🔉 🎙 Listen Every Day Challenge (Summer Edition) 🏖

August 3 and 4 :orange_square:

Yesterday and today I listened to one track each day from かがみの孤城 (~ 20 minutes each) in bed, in a half-asleep state. The parts I was awake for, I understood much better than last time. I suppose it helped that nothing else was distracting my attention. I’m still not entirely clear on what is happening or who is who, but that’s okay. I need to keep reminding myself that I shouldn’t care about that. If some miracle happens (the book is 19 hours long after all) and suddenly what I hear becomes crystal clear, I can decide to relisten to the beginning to fill in the gaps. At this stage, it’s totally not worth it, and I’m not fascinated enough by what I do understand to read the book alongside. I have plenty of other books I can’t wait to read, after all.

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:sound: Listening Room: Date 20220804 :loud_sound:

Day XLIV: イチゴチョコ :strawberry: :chocolate_bar:

ワンちゃん Math Mysteries!

Mr. Police-Senpai has a box of strawberry chocos, there’s supposed to be 15, though something seems suspicious… but counting to fifteen is so difficult! Good job ワンちゃん knows what to do.

And crazy leotard math wizard is back to wreck havoc with numbers and cows. :cow2:

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I watched 30 minutes of Peppa Pig in Japanese (because I am not a child there is so much of a kids show I can stand to watch). I understood a lot of it either through the actual spoken Japanese or through the animation. Have to say though that kids speaking Japanese (or adults pretending to be kids not sure) is the most difficult to understand Japanese yet.

Additionally I started Momiko to Nihongo which has different levels so I could understand some of the podcasts.

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I might need to add the book to my TBR list. It’s interesting that there are some pretty major differences between the book and film (though not necessarily surprising, given what you mentioned). Since I also thought the movie was pretty cheesy, I’d probably enjoy the book more.

Also, thanks for tagging me! I had no idea there was a listening challenge going on. Might have to enter the fray over here, too. :smiley:

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:headphones: :beach_umbrella: softlyraining’s Beach Listens :loud_sound: :desert_island:

Excited to discover that there’s a listening challenge now! I’m a little late to the party, but better late than never, I reckon. :grin: The dates worked out in my favor for August: I spent the first three days working on my translation homework, which involved listening to sections of a film. Today’s listening practice (Aug 4) was another movie, this time for pleasure (37 Seconds on Netflix).

Aug
01 02 03 04 05 06 07
08 09 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31

Going forward, my main listening source will probably be Satori Reader. I’ll also probably go through some posts on here to see what others are listening to. For those who’ve been going the whole summer, keep it up! You’re all doing great!

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August 4!

I did a lot of listening today, but all with english subtitles.
I usually go out for a walk every evening with my husband but he is away at a friend’s wedding for a few days so instead this morning I watched 4 episodes of Old Enough! while I was walking on a treadmill.
Then I spent this evening watching 4 episodes of Terrace House: Boys & Girls in the city with my daughter before she also goes away on a trip with a friends family tomorrow.

I’m hoping to use the next few days of being home alone to get lots of extra listening practise done while I’m lonely and the house is quiet!

(Home Post)

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Home post

LEDC
Week 6

8月4日
Yuusuke & Kaito, ep. 15.


Finished this, then next time onwards it’s just YUYU’s podcast. I wonder if he will mention something about Kaito, this last episode didn’t mention anything and then Yuyu started like two months after they ended this.

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Aug 5, Fri of Week 6 of Summer :beach_umbrella: 2022

Today’s story is お豊虫 (:studio_microphone:).

Story impression

Pretty sure the islands mentioned in this story are 伊豆七島(いずしちとう) and 八丈島(はちじょうじま).

テントウムシダマシ (偽瓢虫) is a long vocabulary, that can probably be broken down into 天道虫🐞 (瓢虫) + ダマシ, where 天道(てんとう) means the Sun. The latter part (ダマシ) comes from (だま)し. [1]


Yesterday, I finished となりの怪物くん series.

