🔉 🎙 Listen Every Day Challenge (Summer Edition) 🏖

Japanese Language Listening
543

Jul 29, Fri of Week 5 of Summer :beach_umbrella: 2022

Today’s story is 聞き違い (:studio_microphone:) from 島根県.

Story impression

It’s about the language rather than forgetting.

Nonetheless, everything is easily solved if 愚か者 can solve the nuisance by himself .

Yesterday, I didn’t do much, other than watching those Obey Me!

I was trying to automate converting a passage to a list of vocabularies. [1] Sometimes, most vocabularies are known, but I still can’t listen well enough. Also, I should have focused more on things beneficial to learning. (Also, there are probably already these kind of tools?)

  1. The tool is here, but the real problem was when trying to launch the website. ↩︎

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July 29 :orange_square:

Today I (re)watched half of Paprika on Netflix (45 minutes). The plan is to continue and finish tomorrow, if things don’t get in the way. I had Japanese subtitles on, but didn’t focus on them much (and they were full of unknown vocabulary anyway). I guess I got about 30%, but I sort of remembered the basics, and the crazy visuals were so stunning that I wasn’t too bothered by my lack of complete understanding. In fact I had to stop myself from watching further. Things to do, unfortunately.

Now if only Paranoia Agent also got on Netflix somehow, I’d be overjoyed

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Today I tried an N4 listening test for the first time, and I was surprised that I found it incredibly simple! About 4 months ago I thought N5 was a stretch, but I think I’ve made more progress than I thought. Maybe I should be going for N3, considering listening is my weakest skill. So I’m feeling encouraged, even though listening to natural Japanese is still a challenge!

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:sound: Listening Room: Date 20220729 :loud_sound:

Day XXXVIII: Spelling :wolf:

NHK school vid.

This one was under language and it was common spelling mistakes. I think I understood a lot of this, but then it never feels like I really hear the words being said, just understand from the actions on screen.

Good job wolves are good spellers, and most importantly, no bacon songs.

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Home post

LEDC 月 火 水 木 金 土 日
Week 5

July 29
Yuusuke & Kaito, episodes 5 and 6.

I think I’ve underestimated this podcast a bit, it kinda beat me today. To my defense I’m sleepier than usual but still, I catch myself rewinding quite frequently.

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July 29th!

Just a little bit of listening this evening since I finished work late!
Episodes 34 and 35 of Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners.

I had a class with my tutor at lunchtime though, so lots of listening during that. We talked about lots of things including phone contracts, a cool app I found that identifies flowers and wildlife and Nobel prize winners!

(Home Post)

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Watched a bit of シンゴジラ and…wow they talk fast and there’s so many captions that just flash past me. I’ll have to revisit that later when my listening comprehension is better.

I also watched ~45 min of a pink film that I assume I read a plot summary for and thought was interesting? Or else why would I have it. But no, it was a standard pink film and it was terrible. Very much this:

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I guess on the bright side the dialogue was quite easy to follow.

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Jul 30, Sat of Week 5 of Summer :beach_umbrella: 2022

Today’s story is 鏡の中の親父 (:studio_microphone:).

I am not sure about the actual source of this story, but somewhere around 江戸時代.

I kept being unsure about how to pronounce さて.

Story impression

The story ends happily too.

亭主(ていしゅ) is a new vocabulary for me. Some other words have Kanji, like 不(ぶ)細(さい)工(く) and 女子(おなご).

The vocabulary extractor from yesterday is updated, but mostly only when run locally (development server), to avoid giving too simple vocabularies. Nonetheless, it probably doesn’t help much for simple articles and most dialogues?

Then, I watched 青春ブタ野郎はバニーガール(bunny girl :rabbit2:)先輩の夢を見ない of 2 episodes (no sub), and continued となりの怪物くん of 1 episode (with JP sub). I believe there might be a value to listening without text immediately following along (parallel text), but other than vocabulary-wise, I might have to pass tests, up to the level, first?

Otherwise, the understanding and coherence/continuity are about how much I let pass without immediate understanding.

Thank @Zakarius, I will put ことばドリル under my watching list. (Actually, any 国語 article may apply.)

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July 29 :blossom: Home Post

Not a lot to say on the listening front because I went feral with バディミッションBOND again lmao, just part of a let’s play again. If nothing else, actually doing some listening every day is a definite improvement! It’s becoming more of a routine which is always good :grin:

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July 30 :orange_square:

Finished Paprika. Like yesterday, I didn’t understand all that much, but I got the gist I believe, and I definitely enjoyed it!
Maybe that’s what I should be doing to let go of the anxiety of not understanding what’s going on: rewatch stuff I had watched a long time ago. :smiley:

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Home post :guitar: July 30th

・SKM N2: Did the exercises on page 76-89.

Hi :durtle_hello: Haven’t made any updates since July 14th. I want to finish this textbook before I leave next week so I don’t have to bring it with me. Just a few more pages and then the mock exam left. I can do this :fire:

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July 30th.

I listened to another Core Words video from JapanesePod101 while writing my daily diary, and also listened to episode 36 of Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners. :slight_smile:

I might end up watching some anime later too, but I’m not sure yet!

(Home Post)

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:sound: Listening Room: Date 20220730 :loud_sound:

Day XXXIX: Mushimushi :bug:

Just a short NHK school vid about finding squishy mushi in the woods. I also played a bit of Nioh 2 but I’m not sure if that counts since there isn’t much dialogue and it’s mostly just angry yokai noises :thinking:

Anyway, I watched the mushi vid twice. I picked up more than I thought the first time, and more the second, so progress I guess?

