🔉 🎙 Listen Every Day Challenge (Summer Edition) 🏖

Jul 5, Tue of Week 2 of Summer :beach_umbrella: 2022

Today I listened (and read-aloud) to 海坊主, a 怪談話 from りっきぃの夜話.

Watching the YouTube avoids my eyes from reading the Kanji and the Kana for the story, until I really want to study in-depth… (So I read after listening.)

Apparently, not only the story (i.e. the language) sounds cool, the sfx are too, and can be found here – 音の園. (It’s hidden in the description.)


Yesterday, I watch an episode of やがて君になる anime (with JP sub), and watched NHK Special (from omk above). tbh, I am not sure if I have improved yet. Probably trying around 1 month isn’t so visibly changing. Also, the practice drill wasn’t really in place yet. (1 more month would still probably be too short. How about the end of the challenge?)


Comparing with reading, didn’t I step up from Graded Readers? While I believe Graded Readers also has audio, YouTube Kids is far more accessible and has more collection. (There is also Satori Reader.) (And interesting factors still count.)

While reading can be slow, and takes forever, listening speed can be altered globally, like x1.25.

Nonetheless, YouTube Kids isn’t necessarily so easy…

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I decided to join the challenge late~ I’m going to fill in the days I did so far as well. :slight_smile:

Jul
01 :tv: 02 :heavy_multiplication_x: 03 :white_flower:
04 :broom: 05 :broom: 06 :broom: 07 :broom: 08 :heavy_multiplication_x: 09 :heavy_multiplication_x: 10 :fast_forward:
11 :tv: 12 :studio_microphone: 13 :studio_microphone: 14 :broom: 15 :studio_microphone: 16 :studio_microphone: 17 :studio_microphone:
18 :broom: 19 :broom: 20 :fast_forward: 21 :fast_forward::broom: 22 :tv: 23 :fast_forward: 24 :broom::studio_microphone:
25 :video_game: 26 :tv: 27 :tv: 28 :tv: 29 :studio_microphone: 30 :earth_asia: 31 :heavy_multiplication_x:
Aug
01 :children_crossing: 02 :earth_asia: 03 :children_crossing: 04 :musical_note: 05 :studio_microphone: 06 :studio_microphone: 07 :studio_microphone:
08 09 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31
What I'm listening to / chart

:tv: Series:
未来日記 S2 (9/9 ep) :heavy_check_mark:
Terrace House Boys and Girls in the City (10/47 ep)
:children_crossing: はじめてのおつかい (3/ ep)

:headphones: Audiobooks:
:broom: 魔女の宅急便 (11/11 ch) :heavy_check_mark:

:studio_microphone: Podcasts:
The real Japanese Podcast (?/?)

:video_game: Games:
Nightshade/百花百狼 (4/5 routes)

:earth_asia: News and informational content:
世界をわかりやすく - Kurzgesagt (1/5 vid)

:white_flower: Learning content:
JLPT

:fast_forward: Random YouTube/short videos:
Booktubers
Sanbonjuku
Informationals

:speaking_head: Conversation
Tandem

:heavy_multiplication_x: No specific Listening

July 1-10
July 11-17
July 18-24
July 25-31

Current Week

Home Post

  1. 2 episodes of はじめてのおつかい. I had a very draining day, so this felt about right.
  2. Started the day with a YouTube video about a religious practice in Nepal, where they assign the status of goddess to certain girls until they become too old. Good thing too, because later in the day I got busy and didn’t have the time or brain capacity to put aside extra time. :joy:
  3. An episode of はじめてのおつかい.
  4. I listened to some music… Not sure about counting that!
  5. Half a podcast episode.
  6. The other half a podcast episode.
  7. A full podcast episode.
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July 5 :yellow_square:

Today I watched the Tokyo waterbirds video @Redglare linked to yesterday. (thank you, Redglare!)

It was lovely seeing all the birdies, such a relaxing experience. I really miss the days when I lived near water and I could get to casually watch them every day.

