🔉 🎙 Listen Every Day Challenge (Summer Edition) 🏖

Japanese Language Listening
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July 9 :orange_square:

I watched a 48 minute documentary episode on big cats on Netflix today. This is my trick in order to be able to share the TV and still practice my Japanese: I choose something everyone is interested in watching, select Japanese audio and turn on English subtitles. I need to watch while blocking the lower part of the screen from my vision, but it’s a good enough compromise for everyone involved. :wink:
I couldn’t maintain fully active attention for 48 minutes, but the times I double checked my understanding with those reading the subtitles, I seemed to have understood roughly correctly most of the time. Some parts I didn’t get at all of course. Still, cats are always interesting, big or small. :cat2:

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July 9 :blossom: Home Post

I’ve noticed I’m mostly doing listening under the guise of it being kind of a brain break from more intensive reading which probably isn’t the best for improving my listening skills themselves, but honestly? I think I’m okay with that for now; reading is definitely where I’m doing the vast majority of my actual learning so listening just being a little bonus thrown in to test my abilities isn’t so bad. It’s more than I was doing with listening before this challenge anyway :joy: (plus most of the stuff I’ve read has had voice acting so it’s not like I’m lacking in hearing Japanese :man_shrugging:)

That all said, my listening clearly hasn’t been very intensive :laughing: Today I just watched that Cities Skylines video (thank you @Daisoujou!) and that was a great time, what a nightmare of a city lmao. Like always I definitely didn’t get everything, but I got more than I really expected! Sometimes my brain vocabulary related to city planning, who knew :joy: I certainly got enough for it to be entertaining so that was cool!

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July 9th!

I did quite a bit of listening this evening.
First I listened to Episode 14 of Nihongo con Teppei (Beginners). I had to listen to it a few times to fully understand it, but I got there in the end.
Then I watched 4 episodes of Fruits Basket (with subs).

I also listened to a JapanesePod101 vocab building video as a bit of semi-passive listening while I was writing my daily diary.

(Home Post)

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Home post

LEDC 月 火 水 木 金 土 日
Week 2

July 9

Nihongo con Teppei Z: episodes 22, 23 and 24 → 39 min.

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Not settled on a new audiobook yet, so today I listened to an episode of the そうだ！ガイにカミングアウト podcast. What I did get was fun (it’s an advice podcast hosted by two gay guys) but I definitely didn’t get all of it - there were some parts where the hosts talked very fast (for me at least), and some other sections where they were doing some bits and putting on voices which I also found hard. I remember feeling similarly in the past about a lot of things I can listen to more comfortably now so might be a good one to test myself out with more regularly!

By looking at the twitter feed for this podcast I also found Not Straight! 〜クィアな2人の井戸端会議〜 which also seems worth a shot! Will be trying that one out too - must listen to all the queer podcast content! :headphones:

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Jul 10, Sun of Week 2 of Summer :beach_umbrella: 2022

Today’s story is タヌキと彦一 (:studio_microphone:).

Yeah, the same old 彦一 (Hikoichi) from another day.

Story impression

It’s indeed always the best to end the 仕返し relationship, and establish peace and order.

Also later on, I have a plan to go to Kinokuniya bookstore, and get that shadowing book (which interestingly has Vietnamese on the cover) and probably the sentence structure disambiguation book that I have seen last week. (Along the travel, I will get a chance to listen to YouTube on mobile, without looking at the screen.)

I probably will post the weekly summary later.

Yesterday, I listened to The Bite size Japanese Podcast, that お酒 one; but I guess understanding depends on having enough focus too. And I listened twice (repeat).

Also tested Onomappu (on PC) – this one, actually I called my male friend KAWAII all of a sudden in Japanese | 突然日本の男友達にかわいいって言ってみた - YouTube. This guy is interesting, so I took note of more videos (tested listening without looking too [e.g. minimize], then looking with subtitle off). [1]

There is also this funny one – - YouTube (and I think トリビア is 雑学).

I read up a little on pitch accent. I feel that, the first and foremost goal for me is to understand Japanese, regardless of the dialect; so at least I should be able to hear pitch as far as it helps.

