My immersion method has been Shirokuma Cafe. I watch the videos, listen to the audio track over and over and over when I go for a walk or for a drive or to the supermarket, and I created something to share. It’s kind of like training wheels for reading. Basically it’s the subtitle file with short audio clips of the whole dialogue around 10 seconds or less with just a few sentences in each all built into a simple webpage.
I find it really helpful for not only listening comprehension, since there are many different characters with their own distinct accents and ways of speaking. It also helps address my biggest challenge which has been associating sounds with kana and kanji and not just seeing them as squiggles that I have to exert effort to turn into the sounds of Japanese.
First eleven episodes done, more on the way. I’m getting more efficient at audio editing and producing the html pages but even producing each one is great listening and reading practice.
I join the Saturday CET19:00-20:00 one, usually. There are three Japanese people from California in that one (two sisters and their grandmother, lots of Japanese chat), my boyfriend often joins as well.
Then there is the one you joined on Saturday afternoon, CET14:00-15:00
We used to have a karuta club here in my city. Sadly not anymore It was a really good mix of language and culture learning, however I had other things going on at the time and never got fully into it.
My immersion routine:
-Reading one new article and one old article a day from http://watanoc.com (n5-n3, they also explain grammar and define words when you hover over/tap the content)
-Watching Anime from animelon.com (I watch an episode until I get ~20 new words to add to my Anki deck) Afterwards I then rewatch the episode up to that point for revision.
This definitely works, I am only four episodes into Naruto (took a couple weeks) but my reading ability and listening comprehension have both drastically improved and each subsequent episode gets easier.
This isn’t the best way to learn “real” Japanese, but anime serves as my main motivator for increasing comprehension. If you’re going to try this out, go for a series that you have already watched(but don’t choose one too far above your level) , turn off English subs and only select Japanese subs.You can click on the subtitled word for a definition, but I recommend looking it up on jisho.org yourself.(many times just looking up the word and seeing more example sentences made me remember it without needing to rely on Anki but Anki can’t hurt, especially in the long term)
Also for those who are wondering what my current Japanese level is,
I finished the Core 2000 (Japanese Core 2000 2k - Sorted w/ Audio - AnkiWeb)
I finished Tae Kim
Currently on level 14 on WaniKani (after multiple resets lol)
I finished lingodeer Japanese Part 1 & 2
I finished Jalup beginner and am halfway into Jalup Intermediate. Currently on hiatus since I have an SRS backlog of 953 items for review.
Terrace House! i have watched every episode with English subs, so now i’m rewatching and attempting to improve my listening comprehension.
primarily though, Puroresu is my favorite. i watch a lot of NJPW, so i’ve switched from watching the English Commentary option to the Japanese Commentary option. not only is it good for helping me pick up some wrestling terms, but it also helps me understand which wrestlers are more popular in Japan.
I am back to news immersion this winter. I am a bit of a news hound. I like to know what is going on in the world.
If I do not look at any English language news sources, I am forced to spend time with Japanese. This means watching and rewatching a single story, then puzzling out Japanese subtitles.
Also, I love weather news. Lots of fun weather news in Japan in all seasons.
Over the past year I’ve watched a ton of Japanese gaming youtube channels; primarily 2BRO and SANNINSHOW. You get to hear a lot of the banter that happens between friends, and how they react to all sorts of situations. They play all sorts of games, and each game has its own set of vocabulary. If you search for 実況 you can find lots of other channels and videos too. Not mention, there are hours upon hours of content.
I tried playing games to learn Japanese, but ultimately I spent more time taking screenshots and looking up words rather than being able to enjoy the game. Watching a video though, I can easily rewatch segments and everything, so I don’t have to worry about taking notes.
My listening ability and overall ability to understand Japanese has skyrocketed thanks to these. It’s been a great to immerse myself in unscripted spoken language.
Mostly video games, a mix of JRPGs in Japanese (PS3 and on not having region locking is fantastic for this) and mobile games with VN style (voiced) story segments is great for this. It’s great for helping me to practice listening and hearing the readings paired with the kanji. A lot of seiyuu also started up their own YouTube channels over the past year, so I’ve been watching their Let’s Plays for listening practice too. I don’t always understand everything 100%, but what I do understand is enough for me to realize I’m making progress and pushes me to keep coming back to my reviews and lessons.
Oh I know, I have also seen every single Karuta video on Youtube, and that is not even an exaggeration. (In fact, if you haven’t see this recent video I recommend it. I did in fact stay up all night to watch the Chihaya-cup. Last year I would’ve gotten tickets to go but I was supposed to have a tournament the same day.
I’m just surprised I hadn’t seen it because I am this board’s local Karuta evangelist.
I also frequently watch stuff on Abema, though I watch pro wrestling and not sumo! Pro Wrestling NOAH shows often air for free on Abema, and are up on the website for a week. Occasional DDT Pro-Wrestling and TJPW shows also air there. If you get the chance to catch them, DDT’s rojo (street wrestling) shows are especially wild, because they’ll do stuff like wrestle at a pool, or once within the actual Abema building itself haha!
One of the fun things about watching DDT or NOAH there is that they often display an “Abema meter” for the wrestlers, representing their power levels with three stats, each with a max of ten. DDT has a comedic tone, so generally the Abema meter stats are funny (Sanshiro Takagi, the president of the company, once had a 10 for company management and a 0 for matureness). NOAH has a much more serious tone, so the stats tend to be more “real.” Speed, power, technique, etc. My Japanese isn’t remotely good enough for me to be able to read most of the stats, especially not before they leave the screen, but sometimes I’ll screenshot them. I did feel really happy when I realized that I could read the katakana ones, though!
But Abema does seem to be a very good place to go for Japanese immersion in the form of video content. If anyone wants to try watching pro wrestling there and would like a little bit of a translation aid, @ddtpro_eng on twitter does translations of DDT (and TJPW) shows, and @Hi5ame does translations of NOAH content. The vast majority of what you read and hear in any given show will not be translated on those accounts, but it makes it easier to follow.
Well immersion for me is biking. I do love to use my bike and go on rides with my friends or even solo. The great view when you are riding especially in the afternoon is a very chill one and I love it when people tend to work on the long rides. Trips are always easy to book and the long grind is totally worth it in the long run as well. This is why it is easy to see when it comes to my focus on certain things since that there is not much problem on my immersion too.
My immersion is living in Kobe, Japan, and trying to get to know my students and colleagues better by speaking as much Japanese as possible. Other than that, my girlfriend is a fluent English speaker and native Japanese and basically tutors me daily for fun. My current living situation is basically a gigantic positive feedback loop where the more time I put into Japanese, the more fun I have in society and at work, and the more I want to study Japanese. I don’t intend to live in Japan forever, but while I’m here I want to make the most of it.
I have an upcoming 5-week work from home period where I am going to put some serious, serious hours into Japanese learning. Think of it like the Dragon Ball Z hyperbolic time chamber for your Nihangao 筋肉。