Apologies for the poorly worded question.
I’m working my way through Tobira 1 and at the start of the chapter there’s a couple dialogues. Would it be useful in the long run to listen to these dialogues and attempt to write down (in Japanese, not trying to translate) what I am hearing before actually reading the dialogue? Do you think it would help listening comprehension or do you think it would be an unnecessary challenge for a beginner?
Thank you in advance!
5 comments
It’s an unnecessary challenge for a beginner that *would* help immensely with listening comprehension, as I see it.
Even if you can’t fully transcribe it, I think listening once first before reading is a good habit to get into. Eventually you will be able to understand more and more on the first listen. This is one of the strategies used in courses by the French company Assimil, which makes well-regarded learning materials for a variety of languages.
Why the downvotes? Was this question already answered somewhere? I searched and didn’t see it. Should it have been posted in the daily thread instead? I feel every time I see posts in this sub they’re always either 0 votes or in the negatives.
I wouldn’t do a full transcription/translation, but I’d note where I’m having trouble. This would likely be vocab or grammar I’m not 100% on.
Listening skill comes from listening to a *lot* of content. Focusing intensively like that seems to help me, but only in small doses. I need to fill the rest of my time just paying attention to what people are trying to say, not to how exactly they’re trying to say it.
Tobira doesn’t include enough listening content to matter. You need podcasts, tv shows, online video, or in-country immersion to get enough content.
Personally, when I take a sound excerpt for review I usually do transcribe it. This is a record of what I thought I was hearing at the time and might not be 100% accurate, but it doesn’t have to be.
And I don’t find it easy enough to be worthwhile unless I have [level 5 comprehension](https://refold.la/simplified/stage-2/a/measure-comprehension) most of the time. I don’t think it’s worth the effort as a beginner. If you want to mine excerpts, listen to things that allow you to read along.