🔊 🎙 Listen Every Day Challenge - Spring 2023 🌼 🌱

Thanks for the heads up! I wasn’t aware of the book, but the sample is pretty sneaky - the voices included sounded just fine. I guess 硝子の塔の殺人’s sample at least was honest, making sure to include some of the most unpleasant shrieking so that you knew what you were in for. And then the rest was a pleasant surprise :joy:

So looking at which of the books already in my tsundoku also have an audiobook available, my choices seem to be: 64, 嫌いなら呼ぶなよ, 妊娠カレンダー and むらさきのスカートの女. After finishing two long (one of them also difficult) books just now, I don’t think I want to tackle 64 right this minute, so I guess 嫌いなら呼ぶなよ (or any of the rest) sounds like a good choice. :thinking:

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It was nominated for some award iirc. I’m idly reading it right now but I hate the voice acting of several of the characters. I’ll see if I can get you a sound clip at some point. I’m also not loving the writing style (it’s just bland) so that doesn’t help. Still, I’m holding out hope that the plot will prove worthwhile

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I‘d be very interested in reading that one (also Akutagawa prize yay!) but I‘ll be extremely unable to do so right now due to Life™ taking its toll on me quite strongly. (If you want to know how strongly: in May I managed to read all of 70 (!) pages :scream::see_no_evil::flushed:). So if you could read something else in the meantime, I’d be happy to join you for this one later in the year, promise! :crossed_fingers:

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Ah, I see :sweat_smile: And I thought May was rather busy for me :rofl:

Of course I’ll wait for you. I’ll go ahead and set up a thread for 嫌いなら呼ぶなよ for now. I hope @pocketcat can join, but if not, I guess I’m used to lonely bookclubs by now. :eyes:

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Jumping in for the off-month!

Jun
Week 22
Week 23
Week 24
Week 25
Week 26

= Japanese
= Japanese and Spanish

As usual, I’m going to try to listen to something in Japanese and in Spanish every day!

I actually technically started early because I started a 60 day walking challenge last month that involves going on 45 or 60 minute walks every day, and a 90 minute walk once a week, so I have been listening to so many podcasts. Because of that other challenge, I doubt I’ll have any trouble completing this one :sweat_smile:.

What I'm planning on listening to in Japanese:

As usual, I’ll be watching lots of Japanese pro wrestling shows, which I do count for the purposes of this challenge! I’ll also count post-match comments videos and similar kinds of content.

However, this time around I want to try something a little bit different! I’m going to aim for actual comprehensible listening practice instead of transcript-assisted practice, and subtitle-less listening practice that is above my level.

I’m currently listening to a podcast called Oyasumi Japanese with Shun, though I’m going through the episodes pretty fast, and will probably have to find another podcast by the end of the month, haha. So I’m not sure what I’ll be listening to after that, but I’ll find something!

What I'm planning on listening to in Spanish:

I’m currently almost finished with the Duolingo podcast, though it is honestly too easy for me at this point, and I’d probably be better off moving on now. But I genuinely enjoy the podcast, so I decided to listen to the remaining episodes.

I’ll be moving on to a harder podcast soon, though, but I haven’t really looked into my options there, so I don’t know which one I’ll be choosing yet.

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I got a decent chunk of this week’s レベル7 done last night so hopefully I can finish it this evening and 告白 too, but if not 告白 for sure tomorrow as I usually do those readings in one shot. Should free me up for a little reading on Saturday :crossed_fingers: But I do expect to read slower as my schedule lately is swamped.

Oddly I was just on audiobook.jp and saw this:
image

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June 1, Thu of Week 10 of Spring Q2 2023 :cherry_blossom:

中国史 [1/11]. Some clips are up to 30-min long, so I might break into halves.

Repeat on Parade 4 - 1 [1/4].

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Hopefully this works: SndUp | Post info
No spoilers, just a ~30 second clip from chapter ~2 I think. It has 3 voice examples, one in particular I find especially annoying but I don’t like most of the cast tbh.

