🔊 🎙 Listen Every Day Challenge - Winter 2023 ❄ 🧤

Feb 9, Thu of Week 7 of Winter Q1 2023 :snowman::snowflake:

So-matome N2 Listening Ch.2 [5/7]. From contents.

Death Note EP.30-31. Struggling to survive. The end is near, but not Near.

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I have started Dele. Its really just passive listening since its waaaay above my level but its an interesting show.

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Watched three more episodes of 仮面ライダー BLACK SUN

This really is wild. It’s so amateur at times like it’s a college project, but then super epic and smooth the next. At one point the main guy enters transformation time and shouts へんしん!! and it’s so ridiculous and over the top but somehow still ends up epic, though I was half-expecting the Sailor Moon music to kick in.

I cannot get over the motorbike scenes. Quick! Main character friend is in extreme danger we must get to them straight away! Proceed to casually saunter down the highway in full greenscreen glory letting the warm summer breeze caress their hair.

I have no idea if this is great or just complete bonkers, but it’s fun so onto more whackyness tomorrow!

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February 9th!

Today I listened to Lesson 22 of the JapanesePod101 Upper Beginner Series.
It was another one that was focused on understanding a train announcement - todays announcement talked about the trains destination, and station stops and which carriages of the train had unreserved seating, and which were non-smoking carriages.

(Home Post)

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Work was hectic yesterday and I didn’t even stop for lunch let alone a podcast dog walk. I managed to watch the second episode of ‘activate your Japanese’ from NHK that my tutor recommended. It’s got English subs so I’m dubious about the quality of the listening practice - I try my best to listen but… I quite enjoy it though so will try sticking with it.

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Feb 10, Fri of Week 7 of Winter Q1 2023 :snowman::snowflake:

So-matome N2 Listening Ch.2 [6/7]. Taking notes and multiple questions.

ガラスのうさぎ [17-18/18] (end). The last track is あとがき. I am waiting for the physical book before writing the impression. My money was taken yesterday.

Death Note EP.32. 削除! 削除!

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I listened a bit of Miku Real Japanese and some Japanese with K which while not the most exciting is the most comprehensible.
And I binged watched Dele from episode 2 to 6 so…good day (parallel Japanese and English subs though since sometimes language reactor does this to me).

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:open_book: :desktop_computer: :snowman_with_snow: :snowflake: February 8

I missed this day ): I actually put on Teppei but got interrupted and then I forgot to actually listen to it so…oops.

:open_book: :desktop_computer: :snowman_with_snow: :snowflake: February 9

Listened to Teppei for beginners episodes #48 to #50

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February 10th!

I had a lesson today, which we started with a bit of listening comprehension practise before moving on to some conversation practise.
I also listened to an episode of Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners.

(Home Post)

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:snowman: :snowflake: February 10 :snowflake: :snowman: :speaker:
Home Post

ミステリと言う勿れ :curly_hair:

Addition to February 9: ロマンティック・キラー (anime) :cupid:

I did watch all of Romantic Killer on Netflix (yes, all 12 episodes in a row… ops?), but they were talking very quick so I didn’t get very good listening practice—too quick! I relied on the English subs for understanding. (I was not up for it actually being work, so Eng subs it was.) It was a ton of fun. Can highly recommend.

As someone who read a lot of romance and read a lot of slice of life (and I’m finally getting into otomes), I can guarantee I have seen all/most romance tropes more than once, and this one has a lot of fun using and abusing them. Basically, tropes/stereotypes done right and used to make the story more funny. Plus, I liked the humor. I don’t think there was even one instance of humor coming from someone being stupid. I find especially rom coms have a tendency to depend on their “hero/heroine” being stupid for the comedic effect (aka embarrassment because that is so funny, hahahaha… no.)

So yeah, recommend this. And it feels complete enough as a first season that if there is never more I won’t feel like I missed out on the end of the story. :slight_smile:

Right, about yesterday. I took @omk3’s recommendation of ミステリと言う勿れ and started watching that TV series. Watched the first three episodes. Once again, I had English subs, also because I completely lack mystery/crime/police domain vocabulary, so JP subs would have left me about as clued in as no subs at all. Again, not entirely sure about how effective the listening practice is, but for now I feel like easing the pressure a bit in some areas.

Can also say it is a lot of fun. Definitely have some Sherlock Holmes vibes. After all, someone that perceptive who also can’t help but talk about what they notice or hammering on those spots (even if for seeming good), well, they are not gonna be particularly liked, are they? So him being a loner makes sense.

Will keep watching the show since it has been good so far.

