🔊 🎙 Listen Every Day Challenge - Winter 2023 ❄ 🧤

So I did try to rewatch with Japanese subtitles on, but I focused on the subtitles way too much - not out of laziness, but because in fact I can’t really read at natural speaking speed, and I constantly wanted to pause and check the kanji, which was a bit counterproductive. I also considered removing any kind of subtitles, but then I sometimes wanted to check a word, and with subtitles it would have been easier. So what I did was turn on both English (through Netflix) and Japanese (through Subudub or whatever extension I have installed) subtitles. The result is that this is so much text that I give up on trying to read it and focus on listening, glancing occasionally at the English for confirmation, and pausing to look up the Japanese from time to time. Who would have thought that more subtitles are better for listening after all…

Oh, so this was a true story? It sounds like a fun and unexpected premise for a samurai film.

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Learning Japanese seems like a constant battle with the brain, and trying to trick it into learning.

If it works though, it works! Think you’ll continue with watching twice with and without subs?

With listening I feel I know quite a few of the words that come up but I just can’t seem to connect the sound of the word with the actual word, I find with subs, I end up just reading the word and completely blank how it sounds.

It seems so! Reading about it, there’s evidence in old manuscripts that this actually took place (at around the same time too), the lordship of the Annaka domain did set a marathon for his samurai in order train them up. Which was a result of the following unease after the Perry Expedition. And it looks like the new race tries to keep to the original track designated in the old writings, which is pretty cool!
(and looking at the photos of the shrines and such, it looks like the film tried to replicate this as accurately as possible)

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I only watch youtube videos without any subtitles. For series and films, without subtitles I get so frustrated at missing stuff that I want to quit. So I figure subtitles are better than nothing. I do try to look at them as little as possible though.

Yes, that’s what happened to me when I had Japanese subtitles only. I focused all my efforts on reading, and completely ignored the sound. That’s not listening though. :sweat_smile:

So yeah, my compromise, counter-intuitive as it sounds, is English subtitles. As I can read them at a quick glance (when will I reach that speed in Japanese?), I have time to listen to the audio first, then look at the subtitle for confirmation on what I heard. Or sometimes I start with the subtitle, then it’s suddenly super easy for my brain to match the sounds to known words because I already expect the meaning. While it’s not pure “listening”, I feel it’s a good enough crutch. It seems to work for me at least.

I don’t think I’ll keep rewatching, even the most enjoyable show can get boring when you watch it twice. But I may leave both language subtitles on. I won’t really be trying to read the Japanese subtitles, but it will be helpful if I want to pause and look at a sentence in more detail.

Maybe later I’ll rewatch some stuff I’ve already watched without any subtitles. If I already know what’s going on the frustration is much lower. I did it quite successfully with some episodes of Erased, but I still don’t really like rewatching unless it’s been years, so I guess I may have to dig up some old dvds or something and see how it goes.

That’s really cool! Okay, now I want to watch this too. I’ll keep an eye out for it.

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I find this way works well too, if I can have a quick translation of the first thing said in a conversation I can usually follow the rest of the conversation without any aid until it changes topic. Dropping straight in without any context I can hear words I know and just don’t recognise them. If it’s easy to toggle subs on and off, this sounds like a good way to learn!

I would also like to know when this happens, I’ve been learning for a few years now, and my reading speed is still very slow :sweat_smile:

This sounds like a good idea! I might try and find some stuff that I know well and watch without subs and see if I can understand it better. Since I’ve been finding watching media-style Japanese over people teaching Japanese to be better for listening practice as well. I was getting so frustrated in the previous challenge trying to understand everything, but being a bit more relaxed about it I feel is a lot more productive for me. I’ve had much more “I understand that!!” moments this time around.

頑張って!

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Ahhh I loved that show! It was a lot of fun. The two main characters are in several other shows. 星野源 (forgive me I get kanji wrong, I’m on mobile and writing from memory) is a musician but he was also in the movie 地獄でなぜ悪い and the other guy, 綾野ご (tbh totally guessing on him. Ayano Go) has been in a bunch of things lately but a Netflix original called The Journalist you may enjoy.

