Didn’t listen to anything yesterday. I mean, I did, I always watch something everyday, either a stream or a video or whatever, but I didn’t actively listen to podcasts or something similar that was worth logging for the challenge, so “I didn’t do listening” yesterday . I guess for me there’s a small difference in focus, perhaps? I’m not in the same frame of mind when I randomly open a video or a stream that I’m not really trying to use as active study (meaning I don’t give it my complete, full attention), in comparison to when I do open something with that intention. The things I listen to or watch when I’m in that second mode is what I usually log in this thread, and “ignore” the first. In the end both are listening, though.
I watched 4 episodes of " トモちゃんは女の子！" yesterday and I can only understand 20% so that’s frustrating. I also watched Charlie and the Chocolate factory in Japanese yesterday as well since I have watched it in English a few years ago.
Not sure how I feel about this show. One minute she’s strong when she doesn’t necessarily have to be, but the two times that she’s being sexually harassed, she froze (although I guess it could happen it’s annoying that the guy had to save her those two important times).
Day 17! This time you get something other than Splatoon, and I promise it’s great. @pocketcat shared this series of videos on anatomy, taught by a cat, and they’re adorable. Highly recommended.
Watched Transformers in Japanese. Of course, my understanding of the spoken Japanese is less than 10% but since I have watched this twice or so I knew what was happening and I rewatched the last 30 minutes in English before completing the Japanese.
Mercury and the woodman (The Honest Woodcutter)
I only know this story thanks to Silent Hill (and then it helped me solve a puzzle in Zelda), so thank you videogames for teaching us about the classics.
Another episode of Terrace House today. My husband is away from home this week, so most of this weeks listening practise will be Terrace House with my daughter while we have a good opportunity to watch some trash TV.
Learn Japanese with Noriko 16 (~7 min)
ことのは日本語の会話 3 (10 min)
7月19日 (水)
I listened to:
Learn Japanese with Noriko 17-19 (~20 min I think)
ことのは日本語の会話 6 (~6 min)
Did a mock 聴解 (listening) exam for the N3 (~40 min-1h)
I was quite tired yesterday and didn’t even have the energy to update. I was planning to do the mock exam yesterday, but did it today. It’s supposed to take 40 min, but perhaps since every question was separated in individual files, it took me almost an hour. I think it went fine, but I’ll check my answers once I’m done with all the exams parts.
Places I’ve lived in
The topic included the names of some Japanese provinces, which at fist filled me with dread but they didn’t end up being all that important.
Bathtime
Certainly an interesting topic, as I couldn’t fathom bathing every day. It’s boring and too much effort. I guess in Japan people practice more mindfulness?
Only 9 episodes of Tanaka radio are out right now (they update very sparsely), which is sad since I was really enjoying this series. However, I really felt a difficulty spike in this episode and struggled with following what was going on (the overall theme was anxieties, career problems, etc., which was maybe also vocabulary I’m not used to). ことのは日本語 ended up being easier to follow, even if the episode I heard was rated N3~N2 (the theme was everyday school life, after school, commuting etc, which is also easier I guess).
Day 20! Haven’t posted in a bit through combined busyness and laziness, but I’m listening plenty daily.
Got the opportunity to walk and listen to a podcast which I haven’t in quite a while (combination of illness fatigue and it being so hot out), so I gave さくら通信 another go. To be fair, it was still fairly hot and I think sapped my energy quickly, heh. I’m in a weird place with it – I definitely understand more than I used to; a lot less is full gibberish. Like, right now I think I could say that natural conversation speeds are not really an issue for me. One of the bigger issues, as always, is picking up words I can’t recognize by sound. For example, I got hung up on 心境 which they used a lot. In writing I’d zoom past it no problem, but しんきょう feels like you slammed together the most common sounds and it could be anything, haha. I was thinking about religion so at least I was onto a しんきょう, just not the right one.
I think my other issue is just specific to this podcast but with the haziness of missed words/phrases and the way this podcast is kind of ridiculous 雑談, the big picture gets hard for me to follow. I can feel like I’m picking up what a lot of sentences say and still wonder a little “how did we get here?” and “what exactly are they talking about by now?” A few jokes landed but there was some wordplay and other stuff that felt very culturally specific that I was unsure on too. I feel like I can listen to this podcast, understand a lot if not the majority of the sentences spoken, then take off the headphones and wonder what any of that was and if I understand anything at all, haha. It’s annoying but I guess it’s still progress compared to where I used to be, and this isn’t the sort of listening I’ve been practicing in quite a while.
Terrace House again tonight. I definitely wouldn’t be able to follow what was happening without support from subtitles, but its interesting to see how much I do understand. Its still long sentences that are tripping me up.
７月１７日
. I guess for me there’s a small difference in focus, perhaps? I’m not in the same frame of mind when I randomly open a video or a stream that I’m not really trying to use as active study (meaning I don’t give it my complete, full attention), in comparison to when I do open something with that intention. The things I listen to or watch when I’m in that second mode is what I usually log in this thread, and “ignore” the first. In the end both are listening, though.
: Back to my 
Comprehensible Japanese
