🔊 🎙 Listen Every Day Challenge - Fall 2022 🍁

I’ve watched this channel’s videos before, but have gotten back into them recently. Not my favorite video, but throwing it out there:

I’m glad you liked it! I listened to a few other videos on the channel and it definitely bounces around a bit with how difficult they are. I enjoy it overall, and I don’t mind hard JP subs for hard content :joy:

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Watched 3 episodes of Shin Atanashinchi with subs today. I might do a rewatch without subtitles when I finished. It’s quite easy every day language so it shouldn’t be too hard to understand at least something without them.
I’m just a bit bummed out that they decided to remove all the old episodes from their YT channel. Can’t find them anywhere else now.

I’ve also watched a Twitch stream for some time, but I zoned out a lot. I just can’t get myself to focus on a stream where I don’t understand a lot and watching someone play random games isn’t very engaging to begin with. I really need to find some good reliable type of listening content that keeps me engaged. :thinking:

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Cherry Maho the movie (what a title, ugh) came out this week so of course I watched that. I was really pleasantly surprised that I understood about 90% of it! This was with subtitles on the first go, which helps my comprehension a ton (even in English, tbh). Maybe one day I won’t need to use them as a crutch anymore, dare to dream.

Tbh the movie was slow though, lots of very long camera shots of people looking into the distance. Maybe that helped my comprehension, I didn’t need to keep up with any action.

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November 11th!

Today I had a class with my tutor. We talked about lots of things, including stuff I’ve been doing at work recently, some friends of mine moving into a house on my street, the differences between authentic Japanese food and what people here in the UK call Japanese food, and reasons why its difficult to be a vegan in Japan. It was a great lesson. We also did some grammar practise, including XばXほどY, which I understood well, except I managed to mess up conjugating the -ば form EVERY TIME. :sob:
…Next week we will be practising conjugating into the -ば form… :smile:

This evening I listened to an episode of Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners. It was about comedy.

(Home Post)

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November 12 :film_strip::chart_with_upwards_trend:

Paranoia Agent episode 4, and Migaku up one level to 46. I may do some more later if I have the time.

Yesterday I also listened to some Teppei while I was doing other things, as people here keep mentioning him. I found him surprisingly understandable. He’s a good choice for background listening for when I’m doing some mindless chore that doesn’t need my full concentration. Audiobooks would be an even better choice of course, but not yet. I don’t mind missing what Teppei says, but if it were an audiobook I’d be rewinding all the time to make sure I caught every little detail.

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Nov 12, Sat of Week 7 of Fall 2022 :maple_leaf:

Watched an episode of Pokemon on Netflix + VPN. Without VPN I don’t have JP audio nor sub – it’s just spoken in English, and so many other non-JP languages (despite my region). I hope to see animals and cute name puns. As for my childhood memory of Pokemon, anime and manga uses JP names (transcribed to Thai); and games came in two batches – JP versions which most people can’t read and need to stick to walkthrough; and EN versions with Pokemon names different from frequently heard anime (because EN).

I listened on Podbean to Learn Japanese with Noriko on a book review, 星の子. I can understand the outline, although there are also much I don’t understand. There is a transcript in Patreon, though. (And the book sounds nice.)

I listened on Spotify to an episode of Japanese podcast for beginners (Nihongo con Teppei). I can understand easily, like 90-95%, but it does take some energy. It’s about パラパラ バラバラ ハラハラ. I think I know some meanings of all three, but I am not so sure; it is nice to hear explaining. There are also other onomatopoeias in episode list.

As for my opinion of Podbean vs Spotify; although Spotify can’t change region, Japanese teachers I knew are all in Spotify, anyway. Some licensed Japanese songs are probably only in Spotify (and not on Youtube).

I tried to find songs to play on piano / guitar, and I find this one to be both strummable and can guess melody music score.

I’ve also found Yoshiki X-Japan’s channel just now.

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Teppi came to walk the dog with me twice yesterday as I also went out at lunchtime as the weather was good. I also did a few N5 drills.

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:fallen_leaf: Day 43, 12th of November :maple_leaf:

:headphones: Back to my Home Post

Listened to the first two exercises of this video, completely failed to understand anything. :smiling_face_with_tear: Yeah, I’m gonna return to some really easy stuff. But interesting to see what’s expected for N5.

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November 12th!

Today I listened to two more Top 400 Activities lessons from JapanesePod101.

(Home Post)

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November 12th:

I had a busy week, so I didn’t really study (other than the usual Reviews), because when I had the time, I was too tired to look for something and then actually pay attention. Therefore I only got the normal exposure (Japanese with English subs).

Today I started out with the NHK news. It can be quite bothersome, if they have many interviews. If they are with foreigners, it is hard to understand the voiceover and if they are Japanese people in public, they usually wear masks, making it hard to understand as well.

Afterwards I watched two “intermediate” videos of Comprehensible Japanese.

The first one is about Japanese sweets. Other than the ingredients, I knew nearly all of the vocab making this quite easy. She used some cooking terms, which I learned in a Japanese course before. Other than that the level required is not as hard as one would expect from an “intermediate” level.

The second one is about the people on the Japanese Yen Notes. This one was especially easy, because she was depicting nearly everything with pictures or gestures.

In both videos the grammar isn’t very complicated and she speaks slowly and clearly. So if you’re more or less confident in your vocab (I’m guessing between N5 and N4), these might be good study material.

