video and subtitles, you can put them into Voracious and even more easily repeat sections, create flash cards etc.
Discussion Rules
When posting a question, include the time in the video. You can also link directly to the appropriate section.
Consider using spoiler tags for game events that people might want to experience firsthand
Original post
I basically just got this idea in my head that I thought I’d check if anyone is actually interested in…
There’s a bunch of youtube videos by popular Japanese Let’s Player 弟者 that people have added Japanese subs to…
Since I like him quite a lot, and since I’ve always enjoyed watching videos as listening practice/relaxation and I thought that maybe if people were interested this could be some kind of book-club-alike activity for those wanting to get into these kinds of videos. (The subs may make it easier to actually post stuff and talk about what they mean, maybe?)
I haven’t really thought any of this through, but a few benefits that come to mind are:
You get exposed to more colloquial Japanese
You learn some gaming lingo
Sentences in Let’s Play videos are often a lot simpler than in movies or TV shows.
You get to listen to that sweet, sweet 弟者 voice
Some reasons it might work less well
The only series I found that had subs for every single episode was Little Nightmares (which I like, but not everyone might?). Still, even subs for a few episodes might work as a starting point.
Maybe these kinds of things are better suited to just reading?
It’s pretty unlikely that I’ll be committing to any clubs right now, but I just wanted to say I’ve watched many hours of the 兄者弟者 channel! Really enjoyable. ^^
I feel like it’s sort of tiered difficulty: anime and other performed things are quite clear in their way of speaking. Single-player LPs are a bit more difficult, being regular Japanese, but quite clear since it’s just one person talking about stuff happening on-screen. Then the next difficulty for me personally is their three-player LPs, where it’s a bunch of people talking very casual language at the same time.
I definitely struggle the most with the latter category, but I’ve watched at least a dozen+ full LPs on their channel over the past few months, and I’ve been enjoying it loads!
An average LP video is much easier to follow than an episode of an anime I’m unfamiliar with.
And it’s also easier to be entertained even when I’m fuzzy on some dialogue. With a show or movie, the dialogue is often pivotal. With an LP, the visuals tell a whole story, and the audio is extra.
Definitely this. When learning French I started watching LPs even before having studied at all!
Like you say, the visuals say it all, any tiny bit you do understand is a bonus. Also, if you enjoy the voice of the person speaking, in the beginning just hearing the sounds of the language is enjoyable in itself.
A bunch of 弟者’s horror LPs also have quite a lot of the game’s story being conveyed through documents, so there can be a nice amount of reading as well. 一石二鳥!
I probably wont join any specific club anytime soon either but if I did it would be this one. I am currently watching this channel as I am writing this and I may add that おついち is probably my favourite person at this moment in time
Cool! Though it would feel more beneficial if there were some beginners as well… so we don’t end up with a situation where everyone mostly understands everything (maybe I’m flattering myself here though, I haven’t really checked how much of these things go over my head!)
Though, in my case one could increase the challenge by taking something unsubbed and attempt to transcribe it or similar, I guess.
I don’t actually know what being in a “book” club entails, but I already live off Let’s Plays as it is. xD Usually I watch stuff in English, but occasionally I get into Japanese stuff too. I don’t actually know 弟者 though, so I’m trying to not watch too much and spoil it. xD
I’ve never actually taken part in one myself, but my impression is that we go through the material together at a given pace and discuss any parts that gave us trouble or were otherwise noteworthy?
Someone who’ve actually participated, please fill me in here!
Right, there would be a weekly thread stating what we are reading (watching in this case) this time, and people would comment and ask questions. In most clubs, there’s also a spreadsheet with the vocab appearing in the text and the appropriate English meaning. (That is, even if a word can take multiple meanings, only the relevant one is put there).
I guess it won’t change much from that format if we go, say, 1 video a week. People could use time stamps instead of page numbers in the spreadsheet.
I like watching let’s plays in my free time and I’ve already watched a few in Japanese so I’d like to give this a try! I’m still a beginner though so I think I’ll be limiting myself to let’s plays with English subtitles.
I think it would be nice to pick one video per week and make a dedicated thread to discuss the content and ask questions.
It seems like there’d be enough people interested to at least merit giving this a go
I guess the next thing to do would be to decide what to watch…
I think it might be a good idea to at least start with one that’s human subbed all the way through, since it’d even the playing field a bit in terms of listening comprehension… but I’m open to trying to go through and try to transcribe or at least get the gist of everything being said.
Like I said, the Little Nightmares one isn’t that long, and all episodes have human subs.
I guess another big hurdle is finding something everyone would actually like taste-wise as well… I don’t really like FPS/TPS that much, which immediately eliminates most of his videos Fortunately he puts out a ton of videos, so I have been kinda spoiled for choice anyway!
This sounds really cool! I put ‘maybe’ because my phone is being really goofy at the moment, so it would be a chore to watch. Definitely interested, though!
I just watched Donut county episode 1, and it was pretty fun (and easy) to watch. Since it’s a currently ongoing series, we also avoid the temptation of just watching ahead of schedule (too much)
My favourite stuff from them are their playthroughs of old horror games like Twilight Syndrome if people are into those. I’m cool to start with Little Nightmares though since JP subs are much appreciated.
How would an LP viewing club work? Would we watch an ep every few days?
Like I said, I hadn’t really thought super much about this before posting, but my thinking is that we’d treat it like one of the book clubs except with the text spoken as well as written.
To me this would mean trying to understand or at least get the gist of everything and discussing the process, asking for help if we get stuck etc.
This is especially since watching LP’s like I normally would (just go through it not worrying too much if I understand or not) might not lead to much discussion other than “Yeah, that sure was a fun episode. That monster was kinda frightening but I really liked that one time he said 我が all dramatic-like”
Other than that I’m thinking you can do it however you want…
You could watch without the subs and just use them as a basis for posting quotes. Or you could pause and read each and every line before listening, or anything in between.
You could use something like Voracious etc or just do it on regular Youtube like regular people.
As for pace, I think one episode a week, like @Naphthalene said would be good, since if I’m going to be watching for comprehension it’ll take a lot longer than just the 30 minutes of the episode itself.
Fortunately he puts out a ton of videos, so I have been kinda spoiled for choice anyway!