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Feb 11, Sat of Week 7 of Winter Q1 2023 :snowman::snowflake:

Death Note EP.33. Catfight.

聞くだけで一気にわかる日本史 : 室町・戦国・江戸

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Last night I watched two more episodes of 仮面ライダー BLACK SUN

This show cannot decide if it wants to be great or if it wants to be terrible. The story is everywhere, the pacing is everywhere… everything is everywhere. :laughing:
At times I question why I’m watching this and yet others it’s like yes this is very awesome. Like the last episode I watched, it felt like it was meandering along to nowhere, then suddenly massive reveal and plot information and super action packed pacing… then incredibly lame fight sequence, random mumbling fizzling into nothing then BANG insane ending out of nowhere.

I think this is the show with the most understandable characters so far though, there’s like two very mumbly guys, and one I’m not really sure if I understand him or not, but everyone else I’m not having too much trouble with - until they start to say a lot all at once, but thankfully that doesn’t happen too often.

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:snowman: :snowflake: February 11 :snowflake: :snowman: :speaker:
Home Post

とある科学の超電磁砲 :ear:

Decided to try とある科学の超電磁砲/Railgun on Netflix today. I was about to give up after two episodes, but gave it one more and then one more after that, but I’m noping out. Could have been a fun series, but fanservice seems important to the creators, and also having one of the main characters being a stalker-y pervert just doesn’t work for me. (Part of the fan service.)

Just because the person is a girl/woman, doesn’t make it any less creepy and disgusting… >_>

I guess it was supposed to be played for laughs too, but I didn’t find it funny either.

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I don’t count listening with English subs as listening practice for me but still, I am currently rewatching 恋はつづくよどこまでも Love Lasts Forever. I am actually listening to the Japanese intensively and picking out phrases I understand. The first time I watched it, I disliked the female lead up until halfway through but this time around I appreciate seeing her growth more, so liked her from the jump.

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February 11th!

Another tiny listen today - one episode of Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners.

(Home Post)

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Summary Post

I didn’t quit the challenge, I just didn’t want to post :upside_down_face: I mentioned this in the reading thread too, but it was nothing personal to anyone or anything, I was just in a very “don’t look at me” mood the whole week :see_no_evil: Work is very busy so I might not post here super often, to keep my stress at a manageable level while still doing the challenge. Trying to make sure I don’t fall into the trap of “I don’t feel like posting about the thing, so therefore I’ll just avoid doing the thing.”

Anyway, here’s what I’ve been listening to while I’ve been not posting :laughing:

February 6th
What did I listen to?: Onomappu’s video about Exo
How much time did I spend listening?: ~14 min

This was pretty comprehensible for the first 2/3rds but then I stg he started talking 50 times faster all of a sudden and I didn’t understand anything for the rest of the video :joy:

February 7th
What did I listen to?: The Midorikawa videos that basilsauce linked
How much time did I spend listening?: ~24 min

Me the entire time:

But it seemed like they were having fun and that was enjoyable to see :laughing:

February 8th
What did I listen to?: Atashin’chi episode 1
How much time did I spend listening?: ~6 min

February 9th
What did I listen to?: Atashin’chi episode 2
How much time did I spend listening?: ~9 min

February 10th
What did I listen to?: Atashin’chi episode 3
How much time did I spend listening?: ~8 min

February 11th
What did I listen to?: Atashin’chi episode 4
How much time did I spend listening?: ~8 min

I didn’t know how I’d feel about this animation style, but it’s grown on me quite a bit. Man, these little episodes are easy to just throw on after a day of work. My level of comprehension is pretty variable, sometimes they talk quite fast or in a panicked way which makes it more difficult to understand xD But overall I’m enjoying them and will continue them for sure!

Extremely belated replies

Who has that kind of time :sob: Literally just break it into shorter episodes, I don’t understand why the majority of podcasts seem to default to these ridiculously long episodes. I assume the majority of podcast listeners must prefer it that way because it’s so common but I can’t for the life of me figure out why :joy: Even if you listen to it at 2x speed (which I’ve heard of people doing, though I couldn’t do it myself), a 10-hour podcast is still 5 hours :sob:

This is something I always lose sight of, I feel, so this is a good reminder that it’s ok to not do it “perfectly” the whole time. Like, some listening is better than none, and none is not the end of the world either. I feel like me giving myself permission not to post this week was a positive step toward that kind of mindset. I realized it’s not always the listening itself that’s the problem, but a desire to avoid the stuff around the listening that holds me back from listening. Removing those unnecessary pieces can help me actually do the thing, which is the goal all along.

