🔊 🎙 Listen Every Day Challenge - Winter 2023 ❄ 🧤

This is perfect for me. When I took N5, my lowest score was the listening test. I haven’t got my N4 results yet, but listening seemed more difficult than the other sections. So, if I can implement my listening in the first months of 2023, that would be a good step to take.

Jan
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
Feb
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

I’m planning to listen to podcasts, including:

  • Sayuri Saying/ Everyday Japanese
  • News in Slow Japanese
  • Thinking in Japanese
updates

Jan 7: So far so good. I’ve been listening to podcasts every day. I’ve been off work so the challenge is to continue the momentum next week. I have no empirical evidence but, I think it’s helping my listening.

18 Likes

I also don’t think cheating applies here… but, for my purposes, I’m keen to practice listening without reading at the same time. When people speak Japanese, there normally isn’t a prepared text, so for this challenge I want to focus on training my ear without subtitles or a similar text.

10 Likes

Thank you for organizing the challenge! My priority for 2023 is improving Listening so would love to join.

I aim to listen at least 30 minutes/day. If too exhausted days, 10 minutes to keep the streak going.
Each week, I will try to report progress of the previous week and have a more detailed plan for the coming week.

My resources

-Read-&-Listen-to-Audiobook at the same time: I tried to do this this year but my listening skill is weaker than reading, got frustrated and stopped. I want retry this method in 2023
-Anime/drama: watch first time without sub, if stuck, rewatch with JPN/ENG sub. I’m watching Flying witch without sub, so far so good so will continue it in Jan.
-Podcast: I listen to Akane-sensei and Noriko-sensei podcasts, want to explore podcasts aimed towards natives
-Youtube: I listen to book reviews (masakibooks) and Japanese Genshin vtuber (LizeHelesta); also want to explore more channels
-Situational drama CD
-Visual novels: I agree with polv above that this is nearer to reading than listening. Though on too exhausted days, I might turn into a blanket burrito playing visual novels so would cheekily count this as one of my listening activity :yum:

Jan
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
Feb
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
Progress Report

Week 1 (1-8/1/23)
Week 2 (9-15)
Week 3 (16-22)
Week 4 (23-29)
Week 5 (30-5/2)
Week 6 (6-12)
Week 7 (13-19)
Week 8 (20-26)

17 Likes

I’ll join the listening challenge this time. Last week I got some ebook and audiobook sets to try “reading while listening” to see if it would improve my mental voice and reading speed, and already I can feel it helping so I want to continue.

I’m not fast or smooth enough at seeing words and phrases as chunks, especially when there are long strings of hiragana, or if it’s a long verb form like causative mixed with something. Sometimes I don’t understand because I’m not separating the written words/phrases correctly, and hearing it read aloud makes it easy to figure out. Also, from reading I’ve learned a lot of vocabulary and grammar which I haven’t heard spoken, and a lot of this is stuff that’s more common in books than speech so TV shows and Youtube don’t help enough. My mental voice is halting and jerky because my imagination doesn’t have enough reference for what I should be “hearing.”

Jan
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
Feb
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

For now I have two book/audiobook sets to work on:
Honzuki volume 2
穏やか貴族の休暇のすすめ

16 Likes

After the trauma of the listening portion of the JLPT this month, it might do no harm to make this the first challenge I do here! I have a ton of beginners podcasts I keep saving on Spotify so this might be an excuse to finally listen to them.

Jan
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
Feb
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
Planned resources

SAKURA Tips
Nihongo con Teppei
Easy Japanese Podcast
Onomappu (Youtuber)
(…and of course, anime)

16 Likes

:loud_sound: :notes: windupbird’s summary post :loud_sound: :notes:

:sparkles: Challenge Progress and Links to Daily Posts :sparkles:

Feb
01 :heavy_multiplication_x: 02 :heavy_multiplication_x: 03 :heavy_multiplication_x: 04 05
06 07 08 09 10 11 12
13 :heavy_multiplication_x: 14 15 16 17 :heavy_multiplication_x: 18 :heavy_multiplication_x: 19 :heavy_multiplication_x:
20 :heavy_multiplication_x: 21 :heavy_multiplication_x: 22 :heavy_multiplication_x: 23 :heavy_multiplication_x: 24 :heavy_multiplication_x: 25 :heavy_multiplication_x: 26 :heavy_multiplication_x:
27 :heavy_multiplication_x: 28 :heavy_multiplication_x:

