I watched two more episode of Hunter x Hunter (1999). Actually, the reason I wanted to rush is… I was spoiled by reading Hunter x Hunter manga Vol.1. (The chapters are a little different, however. The latest EP.6 I watched too.)
So far I can’t get my hands on 1999’s transcript, but it doesn’t matter – I see it as a challenge, and it is doable, although not perfectly. I might read manga volumes to fill the gap later on, but not being a perfect fit is a part of the challenge.
Otherwise, for most other series without JP sub, I can eventually get my hands on transcripts anyway. Other than studying vocabularies, I also plan to mine sentences for specific structures (particles, collocations). Well, at least for now, that should my mind on dry transcripts without immediate audios and images.
I visited YouTube a little. I am pretty sure I can understand Akane-sensei’s speaking pretty well, and there are indeed some interesting videos. Some other YouTubers are also considered.
Just a little bit of listening today - an episode of Nihongo con Teppei and I finished off watching a video that I started watching with my tutor yesterday.
EDIT: Actually I ended up watching 6 episodes of Teasing Master Takagi-san after i posted this, so it was a bigger listening day than I expected in the end!
I’m just inserting this line at the start, having written out this whole comment, because I feel like I sound super discouraged but I don’t really want the tone to be that way? I mean I wish I was doing better and am not entirely happy with my currently ability but I’m fine to keep going. It’s not, like, emotionally bothering me and I’m not blaming myself, it just is. We’re all good. Guess I just don’t want people to feel like I need that much encouraging or something, just venting my thoughts.
Been in kind of a listening slump recently honestly. Still doing it but I don’t feel like I understand nearly enough. Probably need to wrap up the reading I’m doing right now and get back to the audiobooks for focused practice and more confidence, but I do need to somehow learn to understand more natural speech too.
I’m bouncing around, still podcasts here and there, and I kinda gave up on figuring out The Outer Wilds and wanted to see where it headed in let’s play form so I figured why not try a Japanese one? Watching this guy’s but it’s not going particularly great. To be fair to myself, the game naturally has a lot of space vocab and other weirder stuff, and with quite a bit of reading you get the absolutely incomprehensible mach speed mumbled reading from the guy playing. But so often I feel like when I watch Japanese it’s a whole lot of understanding those single utterances (they said やばい! I understand it exactly like people who have studied 0 minutes and watched a Vtuber for like 5 minutes haha) then when a proper fully formed sentence comes out, my brain becomes: . I just don’t have nearly enough words converting from working out the meaning by looking at the kanji for a sec to actually following them in audio form, I think.
I’m also starting on the Azumanga Daioh anime since I’m reading the manga and that’s ok? Certainly better, but there are still gaps, and I already read it so I’m kinda just recognizing what I remember on top of it.
I feel like I half relate to this but there are two extremes. I listen to podcasts and stuff but I don’t feel THAT strongly about any of them, it’s just very nice to have a pure audio thing because I can listen at times when I’m out for a walk or whatever. So they’re there but the reading calls to me so much more. But when it comes to movies I’m super passionate about them, enough that the way you can’t really slowly work through them like reading eats at me in the other direction (I mean, I don’t think I have the patience to constantly pause and work things out). So that’s the opposite problem, I want to understand the movie badly enough that it frustrates me to watch and “ruin” them at this level. Maybe I’m romanticizing the first watch too much, but I’ve always found it pretty meaningfully different from rewatching and it’s just annoying. Listening is so hard
Listened to Momoko to Nihongo. She’s not bad and has the level of each podcast listed.
Cannot wait til I can thoroughly enjoy dramas and movies as those are my loves and podcasts are, while somewhat enjoyable, really just a means to an end.
I forget which days, but I’ve now finished 3 seasons of 本当にあった猟奇的殺人事件 and while I’m generally enjoying the over dramatic radio drama vibe, the second season about the 地下鉄サリン事件 just wasn’t my vibe. I kind of wish I’d skipped listening to the rest of the episodes after not liking the first one because it didn’t get any better. Seasons 1 and 5, though, オンラインチャット洗脳事件 and 秋葉原通り魔事件 were both good listens although, as mentioned, quite dramatically acted. Next season up for me is 認知症母介護殺人事件 seems like it will be a sad one based on the title, but we’ll see.
Today was cleaning day so listened to the whole episode. They talked about a lot of different things that I can’t recall right now but by “volume” they mean the length of video games and the quantity of content in them.
Watched some more let’s plays today! For lack of a better description, I think it was trash enough content that my brain was just able to go along with it with no real fatigue Like not in a bad way, they were fun and I enjoyed them, and it’s not like they were tons easier, just the vibe of it put me in the mindset of it being background that I just get what I get out of, which was most of it So cool I guess!
You know what that’s fair, it’s probably more that the things that I actually would get that invested in I’m not yet capable of interacting with on a level where I can reach that state. Higher barrier to entry I guess So that’s a vote for it changing once it gets easier!
I’ve also been feeling really discouraged with Japanese lately, to the extent that I’ve been on my current wk level for almost 2 weeks and I haven’t done any lessons, and I stopped reading and listening for the past week or so. It’s frustrating that progress goes in fits and starts, but as long as you find something to enjoy about the language, I think you can get over these emotional speed bumps.
