I was kinda busy today so I spent less time listening than usual. I chose Naoko’s video about her flight from spain to japan. Even though I was a little tired and couldn’t concentrate that well I learned some new words.
Day 14, 4 月 14 日
Tongue twister time! These were really fun, so I might look for more of them. The ones I practiced today were:
- 生麦生米生卵 - this one doesn’t seem so hard at first, I suppose with enough repetitions and speed it’ll become tricky
- スモモも 桃も 桃のうち - aough the pain. A great example sentence for why Japanese having three different writing systems is good, actually.
- 坊主が びょうぶに 上手な 坊主の 絵を かいた - this one is really nice and I like the rhythm of the entire sentence.
4月14日 (Home Post Link)
Listened:
- ポケカ開封 (兎田ぺこら ライブ) ~40 minutes ー the new japanese pokemon card sets snow hazard and clay burst are out in japan (here’s a gallery of the good stuff), and she opened a few boxes of them on stream. I’m still not uh, super good with pokemon names in japanese, so it was hard to follow sometimes when she wasn’t reading directly off cards lmao. There was a lot of excited 「光ってる!光ってる!!!」 yelling
Word(s) of the Day:
散(ばら)ー loose articles (not packaged with other things); bulk items; individual items (here i think it meant like a loose pack of cards (ex. バララスト, last pack))
ワンチャン ー maybe; perhaps; there is a chance that (i thought she was saying ワンちゃん like a dog pokemon at first, but i think this makes more sense)
softlyraining’s garden of sounds
April 11th・April 12th・April 13th・April 14th
After going on a bit of a binge with Good Morning Call, I decided to give myself a bit of a break and watch Aggretsuko. The episodes being shorter is a nice change of pace. I’ve been trying to hear if, during her heavy metal scenes, the voice is actually singing what’s in the subtitles. Sometimes I can hear that it is, but other times it just sounds like incoherent screaming.
April 14th!
I’m counting my hour long class with my tutor as my listening practise today.
We did some exam-style listening questions and talked about lots of topics including movies, strawberries and cream, and how hard it is to spell words in katakana!
14/04/2023 Home Post Link
1 episode about family from Japanese with Shun! It was easy this time and it’s soo nice how Shun thinks everyone in his family is interesting :")
10 min HikaninTV
April 14
Team America: World Police (JP Dub/Sub). I learned that subtitles are sometimes censored with 〇. Often in this case.
I struggled with the dialogue through much of the movie. The subs are not even close to what’s said most of the time.
15 days in and I’m really starting to see some progress. I’ve gotten used to faster talking speeds and don’t need to slow my videos down anymore. Of course it’s probably still nowhere near natural japanese because I only listen to stuff aimed at non-native speakers but I’m very happy that my listening skills seem to be improving!
Today I watched “10 Tips for Living in Japan” by Akane. I’m not planning on living in Japan but it was very interesting and a lot of the tips are relevant for travel purposes as well. I felt very good about my understanding because I could catch the main points she made most of the time. However, I did struggle with some of the tips that included lots of unknown vocabulary, e.g. the tips about being on time, mold and safety. The mold topic was especially difficult because I didn’t know the word カビ and did not understand what was going on at all.
Next I wanted to watch something easier and chose “No. 1 in Japan vs. No. 1 in the world” and “Autumn in Japan” by Comprehensible Japanese.
Apr 15, Sat of Week 3 of Spring Q2 2023
歴史 [15-16/90] - 奈良時代 [2-3/3]. Out of inconvenience, I learnt to take note in Notion on mobile.
Also, audiobook up from 弥生時代 to 奈良時代 to complement.
Places and names
- 口分田 = land distributed to all citizens from which yields were taxed by the government
- 租・調・庸 = tax system. Rice is the first.
- 班田収授法 = the allotment of rice paddy for cultivation during the cultivator’s lifetime
- 三世一身法 = Sanze-isshin Law (a law allowing farmers who cleared new lands to own them for a period of three gen - Japanese Wiki Corpus. Rendaku on the second Kanji, and short ぜ.
- 墾田永年私財法 = Konden Einen Shizai no Ho (the law allowing permanent ownership of newly cultivated land) - Japanese Wiki Corpus
- 天平文化 = Tenpyo Culture - Japanese Wiki Corpus
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聖武天皇 = Emperor Shōmu - Wikipedia
- 国分寺・国分尼寺 = Provincial temple - Wikipedia
- 東大寺 = Tōdai-ji - Wikipedia, the Buddhist temple with 大仏
- 鑑真 = Jianzhen - Wikipedia, or Ganjin in Japanese, was a Chinese monk who helped to propagate Buddhism in Japan
- 行基 = Gyōki - Wikipedia, a Japanese Buddhist priest
- 防人 = soldiers stationed at strategic posts in Kyūshū
- 荘園 = Shōen - Wikipedia, a private estate owned by a noble
- 歴史 : 古事記 (Kojiki - Wikipedia), 日本書紀 (Nihon Shoki - Wikipedia)
- 自然 : 風土記 (Fudoki - Wikipedia)
- 和歌 : 万葉集 (Man'yōshū - Wikipedia)
- Collapse of 公地公民 (complete state ownership of land and citizens) and 律令
こころ Ch.29-36, end of 先生と私. I simply have too much listening time today, and also the story is so long.