Regarding the read-aloud and dialogue, it’s probably the best if I copy and adapt someone else’s speech, so I will need to be able to recognize people speech’s details. (Consciously is quite surefire, unconsciously if it must, but with varying results.)

I feel that a goal of background listening, is to decrease the effort required to understand the passage; but if I can’t understand the passage even with some effort, then why?..

  1. ↩︎
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Today was quite busy so I only listened to one chapter of 殺人ライセンス. I only have 2.5 hours left but tomorrow I’m going on a hike so it remains to be seen if I’ll have energy for anything after or just flump into bed after showering :joy:
Spoilers:

Not much development on the crime front, but there was drama about who-likes-who among the high school students and Kyuu is feeling overwhelmed by his involvement in the whole thing.

:smiling_face_with_three_hearts: I’m so glad!

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July 10 :yellow_square:

Today I started my day with this Japan Foundation video on the amazingly intricate works of art that are Netsuke. I know I’d be terrified to lose my netsuke much more than the pouch it’s supposed to secure. How could people just casually wear them around their belts and go about their business?

Then I rewatched the first three of the Yokai series with English subtitles. I found I could quickly glance at the subtitle to get the gist, then still pay attention to the Japanese narration, knowing what to expect. I had missed some cool stuff on my first listen, most notably a certain yokai enjoying a recent surge of popularity because of Covid-19. It’s amazing to see yokai still being relevant today!

image
あまびえ！

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:sound: Listening Room: Date 20220710 :loud_sound:

Day XIX: :egg:

Watched the second video of the awesome yokai series: 日本の妖怪

My listening needs to get better, and get better quickly, so I can keep up with all the great videos that you all keeping sharing!

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Home post :guitar: July 10th

・SKM N2: Did the exercises on page 62-75.

This textbook is only 94 pages long + 8 pages of 模擬試験, I thought it was longer than that :flushed:

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Finally (after having been busy for a multitude of reasons) I’ve managed to set up my home post for this challenge!

What happened so far:

  • I had a Japanese lesson on the 1st
  • Unfortunately I did not listen to anything on the 2nd
  • I sat JLPT (with 50 min. of listening) on the 3rd
  • I listened to Kiki’s Delivery Service on the 4th - 7th (chapters 1 - 5)
  • I spent three days (almost 24/7) with Japanese friends on the 8th - 10th

From tomorrow, I will continue with Kiki and/or start listening to some of the videos that y’all recommended - Youkai and animals sound super interesting and I’m looking forward to them!

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July 10 :blossom: Home Post

I did a chaotic thing again and saw the first episode of よふかしのうた was on netflix which sounded cool, and I like a song called that (which is the ending song, go figure) and since reading the description felt easy I decided to try it without subtitles and… it went pretty well! I understood pretty much everything, even goofs :grin: It has such an interesting vibe, and the aesthetics of the animation and cinematography and everything are really cool. So yeah I’ll probably keep an eye out for the next episode and see how that goes!

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Home post

LEDC 月 火 水 木 金 土 日
Week 2
:confetti_ball: 1 0 0 % :confetti_ball:

July 10

Nihongo con Teppei Z: episodes 25, 26, 27 and 28 → 57 min.

:tada: Week 2 completed :tada:

Work done:

Podcasts
    Nihongo con Teppei Z: 19 episodes -> 4h 28 min.


Total listening time: 4h 28 min.

This week has been exclusively podcasts. As much as I like Teppei’s, I think I need to start mixing some others in between to avoid monotony, so will most likely do that next week. I’m sure I’ll find something to watch in the form of video too, perhaps some gameplays of something. We’ll see!

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June 10th!

I listened to Episode 15 of Nihongo con Teppei today and understood just about all of it though I had to rewind and re-listen to a few bits.
I also watched 4 episodes of Fruits Basket with subs.

(Home Post)

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Summary Post

July 10th
What did I listen to?: The Cities:Skyline video that @Daisoujou linked
How much time did I spend listening?: 20 min

This was thoroughly entertaining :joy: I do enjoy this type of content sometimes, it reminds me of some of the Sims Let’s Plays I’ve watched in English. I died at the explanation of the route to the hospital that involved literally all the methods of transportation :joy: Also learned the word 飛行船, which I correctly inferred was something related to an airplane based on the sound of the word.

