🔊 🎙 Listen Every Day Challenge - Spring 2023 🌼 🌱

Home Post :hatching_chick:

Today I watched the same video about taxis that @prath wrote about yesterday. Thank you! :blush:

I tried not to read the japanese subtitles and slowed the video down a little at times because she was talking too fast for me. I was pleasantly surprised that I kinda got the gist of what she talked about most of the time even though I obviously didn’t understand every word. The taxi driver was very difficult to understand though because his voice sounded quite muffled due to the ambient noise. But he talked slowly at least.

After that I watched it a second time while reading the subtitles which made some parts of the video a little more clear. But I really need to work on my reading speed. I struggled to keep up. :sweat_smile:

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I try to practice listening every day, but sometimes I can’t due to work. I work 16-hour days and sometimes just don’t have enough time. When I can though, at a minimum, I do the Anki 10k vocab deck.

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10/04/2023 :fairy: Home Post Link

I was very distracted today but I wanted to watch something short. I ended up watching the most random 8 min video on how to buy Suica at Haneda Airport lol.

Surprisingly, it was very easy to understand! I had to rewind only once or twice. Turned out to be pretty interesting, and I hope I can use the information in the video at some point in my life - if I ever save enough to go to Japan :smiling_face_with_tear:

I had fun today! This thread helps So very much. I almost gave up but read a few updates and I was instantly inspired. Thanks y’all :bowing_man:

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I’ve been binge-watching 逃げ恥 the last few days yes I watched all of it in 4 days don’t judge me because @omk3 mentioned it and that prompted me to remember that I wanted to watch it. The 2-hour New Year’s Special didn’t have any Japanese subs available (:frowning:) so I had to do without them. I probably tend to overly rely on the subs even if I try not to look at them, so this was good practice. Will watch more dramas without subs.
I also enjoyed the office setting. And I like 百合ちゃん’s actress a lot.

感想 (spoilers!)

It was much more feminist than expected, I have to say. The whole unpaid labor thing, of course, which is the whole premise, but also regarding other topics. In the last episode, there were lots of thoughts regarding pregnancy, 育休, 産休, the dad not “helping out” or “supporting” his wife in raising their child because it’s not “helping out” if you’re the literal dad, all these things.
百合ちゃん (unmarried career-focused woman in her 40’s) gets comments like “I can see why she doesn’t have a husband” behind her back, so workplace harassment / bullying also gets touched upon.
The lead couple also just casually wants to give their child a gender-neutral name because they might want to change their gender later in life, also there were 3 homosexual characters which is awesome. I enjoyed that a lot.

Man I was shipping 百合ちゃん and 風見 and they did get together in the last episode! But then they ended up separating because of, as usual, communication issues (she feeling like a slob because she just wanted to chill at home sometimes, they separate, he gets together with someone else, they separate because this time he feels like the lazy one who wants to spend more time at home. Just get back together please :frowning:). But communication issues is literally the whole premise, really (like every Japanese rom-com ever). People just can’t talk to each other. It’s cute in some ways but just infuriating in others. But they do get better at it! In the end they even have a weekly 303カンパニー会議 where they discuss how they both feel about the household workload, etc.
I liked the fact that みくり basically took the lead in their relationship even if it’s probably quite rare for Japanese women. I do think みくり and 平匡 actually fit together quite well, since they’re both quite odd, by societal standards. With the whole contract thing and putting everything into numbers :smiley: very rational and quite funny to see everything put like that.
And of course, the whole style of the show, all her daydreaming of being on certain TV shows, and just mocking all these different kinds of programs, was very enjoying to watch.

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:cherry_blossom: :seedling: 4月10日 :seedling: :cherry_blossom: (Home Post Link)

I tried watching a nagasaki biopark video today but the audio quality was really bad, was windy and picking up on the mic and hurt my head too much to deal with. Then I tried a geoguessr video, but somehow it was a video uploaded yesterday of a match i’d already seen? Not sure what was going on there.

Listened:

Word(s) of the Day:
鈴(すず)ー bell (often globular)​

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April 10th!

A milestone for me today!
Usually when I’m watching something with Japanese subs, I’m using Language Reactor to have dual subs but with the english subs blurred so I can’t accidentally read them. If I don’t understand by listening, or by reading the Japanese subs then I quickly mouse over the english so that I can continue watching without getting completely lost and confused.

But today I decided to challenge myself - So I watched Ponyo in Japanese, with Japanese subs. No english at all.