15/04/2023 Home Post Link
2 episodes of Japanese with Shun today! Really enjoying Shun’s podcasts these days. Saving this weekend for lotsss of rest, so I have nothing interesting to add here hsjhsj
4月15日 (Home Post Link)
I’m not gonna count it as my listening listening, but I did watch the first episode of oshi no ko (w eng subs) last night and spent a lot of time pausing and rewinding to look up words and trying to figure out some of the jokes, and the episode is 90 minutes long so that counts for something at least
Listened:
- Tavern Master(大神ミオ ライブ)~30 minutes ー game looks fun, but the menus are so dense reminds me a lot of old school simulation games, maybe some roller coaster tycoon vibes
Word(s) of the Day:
措辞(そじ) ー wording; phraseology; diction
雇用(こよう)ー employment; hire
酒場(さかば)ー bar, tavern
April 15th!
Another episode of Rilakkuma and Kaoru today.
I also listened to a few “Culture Class” podcasts from JapanesePod101 today that were about various holidays/festivals in Japan but other than introducing some vocab words they were in english so they don’t count as listening practise, even though they were interesting and I did learn a few new words.
April 15
Tough to listen today. Spent most of the day hanging out with friends. Failed at youtube when I got home too. Wrong channel selection, outside interruptions…
So, Sakura Tips podcast. Just two episodes. One on toufu and the other on Japanese tea. Toufu was great. Entertaining and informative. Japanese tea episode I blanked during
watched with subtitles
PEACH BOY - MOMOTARO (JAPANESE) Japanese classical stories | fairy tale - YouTube
I learned the word カビ because i was recommended a mold remover called カビキラー and I did not notice at all until my friend pointed out that it probably was based on the word killer, and speculated that カビ meant mold. And then I never forgot it
16/04/2023 Home Post Link
Watched half of this video for a few minutes and realized that it was wayy above my level lol
and then I moved on to this video where they are talking about what they miss from Japan. It was sweet and fun, and I understood around 70-80% of it, so I’d say that was a win?
Week 2 Recap
I had a pretty good week. I got some listening in every day, and hit my time and content goals six out of seven days. Throughout the week, I listened to NHK Radio News and Radio Kishiwada, a handful of Nihongo con Teppei and Japanese with Shun podcasts, and re-listened to five Japanesepod101 lessons that I’d covered a while ago. I also watched Drive My Car (with subtitles).
I’m noticing some improvement. In the beginning, the NHK Radio News segments were all but impossible, but this morning I was able to catch a decent amount. Consistency helps; some news stories are covered several days in a row. Re-listening to the Japanesepod101 lessons was eye-opening. I understand way more than the first time around. Of course, I’m more familiar with the grammar and vocab that’s covered, but it’s also just the listening practice. The dialogues don’t seem nearly as rushed as they did before. It’s good to be able to see some progress.
Apr 16, Sun of Week 3 of Spring Q2 2023
歴史 [17/90] - 平安時代 [1/4].
Places and names
Japan
- 桓武天皇 = Emperor Kanmu - Wikipedia
- 平安京 = Heian-kyō - Wikipedia, one of several former names for the city now known as Kyoto
-
蝦夷 = Emishi - Wikipedia
- アテルイ (阿弖流為) = Aterui - Wikipedia, a chief of Emishi
- 坂上田村麻呂 = Sakanoue no Tamuramaro - Wikipedia, given a task of conquering Emishi
-
天台宗 = Tendai - Wikipedia, an East Asian Buddhist school of Mahāyāna Buddhism
- 最澄 = Saichō - Wikipedia, a Japanese Buddhist monk credited with founding the Tendai school of Buddhism based on the Chinese Tiantai school
-
比叡山 = Mount Hiei - Wikipedia
- 延暦寺 = Enryaku-ji - Wikipedia
-
真言宗 = Shingon Buddhism - Wikipedia
- 空海 = Kūkai - Wikipedia, a Japanese Buddhist monk who founded the Shingon school of Buddhism
-
高野山 = Mount Kōya - Wikipedia
- 金剛峯寺 = Kongōbu-ji - Wikipedia
-
菅原道真 = Sugawara no Michizane - Wikipedia
- The last Kanji is a little unexpected. Probably from 実 = pit of a fruit 《「真(さ)根(ね)」の意》
Korea
- 高麗 = Goryeo - Wikipedia
こころ Part 両親と私 Ch.1-4.
Then, a YouTube on train driver – 【密着取材】運転士の訓練!横浜の"新路線"開業までの舞台裏『every.特集』 - YouTube
I was a little tired today so I only watched one video by Shun about his trip to lake Hamana. I had some difficulty concentrating and sometimes the wind was blowing into the mic which didn’t really make it any easier but I think I still managed to understand a decent amount. As always I ignored the japanese subtitles at first and then watched the video again while reading the subs. This way I could catch the stuff that I couldn’t understand the first time.
Hopefully I’ll be able to concentrate better and listen a bit more tomorrow.