🔉 🎙 Listen Every Day Challenge (Summer Edition) 🏖

Jun 19, Sun :cherry_blossom: calendar post

Week 12 of pre-Summer 2022’s summary

  • I watched 2 episodes of Death Note, and 2 episodes of Samurai Champloo; but even with poor listening, a lot of focus is needed. (I still insist that not turning on subtitle is a good idea. Though, it might also be a better idea to learn vocabularies, and listen / relisten.)
    • I also watched half of SPY x FAMILY, as the (manga reading) club has already started. However, even with vocabularies already carefully learnt, it is still possibly to not hear clearly.
  • I did watch some news on YouTube; but not to completion to count.
  • 三本塾 (YouTube) is also considered, as it appears that I can listen to it well.
  • I subscribed (via Android app, and Google Play’s payment) to 聞き放題 on Audiobook.jp today (this day, Sunday). Some are easier to listen than others; while some are more difficult that I am not sure if I am good enough to worth listening at all.
    • Of course, many aren’t included in 聞き放題 at all. This is in contrast to Bookwalker, where I decided not to subscribe to 読み放題 (at least not yet).
    • From Japan Foundation’s list, I started listening to Individual Projection.

In any case, I am aiming for listening that really counts, and I have (yearly) goals that can fail, to aim for.

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NihongoLearner19 Home Post

Jul
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04 05 06 07 08 09 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Aug
01 02 03 04 05 06 07
08 09 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31

Goals

I really want to work on my listening, because while my reading is quite good (N3/N2, have read 3 light novels), my listening is more, ummm, close to N4. Thus, I’d like to challenge myself to watch an episode of 半分、青い every day without any subtitles. Also possibly another drama or anime depending on time/inclination. I want to work on my listening in my other languages as well, because it, too, sucks.

Japanese: Watch 1 episode of 『半分、青い』 every day without subtitles. (44/62 days)
French: Watch an episode of Chez le Loud without subtitles or listen to Le Radio Journal (43/62 days)
Spanish: Ver un video de YouTube (la cocina, los idiomas) (45/62 days)
Mandarin: Listen to an episode of a story from Little Fox Chinese (once without subtitles, once with). (45/62 days)

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The last few days I haven’t listened as much as my goal, but I spent about 6 hours yesterday with some Japanese people and that included quite a bit of conversation, so I’ve decided to count it. We’ll see if I can get back onto a listening schedule, after last week was so stupid busy!

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I rewatched an episode of 少女革命ウテナ today to see if I could rate it for Natively but it’s honestly hard to objectively rate a show that:

  1. I watched in middle school (subbed at the time)
    and
  2. I rewatched in 2020 or 2021 when getting into subless TV shows
    Like are these words about swords and castles and stuff hard? Are the title cards with kanji hard? The shadow girls are still a pain to understand, but general dialogue is pretty easy…except for when it veers off into madness. Because such is the nature of that show :joy:

I also listened to this “podcast” by Yuyu because I was looking for shadowing material that was at a reasonable speed for me. Ideally I’ll find a woman I like to shadow some day, but so far all either talk too fast (or too slow), or talk in cutesy youtuber ways I have no desire to emulate. Recommendations welcome. This seemed gender neutral enough though, so I figured it’d work as really I’ve just been stressing lately when speaking and I remember shadowing helped words flow more naturally back when I actually bothered to do it regularly.
I think this podcast would probably be doable for a pretty wide range of learners fwiw, so feel free to check it and see if it might work for you.

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Yes, Yuyu is a good one, I think.

Maybe you already tried them, but perhaps Japanese with Noriko or Let’s learn Japanese through small talk.

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Listening and Kanji really improves other aspect, such as reading. I have not done an online class in about 2 months because finances but have been listening a lot and now at level 10 of wanikani. I realized yesterday when I was doing my N5 grammar with my online tutor that my reading of the practice scripts were much smoother/easier and my pronunciation was better…and then my tutor actually commented on this. (although he is Japanese he has a lot of international experience and thus compliments me only when it is actually warranted and not needlessly). SO yay!!! Let’s keep going guys.

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What a nice thing to hear from your teacher!

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Forgot to post in this thread. During the last 4 days I didn’t do as much listening as I hoped for, but I still listened to episodes 311 – 371 and also relistened to some episodes on my phone.

