First off all sorry for the lengthy post. The question is basically ask in the title. So if you don’t want to read all that just skip it. Basically just listing some thoughts I have.
Reading I think is much easier grasp than listening for several reasons. These are just reasons for me and certainly do not have to be true for anybody else.
When it comes to reading first of all you have more time to think about it, the text won’t just disappear.
Listening you have to think much faster especially when you are still in a beginner state which makes the process of understanding, especially which a language that works so different compared to English or also to German (my native tongue) very difficult.
One of the biggest troubles I have in my state of knowledge that when it comes to listening I can’t quite yet make the switch from thinking in „German“ (or English) Grammar to „Japanese“.
Also when listening it is I think much more easier to miss something being said that you wouldn’t have missed when you would have read it.
I think there is another maybe a bit dangerous issue when it comes to Japanese, that when you read even though you don’t remember the pronunciation but you somehow remember the word from seeing the Kanji if already learned, you might still be able to understand it.
Also for reading there are many helpful tools like Yomichan and dictionaries that make it easy to look up unknown vocab on the spot. When listening it is I think it is much more difficult to look things up.
I tried watching some anime/series with Japanese subtitles but it becomes not fun or enjoyable if you find yourself pausing literally afer every sentence because to read and try to understand the subtitles. For some reasons and that’s just me it becomes even more frustrating if you can understand the subtitles and think „I know what it means, why can’t I understand it when I hear it?“ But generally I got to the conclusion that as for now this approach might be a bit too hard for me.
So what are good approaches to get into listening?
1 comment
Believe it or not, listening to a language even if you do not have your full focus on trying to understand what you hear, will still help you learn. It helps you develop an ear for the sound of the language. Over time you will begin to pick out more and more words from exposure.
If you like anime, but find it frustrating to watch it with Japanese audio AND subs, then don’t watch it that way. You can have subs in a language you understand and it will still be helpful to your progress. Maybe you hear a long sentence that you can’t parse, but you catch just a single word and are able to match with a word in the subtitles. That’s progress and it will help you build your listening comprehension over time
If you’re really set on watching with Japanese subs, try watching something that you’ve seen before and already know the plot of very well. Then you won’t get frustrated from struggling to understand the story.
Personally I don’t really care for anime and don’t watch a lot of tv in general. But I really enjoy listening to music and like a lot of jrock….it’s what inspired me to start learning in the first place. So there is lots of music I love and have listened to many times without understanding it. As I’ve progressed through studying, I’ve noticed myself catching more and more phrases from the lyrics without even trying to. Every once in awhile I will sit down and try to analyze lyrics but most of my advancement with listening has just been from passively listening to music.