:fire: ！！頑張って！！ :fire:

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Home post

LEDC 月 火 水 木 金 土 日
Week 5

July 30
Yuusuke & Kaito, episodes 7, 8 and 9.

Much better today. I’m more rested and probably the topics were a bit more relaxed this time. I really like the relationship of these two, I’m going to miss Kaito D: I’m also curious about why they didn’t keep doing it together, hopefully they mention something in the last episode or YUYU’s first episode.

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Summary Post

July 30th
What did I listen to?: Obey Me! post-recording interview
How much time did I spend listening?: about 14 min because I watched it twice

I’m back, ish. I skipped the last two days in both challenges, sort of on purpose, because I was just too busy trying to meet some work deadlines (I worked over 12 hours both yesterday and Thursday :sweat_smile: I finished the thing though, so that’s good). I just needed to put all my focus on that without worrying about keeping up with everything else, so I did. The thing that worries me the most about breaking any streak is not picking the thing back up again, so I’m happy I was able to do that today without too much difficulty!

I decided to get back into listening with more Obey Me! content :joy: I realized about halfway through my first watch-through that I wasn’t really focusing on the words properly, I was too distracted by the squishy sheep plushies and the generally adorable VAs you can hear hints of their character voices in their normal voices sometimes and I got distracted listening for that, is that a weird thing to be distracted by xD So I watched it through a second time and tried to focus more on catching the words (with some limited success - I still couldn’t really tell you much about what they said, though, unfortunately).

My favorite moments:

  • The way Satan’s VA hugs the sheep is just :pleading_face: I don’t know why he chose to do the interview in like the weirdest possible position though LMAO, like it does not look comfortable to sit and talk like that
  • Ayme-san going to sleep on a bench at the end of his interview (while inexplicably NOT using the squishy sheep as a pillow) I guess it might be rude to use MC as a pillow though LMAO if you’re not familiar with the game, MC is represented by a little sheep, so that’s why the sheep plushies are there
  • Baby Satoshi ft. Singing Squishy Sheep he put the headphones on the sheep, it’s so cute, I cannot
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It’s July 31, so here’s a small recap of my month. (I had not been updating my summary post with regularity, oooooops)

So I didn’t do as well this month as I wanted to, I did focused listening on 16 days. I don’t count short conversations that I have, or the ambient listening I do every day in my study journal, so in truth I have daily listening exposure, but most of the time it passes over my head like white noise. I count it as “listening” practice if it’s longer than 15 minutes at full attention.

I was sick in the first week of July, and the second to last week work was super hectic, so I just crashed when I got home, and that explains the low listening count, but this last week has been good, I’ve actually been able to listen every day. Hopefully I can keep that streak going into August.

In any case, even though I haven’t succeeded in the challenge so far, this thread has been great for recommendations, I’m really enjoying seeing what everyone is listening to. So thanks! 頑張ろう!

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Jul 31, Sun of Week 5 of Summer :beach_umbrella: 2022

Today’s story is 座敷童 (:studio_microphone:).

I have heard about these beings for ages. Also, I really want to understand narrator (Rickyy)'s voice.

Story impression

Wait! I still feel I don’t know enough about the beings, only know some of their powers.

Also, the vocabularies here, and Kanji compounds without supplied reading, are a little dense for me.

Yesterday, I watched Dr. Stone, which also has JP sub. I think some vocabularies are relatively difficult and I don’t know yet; but I can somewhat understand the story.

Regarding the vocabularies, there are going to be harder ones, that are simpler in meaning; and easier ones that are more complex in meaning. The latter are scary to study, while the former simply need some dedication to learn.

Monthly recap and way forward

Honestly, I can’t say that I have improved listening-wise for last 2 months of Listening Challenge (counting that 1 month of planning phase). More of manifestation of my reading studies and Reading Challenge earlier; and also of my vocabulary collection and some grammar points.

Certainly, if I know more vocabularies, I probably can tolerate more difficult vocabularies’ listening.

Perhaps listening is more of a linear comprehension skill, but for reading, I can always look a little ahead to see the particles and the whole sentences.

I think read-aloud with recording is good, and I would continue to do so everyday for the next month as well. Less than ideally, it doesn’t have to aloud, but then I can’t ensure I vocalize every words. Also, there won’t be a recording to listen and re-consider.

Engaging in a conversation, when done well, is helpful skill to have. It hinges on both listening reception and speaking production skills; but certainly, if not understood, we can ask back. (But then, I didn’t reserve any more italki classes yet. Also, haven’t found any speaking pals yet.)

Writing skills may receive some help from speaking skills as well.

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July 30 :blossom: Home Post

Just a bit more let’s play listening today! I feel like my listening stamina is getting better so that’s something :+1: Onward and upward!

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I’m low brain energy and tried to watch a few things that didn’t stick. Landing on watching a cooking video. It looked very tasty, but my partner hates eggplant so I’d have to make a small batch or hope it keeps as left overs.

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Looks good but too much work for me! If I’m doing eggplant, I’d either bake it or pan fry it until it’s soft and gets a little color then let it marinate in mentsuyu overnight and serve it as a side with a meal.

Or I’ll do the same first step, then make a garlic butter sauce to spread on top. Then bake some more and finish with a spread of Sriacha for a nice snack.

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