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Noriko talks a bit too “teaching Japanese” style :sweat_smile: at least the sample I tried. The small talk women talk in a much more natural way, though, albeit with some English mixed in, so they might be promising, thank you! I’m not super into podcasts (even in English) but I think for shadowing it might still be a good option.

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Jun 21, Tue of Week 13 of pre-Summer :cherry_blossom: 2022’s planning

Now, I have found audio tracks (on Audiobook.jp) with parellel text (on Bookwalker), although there might be more to be found in YouTube.

  • Committed
    • 2 episodes of Death Note (EP.6-7)
      • For the reference, 7 is about that (おんな)
    • 2 general Japanese YouTube (or other video/audio services), probably news, podcast, or language itself
  • Try to commit
    • SPY x FAMILY episode 1
      • I have listened to half of the episode just a few days ago, to the same point of reading in book club.
      • I don’t want to watch ahead, if I don’t know vocabularies, however. So, I avoid watching further than reading. Considering the current proper reading speed. That would still be within the end of episode 1.
    • 3 episodes of Samurai Champloo (EP.5-7) [1] I give up.
      • Truthfully, I want to avoid rushing as well. I would just put this in lower priority, nonetheless.
    • 1 episode of やがて君になる (EP.3)
      • Actually, it’s not that hard. It’s doable, once I have less priority queue.
    • 20-min of Audiobook.jp listening Not for now.
      • I have bought 聞き放題 after all.
      • Actually, I have already listened to around 10 minutes, but rewinded many times; before I decided to get the text on Bookwalker as well.
  • Considered
    • Black Jack OVA (1993)
    • キノの旅
  • Additional
    • 進撃の巨人 S01 EP.1

Listening

:cherry_blossom:
第13週目 20 :ear: 21 :headphones: 22 :headphones: 23 :headphones: 24 :headphones: 25 :ear: 26 :headphones:

:ear: ≧10 minutes; :headphones: ≧30 minutes

Recording (pronunciation / reading aloud)

:cherry_blossom:
第13週目 20 ・ 21 ・ 22 ・ 23 [2] 24 [3] 25 [4] 26 [5]

  1. Actually, the club is now on to 8-10, but I am not exactly sure that I will be able to catch up. ↩︎

  2. お月さまに化けたタヌキ

    ↩︎
  3. じょうるり半七

    ↩︎
  4. 十七毛ネコ

    ↩︎
  5. 頭のいいヒツジ

    ↩︎
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How do you feel about there being multiple (usually 2) hosts? If that’s okay then I have a bunch of ones I listen to that might be worth a shot (though they are generally all games/anime/VN related so might not be of interest). Otherwise…maybe 4989 American life? It isn’t isn’t specifically learning focused (more of a diary type thing).

One thing that I have tried that has helped me find podcasts outside of the learning space is just to search by the name of games, shows etc that I’d like to hear people talk about (eg I found quite a few of the ones I listen to now by searching for ときめきメモリアルGS4). I’d expect that the same thing could work searching for names of films, shows that etc that you are interested in!

Edit: in fact I got curious and did a search for ミステリと言う勿れ in apple podcasts and quite a few things came up including this one which seems like it might fit your criteria? 大丈夫だよ大丈夫 or this one seems very clear Something good podcast

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I feel like multiple hosts actually works better because you end up with more natural speech. People monologuing can be natural, but often there’s more exaggeration IMO, and you miss out on the little phrases that make conversation ‘flow’. 相づち and such.

I’ve actually heard 4989 before and not been into it :sweat_smile: but 大丈夫だよ大丈夫 seems intriguing (views on mental health in Japan? 他のマンガのトラウマシーンもご紹介) so will definitely give full listen (did a short sample just now). Something Good doesn’t seem quite my thing, but I appreciate you taking the time to look!
I think I might just take a dive down a rabbit hole and listen to a ton of samples to find some people I vibe with. :hole: :rabbit2:

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Jun 22, Wed of Week 13 of pre-Summer :cherry_blossom: 2022

I realized it might be better to make it a real Listening Every Day Challenge. I will track a week at a time, although the real goal is this last 2 weeks + Summer’s first 2 months. After all, quantity matters a lot, at this stage.

Schedule on the week plan post.

