20th - Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone chapter 8 & 9, 80 minutes Gackt music.
21st - Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone chapter 10 & 11, 80 minutes Gackt, Rainych and over the moon music.
22nd - Howl’s moving castle
23rd - 1 episode of a Japanese cooking podcast
24th - Over the moon, Hiromi Kawakami’s 神様
25th - Hiromi Kawakami’s 神様, episodes 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 & 16 of Old Enough.
I seem to have taken a step back atm and found that I’m struggling to hear stuff I’ve listened to previously. Like I can’t focus on it correctly or such but I’m still leaving it playing so I can try to listen.
I’ve not done any today yet, think I’ll save that for the last few episodes of Old Enough which is a series on Netflix about Japanese children going on their first errand alone, found this quite interesting as in the UK mist kids are not let out on their own at such a young age never mind allowed to head to the local convenience store equivalent to pick up a few random things or allowed to travel on buses alone or cross busy streets alone. I know the series has people following the child (you see the cameras hidden in carryalls or such) so the kids are still being closely watched even though they think they’re doing it all themselves, but it’s just unheard of here now to see anything like that (kids can barely be trusted not to eat the washing liquid tabs here ) and it’s interesting to see the difference in the culture and the trust that’s given at such a young age.
Thank you for this comment, so far I’ve only seen people comment on how cute and pleasant the show is., when in fact I always feel somewhat uncomfortable when I watch Old Enough. Not because those little kids are made to do all these things, but because I hate how we’re not trusting them to do all that here, even when they’re way older. But it’s not the trust in young children (toddlers even) that surprises me so much - it’s rather the trust in adult strangers to not (intentionally or not) harm the children. I wouldn’t trust people to stop for a child to cross the road (I’ve been nearly run over by a motorbike on the pavement, where it had no business to be, and that was as an adult), or not steal the child’s money, or not see an opportunity to grab the child even (well, only very few specific adults, but do you know who you’ll happen to meet?). And I don’t think any adult in a supermarket would interact normally with a child shopper instead of either ignoring them or calling the police on them. I guess I’m just jealous of a society where children can be free and independent that early.
Yeah, I agree with that. I know when my grandparents were younger (so I’m talking about 80 odd years ago) this sort of thing did happen but without cameras or the safety net of people looking out for the child. Both sets of my grandparents have stories of experiences where they used to go on buses or walk long distances on their own from about age 3 onwards, not for shopping usually but to go to a family member’s house or to go wait on their parent/s coming out of work or pick something up or such.
I’m a little jealous of the fact that in our current society compared to what I’ve seen of Japanese society, we seem to live in a society which is a lot less honourable, less considerate and less has far less respect for our fellow human beings than we used to. A generalisation to be sure, because there are considerate, respectful and honest people in modern UK society, but overall there’s a down trend in those characteristics throughout the general population.
I did 1 hour and 20 minutes of Bite Sized Japanese. I was getting bored (and as I am getting closer and closer to moving to Japan) I figured I should look up things less and less and try for something more fun and harder and so restarted yuyu podcast. Wow he speaks really fast doesn’t he?! I understood the GIST of the first 2 podcasts but then less than 5% of the third.
I listened to Episode 31 of Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners today, and also listened to a JapanesePod101 Core Words vocab building video while I was writing my diary.
I might watch a bit of anime before I head to bed too, but I’m not sure yet.
July 26th
What did I listen to?: Part of a Stray Let’s Play
How much time did I spend listening?: 12 min
This was recommended to me by Youtube after I finished Super Bunny Man, so I thought, cats, why not? (Was someone in this thread talking about this game earlier? I literally can’t remember but I feel like someone somewhere was talking about this game on here) There’s a lot less screaming in this one, and the kitties are cute I only watched part of the video because tbh my concentration is not here rn for reasons I will not burden the listening thread with. I might burden the complaining thread with them though
I started YUYU’s podcast today. I’ve listened to bits here and there over time since I learnt about him but never gave the podcast a try since the beginning. I started it today but apparently he was also doing it with another guy called Kaito back then? I don’t even know how to call it so I’ll just call it Yuusuke & Kaito. Apparently it’s only 15 episodes and then it starts being YUYUの日本語ポッドキャスト. It seems nice, very similar to Teppei’s, they talk about random stuff. It’s very similar in difficulty, perhaps I’d say just a tiny tiny bit above but nothing too noticeable.