Did I understand everything? …No.
Did I understand well enough to follow the majority of the story? Yes. I think I did.

I had to rewind and re-listen pretty often, and I had to rely on reading the subs a fair bit, and I’m sure I missed a few of the finer points. But overall - a success. :slight_smile:

(Home Post)

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:hot_pepper: April 10

Got carried away reading ルリドラゴン and それでも歩は寄せてくる today. Then I played Zero Escape: 999 on the Nintendo DS. No voice acting. Really depleted the amount of time I would have to watch a movie.
Rather, I pulled from my Netflix Safety hat 3 short episodes of Gudetama. I had watched the first four episodes a few months ago. At the time, I relied heavily on the subtitles. Now I seem to be following along smoothly without them. Thanks Listen Every Day Challenge! :sparkles: -paid promotion

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:speaker: :blossom: softlyraining’s garden of sounds :cherry_blossom: :headphones:

April 8th・April 9th・April 10th

I listened to several things the past few days: an episode of The Miku Real Japanese Podcast, some of the Harvest Moon video that @javerend shared (超懐かしい!I sunk so much time into the GC version), and, of course, more Good Morning Call. Comprehension was all over the place; the podcast was the easiest for me to understand. The game playthrough wasn’t necessarily easy, but I’m familiar with the game, so I was able to fill in most of the blanks. I still miss some things in Good Morning Call, but it’s whatever.

I feel kind of bad that I keep finding things to complain about in this show, which is a clear sign that it’s not for me. Still, some of the jokes are surprising. The love interest’s sister-in-law has this quirk where she’ll kiss anyone if she’s drunk, and apparently being a minor doesn’t mean you’ll be safe from her. Granted, she kisses Girl MC on the cheeks and forehead (not shown), but Girl MC also mentions that she was protecting her mouth. I have no idea how this comes off in the manga, but it doesn’t work at all in the show. And yet, I feel compelled to see the rest of the show through. Sunk-cost fallacy? :person_shrugging:

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4月5~10日 :cherry_blossom:
:house:

5th: Flesh&Blood drama CD
6th: Played 剣が君
7th: スタ雑 (Rio Ch.)
8th: Played 剣が君
9th: スタ雑 (Rio Ch.)
10th: スタ雑 (Rio Ch.) + 彼女が公爵邸に行った理由 1話
Today I finished watching this group 雑談. This somehow ended up starting out as a long conversation about rice cookers at different price points and the difference in the quality of the rice they make lol. Then I watched the first episode of 彼女が公爵邸に行った理由. Watching on crunchyroll where there’s no japanese sub option so I’m stuck with no subs, which mainly meant a lot of skipping back and replaying. Still didn’t go too bad, it helps a lot that I’ve read the source material though (luckily the case for everything I want to watch this anime season).

Vocab

砒素(ひそ)arsenic (As)
制定(せいてい)enactment; establishment; creation
玉璽(ぎょくじ)sovereign’s seal
(いち)(ばち)かsink or swim; all or nothing; hit or miss; make or break

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Home Post :hatching_chick:

I listened to Nihongo Con Teppei episodes 135-139. After going through them once I figured that I didn’t focus enough so I listened to them again.

Recently it’s been getting harder to stay motivated and continue listening actively every day. It’s tempting to just skip a day and relax instead. But I want to improve so I’m doing my best! :muscle:

Even though it has only been 11 days so far, I already feel a little bit more confident than before. I don’t think there are any noticable changes in my comprehension level yet but listening feels a little less intimidating now.

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Apr 11, Tue of Week 3 of Spring Q2 2023 :cherry_blossom:

歴史 [7-8/90] - 弥生時代. Talking of world history, maybe Chinese’s might be a priority. The readings are gonna be weird in both Japanese and English, anyway. (Compared to Thai / Teochew / Mandarin Chinese.)

Places and names
  • 奴国(なのくに) = Country of Na, a state which has located in and around modern-day Fukuoka City during the Yayoi period
  • 光武帝(こうぶてい) = Emperor Guangwu of Han - Wikipedia (6 BCE - 57 CE) = 劉秀(りゅうしゅう) (Liu Xiu)
  • 邪馬台国(やまたいこく) = Yamatai, an ancient country in Japan during the late Yayoi period. Not sure where exactly it was, though. Also not sure if it is related to 大和(やまと) = Yamato.
    • Being a tributary state of (), The queen of Japan, 卑弥呼(ひみこ) = Himiko got entitled 親魏倭王(しんぎわおう).
    • After the fall of Han Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms being () (Wei), () (Wu) and (しょく) (Shu)

こころ Ch.17-20. Will probably look more at sosekiproject.org later.