Rather than ticking only for listening everyday, I would give credits for listening longer. I know about , but the icons are far more customizable and beautiful.

Repeating the same track doesn’t count; while anime, movies, or YouTube counts all the same.


  • I installed Podbean on Android, where I can choose Japanese region (and many other regions) to see Japanese podcasts (which are interesting and appear to be quite updated).
    • As far as I have tried, I can’t change Spotify’s region, but of course, there are already some Japanese podcasts. (Probably only as many as on YouTube.)
    • I have always been subscribed to YouTube, so technically, I can play podcasts on YouTube and turn off the screen.
    • Nonetheless, I am worried how much I can tolerate listening to relative poor quality and receiving insufficient information and fun.
  • I decided to unsubscribed from Audiobook.jp. I still have the trial period until 3 July. Of course, I can always resume before then.
  • I watched Death Note on Netflix today, where I have read ahead, but I don’t necessarily catch sounds that well. But not so bad, and I wish the quality will eventually improve.
    • At least, the goal is to know enough vocabularies before listening.
    • I don’t intend to watch ahead of reading, nor do I intend to read ahead of the book club, so there will be a limit…
    • Some other series I might read along watching includes SPY x FAMILY (there is book club, but I would whether it will off-shoot?); and 進撃の巨人 (no book club yet [1], so always my freedom). JoJo might be another option, but I don’t quite like the animation.

  1. albeit mario さん seems to want to read it ↩︎

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Forgot to post again :sweat_smile:
During these two days I’ve listened to episodes 372 – 435.

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:sound: Listening Room: Date 20220622 :loud_sound:

Day I: 入らず山の鬼婆 :mushroom:

Listening スタート!

To start with I’m gonna be listening to whatever daily story there is on Hukumusume and see how it goes from there, I’ll think about venturing into other content as I (hopefully) progress (I also need to find some listening resources that I’ll want to listen to, I’ll go searching later).

Today went as I expected it would really: that I can pick out certain words and follow the story to an extent, but then get hopelessly lost… only to pick it up again when a cluster of familiar words pop up again, to then get hopelessly lost once more. It’s mostly the in between the subject words that I can’t understand, I seem to be able to pick up on nouns best, but then never quite get what that noun is doing.

Well, it was about mushrooms, and Ojiisan in the mountains and a demon, I think I got the jist of it. Just the fine details escape me.

Shroomy

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Ended up reading and listening to it myself. I’m going to re-read it more carefully, but from what I gathered It’s about an old man who was gathering mushrooms and went to the Forbidden Mountain where a demon old hag lived. The old man wanted to return before dark, but there were a lot of mushrooms there and gathering them took too long. The old hag demon wanted to eat his legs, but the old man managed to escape with the help of the Mountain God who sent a pink cloud that took the old man home. Since then, whenever the old man goes to mountains, he always brings some gift to the Mountain God. But he never dares to go to the Forbidden Mountain again.

Now I’m going to read it more thoroughly, with looking up the words.

Anyway, thank you for the link!

Update: I did read it more thoroughly [1]


  1. ↩︎

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Does listening in your sleep count? Twice I fell asleep while listening (and countless more times I just tuned out after a while). I start off understanding a fair amount, but very soon I lose concentration for whatever reason, and then I just get bits and pieces, or even give up processing completely. So, still stuck in the first half of that second chapter, which I’ve listened to maybe 4 times, not necessarily paying attention or even being awake throughout :sweat_smile:

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Can’t figure out how to add my name to the list as it only gives me html when I click to edit it and I don’t know how to work that :sweat_smile: so instead I’ll just post here and follow along on my own.

I’ve decided I’m going to try listening either to an short story audio book (on days I’m working as I work shifts and the chapters are approx 10 minutes long so can listen to one chapter on each break) or one of the many Japanese podcasts I’ve got saved for listening since they’re fill Japanese by a native speaker with no English in them, approx 15-30 minutes per podcast episode.

Hoping between those I’ll get a substantial amount of listening done over the next 2 months.

Good luck everyone :slightly_smiling_face:

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If you want to make a home post (with a fancy calendar or your own study log) then I can add you to the list, otherwise just posting here also works. Welcome!

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Thank you :blush:

I’ve got a calendar on evernote I’ll use so I’ll just post on here occasionally throughout if that’s ok.

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