Going through a dangerous path to get a doctor? – The doctor probably won’t come back with you.
Anyway, he can already do a 度胸な手術.
I read 真夜中 wrong.
Then, I took a look more at NHK for School on ひょうたんからコトバ part (1 session = 15 minutes); and anime with Language Reactor. Also took a look at news posted above, and in YouTube. I felt like cheating, because I can read with visual cues by picking out vocabularies (and by other pictures). Half Kana’d vocabularies aren’t really problematic either, as long as those vocabularies are known.
Indeed, probably text matching with audio is necessary, but audio alone and audio unrelated to text should give another lesson.
I also played Yakuza 0 and DMC 5, but didn’t really have time, so just watched cinematics to the playable part. Cinematics can’t be paused or rewind, but it didn’t matter much this time, really.
I will probably try particle picking, when focusing more on listening, even if the listening doesn’t make much sense in total. (I might also be able to put Kodansha’s reference into use.)
I watched part of a let’s play and an episode of Tiger & Bunny again today, guess that’s my new pattern It’s nice doing some things that are more pure listening when I can deal with not grasping all the details, but also doing some more complex things with Japanese subtitles. I think it’s a good balance for me
Having a day where everything seems blah. Listened to a bit of various YouTube videos, dabbled in a few TV shows, didn’t really vibe with any of it. Ended up listening to maybe half an hour total. So it goes - some days are just like this, even in English content.
Watched the second of the Japan Foundation’s videos on manga. This was on how manga is made, and I’m sure it was very interesting, but I understood precious little. I’ll need to rewatch with subtitles at some point.
Then I clicked on a video YouTube recommended, where someone was painting a portrait of his cat in watercolours. I was so distracted by his punctuating every couple of words with ね, I didn’t understand all that much, but the cat was cute, and so was the painting.
I’m having so many such days, it’s practically the norm for me. I can’t even count the times I started browsing for something to watch, then realized I had spent more than the duration of a full movie sampling and rejecting stuff one after the other.
I think this one is definitely just a step above Teppei’s podcast which is great for me because I was just looking for something like this. One thing I dislike a lot though is the constant interruptions to play a tune and say the name of the podcast like three or four times per episode, sigh. I hope that changes when I get to the ones where it’s just Yuusuke. But despite that, the conversation seems to be very natural and they use perhaps a wider range of vocabulary and expressions, feels more like an actual podcast. They referred to their advanced students at some point so I suppose they are (or were) teachers of an advanced Japanese course in Mexico, though I wouldn’t say it feels advanced personally. I’m definitely not an advanced learner yet.
I solely clicked on this one because the cover picture was a cute shiba inu.
In it, ワンちゃん the crime busting police dog has to solve two heinous crimes, number one - what length hot dog does Mr. Police-Senpai want?? And how do you measure a hot dog with no measuring device?? with a policebrand eraser of course, but they come in two sizes, iddy-biddy, and BIG. such conundrum
Crime Case #2 - Crazy evil leotard number wizard has stolen all measuring devices so a girl can’t get her feet measured and get new shoes… ワンちゃん time!
I’ve listened to a lot of YUYUの日本語 and don’t think I’ve ever come across this so think it must just be an early ‘I don’t know how to make podcasts!’ thing
I watched episode 10 of Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens with subs during my lunchbreak, and then 2 episodes of Nihongo con Teppei after work.
I also listened to another JapaneseJod101 Core Words video while I was writing my diary this evening.
) and it’s interesting to see the difference in the culture and the trust that’s given at such a young age.
(Was someone in this thread talking about this game earlier? I literally can’t remember but I feel like someone somewhere was talking about this game on here) There’s a lot less screaming in this one, and the kitties are cute 
I only watched part of the video because tbh my concentration is not here rn for reasons I will not burden the listening thread with. I might burden the complaining thread with them though
It’s nice doing some things that are more pure listening when I can deal with not grasping all the details, but also doing some more complex things with Japanese subtitles. I think it’s a good balance for me 
