This is another challenge where one of my goals will be to post regularly. I think i might try listening to some TED talks as practice; probably not every day, but I’d like to do it maybe once a week? I’m a little concerned that I’ll start spacing out early on, so it might be best to pace myself and try to find the shortest ones possible. Other than that, I pretty open to listening to whatever strikes my fancy: stuff posted here, podcasts I already follow, maybe some movies or a show.
Listened to two tracks of the second Flesh & Blood drama CD while taking my dog for a walk. There was some stuff at the beginning I couldn’t quite catch so I think I’ll give it a second listen through later then go write my thoughts in the club thread.
残月記 : 月景石 Ch.3-4/1 [4-5/13]. The reading is catching up soon, then I would go to the next substory, 残月記 : 残月記. I may still re-listen as a bonus. while not wanting something too new, maybe?
国語文法 [38-39/50] – 助動詞 (1-2/10). A bit interesting to see conjugation from another perspective.
I took an N4 practice test today and my listening score was 45/60. There were some words and grammar points that I didn’t understand but overall I’m happy with my result.
Another hour of かがみの孤城 today while reading along. Following @pocketcat 's advice, I sped up the audio and listening was much more pleasant today. It’s now just a tiny bit faster than my reading speed (if I stumble on a word or two), so I often end up listening first, then pausing and reading what I just heard, which makes for purer listening practice.
I also watched some Full-time Wife Escapist (still cute and cozy), and the first story from a film called 偶然と想像. Not very impressed, so far it felt slow and rather pretentious. It’s by the same director as Drive My Car, by the way, and it did share the same kind of long, silent scenes. I may continue it at some point, not sure. Speaking about long, silent scenes, I tried “In the Distance” from the JFF+ Independent Film Festival the other day, and I gave up on it because it too felt too slow and like nothing much was happening. There are times that I enjoy such films, but apparently this is not such a time.
I watched a video from a youtube channel that some of you may recall me binging last challenge. It’s a good fit for me as I understand a decent % the video but there’s always a few ?? words or sentences so I don’t feel like I’m coasting. This one I stopped around 30 min in though as when they started talking about the mobile game incorporated into the challenges I got bored:
はたらくUFO - wanted to relax when i got home so I put on the rest of the stream; another 45 minutes. Could tell the game was getting a little frustrating towards the end of the stream and she ended very quickly
behold! a turtle with a tiny hat! truly the pinnacle of game design
Word(s) of the Day:
繊細（せんさい）ー sensitive; delicate (feelings, sense, etc.); subtle
歪（いびつ）ー distorted; crooked; irregular; warped
I haven’t yet gotten around to creating a home post yet as the final week of busyness is here but I am proud to report that I listened!
April 1st:
I listened to the first part of はてしない物語 once more (~15 min.) as I didn’t have access to Flesh&Blood and I didn’t feel like browsing youtube or the like. I’m still missing vocab here and there, and at some point I will listen again while reading the book to see how this goes.
Incidentally I was with some friends when I listened, and I did not have earphones with me so everybody was entitled to join in to my listening This was fun as not everybody understood Japanese, and so the understanding was limited to the occasional katakana words But we tried an app (I think Google Translate?) to see what it was able to catch, which was also fun. It correctly captured one or two sentences, but in another one it misheard 怖い and instead caught 可愛い Way to go, I guess…
April 2nd:
Chatted with my Japanese friend for 1.5 hours which should be enough listening for today. As always, we chatted about this and that, starting from how his recent sales exhibitions went, to strikes in France and retirement age in Germany and Japan, to planning for a trip we want to go on together, to why there are eggs at Easter, to how to unblock a kitchen sink It was a ragbag of topics, indeed.
April 1st
I wasn’t feeling the greatest yesterday, so I listened to several episodes of Akiko’s American Foreign Exchange on Satori Reader while I rested.
April 2nd
I went with something random today. I’ve watched some videos from Kimono Mom in the past, back when her daughter didn’t really talk. Now she mugs the camera on a regular basis. She’s become such an adorable little goofball, and the presents she got were so cute!