Impression

The story is OK, and with romance; if not for wild, eccentric, male MC . Occasionally, I feel that the story isn’t progressing. The ani-songs and illustrations are OK, although I don’t really like the OP song.

Also, the ending was unexpected. [2]

So I will need to find a next series with JP sub.

Also tried watching an episode of Kimi ni Todoke (no sub). Somehow I struggled with this one more than Hunter x Hunter (1999). I generally love sweet stories, but I don’t like Sawako’s hoarse voice .


  1. Wiktionary: (Can this(+) etymology be sourced?) ↩︎

  2. It didn’t really end… ↩︎

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August 4 :blossom: Home Post

I was very focused on new books today (!!) so I just watched part of a let’s play, pretty bare minimum :laughing: it all counts though!

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Listened to some of Sayuri Sayings’ podcasts as I burnt out a bit on Yuyu. She goes slower than him but I tend to like her topics more, and it was a nice, chill listen while I did chores after work.

I also watched another episode of Prince of Legend, and while I stated myself Team 先生 from the trailer, I do now see the appeal of ヤンキー兄弟 :blush:

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August 5 :yellow_square:

Today I watched three NHK グレートネイチャー videos. These are ~5min videos on the wonders of nature around the world. Very interesting and of a good snack size length.

I really liked the word for granite: 花崗岩. Flower hill rock?

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Home post

LEDC
Week 6

8月5日
ゲームなんとか


Started the first episode of this podcast I’ve been subscribed to for a while about video games. The episodes are pretty long, around 1h - 1h30m , and I don’t have much time today so I just tested the waters to see the level. It was alright, not as hard as others I’ve tried before like ゆる言語学ラジオ but still something that I feel can push my limits. It’s also not revolving around language learning like most of the other ones I’ve been listening to and it feels fresh. I don’t know how to express it… you know, even if the podcast is not specifically talking about language learning, I feel like being a podcast for learners conditions the vocabulary or grammar used to some extent because you can’t let go of speech restraints and go wild. It also conditions the topics, and I guess that’s why most of these podcast for learners usually talk about similar “everyday” things. I’m still so grateful for them, don’t get me wrong, and I still need them for sure, but I think I can be honest and say that they’re not usually super exciting to listen to :smiling_face_with_tear: . Not boring either, they can also be fun, just not something that makes you want to binge.

I’m really interested in the topic of video games and it doesn’t seem to follow a thread from beginning to end, since every episode they talk about a different game or a particular aspect of the industry, a company, and so on. I suppose it also contains spoilers so I’ll skip the episodes where they talk about games I want to play and I’d hate spoilers for.

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Ooh, I think I’m going to check that out, thanks! I’ve been wanting to find more podcasts.

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:sound: Listening Room: Date 20220805 :loud_sound:

Day XLV: 思います :printer:

Watched the latest vid of the youtuber I found the other day (the Hokkaido food one), this one was about interviewing for language tests. I didn’t really get much, though I picked up every time they said 思います but then failed to understand that which they were 思いますing… perhaps because it wasn’t about food is the reason I didn’t learn as much this time :thinking:

Anyway, they seem to post videos (in Japanese) regularly on a variety of topics in a ‘learn through listening’ type of thing. The videos are really useful, I’m just not very good at it :melting_face:
Here’s a link to their channel:

Also watched an episode of Pokemon, because I have to satisfy the need for Pokemon, the beast which was in long slumber that has now been reawakened due to the new games :durtle_yellow_rodent:

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August 5th!

