TLDR; When I listen to Japanese, even if I can hear it clearly, I can not think of the meaning instantly unless I have japanese subtitles to read along
Hello everyone, i’ve been studying japanese for around 10-13 months now and i’ve been dedicating all of my time into the reading aspect of the language because those were my main priorities (I know, it’s not good lol). I can read N2 contents such as light novels or manga without that much hassle, and I can easily breeze through contents that are around N3 level. I can read the onyomi and kunyomi of kanjis and vocabs that I know correctly.
However, i’m starting to doubt myself if I really remember the vocabs because lately, i’ve been trying to develop my listening skills, but I can not remember what the words I hear means unless I have japanese subtitles (which has kanji) to read along.
Do I have to just listen more and write more and everything is going to be fine?
Edit: Thankyou everyone for your answers! I deeply appreciate it.
I came up with some self study plan from everyone’s suggestions, which I will try listening to podcasts that are aimed towards beginners first, then i’ll start watching slice of life anime without subtitles when I feel like my listening foundation is strong enough. After that, i’ll try to watch dramas, series, and news without subtitles. Again, thakyou for all of your answers!
3 comments
Listening is a separate skill to reading.
You’ve practiced reading so much that it’s now easy for you. You see squiggles and your brain now interprets them without much conscious effort.
What you haven’t done is listen enough (without the aid of reading subtitles). You need your brain to hear these sounds and interpret them as words and sentences. So more listening training needed. (Note: Turn off the subtitles unless you really really need to know what was said).
It’s going to be fine.
I usually give this advice for those struggling with reading but it works for listening just as well: Try to practise this skill a bit in isolation with very easy material aiming for a longer time.
You’ve practised your reading skills well and achieved a high level. Drop the intermediate and advanced resources for a bit and train your ears with beginner dialog aiming for 15/30/60 minutes of uninterrupted listening. Once you manage that you can up the difficulty bit by bit. With your knowledge of the language, it shouldn’t take you long 😉
I also learned japanese exclusively for reading. You probably already know that this involves doing a LOT more kanji than is efficient for speaking/listening lol.
The result is that, when I met my now-girlfriend (native japanese), she was amused that my kanji reading level was higher than hers despite my being unable to say or understand really basic things.
Listening, reading, and speaking really are 3 very distinct skills. You can be very good at one and terrible at the other. HOWEVER, there is lots of overlap and you can enhance it by HOW you study.
When you do vocab (flash cards) make sure you have an example sentence with that word ON the card, and read the sentence aloud when you do the card. It takes longer but this will help you with both listening and speaking.
When you read, make sure you are reading “aloud” (in your head is fine, but make sure you know the readings for what you’re reading and get used to producing them).
If you do these things then your reading work will also transfer over somewhat.
And at the end of the day, the only way to practice speaking is to, well, speak. Hopefully to someone who knows what’s natural so they can correct you. Unfortunately, nothing is as good as speaking to and with a native. Don’t expect to be able to speak smoothly at all until you’ve spent many hours speaking.