🔊 🎙 Listen Every Day Challenge - Spring 2023 🌼 🌱

I’ve also only just barely started reading them, but I think you wouldn’t have to worry about them being too difficult, at least. The translations and notes explain things pretty thoroughly. I haven’t tried Satori Reader, so I can’t really compare the two, but the thing that I like about the Read Real Japanese series is that the stories/essays were written for native speakers (not learners), and the notes in the back of the book go into a lot of the nuance that I probably wouldn’t have noticed on my own even if I understand the basic meaning of the sentence. Then again, that part might be more interesting to me because I spend a lot of time trying to translate Japanese that’s above my level, haha, and if you’re not doing that, you might not care as much about having those notes.

I personally think Fiction is harder than Essays, though that’s judging only from the first chapter of each. There was quite a bit of unknown grammar and vocab to me in the first fiction story, and I despaired a bit at that, but then I started reading Essays, and I was basically having no trouble at all with Murakami’s essay :sweat_smile:. I think the way it’s written is much closer stylistically to what I spend most of my time translating and reading. But I haven’t really read much fiction outside of manga. If you have, you might have a different experience.

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:hot_pepper: April 25

Received a couple imported DVD in the mail yesterday. Robin Hood (1973) and a Looney Tunes (3 episode) “Collection”. These, as well as an imported copy of Dumb and Dumber I received last month, are of an incompatible region to my players. Today I resurrected some gear and converted them to something useful. Then watched them, mostly to check for errors.
Dumb and Dumbers’ Japanese Dub is so fun. Really sounds like they had a good time with it.
Robin Hood will be ok, I didn’t give it much of a chance this play through.
Looney Tunes I watched a couple times through. Only 21 minutes on the disc :frowning: With the sparse product description available, It was a shot in the dark. Might be worth it just for 「どったの センセー」“What’s up Doc?”

Also played Zero Escape: 999 for about an hour.

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agreed! It’s a great reading resource for me atm, but I really just want to dive into reading other types of Japanese literature, even if it’s a little too ambitious fsfs

sold. :dancing_women:

yess aah I was so very tempted mainly because of all the grammar + translation notes. I think I might give the essays a try after going though the sample then.

Thanks for all the reviews ya’ll, helps a great deal! :bowing_man:

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Maybe? It seems I entirely missed the window for both Read Real Japanese and Satori Reader. I somehow went from “There’s no way I’ll ever be able to read Japanese” to reading actual native content with basically nothing but a book club in between, and I’m still unsure when the right point would have been to read them. I’ve had Read Real Japanese Essays on my bookshelf for many years and could have read it at any time, but at first it felt way too hard and then later not really necessary. That said, I have recently read one essay and one short story, and I found the content engaging and the translator notes very interesting. It’s like discussing the text nuances in depth with someone, and this can be helpful even at an advanced level. I’ll probably get around to listening/reading the rest of the essays and stories at some point, but I’m in no hurry to do so.

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26/04/2023 :fairy: Home Post Link

I listened to almost 2 hours of Japanese songs, and I’m counting this as today’s practice. I went through the lyrics of a few songs and randomly selected interesting words to add to my SRS. It was fun, but I feel too tired to do my usual listening activites.

This is so cool!! I can’t wait to read more native content :')

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Apr 26, Wed of Week 5 of Spring Q2 2023 :cherry_blossom:

こころ (夏目漱石) : (下) 先生と遺書 Ch.17-20.

I’ve found more 朗読 MP3 linked from Aozora Bunko. Perhaps I can put it to good use, via my audio timing website, or a subtitle editor application.

歴史 [32-35/90] - ヨーロッパ・戦国時代.

Places and names

宗教改革

大航海時代

日本


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Home Post :hatching_chick:

I haven’t updated in a while.

April 23rd

I tried watching two videos by Ken.
The first one was about café conversations and it was harder than expected - especially the small talk section with the owner of the café.
The video about valentine’s day was also quite difficult. I’m assuming this is because they might be speaking more natural japanese here which I’m not used to…? (In addition to my lack of vocabulary and grammar knowledge of course.)
I also tried another N4 practice test which was the hardest one I’ve taken so far. My listening score was 32/60 and I only barely reached the overall passing score. There is a lot of vocab and grammar study ahead of me.

April 24th

I listened to Nihongo con Teppei episodes 151-154. I was pleased with my level of understanding.

April 25th

I listened to the Japanese with Shun episodes 10 and 11 and watched two Comprehensible Japanese videos. They were about popular travel destinations for japanese people and good luck meals japanese students eat before exams. The second one was pretty difficult but both videos were very interesting. In my country there is no such thing as good luck meals for students. I know that there is at least one local tradition where people eat a special meal on christmas eve for good luck though. There might be more traditions like this that I’m not aware of but I’m pretty sure that there aren’t any meals specifically for exams.

April 26th

I listened to Nihongo con Teppei (episodes 155-160) and Japanese with Shun (episode 12).

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:cherry_blossom: Day 26, 4 月 26 日 :herb:

:headphones: Back to my Home Post

:mount_fuji: Nihongo con Teppei - Episodes 4 - 6
I always have a bit of a hard time paying attention to podcasts (audio processing issues…) so I’m glad these are so short.

