I’m thinking of picking up Japanese again after I previously learned a bit as a younger kid. Aside from obviously studying, I’ve heard that exposing yourself to japanese media throughout the day is a really good way of subconsciously getting a feel for the language and taking it in. Does anyone have any recommendations for movies or tv shows good for just turning on and listening to? As well as that, are there any good Japanese podcasts I should try to listen to? I’m looking for something that’s not anime, because although I watch and enjoy anime, it’s… well it’s animated and can often exaggerate a lot of things, including the language used. Thanks for the help!
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🙂 You should be studying anything you immerse in. There will likely be words you don’t know, or skills you need to build up like listening or reading. But sure:
Personally I watch a lot of Netflix Originals, so a lot of those don’t have matching subs…
* Good Morning Call – Jdrama
* Kake Gurui – Jdrama (not the anime)
I normally push people away from things with niche vocabularies… like Military, Politics (High Fantasy), Crime shows, and anything dubbed in Japanese because the subtitles won’t match… but you might try:
* The new Resident Evil series
* BBC’s Dracula
* Squid Game
I wouldn’t be too worried about exaggeration or lack thereof. Language is language is language is language. So exaggerated or not it all goes into helping you with sentence structure and comprehension. A cursory knowledge of formality levels helps with the rest of the “bad” things that anime will teach you.
And even then, in real life application you’ll find those bad habits will be washed away sooner than later.
(as a matter of fact… I kind of went the opposite… I was really formal from traditionally learning for a long time… and then chatrooms and media taught me things like って in place of は and how to talk informally). As a bonus animated things, by nature, have to be well enunciated. 🙂 So there’s no struggle in picking apart words.
J-Dramas are good for learning how to pick apart slurred words in everyday spoken speech. You also get the benefit of seeing natural gestures and things you may not see in Anime. But it’s not going to destroy you either way.
My thing has always been understanding the language and picking up natural phrasing and sentence structure… and less about what is or is not exaggerated (I’ve grown up with cartoons I think I can differentiate a bit) and naturally slurred speech… you know things I could always fine tune later… so that segways me into the next part:
Dubbed shows – Still good for phrasing, grammar structure, and comprehension. They’re localized by Japanese people for Japanese people so it’s gotta be correct. The only potential downside really is that the speech itself has the hills and valleys of English in the dubbing. But to me it’s still one of those minor things that I’d either A. have to work on regardless as a native English speaker, or B. is a lesser problem I can fine tune as a later date and won’t hinder my communication anyway. :/ That and you don’t get native Japanese gestures and things, but eh.
🙂 So personally, I’d just go with anything and everything. Some things will work out and be easy. Others will require more effort, word look ups, etc. Some just won’t work out at all. Jump around, find stuff you like, it all adds up in the end.
[https://learnjapanese.moe/](https://learnjapanese.moe/)
You might want to elaborate on your level, interests, technological accessibility, etc., unless you find something to the effect of “anything in Japanese helps” a useful answer.
Not clear if you’re inside or outside Japan. If the latter, you can stream yoiTV for free, at least for the time being. It has over 70 channels of current Japanese TV, including all the NHK channels, live plus 4 weeks of archive. You’ll quickly find programs that match your level and your interests. Check the r/JTV subReddit for more details.
[Beginner friendly podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/0TWRqowC0TPhXlG79M0qzv?si=01a67d7979454c64) with transcripts if you pay on their patreon.
[Japanese news that is live 24/7](https://www.youtube.com/user/ANNnewsCH) I play this in the background when doing daily stuff, really good if you just want to surround yourself with Japanese
The Terrace House series on Netflix is useful as language is not exaggerated like in anime; you can use the ‘language learning with netflix’ extension to see both English and JPN subtitles, which is very useful!
In terms of music, you can just look at the spotify JPN charts and go from there, but my favourite artist are Yuuri and Anri, specifically her Timely!! album([This](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2lRrIsiPTuh43FA6g42x2i?si=20fab8fcd02244f6) is a playlist someone recently posted on the subredit for Japanese music; haven’t listened but it may be useful for you).
>exposing yourself to Japanese media throughout the day is a really good way of subconsciously getting a feel for the language and taking it in.
I 100% agree, and the news website I linked is probably the best for this specific form of listening.