I found this resource the other day and personally really enjoy it for listening practice. He provides videos where he speaks to tutors on italki at different levels from easy to hard. Definitely recommend!
Wow, the main content this guy is putting out is SO good – hours and hours of real conversations with native speakers about simple topics and conducted at slow speed with him live-translating key words and phrases… So glad this exists and so wish I’d had it as a beginner.
A little annoyed that someone with great content like this feels the need to also put out the same typical language click-bait video stuff like “why grammar is a waste of time” or “stop learning japanese” but I guess that crap draws a lot of viewers in for the real content…
“why you’ll NEVER be fluent in japanese” (8 basquillion views)
“how you’ll be fluent in japanese TOMORROW” (12 basquillion views)
“2 hours of really useful practical japanese listening practice” … (19 views)
Yeah, there’s a video where he mentions that he tells them he’s filming. He also complains about how boring the conversations are, how they’re always about the same things and how he can’t believe anyone would be interested in them, which I found a bit odd. Not so much that they’re not boring - they are - more the fact that it’s a two person conversation and if he wants to make them more interesting, he can direct them any way he likes.
Still, definitely good practice for a bit, but just a warning that they do get very repetitive very quickly.
Ah, well if he’s got sign-off, then cool.
Complaining about it is weird. Sounds like its probably a humble brag. “These are so boring and beneath me, but perhaps it’ll help you smucks”
Watched one of his videos in the easy category and one in the hard category. Noticed that the speech speed doesn’t bother me at all. My problem is the lack of vocab and grammar knowledge That was something very cool to find out.
I agree, but its good practice to listen to words in context. The only thing Id like is for the more difficult levels he should write in native script, rather than romaji to REALLY consolidate that stuff
I chose a recent one listed as hard to see what it was like. Maybe it gets harder later in the video, I only bothered with about 3 minutes, but it seemed pretty basic and slow to me. I guess it would take some time to see what “rubric” he’s using for those difficulty assessments.
I watched a couple of ‘hard’ ones, too. Honestly couldn’t see much difference with the others. I think it may just be the speed the other person is speaking - it doesn’t seem to be the topics. Basically, if they’re not making a very concerted effort to speak slowly and clearly it seems to equal ‘hard’.
Well you are basing your experience off 3 minutes of exposure, like you said so i guess its hard to estimate.
The other thing is that difficulty is relative. What is easy for someone isnt necessarily easy for someone else.
I think in general, his target audience is newer learners where, in the grand scheme of things, there is a relatively small ‘gap’ between ‘easy’ and ‘hard’.
This channel has been helpful for me, but I do agree the conversations can be boring. However, I’m pretty sure that Ben is the one that keeps bringing up the same topics over and over. He also constantly makes snide remarks about America and Americans. I’m not patriotic at all, but it makes him seem a little snobby. In two or three different videos, he calls them クレイジーな人, crazy people, and has also asked questions about the USA like “Isn’t it scary there?” and the like.
Sorry, perhaps I’m ranting, but I do want to reiterate that yes, Ben had control over the topics.
Also…vocal fry is like nails on chalkboard.
And furthermore, I think I’d be more than glad to continue where he left off once my Japanese is better! There’s just not enough content like this out there!