I think the videos from her channel might even be a bit too easy for me, which is nice to see.
I will be on the lookout for more resources. If I’m too tired for something more difficult in the future, I can probably use this channel. I hope that will keep me at it more…

Home post

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I’ve come down with a cold so not feeling up to a lot. I watched some YouTube and relistened to a bit of an audiobook, but mostly just looking forward to sleeping. Probably no reading for today, hope I don’t fall behind in the book clubs.

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Get better soon! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

and fingers crossed you haven’t caught The Big One…

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November 13 :film_strip::chart_with_upwards_trend:

Two episodes of Paranoia Agent. I intended to only watch one, but episode 5 had an exceptionally silly tone for this anime, and I needed a dose of darkness after it. Episode 6 felt indeed especially dark. I’m finding I remembered the initial episodes rather vividly, even though it’s been many years since I last saw them, but these two I watched today I didn’t remember at all. Language-wise, I think I caught nearly everything, which is very surprising. I’m sure part of it is because there was no avoiding the English subtitles, so my brained filled in what my hearing missed.

And one more level of Migaku (47). I nearly had a perfect run again, then made a silly mistake. I’m still shaky on some patterns, of course. But there’s no denying I’ve been making significant progress from when I started trying to figure out what this fabled pitch accent is all about.

@pocketcat: Hope you feel better soon! And don’t worry about the book clubs, I’m sure you can catch up in no time when you’re feeling better again. :slight_smile:

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@pocketcat also sending get well soon vibes

@Twelvewishes I’ve done a ton of N5 listening drills recently, and those two are most definitely at the harder end of the scale! I just watched the first couple but I’ve got the original source material, I recommend you go back to it and try to get to the end of the video, I think you’ll be surprised. To set expectations, I was probably getting about 30% of questions right before I started drilling, after a couple months practice, it’s up to nearly 70% (about 50% certain and 20% educated guesses). There are still always a few ‘what the :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:’ questions where I’ve not got a clue on first listening.

Yesterday, Teppi came to the supermarket. Up to around the 40 episode mark, finding it noticeably harder so listening to 4, 5 episodes then revisiting them a bit. Also did a few more N5 drills in the afternoon. Really finding this book/audio book good, can recommend for anyone looking for N5 listening practice.

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Nov 13, Sun of Week 7 of Fall 2022 :maple_leaf:

Listened to three episodes of Learn Japanese with Noriko Extra! on Patreon. I like listening to her stories, and hope I am not being creepy. I am jealous, though.

Watched an episode of Pokemon on Netflix + VPN (Ep.2). I started from S1 of anime 2021 version; but I see Pokemon across generations. Personally, I only knew of Generation 1-2, and perhaps a little after that; I wouldn’t see that in the S1 of original adaptation.

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November 13th!

Just a little bit of listening so far today, but perhaps I’ll do some more this evening.
I listened to an episode of Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners, which was about how its fine to make mistakes because everyone does :slight_smile:

(Home Post)

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Thank you everyone who wished me well :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: To clarify, I do not think this is covid - I’ve taken 2 home tests and come up negative. I just have sore throat (with no/little voice), congestion, and lower energy which points to a run of the mill cold to me. I canceled my work trip to be safe, but I have no fears for my health :sweat_smile:

Today I listened to some random 妖怪 videos and this one: #最強のミステリー小説10選 #本紹介 - YouTube
I’m linking it because it has baked in Japanese subs and she speaks quite slowly compared to most book reviewers I’ve seen. Might be good practice for those looking for chill, natural content.
I don’t really agree with her choices however. I’ve read a handful of them, or other books by the same author, and only one of them is a book I’d personally put on such a list. Her #1 choice is actually a book I actively disliked and didn’t finish :joy:

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November 13th:

I only watched a single video from Comprehensible Japanese today.
It was about some riddles with the Japanese language. While I understood most of it on the first try, I did not get any of the riddles before she showed the solution.
This video was a bit more difficult than the ones from yesterday and had a bunch of words that I didn’t know. Again she depicted everything, making it easy to pick up their meaning.

After that I started to compile a list of some relevant resources from the old Listening Challenge thread to test out, so the threshold is lower next week, when I’m looking for something to listen to.

Home post

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Summary Post

November 13th
What did I listen to?: A Series of Unfortunate Events Ep 7, 8, 9
How much time did I spend listening?: 135 min-ish (3 episodes)

I watched…3 episodes back to back? Because this show’s vibe just fit with what I was in the mood for today? I think this is my new record for most Japanese listened to in one day lol. I did take some random breaks in the middle, and I didn’t pay super close attention the whole time (I was going for more extensive listening than intensive listening). But I am deeply enjoying the Japanese interpretation of the Carmelita Spats character lmao, like the voice actress they got for her is great :joy: To me, her voice tone sounds just shy of anime-level cutesy, which is exactly perfect for this character (for those unfamiliar, Carmelita Spats is this absolutely horrid little girl who wears pink frilly dresses and thinks she’s the cutest person in the world when in reality she’s a rude brat who bullies everyone). In the English dialogue, her favorite way to insult people is by calling them “cakesniffers.” In Japanese, this gets translated as “かしくんくん,” which sounds adorable and insulting and exactly like something a Japanese Carmelita Spats would say :joy:

Insult breakdown:
かし - as in お菓子; confections; sweets; candy; cake
くんくん - “sniff-sniff (of an animal)​” (it’s onomatopoeia)

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Still been watching Pokemon everyday and starting to feel diminishing returns as I am almost too comfortable watching it. Maybe thats ok? I am not sure. But there is maybe one new phrase or word an episode. I am still keeping current with my other shows so its not like I am going completely unchallenged during the week. but still can’t help but wonder if this is ok to do.

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