I found it surprising that apparently in Tokyo you can find more or less the same birds as in Europe. I’d expect different fauna for some reason (for example, why aren’t there tanuki in Europe?)

Fun fact: ひな means chick, young bird. But in Greek, the exact same word means goose. It was very strange seeing ducklings being referred to as ひな, I had to stop myself thinking the narrator didn’t know what she was talking about, as it’s very common for people to confuse ducks with geese. :joy:

Comprehension-wise, I understood about half? Maybe less? But watching the birds was so nice and relaxing, I didn’t even care. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Well, I just bookmarked both your posts for whenever I feel like doing something else than reading :eyes:

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:sound: Listening Room: Date 20220705 :loud_sound:

Day XIV: :dragon: & :flamingo:(The two videos that @omk3 shared yesterday, thanks again!)

I got a bit distracted with all the amazing imagery of the animals that I forgot that the presenter was talking in Japanese. Not sure if this means I understood it or if I just completely blanked out :thinking:

Addtionals
:white_check_mark: Yakuza 6

This is a very important question.

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Home post :guitar: July 5th

Today I watched the flamingo video @omk3 shared the other day :3 (Thank you, omk3!)

Ahhh, I can’t, I love this so much :sob: Look at birb, so pretty! :durtle_love: If I ever learn to draw skillfully with colors and everything, I’m gonna draw this. 感動しました。

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July 5th!

Just a little bit of listening today - 2 episodes of Nihongo con Teppei (Beginners).
I had a lot of trouble concentrating today so I had to listen to them a few times.
When I was actually listening I was understanding everything pretty easily, but it was really hard to stop my mind wandering today!

(Home Post)

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July 5 :blossom: Home Post

I went to watch more ハイキュー!! and saw Netflix had the first episode of RWBY: Ice Queendom so I checked it out and wow was that a weird experience :joy: RWBY’s originally an American show so seeing all these characters reimagined in Japanese and in more direct anime style is definitely interesting. It’s like watching a Japanese dub except even more surreal because it’s just its own show actually, wild :laughing:

I also watched another episode of ハイキュー!!; my brain didn’t really wanna watch much so just one, even though the 上善寺(じょうぜんじ) match is up next and I love that one, it might be my favorite :joy: It’s just such a fun match, so I’m looking forward to watching that over the next day or two!!

Omg that’s an incredible word, I don’t know if I’ve ever related to anything more :joy:

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Home post

LEDC
Week 2

July 5

Nihongo con Teppei Z: episodes 12 and 13 → 31 min.

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I watched the first episode of “Stranger Things” two days ago with Japanese subs and dubs. It was so great that I ended up going through Intensively and looking up many, many words. Yesterday I started on episode 2. So great!

I want to make a flashcard deck for Stranger Things, episode 1.

Thank so much to whoever suggested that!

I watched a Miku Real Japanese interview. I understood a lot, and it felt really great. I still went over sections multiple times, but it’s finally getting to the point where I’m remembering enough fast enough that I feel much closer to “able to listen and understand”.

Then I went back to Chapter 5 of Harry Potter on audiobook. It was really like the first time that I could simply totally understood every word of every sentence of the first 5 minutes of this Chapter that I have studied intensely off and on over the past year and a half!! (then I fell asleep, happily)

It seems like the “unlocking” of listening is happening “across the board” (Yay!) But it still remains to vocabulary drill until that is “fast as thought”.

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Jul 6, Wed of Week 2 of Summer :beach_umbrella: 2022

Today’s story is 牡丹灯籠 from 京都府. (read-aloud)

The longest I have tried to listen and read deeply so far. YouTube is 12 minutes long. I read aloud for 20 minutes.

Most troubling is, I don’t know which 家 reading to use.

Spoiler

How ghosts make a family, and what relatives can do.


Vocabularies
  • 灯籠 – とう.ろう – あかりをともす器具; lantern
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Listened to 2 more chapters of 殺人ライセンス. Story hasn’t developed all that much honestly. I’m immensely enjoying the bad acting for the narration of the adult characters though.

