Hey guys. **TLDR**: my japanese is in a wierd spot, and I’d like some advice on the best way to proceed for conversational level in the next 50 days. (I don’t expect to BE conversational, I really just need listening practice advice
The current state of my japanese is the following: I have decent vocabulary and a good understanding of kanji compared to my other skills, so reading and writing is ok. Speaking and listening is my biggest problem area. I can convey basic wants, desires, and explanations, but it is by no means smooth. Listening however, is abysmal. In the heat of conversation, it is so hard to for me to pick up meaning in one go. Arguably listening is the most important aspect to a conversation as if you can’t understand the other person, it’s not much of a conversation. I immerse for hours a day which is helping, and also use Anki so I listen to the cards rather than read them for meaning. Just wondering if anyone has other methods or strategies they have found helpful. Please give me listening advice tips if you have any.
Detailed Story:
I began studying Japanese about 3 years ago during the pandemic. I took two classes that only covered half of Genki 1. After that, I essentially stopped studying any grammar, reading, or listening practice and only studied Kanji for the next 2 years (don’t ask me why, I regret it).
Flashforward to a few months ago, when Japan finally reopened, and I booked my trip and realized “wow, I’ve completely slacked on my japanese for the past two years”. Luckily, my study of kanji has actually made my progress relatively quick in these past few months, as vocabulary has allowed me to mostly focus on grammar, which I have been learning quickly.
I just finished N4 level grammar, and will be using the next few days to seal up any holes I have in that area before I move on to N3. The current state of my japanese is the following: Reading is decent, writing (texting) is decent, speaking is suboptimal (I can convey myself in most situations, but it is by no means smooth), but my listening is terrible. My reading skill is so far ahead of my listening, I will forget that I know a word if I hear it but don’t see the kanji. Essentially, I just need advice effective ways to improve listening. I immerse for hours a day which is helping, and also use Anki so I listen to the cards rather than read them for meaning. Just wondering if anyone has other methods or strategies they have found helpful.
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Thanks for reading!
8 comments
Best way to improve listening is to listen more. There is really no short cut around it. Natives will always tend to say things fast and connected and the only way to get used to it is to listen more.
You are doing exactly what I did to improve my Korean listening. It does work, but it takes a lot of hours. The only problem I found with Anki cards is the sentences have no context so they are often hard to latch on to (until you “overlearn them.)
You could also try listening to lots of things “below you level.” Such as comprehensible input or beginner stories or podcasts. Anything at the level where you can follow it with only vocab holding you back in places. Basically successful listening helps listening.
Listen more.
Your two keywords are “comprehensible” and “compelling.”
For comprehensible: textbook materials for or under your level, an anime that’s a good fit for your JLPT level (people have lists, someone can post one for you), podcasts aimed at beginners ([here’s a list](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17P2dBQHnBnHcG3ua_24IO6sP9RDC-5b3WHV9Ri2N5qU/htmlview)).
As for compelling, it should be something that you’re already interested in, or maybe it’s a challenge that you’re trying to complete – just something that’s going to boost your engagement.
Highly suggest watching media with subtitles. It does a lot of double reinforcement of learning and helps you to start to distinguish sounds. Plus it’s fun to notice when and how the subs differ from the vocal track.
I downloaded Japanese podcasts to my phone and play them at 90% speed on VLC. Some of the podcasts have transcripts so I’d listen first and then listen again when I could read along. This helped me a bit.
And if you watch something with subtitles, watch it once to enjoy it then watch it again without the subs. This has helped me a bit. YMMV.
Listening with subtitles or conversation classes with a tutor who is willing to write the kanji when you don’t understand a word. Or playing visual novels with voiceover that match the text.
Funny enough, I’ve been in a similar situation (also got back to studying Japanese during the pandemic) and I know the above is helping a ton.
Another commenter mentioned listening to podcasts at reduced speed. I highly recommend it as well! I started at as low as .6 or .7 speed (I think the Google Podcasts app lets you adjust to that speed). The spreadsheet of podcasts linked is great. I highly recommend the first one in there (Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners). I listened for 1-3 hours per day every day for the last couple months. I went from having to listen at .7 speed and understanding 30-40% to now understanding 80-90% of that podcast at full speed (while looking up words from the podcast occasionally, and continuing vocab and grammar study). Teppei’s recommended way to listen to his podcast is to listen from episode 1-100 and then start over at episode 1, listen to episode 1-100, and repeat that as many times as needed until you feel like you’ve got an okay grasp of those episodes, and then move on to the next 100 episodes.
Here’s also a list of comprehensible input youtube channels I highly recommend (start with the first two in the list):
https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/xebcjc/comprehensible_input_listening_youtube_resources/
Get the Satori Reader app, you can adjust it to your level and play content sentence by sentence. Try listening first then seeing how much you understand.