🔉 🎙 Listen Every Day Challenge (Summer Edition) 🏖

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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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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August 6th!

Quite a lot of listening today! Though I had english subs for everything I watched.
I watched 3 more episodes of Old Enough!, and also watched 竜とそばかすの姫, which was incredibly beautifully animated.

I also had a lesson with one of my tutors this morning and we did a lot of conversation practise.

(Home Post)

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LEDC
Week 6

8月6日
ゲームなんとか


Had a hard time focusing on listening today. I started this podcast again, then I was having trouble concentrating and after a bit I decided to stop it and swap to YUYU. Then after a couple minutes I really didn’t want to listen to YUYU today at all, so I went to Teppei… just to do the same thing. Then I went back to ゲームなんとか for a bit more until I called it a day.

Not a good day for listening but overall I must have done like 10 or 15 mins so I’ll take it.

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August 6 :blossom: Home Post

I watched another let’s play today, business as usual. Then I got thinking about how I tried working through some song lyrics a while back and it was a whole ordeal, so I looked at a couple of those now to see how it felt and yeah. Night and day :joy: Definitely confirmation of how much my baseline understanding has improved, so that felt good!

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August 7 :orange_square:

Three more videos from the NHK グレートネイチャー playlist: Philippines, Australia and Peru. I don’t feel very well today so my comprehension was below average, but the images were pretty at least.

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If anyone is looking for some advanced fast listening, or death, I’ve got just what you need!

I love this channel in English. Now they have Japanese! It’s really hard but it feels good to pick out words like 肉 and others.

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Aug 7, Sun of Week 6 of Summer :beach_umbrella: 2022

Today, I watched Iryu Team Medical Dragon (S01 EP01), some medical drama I have watched like 10 years ago.

Regarding having medical skill excellence, and thoughts from my career

Skill, knowledge, as well as awareness and speed, are indeed without doubt a must during emergency time, and also whenever transporting itself is an issue. Nonetheless, even in such a small room or a ward, a single person doesn’t have time to reach to everything. I can’t really choose personnel either. (Even if I can, choosing comes from limited choices.)

Then, there are also urgent aspects and preventive aspects, where biological and physical aspects themselves don’t suffice. Social (familial) and economical (and psychological) play quite a lot of roles as well. At individual level, it is complex enough; but when reaching up to public health level, or the so-called, catchment area/population, it eventually becomes a different game; where we can’t be naive for this. Not to mention, difficult-to-reach portions (not necessarily minorities).

Then comes another issue, how should personnel guard themselves? Misunderstandings, and human limitations, can happen, but not forgiven.


Indeed I watched without sub, but regarding sub, even if it is EN or non-JP, perhaps it isn’t so bad if you can make up with studying to make listening a priority. The opposite, JP sub with non-JP dub, is probably more difficult. Usually, I feel that listening or imagining sounds, is more language like than seeing.

Then, I listened minimally to かがみの孤城, before switching to that vanilla’s YouTube of 2-hours (not in Japanese :sweat_smile:). Having YouTube Premium makes it possible to listen with screen off (on a smartphone).


So, yesterday, I eventually finished Hunter x Hunter EP2. My listening comprehension has gone more blurry at the end… Then, there comes how much I can tolerate. I didn’t time myself, but perhaps as much as a little less than 1 hour, for 10 minutes.

About a vocabulary from yesterday, 払い除ける – it appears that 払う has a secondary meaning of 祓う as well.

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So I was browsing the comments on that video and one person suggested using easier Japanese to attract younger viewers and I also learned the term うぽつです which my dictionary says comes from うp乙(うぷおつ)and is used to express appreciation for uploading the video.

For other listening practice I watched another book review video, but only one of them actually seemed interesting to me this time round:

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:sound: Listening Room: Date 20220807 :loud_sound:

Day XLVII: カメラ :camera:

I watched an NHK school vid, about technology, with cameras and other such things. The age range was a bit higher on this one and I was pretty much completely lost from start to finish.

Best stick to ワンちゃん for the time being.

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August 7th!

Today I watched an Epsode of Shirokuma Cafe (With English Subs) and listened to an episode of Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners.

(Home Post)

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