Wrap-up post

= listened today
:books: = read today
:star2: = read and listened today
:heavy_multiplication_x: = missed day

As implied by the single-month calendar template, I’m not going to be starting this challenge until February. January is going to be a busy month, so I know trying to do both this and the Read Every Day challenge will be a recipe for disaster, and I feel like I should probably prioritize the challenge I’m hosting :joy: That challenge is usually easier for me to keep up with anyway tbh But I’m making my home post now, so I can have it ping me on February 1st so I don’t forget :joy: I’m not sure what I’ll listen to, I’ll have to see what strikes me at the time.

Previous challenge summary posts:
Summer 2022 Challenge :beach_umbrella:
Fall 2022 Challenge :maple_leaf:

16 Likes

:loud_sound: :snowboarder: softlyraining’s listening corner :headphones: :mountain_snow:

Yay, a new listening challenge! Just like the speaking/writing challenge, I want to set aside time to do some focused listening practice, rather than rush to listen to something at the end of the day. I might end up doing that anyway at some point, but I’m hoping that most of my practice won’t be like that. :crossed_fingers: No real goals beyond that; just excited to get back to it!

一月
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
二月
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
16 Likes

Jan 1, Sun of Week 1 of Winter Q1 2023 :snowman::snowflake:

So I start first. Such is my timezone.

Today, I listened to some bilingual JP-CN podcasts in Podbean. I figured that this might be a good way for me to get started with Chinese, while not letting go of Japanese.

I subscribed to audiobook.jp’s 聴き放題 yesterday, but because I have subscribed before for a trial period, now it starts with paying monthly. However, today I unsubscribed, but monthly fee was paid, so I still have 聴き放題 until the end of the month.

I find 罪の罰 nice to listen on 聴き放題. I also have found 君の膵臓をたべたい, where I remembered it being a relatively famous book. There are also other interesting and good-sounding things to listen there; but other than making me recall vocabularies, I find my comprehension, and stringing together the story, isn’t good enough.

So, I also bought 君の膵臓をたべたい on Bookwalker.

I also listened to two tracks of かがみの孤城 in 上 part (August).

14 Likes

:snowflake: Day 1, 1st of January :snowflake:

:headphones: Back to my Home Post

Listened to two episodes of Nihongo con Teppei (#1 and 2#) and one Comprehensible Japanese (#9). Slowing down and following along with the transcript is really helpful and I’m a bit embarassed I didn’t do it sooner. I still can’t read without looking up words, so why would I be able to listen without it? Silly me.

Another great thing about transcripts is that you can use Yomichan to look up words on the fly without having to stop and start every second.

And then I finished it all up by watching another episode of PiroPito playing Minecraft (#2). It’s nighttime now, and somehow he managed to survive a creeper explosion by not paying attention. Magical.

15 Likes

Trying for real here now too. :sweat_smile:

One day already done, whoo!

Jan
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
Feb
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
15 Likes

January 1st!

Happy New Year everyone!
Today I listened to 2 episodes of Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners, and also Lesson 14 of JapanesePod101’s Upper Beginner Season 1.

(Home Post)

14 Likes

:coffee: :snowflake: Frankie’s home post :snowflake: :coffee:

I want to try and make an effort to improve my listening so I’ll be joining in.

the plan

I’m only going to count listening if there is no English to go along with it.

  • main things I’ll listen to will probably be things I find fun like Japanese youtubers, anime and dramas.
  • hoping to also push my self and start using things more catered to my level that I will understand more of (eg. beginner podcasts, Japanese grammar lessons in Japanese) but will mean I need to be a bit more active in deciphering it.
Jan
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
Feb
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

I’ll only be linking one day per update post.

Listened to media
  • hunterxhunter
  • nihongo con teppei
  • yuyu の日本語

:snowflake: My read everyday challenge home post :snowflake:

16 Likes

First day of listening! Right now it’s closish to the end of the day for me; I hope that I’ll be able to integrate it better into my day, so it won’t always be the last thing I do just because it still needs to be done. I guess that could also be part of the challenge for me…

Content-wise I listened to four N5 episodes of the (defunct, but archived) JLPT Stories Podcast. Trying to understand everything was a tiny bit challenging at times, but not too bad. I wonder if higher level “stories” are more like actual stories, and more interesting.