For me, I’m not sure what the path forward is, I’ve recently decided I’m going to move away from Japan, which really destroyed my motivation to keep going so hard with my studying. I’m going to need to do some soul searching in the next month or so, I think, but I’m not sure what the future of my studying will look like…
Either way, good luck to us both, learning new languages takes a lot of time and perseverance. I hope we can both get back to some fun things for a while.
NHK school vid, in the science section. It’s only a short video about growing seeds with soil and without soil. I watched it three times to see if I could pick up on more each time, it didn’t really feel any different each time, just the same words recognised and the rest as Japanese mumble noises.
８月１５日
Several 三本塾 and ゆみせんせい grammar videos on YouTube.
Today was grammar day. Didn’t know what I felt like listening and usually grammar videos are relaxing and entertaining for me for some reason. I might start to casually binge 日本語の森 videos soon, I’ve been meaning to study grammar more thoroughly and not so passively. Also wanted to start reading grammar resources again gradually but we’ll see, perhaps Imabi.
I gotta say, as things tend to go, after posting that, I had a pretty good time listening to the さくら通信 podcast yesterday and today! They’re pretty funny at times, when I can follow what they’re talking about.
Oh wow, good luck. I think it’s common to go “hang in there!” and I mean, I’ve certainly got that sentiment for you too, but I think if it becomes a significant enough question it IS worth interrogating and ensuring this is still something you can be passionate about, however healthily continuing it ends up looking. You don’t want continuing Japanese to be a gambler’s fallacy thing if you’re truly falling out with it. But of course, don’t want to drop it and look back sometime later regretting not having the progress that you absolutely WILL make if you stick with it. Seems you kinda know what needs to happen, cause moving away will obviously take away so much use for it, but I hope you still find some other means through which it’s significant to you. All the best to you, nothing makes studying harder than big upending life changes on top of that, too.
Agree with @Daisoujou about not giving into the sunk cost fallacy if it’s something you don’t enjoy. I’ll also say that I took a ten year break between when I first began studying Japanese and when I resumed it ~4.5 years ago. That’s a hard break too, I was not practicing, I’d wholly shelved it. You can absolutely take breaks and come back. Yes, you’ll forget things, but you won’t be starting from zero, and it’s better (imo) to come back to something as if it were an old friend than to bitterly drag it along with you in life like a ball and chain.
Just watched a let’s play today, nothing super notable. In adjacent news though, I have discovered that バディミッションBOND has drama cds? Definitely way above my comfortable straight-up listening level at the moment lmao, but it’s certainly something to look into. I’m also not at all familiar with how drama cds work or where to get them or whatever so if anyone has any insight that’d be cool!
I just google in Japanese, on sites that allow international shipping. Or just plain Google most of the time.
This looks like an extra. But, it’s not unusual for anime, or VN games especially, to have some sort of audio CD drama = it’s worth checking out IF there is extra content made. They tend to be a bit fan-servicey compared to regular “original story” drama CDs (they are extras for the fans of the game, anime etc after all), exploring other sides of the characters.
It’s hard to say about the content in more detail like that, but from game extras with multiple characters, it could be that each different track explore a different character, giving something extra about them in some way - compared to a single story across the entire CD.
Yesterday, I continued to watch 2 more episodes of Hunter x Hunter (EP.7-8), and that pretty much coincides with the first volume of the manga. I pretty much have some fear in my listening ability. Will I be able to progress at all without manga’s (incomplete) hints? Should I stop? What about the temptation? Will the return worth it?
Anyway, today I continued to watch 2 more of Hunter x Hunter (EP.9-10), then read Hunter x Hunter manga Vol.2. Actually, I read the first chapter of the manga a while ago, but today, before finishing EP.10, I got interrupted, so I continued reading the manga before finishing the last anime episode. (And yeah, I am still not satisfied with my understanding.)
Then, I listened to more of かがみの孤城 (上) Ch.1, so finished the chapter with three tracks. Then… I relistened Track 2. Probably will read the written novel later. Having a mirror and a wolf looks interesting, at least.
Then, I read eoame’s Level 60 post. Regarding the advice for listening, it looks interesting, as I am aiming for that. Communicating skills would be nice too, although I might not focus now, unless someone made a Challenge topic, perhaps.
I watched 3 episodes of Teasing Master Takagi-san today.
Its been nice seeing the animated versions of the stories I’ve already read in the manga!
I would probably be able to follow it fairly well without english subs since the stories are already familiar, but my husband has been watching it with me so the english subs are necessary
2022
. I just don’t have nearly enough words converting from working out the meaning by looking at the kanji for a sec to actually following them in audio form, I think.
Like not in a bad way, they were fun and I enjoyed them, and it’s not like they were tons easier, just the vibe of it put me in the mindset of it being background that I just get what I get out of, which was most of it 
So cool I guess!
ten year 
Definitely way above my comfortable straight-up listening level at the moment lmao, but it’s certainly something to look into. I’m also not at all familiar with how drama cds work or where to get them or whatever so if anyone has any insight that’d be cool! 
