I first heard YouTuber Dogen mention this a few years ago. Then recently, idol Sally Amaki said this on the Trash Taste video.
I’m keen to attempt it, but it’s really daunting for a beginner. Honestly, I think I’ll be parroting a lot without understanding the context. Also, it’s A LOT of lines to memorize. Of course I could take it bite-sized, but it does seem like this is quite the gargantuan task for someone new.
Anyone here did this before? Did it work for you?
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Are you asking if it helps with learning a language? Anything specific? I would say it helps as a form of practice, probably mostly in speaking. I do know of a Japanese person who along with coaching from a teacher and memorizing every line of dialogue in Harry Potter movies achieved a very high level of English, they sound native basically.
Why would you even do that to yourself? You will forget everything that you memorized in no time(unless you keep memorizing the same thing over and over again in a determined span of time). Just stick to the basic, learn through sentences/texts and add the words to your anki collection.
I would recommend learning grammar points and vocabulary and then spending time watching episodes and seeing where you notice those grammar points being used. Maybe write down and practice a few examples.
However, I don’t really think just being able to recite an anime episode from memory is actually going to help with much. You’re not learning what is being said or how it is formed, you are just memorizing a series of characters or sounds. Ever since I was a child listening to Japanese music I have committed lots of songs to memory, however aside from a few choice lines or words, I couldn’t fully translate those songs to English, and I definitely don’t have a greater understanding of the mechanics of the language just by memorizing sounds alone.
Do you have the link/time stamp of them saying this? Feels like you’re confusing shadowing with memorization, maybe?
Also, help with what exactly? Pronunciation?
It’s helpful as long as you understand what it’s helpful for. After you watch something 50 times and have made an effort to try to understand it, you probably will. A youtuber Days and Words who did this earlier in the year claims that after 50 times listening to something like this, it’s actually entirely unreasonable that there would be moments he didn’t understand in that piece of content.
But this isn’t a comprehension exercise (although repetition is great for comprehension). Dogen recommends it (as do I) because when you get that repetition to the point of memorization of the lines, you’re not just memorizing the lines themselves, but the way they’re delivered, the way the words sound phonetically, the pitch of the individual word, and the intonation and emotion with which the phrases are said. Memorizing them creates a sort of word/sentence bank in your head of words and phrases you **confidently know** the correct pronunciations of. This is a somewhat common strategy; there are a number of people I’ve seen on youtube whose names slip my mind who came by fairly great accents by repeating and memorizing entire youtube videos, which may be less daunting than trying to commit a 90 minute movie to memory.
When you say memorizing and reciting an entire episode, can you give me an example? I’ve been studying Japanese since 2009 and even tho I’ve taken up to 2nd intermediate or higher intermediate, I’m still far from being actual advanced or expert near fluent level, and there are still so many things to learn with grammar and conjugation rules that I get confused about and trying to master. I remember in some of my Japanese courses we learn to memorize conversations and I think that’s one of the best ways to absorb and practice Japanese conversations with people. Some teachers in college or university don’t do that though but I know we also have conversation stuff part of the quiz, test, or mid-term that counts quite a bit of our grade
Some of the Koreans in language school memorised the skits in Minna no Nihongo. They taught me their system.
Before memorizing a skit, they had memorised all the vocabulary and grammar points. They said this “system” boosted memory, pronunciation, and speedy recall. These Koreans were great even in the N2 and higher classes.
MNN has the audio files for good pronunciation. I shadowed these too.
At the beginner level, an entire episode of a show has vocabulary and grammar so far ahead of you I think it would be a waste of time.
You could look at Supernative, which has some clips of tv shows with the subtitles (and furigana).
https://supernative.tv/ja/
You’ll do it once and burn out. It’s unsustainable. Languages are learned over years with consistent, sustainable practice.
In my language school, the head teacher strongly encouraged beginning westerners to memorise a sentence for each new grammar point.
She said the Japanese was so different from English that this was the fastest way to get used of Japanese. And that somewhere at the intermediate level it would be “less necessary”.
This is not a popular technique here; it is difficult and time consuming. And Asians tend to memorise a lot of stuff. But for me, memorising grammar sentences helped boost my memorisation skills and baked in a lot of Japanese grammar. Japanese is a lot easier once the grammar becomes natural IMHO.
Improved memorisation is important for learning all the vocab and kanji to become (somewhat) functional in Japanese.
I don’t know about a whole episode script, but learning the lyrics to a song and translating them myself helped me hang on to a bunch of vocab. AND the rhyming makes it easier to memorize.