I listened to a random handful of youtube videos but nothing was inspiring enough to bother posting here. I’ll probably listen to more of 崩れる脳を抱きしめて later when I go out for a walk.
I mostly need to catch up on book club reading though 
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November 6th:
I tried watching a “News 7” video on the NHK site. With the natural pace i can not keep up. Afterwards I tried a bit with .8x speed (with a browser add-on) and it was a lot more understandable. I might test it more in the coming days.
I also tried listing to the NHK Easy News. While I can understand it very well, I’m too bothered by the artificial voice to do that regularly.
Afterwards I looked around in the videos of some news channels that were recommended to me.
日テレNEWS and ANNnewsCH have both many short more and less relevant videos. They vary strongly in difficulty. I might continue watching some of those.
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softlyraining’s leaf pile listens 
November 4th・November 5th・November 6th:
Two days of watching more Terrace House and one with a short Satori Reader session. I haven’t felt great the past couple of days, though I’m feeling better now.
Anna (the girl who received the hug) seemed maybe slightly taken aback, though she didn’t hesitate that much. Before he asked about a hug, he asked her if she was okay, so it’s possible she just thought of it as him trying to comfort her. The guy’s also lived in the US for several years, so it’s possible she figured he took on some American customs. It’s also possible that she wanted the hug, as well as the producers working on the show. (Though not scripted, people from the series have said that the producers leave hints for what sorts of things they’d like to film.) I can’t remember how the commentators reacted; I’ll go back to that episode tomorrow and see.
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I felt the same way.
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Glad to hear that.
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Have you tried relistening to stuff. I felt the same and relistened to some Teppi I hadn’t listened to in a while, was motivating when I picked up on more of his bookend chatter.
Teppi rode with me and the dog over to my parent’s house on our weekly visit. Also did a single JLPT question where I YET AGAIN failed to pickout みぎがわ in an asking for directions scenario. Fingers crossed that in the real thing, the cafe or library or whatever it is the guy who can’t use google maps is looking for, is on the left hand side!
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I have relistened to a bunch of things, but I have not yet made enough of a leap in comprehension that it would feel like I progressed any. Which isn’t surprising since I’ve only done listening comprehension for barely over two months and of those only one month of real dedicated time and effort every day.
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Yeah it’s really painful at the start isn’t it, especially with all the cool kids watching youtubes and anime. Rest assured you’re not the only one.
EDIT Grammar James, grammar!
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Let me officially remove myself from the “cool kids” club in case there’s any misunderstanding: I may be watching anime and youtube, but that doesn’t mean I understand what I hear. I’m watching Parasyte with English subtitles on (which is very much frowned upon in the learning community, I gather), and I’m very happy whenever I can understand a whole phrase without relying on them. With shorter youtube videos, I just watch and nod along. No one tests my comprehension, and that’s just as well, because it’s rarely over 50%. 
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Heh, I think I’m in this picture. Hello, fellow kids
I started listening with reading books alongside their audiobooks, practicing on audio flashcards, and watching beginner friendly youtube content. I still don’t understand everything I hear, but after hundreds of hours of practice (at least 600 hours now, but certainly more as I didn’t track prior to last year) I can follow a decent amount of content.
I never want to be discouraging by posting upper level material, but show that learning Japanese is a long path filled with some really cool things along the way. I’m not posting things I understand with 100% comprehension usually, but those I got 90% of and filled the rest in from context. Or sometimes it’s just deeply interesting content to me, but usually the former.
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Sorry for any misunderstanding, it wasn’t meant in any derogatory sense, the complete opposite in fact. I find it both motivating and interesting to read what others are doing. It is great to see the rungs further up the ladder whilst having a little grumble about the feeling I’m still near the floor.
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Day 38, 7th of November
Episode 5 of あかがみんクラフトclassic. They were decorating with bamboo, so I learned the word for bamboo: 竹 and because they used it in a pun, high: 高い
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November 7 
I did it! A perfect run! 30/30 in Migaku Pitch Trainer. I’m sure I’ll keep making a ton of mistakes from here on, but it feels good to have achieved this. 
(It normally takes a little over two minutes instead of nearly five, but I had to get up to do something else for a minute)
Also episode 22 of Parasyte. Two more to go. And then I’ll have to find something else to watch.
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November 7th!
Today I listened to an episode of Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners, and also watched an episode of Madoka Magica.
I’m a little tired so I had to rely on the subs even more than usual today, but thats fine. It’s all practise, even on the days where it’s tough.
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On November the 6th I didn’t listen to anything because I wasn’t feeling well.
On November the 7th I’ve:
- Listened to today’s NHK Easy News.
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softlyraining’s leaf pile listens
November 7th:
A little Satori Reader and two more episodes of Terrace House. One of the housemates (a pro surfer) injured himself and was taken to a hospital. He was okay enough to be sent home, though he had bandages covering a large portion of his face. He said he was going to go back to Japan for a week to get a full physical and have a dentist look at his teeth. I have no idea if this is true or not, but when he said he was going back to Japan for medical attention, I wondered if maybe it was cheaper for them to fly him back to do that then have him receive any additional care in Hawaii (yay American healthcare system 
).
As for @pocketcat’s question regarding the hug:
The commentators had differing opinions. One said it was sweet since Anna had opened up to him about her anxieties, but two others felt like he had an ulterior motive, since Anna is the type of girl he generally is attracted to. Then a fourth commentator kind of put them together, saying he seemed genuinely concerned for Anna, but if there was more to the hug than that, so be it. So, no one necessarily reacted with complete shock at him hugging her in general. Maybe, because it’s a reality show, there’s differing expectations compared to everyday life? Just speculation on my part.
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I watched this video and was pleasantly surprised by how light the complaints were
I admit my immediate thought was of WWII propaganda and racist old movies…
Then again they may have purposefully chosen light topics to keep their channel away from major negativity. I poked through the comments to see if there was anything brought up there, but nothing I skimmed seemed too intense. People talking about stereotypes they’d been asked about by people abroad (“Do you eat sushi every day?”) and someone commenting that Japanese cities probably seem blue because street lights abroad give off an orangish glow (for now, but that’s another topic).
Thank you for following up on this! That’s interesting - I also suspect that real life would have different rules to play by. An observed hug vs a private one. Reality shows are forever ruined by the exhibitionism of their very nature
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I knew a Japanese man who lived in America and it was absolutely cheaper for him to fly back to Japan to get his dental work done, and that was with the insurance that we both had through work. So that seems plausible to me.
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Did 45mins of JLPT N5 listening drills with my new book/mp3
Took Teppi with me and my daughter when dropping her off for her dreaded chemistry tutoring. As we were a whole 2 minutes early, she didn’t want to go in yet & sat in the car with me and I translated for her… I mean he was saying really basic stuff like Japan is hot in the summer but she was still impressed with me. Not sure if that makes me 
or 
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Nov 8, Tue of Week 7 of Fall 2022
Finished Yurucamp S2. There are 13 episodes. Watched one today, and two yesterday.
I might be a little annoyed by girls acting, but I quite like the places and ending songs.
There are several notifications on my smartphone today. Some from Youtube, others from Podbean. I watched 日本語の森 on Youtube first, in particular 【もりお先生】 第２課 「おじぎ」は何ですか？ - YouTube. Another one I watched is a textbook ad from 日本語の森.
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