I guess this is my end of challenge post! Thank you so much to everyone who participated, you all had great resources and it was fun to follow along with what you’ve been listening to. I definitely stole some of your ideas.
As for how I did, it was better than I thought, and actually a lot of fun! When I started the challenge I planned to use JLPT prep and NHK easy news, but after all of your suggestions, I actually found way better stuff that I enjoyed a lot more. Especially in these last few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of watching of japanese Netflix with Japanese subtitles, and it doesn’t feel at all like studying. I think since I’m interested in this stuff, it’ll be a lot easier to keep listening, and maybe one day I’ll be able to turn off the subtitles too lol (I’m not there yet, I’d say 75% of what I’m able to understand is because i can simultaneously read the subtitles) but in any case it feels like progress!
I may do another challenge in the fall, please look out for it in about a month or so. In the mean time, please keep posting here, if you want to!
Not gonna keep up with consecutive listening this month, but I may post every now and then whenever I find cute/fun stuff (at the whim of the YouTube algorithm or if I have withdrawal symptoms from ワンちゃん), and also so @rikaiwisdom doesn’t get lonely in this thread!
My かぐや様は告らせたい S3 is at 1/3 of Ep.7. That’s not my actual amount of exposure, as I watched some of S2, when I don’t want to focus too much. I have watched S1 and S2 before, about 1 year ago, with EN sub; but I can’t remember as much as I thought. However, the thought of missing something from unwatched S3 stopped me from continuing to watch the series. I don’t want to miss some parts, especially when watching the first time.
I found a way to put JP sub on some of my series. [1] Depending on the series, it can be a chore, as retiming might need to be done. Also I cannot find JP sub for some series.
Nonetheless, I can say that I couldn’t study transcript files well, but real-time sub would be no problem. I still feel that studying modes of watching with JP sub and without are a little different. There are pros-cons either way.
So for now, かぐや様は告らせたい now has JP sub, but HUNTER x HUNTER (1999) still doesn’t.
So after about 3 weeks of inconsistency because I had to travel to Japan to start work and trying to settle in, I am finally caught up with my WaniKani reviews and will start to consistently listen again. But I have still been actively inputting through my Japanese Teacher of English during classes and in conversations trying to understand people.
It seems to be bad, or at least inefficient, for learning, to listen to something without understanding much. (Above some threshold, perhaps.) So, I put HUNTER x HUNTER (no sub) on hold for now. Also, I still need to catch up on reading manga version Vol.5. (Well, almost catched up.)
Most obvious thing about learning values would be vocabularies and Kanji…
I have another series to watch with JP sub – yurucamp S1. Comparing with かぐや様は告らせたい S3 (also with JP sub), I need to look up less vocab for the former. Anyway, I hope to finish the series, and Kaguya is at Ep.9 (of 13), and yurucamp is at Ep.3 (of 12); so Kaguya seems like a better choice.
The first episode of Pokemon is about 60% pokemon noises, so that’s pretty easy to understand
I watched Cherry Magic on repeat for the entirety of my recent quarantine, and now I understand about 95%, I’m practically fluent in the language of Cherry Magic. I find myself saying 魔法使い randomly in my dreams lol
Think this is the longest I’ve listened to, an hour’s worth of Japanese talking about the moon (and the weather), but most importantly, the 'mon
Words I picked up easily:
そう、そう、そうですよね、そう、そうそう、満月, そうそう、はい、はい、ピッピ
I think I did understand a bit more than I thought, so that’s good. Plus it was pretty chill and relaxing.
I can’t see the moon here yet, so no moon celebration just yet, but soon the moon will rise and then the dango eating will begin I wish I had dango, but まるいチョコ will have to suffice
Even so, I returned to watching HUNTER x HUNTER (1999) without subs (now at Ep.35). It isn’t exactly impossible, but I need to try my best to listen carefully.
yurucamp S1 Ep.3-4 aren’t particularly difficult with JP subs, so I feel I can truly half-read and half-listen. (i.e. I can feel the difficulty of listening itself, more.)
Kaguya S3 (now at Ep.10) is a little different. I feel it is on hard side (but perhaps not really, if I know enough vocabularies), so I feel I read more than listened. Vocabulary-wise, perhaps https://jpdb.io comes to rescue? [1]
Nonetheless, jpdb doesn’t have a vocabulary list for HUNTER x HUNTER (1999). Also jpdb doesn’t cover manga.
I saw https://koohi.cafe but it doesn’t have enough manga series, it seems.
I rewatched HUNTER x HUNTER (1999) Ep.1-2, tried without sub first; then compare with EN sub… I think it is bad use translated sub as a beginner (but might be OK as an advanced). Also I didn’t miss much by listening alone, but what was difficult to listen and understand, remains difficult to listen and understand…
Maybe because I studied this one without JP sub, I am not sure if I improve from the first time I watched them.
I watched an episode of かぐや様は告らせたい S3 just now. It took almost 5 hours; half because I rewinded a lot to listen carefully; another half is because I took a lot of reaction screenshots (it’s hard to pause just at the right seconds). This series might a good one to rewatch, also with divisible episodes (10-min each); because I remember the contents of both manga and watched anime episodes well, so for fun and I want to capture the joke as fast as natives.
I watched かぐや様は告らせたい S3 to the end. I wasn’t slacking off on looking up, though; just took enough time. Well, I was curious to how anime adaptation would be, and I knew far after that. For the manga, I recently got my hand on Vol.26. It’s close to ideal, although a rough road, I think.
HUNTER x HUNTER (1999) would probably continue to be important for me, as I read the manga beyond what I watched right now (Ep.37), but there are not only occasional differences, but sometimes new parts altogether.
Also, I would have to find another series with JP sub. An obvious one would be probably be Yuru Camp.
I saw a pitch accent trainer website. I can try, but I am not sure if training would be my listening turning point… (Although I believe it should help for speaking, which I rarely do.)
I don’t think a pitch accent site (pretty sure I know the one you’re talking about) would help with parsing words, but something like SuperNative might if you won’t to mix in more focused short-burst type study.
Have you tried it yourself? With only one very general home screen and a sign me up button, I’d hate to give any of my details without knowing what I would be getting in return or what I would be expected to pay (if anything) further down the road.
Edit: I read a little more about it on Reddit and decided to give it a try. Apparently the front page is so bare because the creators are not maintaining it any more, they’re just keeping it running. I tried an exercise where you’re played a very short clip from what I assume to be a broad selection of actual Japanese media, then you see the sentence you heard written down, and you need to fill in one missing word to test your understanding and recall. Looks fun and promising, at least if the difficulty increases, because the first few clips were incredibly easy even for my own limited listening abilities.
Edit2: The difficulty does increase, and I’m loving the variety and the immediate feedback. This is really good for some brief but focused listening practice. Thanks for the recommendation, @pocketcat!
Oh yes, sorry for not clarifying! I used it back in 2020 I think. I ended up preferring making audio cards for Anki, but it was a nice jumping off point for me and I did do several drill-type sessions starting out. I don’t recall ever being prompted for payment.
