I started learning Japanese 18 weeks ago(can read and write hiragana, katakana and still navigating my way through kanji) , but my listening ability have been poor.
* Maybe learn some vocab (assuming you look up each word)
What they don’t do as well is
* Realistically represent grammar (the grammar is fragmented and torn apart to fit song structure of course)
* Speak at a realistic rate
* Use normal vocabulary
And what is more difficult is:
* A lot of songs use cultural references which is pretty hard for a beginner. E.g. there is a song which mentions a certain plant, well the significance is that this plant is one of the first signs of spring and represents youthful love, but you would have no idea why he’s singing about horsetails or some such nonsense
Absolutely, yes. But you have to temper your expectations depending on the type of music you like and the type you listen to for training listening.
When I was a beginner, listening to relatively slow songs with conversational tones like [these](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBfUpSa74L5Br6iu2U_hG47bpjCWWcCXW) was great. I still had to look up unknown words, which I kept in a notebook, but I pretty much never had the notebook when I listened to music. That made the vocab stick in context. It also helped me to be able to interpret information as it came. That’s why I recommended *slow* songs in particular.
[Ikkai (Japanese Pitch Accent Is Just Impossible – Listen Carefully)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kd2FmjVjnA) So I’m wondering why they’re sometimes pronounced the…
2 comments
IMO kinda
As an alternative, for beginner listening you can get a lot out of [Nihongo con teppei](https://www.youtube.com/@nihongoconteppei)
I think songs let you do some good stuff like
* Learn to hear where words begin and end
* Learn to hear the mora
* Maybe learn some vocab (assuming you look up each word)
What they don’t do as well is
* Realistically represent grammar (the grammar is fragmented and torn apart to fit song structure of course)
* Speak at a realistic rate
* Use normal vocabulary
And what is more difficult is:
* A lot of songs use cultural references which is pretty hard for a beginner. E.g. there is a song which mentions a certain plant, well the significance is that this plant is one of the first signs of spring and represents youthful love, but you would have no idea why he’s singing about horsetails or some such nonsense
Absolutely, yes. But you have to temper your expectations depending on the type of music you like and the type you listen to for training listening.
When I was a beginner, listening to relatively slow songs with conversational tones like [these](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBfUpSa74L5Br6iu2U_hG47bpjCWWcCXW) was great. I still had to look up unknown words, which I kept in a notebook, but I pretty much never had the notebook when I listened to music. That made the vocab stick in context. It also helped me to be able to interpret information as it came. That’s why I recommended *slow* songs in particular.