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:cherry_blossom: :seedling: 4月26日 :seedling: :cherry_blossom: (Home Post Link)

There’s a little intro speech after the OP in mobile suit gundam talking about the setting, and since parts of it get repeated so often, i’ve been trying to listen to it every time it comes up. There was one phrase that I absolutely could not make heads or tails of though, so I went and found a transcript: 「人々はそこで子を産み、育て、そして死んでいった」old man on 70s audio equipment half-mumbling 「子を産み」 was just not working in my brain :melting_face: I ended up doing a lot more pausing and rewinding to re-listen/look up stuff for this episode, so I think i’ll count it for listening today even though I had eng subs. Not quite to the level where I can follow 80s anime mumbled and slurred line delivery on my own quite yet

Listened:

  • Mobile Suit Gundam ep 8

Word(s) of the Day:
編隊(へんたい)ー formation (eg. of aircraft)
故郷(こきょう)ー hometown, birthplace, one’s old home
退却(たいきゃく)ー retreat, withdrawal
生き延びる(いきのびる)ー to survive, to live long

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Old mumbling men are the final boss of Japanese learning, well known fact.

I mostly watch crime shows and there’s still some ‘gruff older commander’ types that without Japanese subs I’d have no idea what they are saying.

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April 26th!

Another episode of Rilakkuma’s Theme Park Adventure today.
I feel like I needed to read the subtitles more in this episode than I usually do, but I had a stressful day, so I’m probably just a bit worn out!

(Home Post)

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:hot_pepper: April 26

Watched the Little Red Riding Hood video Frobert shared above. Not a version like any I remember seeing before. Makes me want to run the gamut on videos like that.

Played Zero Escape: 999 with some to little success over three hours. Making progress reading today felt like rigorous exercise for some reason.

Tired brain day. I’m barely squeezing these sentences out.

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Apr 27, Thu of Week 5 of Spring Q2 2023 :cherry_blossom:

こころ (夏目漱石) : (下) 先生と遺書 Ch.21-24.

YUYU Podcast on 室町時代, up to the death of 信長. So exactly up to what I have learnt. Waiting a new 日本史 Podcast episode; though I haven’t listened around 平安時代 and prehistoric yet.

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27/04/2023 :fairy: Home Post Link

3 episodes from Japanese with Shun. I was cutting vegetables and couldn’t change or stop the playlist, so I ended up listening to 3 episodes :laughing:

The first two were okayish in terms of comprehension, but I suffered with the episode where Shun talks about his learnings from solo travelling.

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:cherry_blossom: Day 27, 4 月 27 日 :herb:

:headphones: Back to my Home Post

:mount_fuji: Nihongo con Teppei - Episodes 7 - 9
Found that’s it’s easier to pay attention while doing a (slow) workout while listening.

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I watched this today for my native-level listening practice. Much of it was difficult for me, but I was still able to follow quite a bit. It truly was charming! Thanks for sharing.

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April 27th!

I don’t usually count Japanese Music for this challenge, but today I listened to Japanese music for two 40 minute car journeys, on the way too and from seeing Shonen Knife live in a nearby town. I managed to have a short conversation in Japanese with one of the band members while she was manning the merch stand.
The show was amazing, there was a really bouncy, happy atmosphere, and it was just super fun to be there. Definitely recommend seeing them if you ever get the chance!

(Home Post)

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:hot_pepper: April 27

Zero Escape: 999. Spent several hours playing today. Nearly finished this week’s assignment. Felt better than yesterday but still a little slower than usual.

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:cherry_blossom: :seedling: 4月27日 :seedling: :cherry_blossom: (Home Post Link)

Listened:

Apparently once you watch one of these, youtube just decides that’s what you want to watch tonight, and who am I to object. (I seriously have like 5-6 more in my recommended now lmao)

current mood

Good Words
トロトロ ー sticky; syrupy (トロトロになる as a sauce boils off)
ぐつぐつ ー simmering; (boiling) gently
たっぷり ー plentifully; amply; abundantly; copiously; generously
紅しょうが (べにしょうが)ー red pickled ginger
千切り(せんぎり)ー finely cut strips; julienning

AAAA jealous! they’re such a fun band, would love to see them someday!

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April 24-28 :headphones:

I keep neglecting to update, but that’s because I don’t have much to say. I’ve been listening to my audiobooks every day. At the beginning of this challenge I said I wanted to finally finish the かがみの孤城 audiobook that I had been listening to on and off for ages. Since then, I not only finished that but also another two, and I’m about to go get some more. Listening while reading along is a pleasure, especially as my reading speed and my listening comprehension gradually increase to match each other better.

The 神去なあなあ日常 was really well produced. It was probably as dramatized as かがみの孤城 was, but the book content itself never allowed the voices and sound effects to get annoying. There was some very little music, occasional sound effects that didn’t get in the way (mostly nature sounds), different (and very fitting) voices for everyone. The narrator had a very pleasant style of speech, and it was fun to listen to the occasional old man mumble in dialect (slightly more helpful than just reading it).

推し、燃ゆ was nothing spectacular as far as audio production goes, but for me that was a good thing. There wasn’t much dialogue to speak of, but the little there was was spoken by the same voice, in the same manner. You were left to infer emotion from the text only, the voice was giving nothing away. From the way I imagined the narrator, she would probably use the same level voice to express herself whatever she was feeling anyway.

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