This is something that weirdly never occurred to me as a thing I could do. I think part of me assumed that non-learner-focused Japanese podcasts would be in some weird inaccessible place but from the list you linked it seems like there must be a pretty decent selection on Spotify? I don’t use Spotify and generally disapprove of Spotify’s entire existence but I would begrudgingly use it for that purpose as long as I don’t have to pay for it lmao I’ll check out some of the Youtube channels you linked, too :slight_smile: And when I have more time I’ll definitely be searching out the Japanese side of K-pop Youtube - I can safely say that if I can find content about my boys I will have no trouble sitting through it regardless of how much I understand :joy:

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I’ll admit it’s all pretty nonsensical but I hope it was at least a little funny :sweat_smile:

I like BTS (in addition to visual kei) but usually when I watch stuff about them on Youtube it’s performances, interviews, or crack, which are all subtitled. If I’m reading subtitles I’d rather do it in English.

But this got me wondering if there were things like unboxing and reaction videos in Japanese, because those are more likely to have a lot of speech. It wasn’t hard to find, once I actually looked for it. Apparently the keywords are 開封 and リアクション, and maybe 初見 too.

A 14 min unboxing video for BTS’s “Proof” by a young woman unpacking 4 CD sets hoping to find Namjoon and Hoseok trading cards. She likes some other kpop groups too and I saw videos about TWICE and others in her video history.

A 13:30 BTS reaction video by two professional dancers to a “Run BTS” rehearsal video. I actually watched a few reaction videos to various BTS songs today (lol) and this was the best one I saw, in terms of language practice, entertainment, and also just seeing what they noticed about the dancing/choreography. They also have reaction videos about other kpop groups and Johnny’s.

I’ve gotten a little further in listening/reading Honzuki 2 this past week. Honestly watching junk on Youtube is more fun though.

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:snowman: :snowflake: February 12 :snowflake: :snowman: :speaker:
Home Post

シャーマンキング :ear:
とある魔術の禁書目録 :ear:

I ended up trying とらドラ! last night too, and I think I actually finished the whole first episode, but already knew it had some tropes I don’t enjoy at all. Aka the I can’t communicate well so I just beat everyone up trope. Plus almost everything else didn’t work for me either.

Then today, I tried Index and couldn’t even finish the first episode before I had made sure that yeah, it seemed to have some of the same tropes as the spinoff that I don’t find enjoyable.

And then, hoping maybe I could find something interesting to watch, I tried on the Shaman King anime, remembering that I did like the first few volumes of the manga when I read them as a teen. But… I barely got through the first episode. The story around the samurai ghost would have been so nice, if it actually got to take up the whole episode and you actually got to engage with it, but nah, barely 5 minutes at the end of the episode and the rest of it felt very meme-y/trope-y. I don’t remember that at all from the manga, but then I read it a decade and a half ago, so my memory is probably faulty…

Does anyone have recommendations for anime on Netflix? I’m currently looking for the easy way, so, since I have Netflix I’m sampling their anime. My overall taste is a bit everywhere. I have certain tropes that I find annoying, but even those I’ll overlook if the rest of the story elements/characters/plot is good. Like Food Wars had fan service for sure, but since the rest of it was so darn good, I could ignore it.

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Feb 12, Sun of Week 7 of Winter Q1 2023 :snowman::snowflake:

おいしいごはんが食べられますように [1/12]. This one has male and female narrators. Audiobook is free in 聴き放題, but not the text (Bookwalker). A little expensive, in fact.

So-matome N2 Listening Ch.2 [7/7]. Various question types.

Death Note EP.34.

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The impression I get from podcasts is that they’re popular among people with long downtime at work, drivers/truckers, people with long commutes or people whose work doesn’t require a lot of attention and therefore can multitask. For those people long episodes make sense, I guess. There are people who consume podcast episodes like it’s nothing everyday. In my case in particular, the longest podcast I’ve ever listened to was like 1h something of one of the Japanese podcasts for natives I’m subscribed to, which I divided into two sessions of half an hour or so. If the episode is too long I just stop in a spot I consider alrightish and just resume it some other day. In the case of language learner podcasts it makes sense that you don’t want to overwhelm people with too long episodes when they’re starting. But I agree, super long episodes automatically make me go “oof”, and also when I see a podcast that there is no way on earth I could ever catch up because of the sheer amount of content they put out :smile: . I’m not too deep into podcasts anyways so it doesn’t bother me too much in the end, but I would like to eventually catch up if I commit to something.

They should be available everywhere, Spotify just retrieves them from each podcast’s website just like any other podcast app. The person making the list might be using Spotify for them and that’s probably why they chose it to easily compile the links, but you can use pretty much any podcast app. I use AntennaPod, personally.

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