Hi,
As the title says, I’m in this weird space of begintermediate where all the basic sentences I hear are too easy, but everything on television is way too hard to understand and I find it difficult to get material appropriate for my level.
Im learning for 4 years now and I do have a native Japanese teacher on italki and I work through genki and wanikani, but I find myself enormously bored sometimes, because it feels like all work and no play.
My goal is to understand spoken japanese and most of what I do is learning written japanese.
I do get the need of learning vocabulary, but it feels like most of what I do is learning the wrong things first.
What are/were your go to listening practices or even any study material that catapulted you to the next level?
I do watch terrace house and some anime, but I find myself always going back and forth switching subtitles and not really enjoying it as much as I could.
Thanks
Edit:
Also im looking for friends that learn Japanese or are japanese, so if you want to study together, talk about stuff or anything. Drop me a line.
12 comments
Maybe watch some vtubers? That’s what improved my listening a lot but I can’t say it’ll work for everyone
i would say just try to listen to the hard stuff. try to pick up what you can and you may be surprised and what you know 3 months down the line.
Just wanted to say I’m in the same boat, I’ve been learning for 2 years and really just want to be able to converse. Thanks for making this post, it’s exactly where I’m at too lol
Get Japanese friends and speak with them as much as you can. Also watching Japanese streams is great.
[JapanesePod101 on YouTube](https://youtube.com/c/japanesepod101) has several playlists for improving listening skills. Try watching those?
If you find yourself switching between subtitle languages though, it sounds like the problem may not be your listening skills. You might want to work some more on vocabulary and reading comprehension.
You might try some of the old TV shows with Samurai. They tend to speak in complete sentences that sound more like an intermediate level textbook.
Watch kids’ stuff on TV.
Not anime, kids’ stuff.
Anpanman, Hanakappa, stuff like that will help you out with hearing the same vocab at a more native pace.
Weird suggestion I’m sure, but Vtubers. You get a lot of native Japanese (some weird gobi though) and internet vocab or slang. So its real Japanese. On the other hand, clips can be short and they come with subtitles in case there’s unfamiliar vocab. So you can go at your own pace, pick someone you don’t mind watching, and test yourself.
Same with anime, except you get more non-native elements in there.
Find myself in the exact spot, and have been enjoying the content on https://youtube.com/c/ComprehensibleJapanese extremely well done! Both fun for the topic, but spoken and drawn (instead of subtitles) in a very comprehensible way.
Maybe add your age and location to help with making friends?
Just putting myself in a position where I was forced to use Japanese really helped me improve. Watching tv is fine for picking up vocabulary but it is much different than actually talking to a native speaker. I still don’t really enjoy watching too much Japanese TV, I find it pretty tedious but it’s easier now that I understand what’s going on. If you need some help or would like someone to talk with in Japanese just send me a DM. I’m not always available but I wouldn’t mind helping you out!
I’ve been studying for 8, my listening skills are just now getting good (not great). Vtubers we’re very helpful