Found 按摩 (小酒井不木) in 聴き放題 which is only 15 min long, so listened to that.

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11/04/2023 :fairy: Home Post Link

I did only 8 mins of listening today - 2 eps from Nihongo con Teppei!

It was my favourite topic this time - books and manga. The books episode was easy to understand and I didn’t have to look up anything. The manga one was a bit of a struggle though. It had a lot of different words, so I might’ve have to look them up tomorrow when I have more energy.

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:cherry_blossom: Day 11, 4 月 11 日 :herb:

:headphones: Back to my Home Post

I listened to the first part of the second chapter reading in Tobira. Alltogether there are five parts, all talking about 日本語のスピーチスタイル. This first part was about levels of politeness.

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:cherry_blossom: :seedling: 4月11日 :seedling: :cherry_blossom: (Home Post Link)

No new 月曜の朝ミオ as expected, so guess I did actually understand that announcement correctly :laughing:

Listened:

  • マリオ64 (犬神ころね ライブ) ~30 minutes - not a lot of real listening, but lots of falling into the void and screaming. I don’t think i’ve ever actually watched non-speedrunners play this game, so watching people really truly struggle with movement/controls was kinda fun for a bit
  • Nihongo con Teppei Beginners #837 - Had seen a few people mention this channel so thought i’d check it out!
  • Nihongo con Teppei Z #345 - Really enjoying this! The beginner one might be a bit too beginner for me, but i’ll definitely save it as a recommendation for people. Z is just about right for mostly automatic comprehension + a few new words here and there, so I’ll probably start working this into my routine

Word(s) of the Day:
振り子(ふりこ)ー pendulum
焙煎(ばいせん)ー roasting (eg. of coffee)
精神(せいしん)ー mind; spirit; soul; heart; ethos​

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April 10-11 :european_castle: :heart_on_fire: :headphones: :film_strip:

Yesterday I listened to some more かがみの孤城 while reading along, then had a long walk that was a good opportunity for listening, so I tried 推し、燃ゆ from the beginning, without reading of course. The part I had already read went smoothly enough, and I was very proud of my listening comprehension, then I got to the unfamiliar part and I completely lost the plot. :sweat_smile: My “listening comprehension” was basically just memory…

Today I listened again to both audiobooks while reading along, and watched another episode of 逃げるは恥だが役に立つ. I guess it’s time to admit to myself that I actually quite like it. It may be romance, but it’s a rather offbeat one, and it’s more than that. And the characters are all ridiculously likeable.

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April 11th!

I had a super busy day at work and ended up working a bit later than I should have, and then I had plans with friends this evening so I didn’t get home until 11:30pm.
But I still managed to squeeze in a tiny listen!
One episode of Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners. It was about people who are not good at speaking.

(Home Post)

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4月11日
Went to the cinema with @NicoleIsEnough and watched すずめの戸締まり (Japanese with German subtitles). It was beautiful.
And the Japanese was quite simple. You also had several different dialects in there, which was really cool to see, and I guess that was something the non-Japanese-speaking crowd missed out on :smiley:

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4月11日 :cherry_blossom:
:house:

Watched: 傑作と評された青春歌劇ゲーム 『JACKJEANNE (ジャックジャンヌ)』【初見実況:ネタバレ注意】
Today I watched this let’s play of JackJeanne that showed up randomly on my twitter recommended page. I love this game so I really like watching other people’s impressions as they play for the first time. This guy’s reaction when Fumi first showed up was so perfect. :joy: It’s also interesting seeing how much more I understand and how different the pacing of the game feels than when I first played it two years ago.

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:hot_pepper: April 11

Tonight I watched WIlly Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) JP Dub. Too much of this movie is musical with English vocals. The subtitles for the songs interest me but I mostly skipped them this time around.

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Apr 12, Wed of Week 3 of Spring Q2 2023 :cherry_blossom:

歴史 [9-10/90] - 古墳時代. Totally forgotten about Korean, with Kanji as fierce as Japanese.

Also relistened to 聞くだけで一気にわかる日本史 on 縄文・弥生・古墳. Listening only, escaping from Kanji, understood much better than the first run-through, or maybe it’s just memory? Anyway, rephrasing.

Places and names

こころ Ch.21-24.

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