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Thank you for the sample. Yes, one of them sounds very anime-ish and would probably get on my nerves after a while, but surprisingly I didn’t find them insufferable. It seems I may have a higher tolerance for male voices. :eyes:

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31/05/2023 :fairy:t5: Home Post Link

super super late update but I’ve been ill for the past two days and coudn’t update what I did on the 31st. As usualy though, I listened to one episode from Japanese with Shun and watched a lot of videos in Japanese.


Alsoo, I loved doing this challenge with ya’ll!! I’m taking a break for a week, but I’ll be back in July :partying_face:

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Week 10 of Spring Q2 2023 :cherry_blossom:

June 2, Fri

中国史 [2/11] – (しん). I don’t understand the series that well, but I intend to force through the series, at least for references.

June 3, Sat

Parade 4 - 2 [2/4]. I wonder what really happened…

中国史 [3/11] – (かん). It gets better.

June 4, Sun

Parade 4 - 3 first half [3/4]

YUYU – 2 episodes of Europe trip.


Week 11 of Spring Q2 2023 :cherry_blossom:

June 5, Mon

Parade 4 - 3 latter half [4/4]

June 6, Tue

Parade 5 - 1 [1/7]

中国史 [4/11] – 三国志の世界. Actually, I bit into this one for a few days.

June 7, Wed

Parade 5 - 2 [2/7]

中国史 [5/11] – (ずい)(とう). Before another famous era.

June 8, Thu

Parade 5 - 3-4 [3-4/7]

中国史 [6/11] – 唐の盛衰. Also revisited pre-秦.

June 9, Fri

Parade 5 - 5 Part 1/3 [5/7]

Also revisited 秦, first half, which is the story, disregarding the map. 史記 continues after here.

June 10, Sat

Parade 5 - 5 Part 2-3/3 [6-7/7] (end audiobook)

中国史 [7/11] – (そう)の盛衰

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Summary post

Busy as usual, so my updates are a bit sparse. I thought I’d attempt to check in once a week at least, but, well, I’m already a bit late to that :sweat_smile:.

Haven’t missed a day yet, thanks to the walking challenge I’m doing! I do feel like listening to podcasts in Japanese has helped me a lot with building my listening comprehension. I’ve noticed some gains in listening comprehension during pro wrestling shows as well, though that really comes and goes. I do better when the wrestlers are speaking very straightforwardly. (Wrestlers love to not speak straightforwardly…)

It has been a bit of a quiet period for Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling, so I finished just two translations, one for the VOD show on May 27, and one for the June 4 show.

Here’s a photo from the May 27 show of a moment that made me laugh. Kamiyu and Shoko Nakajima teamed up in the main event for Kamiyu’s return to her hometown, facing Mahiro Kiryu and Aja Kong (not pictured). There is quite a bit of a height difference between Kamiyu and the “147cm Big Kaiju” Shoko, which meant that one of them was more effective than the other one when they tried this tag team move on Mahiro :sweat_smile:.

Besides TJPW, I’ve been watching a lot of Pro Wrestling NOAH in particular lately, and also tuned in for the big NOAH/New Japan Pro Wrestling/All Japan Pro Wrestling crossover show, All Together Again, which happened a couple days ago. I’m at kind of a frustrating point where my Japanese isn’t good enough for me to be able to completely follow what’s being said on my own, but I also get frustrated listening to the English commentary team talking over the wrestlers, and occasionally have quibbles with their translation choices. Maybe in another year from now, I’ll finally be free of the English commentary team, haha.

For Spanish, I finally finished the Duolingo podcast! Or, well, not quite; I stopped right before the latest season, because they were re-releasing old episodes with a bit of new content added, and I tried listening to one of them and just didn’t have the patience for that, so I decided to move on.

I did want to say, though, that the last season I listened to, The Mystery of the Itata, was genuinely incredible. Legitimately gripping stuff! I was enjoying it completely independently of language learning practice. It told the story of the Vapor Itata, which was a boat that sank in Chile over 100 years ago, but for a very long time was basically entirely forgotten about, despite the fact that like 400 people died, most of them exploited laborers who were traveling to work in the mines on false promises of a better future.