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January 16th!

Just a small amount of listening today.
My husband was watching a review of a VR headset in Japanese (with english subs) and wondered how much I could understand so I listened to it.
The answer was “Not much” :sweat_smile: The stuff I understood was mostly loan words to be honest, but I caught a few bits and pieces and thats better than nothing!

(Home Post)

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Today I watched two episodes of Comprehensible Japanese Intermediate:


I looked up a few words in the subtitles (that I only activate briefly for that purpose), but apart from that it was pretty easy to understand. I wonder how effective it is to listen to stuff with so much visual help.

Maybe I should try things like watching a video twice (first blind, then actually looking; although I dislike repetition, so I might just lose focus and interest) or maybe just trying it without watching and opening my eyes only for parts where I struggle. Hmmm…

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Anyone else going pretty hard with the listening? Or am I just trying too hard?

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Random youtube videos of interviews which weren’t very interesting, a short film that was also kinda ‘eh’, and a bit of an audiobook. Today was scattered.

What does going hard mean here?

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Multiple hours a day of active immersion or the like.

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I listen to hours of audiobooks sometimes. Same for the occasional youtube binges. And drama binges. The days where I put in several hours aren’t hard days, the hard days are ones like today where I can hardly focus on things in English even :joy:

People in this thread are mostly folk trying to establish a habit or level up their skills in a more focused manner. What that means will vary from person to person. Do whatever feels sustainable to you. If you can do multiple hours and feel good - do it! If you will burn out on that - reign it back in until you find something that fits.

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

January 13th ・ January 14th ・ January 15th ・ January 16th

Fell behind with my updates, but I’ve been sticking with The Jam Maker. Today I relistened from the beginning to where I’m currently (episode 10, I think?). My concentration has gotten better. I noticed on my walk today that my mind wandered less as I listened, which is very helpful. :grin:

Oh! And I learned why the narrator is so descriptive: she’s blind. I didn’t go into the story expecting diverse characters, so this was quite the nice surprise.

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The reason why I asked was because I need to re-evaluate where I am and where I am going. Don’t know how much my 5-8hrs daily of active immersion is helpful or not, or if I should dial back on that or not. Maybe more useful to dial back on SRS and just go for immersion instead (srs 1.5h daily). Don’t even know if I’m using my study time efficiently or if there are other ways of improving.

I’m lost and just rambling. I should probably just cut back on both and get some sleep.

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If anything, I’m going too soft. My streak is kept alive by anime and / or songs

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I got ya. I definitely have had those feelings. I like to do ‘check ins’ after X # of months, or hours, or pages, etc.

Ex:
This book was hard in July 2021. This book was a breeze. This youtube video made no sense. I understood 80% of this show, but this scene was confusing. This is what I'm currently doing as my study routine.

Check-in December 2021 (or 100 hours later, or 500 pages later, etc) - the hard book was still hard. The youtube video made sense! I understood that weird scene. I will continue the listening routine I have, the reading routine is working but maybe not as fast, or that book was ridiculously hard.

That really helped me focus and ultimately trust the processes I was using. I personally dialed back on SRS because I find I can’t sustain it past ~30-45 min/day. I just get fed up with it and quit it, so I aim to keep my decks lean enough to finish in 30 min. I put the rest of my time into reading/listening native materials, with a little bit of focused study lately as I try to polish my understanding of things. That balance works for me, but it’s very individual.

I kind of think that so long as you’re interacting with the language you will see gains, but checking in from time to time to make sure you’re on the right path makes sense!

Sleep does amazing things for the brain in terms of forming those circuits! I should also sleep come to mention it…

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Thanks alot for your informative post, it was helpful. Will definitely try doing check ins once in a while and log it. It’s far too easy to just take the progress you’ve made for granted and just focus on things you can’t understand, makes it feel like you are running on a threadmill with a limit on it, but you don’t know the limit because the room is pitch dark and all you can do is run.

Hopefully the check in logs will help a little with that, so that I can occassionally look at the threadmill dial and see how far I’ve run.

Thanks again.