I did not do much today, but I spent 20 mins listening to few episodes from Nihongo con Teppei’s podcast. It was great, I didn’t have to look up any vocabulary at all this time, so I’ll take that as a win!
Watched Back to the Future Part 1 w/ JP Dub and Sub. The subtitles aren’t clearly readable sometimes. At full speed anyway. I’ll give the trilogy another go with subs on before I go freestyle. Really, I’m only looking when I get lost/ space out. I think I actually paid attention to listening most of the time this time though. I’ll give myself a C-.
More かがみの孤城 . 1.3x speed and there was a good chunk where I didn’t need to pause at all.
I think the next track may be the last track I listened to with any kind of active attention, so it should get more interesting after that.
It was fairly easy to understand. The videos aligned really well with my current language knowledge, and the difficulty was around N4.
I really enjoy Speak Japanese Naturally because the videos are so relaxing and calm, but I wish eng subs were optional. I usually completely avoid looking at the english subtitles, but sometimes it’s hard because my brain gets lazy. So I try to watch videos from this channel only once or twice a week.
quick reflections
I really cannot comprehend numbers and months in Japanese yet. If it’s SRS practice, then I take my time to think about it, but usually it’s very difficult for me to understand T_T
I learnt actively this time, and looked up some vocabs I didn’t know + added them to my Bunpro review pile. Excited to see if I can recall the meanings when I review them later today.
Lastly, I think I’ve depended too much on picturing kanji, because now I take more time to recall the meanings when I can only hear the word. Might need to think about this more, and change the pattern. Also hoping that I’ll eventually get used to hearing words as well (thanks to this challenge)
I’m going to jump on this, a couple of days late but that’s irrelevant.
I’ll probably use a combination of beginner youtube videos, podcasts, and maybe some Anime with Japanese/no subs. (I’m currently watching Initial D with English subs but I don’t want to include it as part of the challenge). Listening (and speaking) has been left behind for a while but I think I’m finally at a reasonable level of comprehension where listening to beginner stuff won’t be a massive chore.
I listened to the Nihongo Con Teppei episodes 126-129. The first two episodes were easy to understand because I was familiar with almost all of the words that he used. However, the other two episodes were more difficult so I listened to them twice.
After that I watched two Comprehensible Japanese videos. The first one was a beginner video about karaoke which I didn’t have any problems with. So I tried an intermediate video about Fukuoka’s local specialities next and struggled quite a bit because I didn’t know enough food/cooking related vocab. I had to rely heavily on the pictures and drawings to follow along.
残月記 : 月景石 Ch.4/2,9 [6,13/13]. To end with the reading.
国語文法 [40-41/50] – 助動詞 (3-4/10). Now conjugation table might need review of former clips.
Some random news on YouTube. With some text and focus, I can understand. Particularly, I like ANN.
For me, months and single digit dates are particularly easy, because memory triumphs counting. Four digit years are a big killer. I just usually failed. (May have improved a little with a game – https://langpractice.com/japanese/.)
Today is monday, which means 月曜の朝ミオ time! I promise that I watch non-vtuber things most of the time, but the monday mio streams are one of the things I do watch pretty much every week. I usually just watch the first half, which is where she puts out a weekly prompt (usually food/culture/season related) and people write in responses on twitter. She goes through a bunch of responses and just talks for a while, it’s very chill to just put it on while I’m drinking my coffee or something. Looks like the next one (after todays) isn’t until 4/24 though, so i’ll have to find something else for the next couple mondays
softlyraining’s garden of sounds 
but I am proud to report that I listened! 
This was fun as not everybody understood Japanese, and so the understanding was limited to the occasional katakana words 
But we tried an app (I think Google Translate?) to see what it was able to catch, which was also fun. It correctly captured one or two sentences, but in another one it misheard 怖い and instead caught 可愛い 
Way to go, I guess…
April 2
