🔉 🎙 Listen Every Day Challenge (Summer Edition) 🏖

Picture book storytelling in the library, my dance class and then a couple of hours listening (and trying to contribute…) to discussions in Banshu ben (Kansai dialect from the sticks, they are lovely bunch :laughing:)). A language exchange meetup event. Then Yoga。Tuesdays are busy…

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Home post :guitar: July 12th

・Hiiki Biiki podcast episode 148 (continued). Topic: お便り紹介. Length: 20 min.

The hosts read mail from fans. This time about mountain bike and theatre student. A few grammar structures that stood out to me: にあたって and 相まって. The first one is a leech of mine on Bunpro, the second one I learned recently.

They usually do one topic per episode, but seems like the next two episodes will be about Star Wars. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

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July 12th!

Just a little bit of listening today
I watched another vocab building video from JapanesePod101 while writing my daily diary, and watched another episode of Fruits Basket during my lunch hour。 :slight_smile:

(Home Post)

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July 12 :blossom: Home Post

I watched another Cities Skylines chaos video today; this man loves to flood cities with sewage :joy: Still a good balance of being silly and low-pressure while still having a lot that I actually am able to parse. I really need to get to a point where baseline listening doesn’t feel like a whole ordeal but realistically that might be a ways off :laughing: it’s all progress though!

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So yesterday was a rough day at work and I just needed to turn off my brain for a bit. So I binge watched the rest of Old Fashioned Cupcake (it was fun, but nothing noteworthy) also then followed it with several episodes of a truly trash romcom that I’ve already forgotten the name of. It was perfect because I found neither character attractive, the plot was asinine, and I had zero investment in whether or not they got together. 10/10 good for a bad mood.
Today was better at work, but I might binge watch some more just because that ball is rolling and I haven’t done this much listening in awhile.

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Jul 13, Wed of Week 3 of Summer :beach_umbrella: 2022

Today’s story is オオカミとウサギ (:studio_microphone:).

Yeah, this version of YouTube is a little different from Hukumusume’s (but roughly the same).

Honestly, today is a relatively easy reading and listening.

Also, today I started dialogue sound recording; but by speaking alone, I replied to the previous audio segments, or recorded an audio segment to be replied to.

Recording in Audacity

Additionally, I booked an italki tutor for the first time – trial 30 minutes. (I chose someone with some Mandarin Chinese experience, just in case. [1]) Well, my major intent is to be able to write, both in chat and in essay. Speaking in a conversation in a plus, but composing should be in sync with speaking, anyway.


Yesterday, I watched となりの怪物くん EP01 on Netflix. It’s generally good, but speaking is hard to catch sometimes. There is also JP subtitle. The truth is I was looking for shows with JP subtitle that is also the same with JP speaking. (Which is probably not the case for international shows with JP audio and JP sub, that can be somehow different.)

I thought on studying subtitle in advance or afterwards, however. Studying ahead is hard, as well as I don’t want to be spoiled. Studying afterwards is a toil with fun and sometimes audio, removed.

My current understanding is, practically anything written in manga speech clouds, or thinking outside speech clouds, can be spoken (going by Furigana that don’t necessarily match bottom text).


  1. To prevent the case of 日本人の知らない日本語, but not as far as learning some Chinese yet. ↩︎

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Home post

LEDC
Week 3

July 12

ゆる言語学ラジオ, episodes 4 and 5 → 34 min.

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Summary Post

July 12th
What did I listen to?: はじめてのおつかい
How much time did I spend listening?: 4 episodes (37 min)

Ended up watching way more of this than I thought I would, it was a very nice relaxing watch after an extremely meh work day. My brain was like…not cooperating with me all day today, it was a bad brain day. I felt like I understood a decent portion of this, but my understanding was probably greatly helped by the fact that I’d watched it before with English subtitles lol. (I watched without subtitles this time)

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July 13 :yellow_square:

I watched the remaining 3 videos of the 水木しげる 妖怪えほん series. These are fun, short, and simple, I wish there were more available. I didn’t have perfect listening conditions today so I didn’t understand as much as I could have done, but it still went well enough.

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July 13th. Same cafe event as the 12th, slightly different crowd, hard to follow, lots of conversations about Ukraine, Russia, Shinzo Abe and general politics, but I tried.

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:sound: Listening Room: Date 20220713 :loud_sound:

Day XXII: :framed_picture:

Listened to the 6th video of 日本の妖怪, this time about Hokusai and Kuniyoshi!

Yokai and ukiyo-e in one video!
yesyesyes

I will always be sad that Hokusai never got to finish his One Hundred Ghost Stories ukiyo-e series
(though can you really be sad when he has thousands of artwork to his name, it amazes me how much he managed to produce in his lifetime, it takes me forever to make something not even a tenth as good)

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I tried an episode of this podcast after you mentioned it! Had never heard of it. The one titled Overwatch caught my eye (used to play that a lot, arm permitting I’d like to get back into it when 2 comes out…) so I gave that a listen. Turns out it was recorded when the game was very new (and only out in beta I think) and was, primarily, one of the hosts just describing how it works and the characters to the other. Well, it was kinda fun to get a look back like that and recapture some of the feelings around release, interesting to hear bits that have changed now and the like. Difficulty-wise it seemed like a pretty good fit for my listening ability right now.