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Pushing myself to do the listening/reading practice I’d intended for this challenge is hard. I’ve done some of it, but also skipped days, and I don’t know whether to check off the calendar box or not because I often did listen to Japanese on those days, just… not what I was supposed to.

Japanese videos on Youtube I’ve watched to procrastinate/avoid audiobooks have included

Part of the problem is that I’m not a fan of audiobooks or podcasts and don’t listen to them even in my native language. (English) But also, I just don’t like these (audio)books very much. 穏やか貴族の休暇のすすめ felt like such a chore I finally gave up and decided to officially quit it.

Honzuki #2 is better but it’s still not that exciting to me. I wish there was an abridged version with a tighter focus on plot because I don’t care about the details of the invention processes.

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January 17 :film_strip:

Second episode of MIU404. It’s such a joy to watch! There was more tension and emotional complexity to this one, but it wasn’t without humour. And the main characters are great, I love them both.
The Japanese subtitles mostly got in the way, but I did use them once or twice. I’m not sure if I’m keeping them.

I had looked at the Journalist before because it really looked like something I’d enjoy. The start of the first episode was so fast-paced that I decided that it wouldn’t be ideal for listening practice, but now that I think about it, it’s not like MIU404 is slow and clear. I guess I’ll revisit the Journalist after MIU404.

Check the box, it’s still listening! It’s hard for me too to find interesting content to listen to most of the time, so I get it. I wouldn’t insist on trying to listen to something that bores you, you need something engaging and fun that makes you forget you’re doing deliberate listening practice . Hope you find it soon. Meanwhile, if any of those lizard, frog and snake videos were any good, I’d love a link! :slight_smile:

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:headphones: :desktop_computer: :sound: :snowflake: January 16

Listened to Teppei for beginners #18 and played BU$TAFELLOWS for 2h. It’s a great feeling when there’s an easy sentence I can understand just by listening and I can basically skip over the text and go fast. Doesn’t happen that often as there’s quite a bit of specific vocab sometimes :sweat_smile: but… progress!!

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Jan 17, Tue of Week 4 of Winter Q1 2023 :snowman::snowflake:

So-matome N3 Listening Ch.3 [2/6]. Weather and traffic report. Long numbers are difficult to be listened to, and as a result, time of arrival in an airport. Year numbers (in かがみの孤城 ) are probably even harder.

I looked at audiobook.jp, which also has a book club in this forum (perhaps I should see Natively too?); as well as what was in my wish list. Other than the theme, BGM is a decision point. Particularly what caught my eyes as the next candidate is 世界から猫が消えたなら (and the text).

Pokemon EP.10, but I am not sure if I am ready to watch with no sub yet…

君の膵臓をたべたい Ch.6 [2/2]. I am getting more irked by the use of 「ザ:wavy_dash::wavy_dash:」くん, for around 4-5 times in the track. I also listened to other 聴き放題’s, but they are limited by understanding and availability of the text. (I am eligible for 聴き放題 until 31 Jan.)

かがみの孤城 March [7/10]. More sub-stories.


It’s about convenience, really. Listening-only fills into some of my time pretty well. It is also a little stimulating, so it becomes a priority.

However, my understanding is still worrisome. It’s currently the best if I have a text. Still, I focus more on quantity than quality. This is in contrast with reading, which I mostly understand very well; as well as mine well.

Watching with JP subtitles has to be chosen carefully as well. Some of them, I am sure I hear almost every words and understand the hearing; while some are more focused on reading, and picking-out-understanding by sound is probably not really working.

VN, which I didn’t post in this thread, is the case that I slow down enough to ensure that I hear every words, along with reading and learning. Some of them, I might not understand the first time, but I am sure I would, for the second or third time. Of course, there are more difficult lines as well where I just mostly give up. (I still would have some cloudy understandings.)

I am not sure about active immersion part, but probably I would want to know if I really remember and not miss the same context shortly later on or not. It’s more about memory (short-to-medium term) than SRS. I learn more vocabularies and do comprehension exercises alongside for the hope of improving.

Perhaps for comprehension, taking a break and pondering, and even sleeping, might be quite important. I don’t want to absorb too much per session/day. Intercalating with other activities may allow increasing session counts.

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