I’ll try & watch Monster when I get a free moment
4 Likes
July 8
| Type | Done today | Progress |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | 27 minutes | 136/1200 minutes |
| Ghibli | My Neighbor Totoro | 1/8 movies |
Started あかね的日本語教室. Started watching My Neighbor Totoro but it’s late now and I’m falling asleep in front of my laptop 
Update: couldn’t sleep so I finished Totoro,
7 Likes
 |
Source | Time | Style |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
フブミオで脱出？！魔眼の大迷宮デート？！ (大神ミオ) | 1:30 | Active |
 |
【ゼルダの伝説】ついにラスト！？終了まじかの伝説 (九龍もも) | 1:00 | Passive |
Finished off the fubumio minecraft stream, some really cool puzzles in that map. A lot of the story language was very 中二病 which they both had a lot of fun with: calling their ability use with 
to compliment mio’s bunny ears, fubuki found a 国士無双 headband, which probably has to be the wotd
8 Likes
I also cannot wait for The Boyfriend hehehehe
5 Likes
07月08日
| Resource | Time | |
|---|---|---|
 |
4989 American Life Podcast | 30min |
 |
ふしぎ駄菓子屋 | 20min |
 |
Mario Let’s Play | 15min |
Getting an hour of listening is kind of tough. I don’t ever feel like listening to more than one 4989 episode, so I want another podcast to listen to. I briefly tried browsing in Japanese for more podcasts aimed at native speakers, but gave up since a lot of the interesting looking ones are definitely too difficult (podcasts talking about history etc). A conversational type podcast could be ok, but I got tired browsing in Japanese and trying to figure out good candidates between all the one billion popular news/history/comedy podcasts. English lists of Japanese podcasts are completely useless, because they all go like this:
- 4989 American Life
- Nihongo con Teppei ! (: (: (:
- Japanese with Shun ! (: (: (:
- Learn Japanese with Noriko ! (: (: (:
If they have any more podcasts aimed at native speakers on the list, it’s a news podcast, and you won’t catch me dead listening to the news. I get enough news in English as it is. So I may just have to choose another learner podcast for now.
Anyways, I listened to episode 204 of 4989 yesterday, and she talked about the differences between makeup styles in Japan and America. She seemed to be saying that in Japan, a ‘natural’ look is more popular, but women wear it every day and rarely go out without makeup. VS in America, women will often go out without makeup, but then when they do wear makeup, it’s very heavy. She didn’t seem to like the heavy makeup look.
Then I finished the first chapter of the fushigi audiobook and started the second. Second was a little more difficult (haven’t listened to it as many times) but I looked up a couple words and was p much following the story.
7 Likes
IT’S HERE!! I might watch some over lunch.
5 Likes
Listened to some Japanese with Shun on my morning run:
“[N4-N3] Japanese Conversation with YUYU - わくわく” (14 mins)
“[Genki 1] L12 Things that you are worried about” (8 mins)
“[N4-N3] Japanese Conversation with YUYU - Money” (14 mins)
“Genki 1 L11 Experience” (9 mins)
Also, The Boyfriend has arrived on Netflix so I might watch an episode over lunch!
6 Likes
Yeah that’s a long time. I’m finding I’m at my max for Japanese time as well, so even my 10 minutes podcast listening is eating into my reading time
7 Likes
For anyone wanting an anime to watch for their listening practice, the beginner anime club is now polling for the next anime:
(as for my own participation in this challenge, I’m catching up on the current anime slowly now MMO launches and weddings are out of the way)
7 Likes
07月09日
| Resource | Time | |
|---|---|---|
|
4989 American Life Podcast | 35 min |
 |
Miku Real Japanese Podcast | 25 min |
|
Mario Let’s Play | 10min |
Whew, fitting in a whole hour made my brain so tired. I tried Miku real japanese podcast again, and I like her voice, but the topics are not very interesting… I’ll probably end up listening to more of this one while I keep searching though.
7 Likes
☆７月９日☆
Listened:
・Japanese With Shun ep 48-54 + Genki L4-6
I actually don’t have much trouble at all understanding this podcast—less than the last time I listened to it before this challenge (whenever that was…). There are some words here and there, and of course numbers, but other than that, I’ve pretty much got it. But I also feel like if I jump up to intermediate, that’ll be too much, though I don’t know any intermediate podcasts anyway.
8 Likes
|
Source | Time | Style |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
あっちぃ～～～！月曜日の朝ミオだよ～！ (大神ミオ) | 0:45 | Active |
|
RTA in Japan 2 - スーパーマリオUSA | 0:30 | Passive |
Watched asa mio, but skipped the news section as usual, put on an RTA vid in bed. Too hot to do anything today so I kinda just slept through the day 
I love that super mario 2 in japan is a different game than super mario 2 in the US. Here we have the japanese “lost levels” and super mario 2, but in japan lost levels is just called 2 and our super mario 2 is called “USA”
Being interested in what you’re watching definitely makes a huuuuuuuuuge difference for me. If I do 2 jlpt listening practice questions I already feel like I wanna be done for the day, but if I sit down to watch someone streaming speedrun attempts and idly chatting, I might be there for hours without realizing it. A lot of the “language learner” oriented content I find feels so dry that even if the topics aren’t test-y, they feel like work for my brain to listen to in a way that like listening to a bunch of voice actors yap for an hour podcast doesn’t.
I’ve also really struggled to find good japanese podcasts on podcast services, though. All of the ‘podcast’ content I’ve really enjoyed has been youtube radio type stuff, not things getting released on spotify/apple music/whatever podcast app
8 Likes
Utaco at 4989 talked about that actuality, her main comment being that medium is just not that popular in Japan.
7 Likes
I did some very minimal listening yesterday, so just got around to finishing 4979 ep 3 now.
I relistened to the gift wrapping part, whch was more comprehensive thanks to @Lisaveeta 's comments thanks!
And then on to her English corner, talking about how hard it is to distinguish r vs l
I wonder if at some point she’ll talk about the pronunciation for Spanish and contrast it. I would have thought the contrast for rr vs r vs ll vs l might make Spanish pronunciation easier than English for a Japanese native, at least for hearing.
8 Likes
Watching Boyfriend right now!
5 Likes
What did you think?
3 Likes
I’ve been enjoying Japanese with Shun; the conversations episodes are a bit more challenging than the Genki lesson episodes, I find.
One other podcast I like is Sakura Tips, which is a slightly higher level than JWS. If you haven’t tried it, you might want to give it a go.
2 Likes
I’ve only seen the first episode so far but am enjoying it
3 Likes
It kind of feels like there aren’t any, which is the issue I’m running into right now trying to find listening material.
Yeah, it’s funny, I couldn’t understand Miku real japanese at all the last time I tried it (which I thiiiink was the fall challenge last year), now however many months later I’ve tried again and it’s totally comprehensible…but…I don’t care to comprehend it. 
Ah, so it’s not just me having trouble finding traditional podcasts! Thanks for the tip. I can definitely listen to the youtube radio type stuff, I’ve actually already listened to like 45 minutes of the one you linked. It’s above my level, I don’t know anything about Bocchi the rock, and I don’t know who these ladies are, but I’d still rather listen to this over learner podcasts. (warning for others checking it out, there’s occasional yelling and dramatic voices in it haha)
7 Likes