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My new dog "disappeared a computer cable, so I haven’t been able to get online. But I have been listening to tv Japan for 2-3 hours a day. I’ve learned several new words. Fun stuff!

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Home post :guitar: July 13th

・Hiiki Biiki podcast episode 149. Topic: Star Wars. Length: 45 min.

This episode is almost two hour long, so I’ll continue later. That was fun to listen to, even if it has been who knows how long since I’ve watched Star Wars and can’t really remember anything. Makes me wanna revisit the lego games :eyes: Tiny Redglare’s favorite game on the PS2.


oh! :3 I never expected anyone here to give Hiiki Biiki a try. Host site decided to shut down a few years ago, so I downloaded all the episodes. I’m listening mostly because Kumirei mentioned it. And yeah, the podcast might not be the latest thing on the market, but I hope you enjoy! :durtle_hello:

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July 13th!

Today I listened to Episode 18 of Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners, and also watched 3 Episodes of Fruits Basket (with subs).
I’m pleased by how understandable I’m finding Nihongo con Teppei now. The last time I tried it, a few months ago, I couldn’t follow much of it at all, but now I can basically understand it all as long as I’m fully concentrating on it :slight_smile:

(Home Post)

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Home post

LEDC
Week 3

July 13

ゆる言語学ラジオ, episode 6 → 24 min.
Nihongo con Teppei Z, episode 29 → 12 min.

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I continue binging terrible shows I won’t name.

Got like 3 hours in easy though…

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July 13 :blossom: Home Post

I did a pretty good amount today actually; I watched a couple more videos from the Cities Skylines guy (though one of them wasn’t about Cities Skylines :eyes: imagine that) and I checked out the first episodes of a couple anime on netflix, of which the far more enjoyable one was べるぜバブ :joy: It is chaotic, lots of fun so far! Very silly and just has a pretty wild setup overall, so I’ll probably be watching more when the mood strikes :grin: Language-wise the most difficult aspect so far is that like half the characters are delinquents but I’m so used to aggro anime boy speech at this point that I’m really unfazed lmao. There’s some keigo stuff too but nothing too rough there either. So far so good!

Omg classic, honestly where like 90% of my star wars knowledge comes from :joy:

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I’ve really gotten into Pokemon Journeys, I’m watching an episode or two every day. I love scorbunny in the show (or should I say ヒバにー). I never really watched pokemon as a kid, but I think this is easy enough that I can follow it easily even without understanding every word, and it’s pretty engaging. Ok, off to watch another episode!

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Jul 14, Thu of Week 3 of Summer :beach_umbrella: 2022

Today’s story is 雷さまの病気 (:studio_microphone:).

Kaminari-sama

Actually, there is also a recording on YouTube, is spoken a little differently, but looks unpopular?

The recording is now around 16 min, even the original audio is a little less than 10 minutes. Also, this is the second time recording. (I recorded the first time in the morning, 9 hours ago, then I got busy.)

Story impression

Use this to protect from (かみなり).

【爆笑・めでたし】まんが日本昔ばなし「雷様の病気」(高画質) 8-4 screenshot

I have watched a little more anime – やがて君になる is ending. Also watched a little of かぐや様は告らせたい S3, which works nice as a comedy. (I read the manga and S1-S2 before, but I think comedy parts of the story are better.)

Now, I think watching with JP subtitle is better, but not being in Japan, there are a lot of chance to watch without subtitle anyway.

Also, I thought about pitch a while ago, that I might be able to imagine and emulate with my native language [1] About the notation, I use color codes for now, because I am more sensitive to them than black-and-white. (I avoid non-Japanese scripts, but colors and non-letters are OK.)


Yesterday, I attended a session with another italki tutor for small talk. (Another booking is still there starting next week, maybe to focus on education and assignments?) I think I can somehow listen and talk back? [2] Sometimes my thinking was slow or not there, and sometimes I have to ask for clarifcation; but then, there are obviously hope for the future. Two or three years ago, I went on a tour to Japan, and I can’t practically communicate at all. (Although I was always able to somewhat read.)

I was also given some mangas’ and movies’ recommendations. (And I also revealed my background.)

Obviously, I can’t just attend every day (because money, and I have irregular schedules too); but to test with textbook’s audio question / dialogue prompt. I think the textbook is somehow harder and less encouraging; but I have to try and win somehow.


  1. which is tonal, and somehow I feel more tonal than Mandarin Chinese. Not that I really know Mandarin well enough. ↩︎

  2. I think it is largely about vocabulary size, and commonness, as well as relevance. ↩︎

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