I searched around for another podcast that was a bit harder than the Duolingo podcast, and ended up trying out Radio Ambulante, which was actually made by some of the same people, and which covers similar content. It’s an NPR podcast that is made for native speakers, which intimidated me a lot at first :sweat_smile:. But I tried it out, and to my surprise, I can understand probably about 70-80% of it? I was honestly blown away. Some part of me never thought I’d ever get this far with any language I was attempting to learn.

I still have far to go, but it’s nice to see that I am in fact making real progress. I’ve watched a lot of Spongebob in Spanish, but this is my first time listening to purely auditory native media in Spanish, and one meant for adults, at that!

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June 11, Sun of Week 11 of Spring Q2 2023 :cherry_blossom:

YUYU, 1 new episode (latest one), 2 old.

Then I watched Kurzgesagt from the club, because someone has started. Showing not only JP sub, but also transcript, making it easy to rewind. (中国史 series has generated sub, not that useful, but It makes easy to rewind via transcript, so sub hidden.) Anyway, much of it is fast reading practice. I will probably relisten for the 1st of 3 weeks’ assignment.

For the rest of the month, I plan to listen to mainly podcasts for language learners. Next challenge, new plan. I would try to finish what I have started, though.


Week 12 of Spring Q2 2023 :cherry_blossom:

June 12, Mon

YUYU, 1 new episode, 1 old.

中国史 [8/11] – 唐と宋

June 13, Tue

Review on establishment and early 漢.

YUYU, 2 new episodes.

June 14, Wed

YUYU, 1 new episode.

June 15, Thu

YUYU, 1 new episode. Try listening to Rebuild.

June 16, Fri

YUYU, 1 new episode (latest). Rebuild, but it’s pretty long.

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Well, it’s summer now, but I have been listening to a new podcast that is pretty interesting and just about at the N4 level; Japanese Real Conversation with Imari. Sometimes you can hear the lack of knowledge of other cultures in the things the other host says, but I like Imari. They speak slowly enough that you can understand but not too slowly where it’s annoying if you’re at the N4 level.

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June 17, Sat of Week 12 of Spring Q2 2023 :cherry_blossom:

YUYU, 1 new episode.

I got started with Audible Trial, and thinking that Cop Craft is nice.

June 18, Sun

YUYU, 1 new episode.

中国史 [9/11] – (げん)モンゴル帝国(ていこく) first half.

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No takers then?

If no one steps up, I’ll go ahead and create the next thread sometime in the last week of June, probably on the 28th or 29th.

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June 19, Mon of Week 13 of Spring Q2 2023 :cherry_blossom:

中国史 [9/11] – 元とモンゴル帝国 latter half.

YUYU, 1 new episode.

June 20, Tue

YUYU, 1 new episode.

June 21, Wed

YUYU, 1 new episode.

June 22, Thu

中国史 [10/11] – (みん) first half.

June 23, Fri

YUYU, 2 new episode.

June 24, Sat

YUYU, 1 new episode.

June 25, Sun

YUYU, 1 new episode.

中国史 [10/11] – 明 latter half.

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Next challenge thread is up! Feel free to keep posting here until the official start date, July 1st :slight_smile:

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June 26, Mon of extra week of Spring Q2 2023 :cherry_blossom:

中国史 [11/11] – (しん) first half.

YUYU, 1 new episode.

June 27, Tue

YUYU, 1 new episode.

June 28, Wed

YUYU, 1 new episode. Also, a little of audiobooks.

June 29, Thu

YUYU, 1 new episode.

中国史 [11/11] – 清 latter half. I might continue on with history channel. No promise though.

June 30, Fri

YUYU, 1 new episode.

Cop Craft 1 Ch.1 probably can now be counted as somewhat listened.

Anyway, this is it for the off-season, and preparing for the next challenge.