It occurred to me today that I should maybe be making more of an effort to understand the sentences I don’t fully comprehend, like replaying them or pausing to read the captions or something, but I kind of just let them go most of the time. I’m definitely wayyyy less intensive in my listening than I am in my reading, where I look up pretty much everything. I guess it feels like trying to do that would be fighting a losing battle lol, spoken Japanese just goes by so fast sometimes :face_with_spiral_eyes: Like to the point where it feels like I can’t/don’t even comprehend all of the sounds in real time sometimes, I just catch the ones I can and try to piece the rest together from what I catch.

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Jul 11, Mon of Week 3 of Summer :beach_umbrella: 2022

Today’s story is 二つ目のお化け (:studio_microphone:).

Loudness is a little low, but with a PC speaker, I can make it much better. Would be more limited if for laptop, even with my not-so-powerful bluetooth speaker.

Story impression

So, it can happen. Kidnap 'er got kidnap 'd.

I might start listening to something that is easier to repeat later on.

Also today, I found a Japanese song to be on Spotify (and I don’t think it can be on YouTube – will be removed by the company anyway); and of course it’s not on Podbean. However, I don’t find that Spotify can change regions. I don’t want to listen to my native language or English that much.

About the talking in another post, I would turn on JP subtitle, while also consume some other materials that don’t have subtitle. Then, I don’t think I can stop myself from avoiding the screen while watching subtitled contents.

Also, even with listening, I plan to resume studying Kanji and vocabularies (although some of them would come from purely reading).

I moved my weekly plan to my personal topic.

Yesterday, I listened to Akane-sensei, YUYU, and their guests, along the trip to Kinokuniya bookstore. [1] Then, sometimes I looked at the screen, sometimes I didn’t, sometimes I had to rewind.

Also, I had to stop listening on choosing books, and well as, for a while after trying to find the location of the new Kinokuniya [2] – there was too much stress.

  1. ↩︎

  2. There was three Kinokunikya’s in Bangkok. Two of them are within walkable distance from each other (but in different shopping malls). The third needs electric train to be travelled to. I haven’t been to the second Kunokuniya before. ↩︎

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Pretty tired today so watched the first episode of a romcom on Viki thinking it’d be easier than my murder book. Wrong, haha. Maybe it’s just my tired brain but I felt like I missed a ton of sentences, although I did get the gist of everything. Will probably make sense with sleep and a rewatch. Old Fashioned Cupcake for anyone interested, BL, older couple, 29yo and 39yo. Seems to be on the adorable side. I have low expectations I will finish it (I’m really bad at finishing romcoms, I just get bored) but it seems fun for now.

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july 10 :sunflower: home post

Started off this morning with a couple episodes of Nihongo con Teppei. My strategy so far with this listening challenge has been to only listen to each episode once (unless I get distracted of course, then I relisten). If I understand then I understand, if I don’t I don’t. So far it’s worked well, I usually understand anywhere from about 60% to 80% I think?

Then just now I listened to a few minutes of Bite Size Japanese, but I found myself reading the subtitles instead of really listening. Reading subtitles is helpful when listening, but right now I really want to strengthen my ability to understand without subtitles, so for now I think I’m going to focus on Nihongo con Teppei and Comprehensible Japanese since I can follow along with those better without subs.

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I’ve been terrible at updating here, but I started a new series on Netflix called モノノ怪 (モノノけ) and it’s really good! I don’t understand everything of course, but the art style is really interesting, and the stories have been really trippy so far, 日本的ね. They speak slowly, but they use a lot of vocab I don’t know. But, if anyone’s interested check it out! This is the trailer:

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July 11 :yellow_square: (:green_square: at times)

This morning I watched the first four videos in this playlist:

Yes, they’re about Yokai again! They are very short videos, in each of which three or so yokai are presented, by animating pictures drawn by Mizuki Shigeru (mangaka of ゲゲゲの鬼太郎 and all-around yokai expert). Lovely graphics and very easy language. There were parts where I surprisingly caught absolutely everything!

This looks really cool. But once again Netflix disappoints me by not making it available in my region… :slightly_frowning_face:

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