(Finding actual interesting content to match my beginner-level sure is hard. So far I haven’t found any podcasts that make me go “Just one more episode”…)

12 Likes

Hopefully being active in the community will help me keep consistent with learning! Today was a lot of anime catching up and finishing Chainsaw man. I’d like to go through listening to all the ending OPs and pick out just any words I remember. I also will be doing my Pimsleur audio book lesson that I (try to) do daily. A small success is still a success!

1/16 update
I was very unwell for a bit there but spent a lot of time after work today listening to some of the radio stations in Japan via Radio Garden. Sapporo City FM 88.8 seems to have a Vocaloid night going on which has been pretty fun. Some of the songs I was even able to identify via Google Voice and add them to a Spotify list.

14 Likes

:loud_sound: :snowboarder: softlyraining’s listening corner :headphones: :mountain_snow:

January 1st

It’s already late at night for me, so I decided to watch something relatively quick and easy: a video from Comprehensible Japanese. Still, there were a few words I didn’t know in here, like 松ぼっくり (pinecone).

16 Likes

January 1st :headphones:

Happy New Year!

I felt slightly unwell yesterday (great start of the year), so while in bed I just let the audiobook of かがみの孤城 play while I drifted in and out of consciousness. The parts I was focused on I felt I understood much better than last time I tried it, but I was still missing stuff. And of course there were parts where I was only passively listening, if at all. I’ll need to properly restart it one of these days.

13 Likes

Jan 2, Mon of Week 2 of Winter Q1 2023 :snowman::snowflake:

A little of bilingual JP-CN podcast, then audiobook 君の膵臓をたべたい Ch.1. After a while, I felt I want to read the book, so reading while listening, but not the same line, catching up and going over. I replayed the prologue and Ch.1 once, though.

Then, relistening かがみの孤城, March [3/10] while reading (下) of the same part. Although I manage to catch up reading to [3/10], I don’t manage to finish reading as far as this track. (I have no idea my last stop was around [2/10], simply made a rough guess.)

After that, I simply listened to Japanese songs on Youtube.

I also watched an episode of 緊急取調室 EP.4. First half was on my tablet (with VPN as well), while the latter was on PC (and Language Reactor). Watching on PC took more time, while not necessarily understanding more. Somehow happy ending.

11 Likes

:snowflake: Day 2, 2nd of January :snowflake:

:headphones: Back to my Home Post

Two more episodes of Nihongo con Teppei (#3 and #4). It is quite astonishing how painless it was, when in the previous challenge I struggled with the very first episode and then quit listening to Teppei completely.

I like how he kept repeating very simple things, but then sprinkled in some more difficult to understand commentary. It keeps it from feeling stale and brings some humor into it all. I’ve seen many people on the forum say that they struggle when the media they consume does not engage them at all. I’m in the same boat but I think with Teppei there is a nice balance for me because of his comments.

13 Likes

:headphones: :desktop_computer: Sylph’s home thread :sound::snowflake:

Jan
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
Feb
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

I’ve been doing the reading challenge for a long time now but never tried this one so far. I expect to be mostly done with WK soon so I figured I could use the extra time to work on my listening skills since they are pretty far behind my reading. I’ve decided to try this challenge for January in least strict form possible just to get in the habit of listening to things and being mindful of it, so I’ll count basically anything as listening: podcasts, the voiceover of the VNs I play in Japanese… but even if I listen to anything with nonJP subtitles as long as the audio is in Japanese and I pay attention. Hopefully this sticks and I can up my goals in the future but for now let’s keep it simple and in February I can reassess.
Excited to do this challenge for the first time with everyone!

Edit: I’m doing February as well

14 Likes

January 2nd :film_strip:

One episode of ミステリと言う勿れ today. It’s been a while since the last episode I watched, but there was a very helpful recap. I started by ignoring the subtitles, but as the story progressed my eye fell on them more and more. I still listened attentively though, most of the time.

12 Likes