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Summary post

I wanted to do one more update before the end of the challenge, but that totally didn’t happen, so I’ll just include it in the wrap-up post :sweat_smile:.

This post is a bit late, but I completed the challenge!

Jun
Week 22
Week 23
Week 24
Week 25
Week 26

= Japanese
= Japanese and Spanish

Most of my biggest gains over the past month have been in Spanish, not Japanese, but I did get a fair amount of both languages listened to! I finished two Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling translations: one for their June 11 Korakuen Hall show, and one for their June 18 show.

Here’s a photo from the Korakuen show. This is from the beginning of Pom Harajuku vs Himawari, who is one of TJPW’s new rookies this year. I love Himawari’s hairstyle here and want to try it out on my own hair someday, haha.

In non-wrestling news, I also watched my first Takarazuka Revue show when they made one available for international streaming (with English subtitles as an option)! Unfortunately there’s no VOD, and it partially overlapped TJPW, so I missed the first half hour… I did end up catching the re-streaming, though I had to miss the end of that stream to go on a walk for the walking challenge before the All Elite Wrestling/New Japan Pro Wrestling crossover show, Forbidden Door, haha.

Takarazuka was a lot of fun! I definitely want to watch more of their shows if I get the chance! Hopefully as my Japanese improves, I’ll have more options for watching them without having to wait for such limited opportunities as that stream. The Japanese honestly didn’t seem as difficult as I was expecting, though I definitely still needed the subtitles. But there were times where the subtitles were a bit off or mistimed, and my listening comprehension helped me out there.

I’m also almost done with the Oyasumi Japanese With Shun podcast, and I think my comprehension has definitely improved over the course of it! I’m undecided on which podcast I’m going to attempt next, but I’m contemplating trying the 日本語の聴解のためのpodcast again, since it was a bit too fast for me when I first attempted it, but it might be easier now.

Listening in Spanish

I listened to like 30 episodes of Radio Ambulante, and my comprehension definitely varies from episode to episode, so some of them I feel like I understand frustratingly little, and others I feel pretty good about. I think my initial estimate of understanding about 70-80% of it is accurate.

Two of the episodes were a multi-part account that was titled “Doctor: ¿Esto es normal?”, which was about plastic surgery in Colombia, and one girl’s surgery that ended in tragedy. I was really surprised at how good my comprehension was for this! I ended up googling a detail of the story afterward because I wanted to check that I’d understood it correctly, and I found this article by NPR (in English).

(spoilered for depressing stuff and also gnarly medical details)

I was particularly amazed that I understood what exactly the injection had done to her body and why it had killed her. I wasn’t even entirely sure that I’d remembered the word for lungs, but unfortunately I did hear correctly that the stuff she’d been injected with did in fact end up in her lungs…

Warning, listening to the episodes is particularly harrowing because they include audio recordings from the girl’s conversations with the “doctor” as she was slowly dying from the surgery.

It was pretty hard to listen to, honestly (emotionally, not language-difficulty-wise)! It was especially depressing to hear how big of an industry plastic surgery in general is there, and how a fairly high percentage of the surgeries happening there are done by unlicensed practitioners who are basically exploiting poor people. We don’t even know the true number of victims because many people are too embarrassed to come forward. And when these “doctors” do end up killing someone, they tend to be given pretty lenient sentences… The whole thing is just really sad.

On a lighter subject, I ended up not going on a walk for the last day of June because I’d already finished my walking challenge, so instead of listening to Radio Ambulante, I watched an episode of Bob Esponja.

I was amazed at how much my listening had already improved since the last time I’d watched any of the show! The podcasts have absolutely been helping my listening comprehension improve. It really made me want to double down on the Japanese podcast listening, too, because I could see how many gains I’d made with Spanish.

For the time being, though, I’m recommitting to reading practice for the next couple months instead of listening. I started doing the summer read every day challenge, though I haven’t formally made a post for it yet, haha.

I’ll probably be back for the summer listen every day challenge during the off month again!

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