3 Episodes of Old Enough! today (with English subs) and 1 episode of Madoka Magica (with Japanese subs).
I also had a lesson with one of my tutors during my lunchbreak today, so lots of listening practise during that too :slight_smile:

(Home Post)

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August 5 :blossom: Home Post

Just a bit more let’s play stuff today! I really haven’t been prioritizing listening a lot lately, but I’m still getting in a little bit every day which is more than I can say for before this challenge so :man_shrugging: hopefully as it gets easier I’ll get more driven to do more, but for now I’ll take having any consistency at all :laughing:

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I had a busy day and didn’t get any listening in until just now. I’m trying not to fall asleep on the couch listening to this

I clicked his video out of plain ol’ curiosity because early on in my attempts to listen to Japanese I would watch his videos since they have hard JP subs which helped, but I was always floundering because he talks so fast and uses a decently wide vocabulary. Even though I’m about ready to fall asleep, I’m pleasantly surprised by how much less effort he takes to understand now. He still talks at too fast of a clip for me to catch everything without the JP hard subs, but I’m following what he’s saying which is a vast improvement from before.

I suppose choosing a video of a man going on and on about his least favorite home electronics probably is contributing to my sleepiness :sleeping:

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August 6 :orange_square:

I decided to watch the whole NHK グレートネイチャー playlist, so I started from the beginning and watched the first 4 videos. They took me to Australia, Colombia and Yellowstone, but more importantly, there was finally one about Japan too: Ishigaki Island in Okinawa.

The videos on Australia and Yellowstone feature some English audio too. It’s funny: I can follow the Japanese reasonably well, but after a short break of English it’s a real struggle to make my ears focus on the Japanese again. And while there are Japanese subtitles for the English audio, I have no hope to focus on them instead of on what I’m hearing. Brains will always choose the path of least resistance, I guess. :sweat_smile:

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Aug 6, Sat of Week 6 of Summer :beach_umbrella: 2022

Today’s story is ものを言う布団 (:studio_microphone:) taken place at 因幡(いなば)(の)国 in 鳥取(とっとり).

Story impression

While it is hard to tell whether the story regarding futon is real, 祓い somehow does work.

So, a vocabulary learnt would be 払い除ける, well, written with another はらい.

I looked up 因幡(の)国 to find the stories of 因幡の白兎 (as suggested by my IME).

I am thinking that there are several stories from like 2 weeks or a month ago, if I re-listen, how much should I understand (without rewinding)? While ghost stories and folktales have their occasions to be listened to, there are already quite some choices.

I watched about 60% of Hunter x Hunter EP.2, probably will finish soon. (But probably longer than expected, as I rewind a lot. Still, there are some vocabularies I can’t pick out, unless I download and look up in JP sub files.)


Yesterday, I listened to a little more of かがみの古城 ([2] and early [3], of May). That’s indeed ahead of my reading. While I don’t think I understood enough, I might understood a little, but not significant different from a few weeks ago. (When I listened to Rickyy’s ghost story, for example.)

I focused on finishing reading JoJo so much that I didn’t listen on any spare, listenable, time, and I finished the series of reading around midnight. That audiobook listening was while exercising, that I can’t read anyway.

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:sound: Listening Room: Date 20220806 :loud_sound:

Day XLVI: ??? :question:

I typed in ピカチュ into YouTube and ピカチャップ happened.
I mean, I’m not disappointed, it’s everything I kinda expected from typing ピカチュ into YouTube, and I understood every word, 100%. :zap:

I should listen to something much more substantial whatyoumean, Pikachu is substantial??

So what’s next to type into YouTube…? Of course, it’s タヌキ
Most videos were just text on the screen, but then I found this: タヌキ :raccoon:

Okay, it’s not a tanuki, it’s a racoon, and it’s in Canada, but it’s all in Japanese and raccoon butt is stuck in a roof? seriously raccoon, how?

Also new difficultly of Japanese difficulty unlocked: having someone speak English and then have someone overdub it in Japanese. That really messed with my brain.

as you can probably tell, I had no idea what to do today, so this happened, but listening is listening I guess
I’ll try and return tomorrow with better みみじゅつ

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