For those who enjoy spoilers:

So the middle school bully did show up on the news as murdered, and Kyuu finally decided to report the game to the police. The police didn’t seem to believe him, surprise surprise. Mari’s (the girl we’re repeated reminded is Very Cute) father was laid off and has since decided he will be a private detective, is trying to set up a website for his business. Mari hears from her father that he find making a website difficult so she tells him that Kyuu will help him with the tech stuff in exchange for listening to his theory about the murders.
There’s also a girl named Shouko, Mari’s friend. So far as I can tell her role is to be grumpy a lot.

14 Likes

July 6 :yellow_square:

I watched the last of the NHK hotspot videos I could find on youtube, this one on fishies! The whale sharks sucking vast amounts of water while they were swimming upright were a sight to see (on screen, I definitely wouldn’t want to be in a boat somewhere nearby…).

Then I got frustrated that I couldn’t find any videos of equal quality. I watched a rather simplistic one about penguins (might be for kids actually?) and then after a lot of searching I happened upon a channel called nippon pon, which seems to have several (very) simple videos on Japan geography and culture. I watched one on Japan’s geography. I can’t say the presentation is fascinating, but it was at about my level and the content is interesting enough, so I might come back for more if I don’t find anything better?

There are nature documentaries on Netflix that I can watch on Japanese dub, but I’m not yet prepared to listen for an hour straight, I don’t think… So the search continues…

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:sound: Listening Room: Date 20220706 :loud_sound:

Day XV: GYOZA !! GYOZA !! GYOZA !! :dumpling:

I crave for gyoza.

So I watched a recipe video on how to make some.

Now I crave gyoza more.
:dumpling: :dumpling: :dumpling:

Thing that I’m finding with videos is that I feel I can tell what to do just from the video itself, like I could have it on mute and have a vague idea of what it was about. Feels like I’m not focusing on the words so much. Why is listening so hard.

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Thanks for hosting this @KJules ! I was just thinking about improving my listening skills alongside my reading skills with the Read Every Day Challenge! I think I’ll probably go for raw anime episodes + youtube videos as my go-to listening practice this time.

Jul
01 02 03
04 05 06 07[ :white_check_mark:] 08[ :white_check_mark:] 09[ :white_check_mark:] 10[ :white_check_mark:]
11[ :white_check_mark:] 12 13 14[ :white_check_mark:] 15[ :white_check_mark:] 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
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Home post

I don’t have a lot to say for listening updates while I’m plugging away at the same thing, but I’m definitely getting a little more confidence in my listening overall so that’s nice. Last night I listened to part 32 of my audiobook (out of 60 – 59% through the book) and was really pleased to see that I just straight up followed everything that happened on the first pass. I’m still missing words for sure, but most of that was easy to let pass. I’d say I missed the reasoning in one little conversation because it was crucial to know the word 土地鑑 (とちかん, familiarity with the land), but it was still rather minor. It just feels great to see this progress because I spent most of the first year feeling like my listening abilities wouldn’t budge.

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Ahhhh that’s awesome! By the time you’re done with the book I bet your listening skills will be steller! You’ll be able to start picking up more/different audio sources and just dive in :tada:

Edit: btw alternative “spelling” is 土地勘 which imo makes way more sense at a glance.

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Yeah thanks so much, I really appreciate the advice! I feel like talking to you did a lot to help me get actual confidence in listening.

And now that you point it out, I’m almost certain how you wrote it was how it was in the book. I was just being careless when I entered it. At least this allowed me to learn it has two readings now.

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Cute penguins :penguin: :pleading_face: so cute


Home post :guitar: July 6th

・SKM N2: Did the exercises on page 47-55.

Today went a bit better than last time, but still had to replay some of the recordings to make sure I correctly answered the question being asked.

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July 6th!

I watched 4 episodes of Season 2 of Fruits Basket today (with subs). I’m really enjoying it. I’ve loved Fruits Basket ever since I was a teenager, so even though I haven’t seen this series until now it feels really nostalgic :slight_smile:

(Home Post)

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