So about my current listening routine:
At the moment I mostly use japanese podcasts aimed for learners as listening practice. Preferably shorter (like not longer than 20 minutes) ones which have japanese subtitles or where a japanese script in some form is available.
1st) I listen to it without subtitles (or with the screen turned away if the subs can’t be hidden) and try to understand as much as possible on my own.
2nd) I listen to it again with subtitles on and wright down any word I didn’t understand or am unsure of understanding.
So that at the end I have a list of “unknown” words like this: https://imgur.com/a/CojQrpN
3rd) I look up the unknown words and fill out the list ( https://imgur.com/a/Lb2k9bL)
(The (*) marked words are words I actually knew already but somehow didn’t remember)
4th) After a bit of a break a come back and try to listen to the podcast again without subs.
Ps. Sometimes I come back to stuff I have already listened to too see if I can still understand it.
PPS. I also sometimes try to watch, listen to other stuff that is not aimed for learners even if it is above my level (like interviews of singers/music groups I like, for example). Then I will just try to understand as much as possible but don’t make too much efforts too look up everything I don’t understand. Also I would come back to those videos from time to time and it’s a rewarding feeling if you can understand more than the last time (even if it is just a bit more).
Thank you for reading and hopefully some advice how I can improve.
7 comments
(I also listen to a lot of japanese asmr stuff, somehow forgot to mention that (not that it is important)).
I don’t think I have advice,this seems really tiring from my prospective but if you can keep it up with it,seems really a solid method.
My only advice would be maybe don’t write the only word you don’t know but the actual full sentence so you have a better understanding of the context.
I just listen to podcast and if I miss some word whatever,but your method seems way more profiecient.Keep it up!
It’s not necessarily everyone’s interest but I highly recommend Hideo Kojima presents Brain Structure. The episodes are each uploaded in native japanese and with the kind of translation where there is delayed voiceover. Not sure how that’s called but you sure get what I mean. The way the episodes are layed out makes it so that you can listen to the japanese version and then the translated version right after. It’s really fun to pick up more amd more the first time around (having context from the start is a big boost).
Transcribing is often overlooked, but very powerful.
It also makes sense to listen to very easy content, where you know basically all the words, even better if you can speed it up (without distorting sound quality).
I was doing this a year ago but it got pretty tiring to constantly try to transcribe everything so I lost interest in this method.
A method that I found better for myself was simply just learning new vocabulary each day by memrise or anki and then watching a video afterwards. This way I am always learning new vocabulary by studying them but then also reinforcing them by watching random videos.
It’s worked out as now when I watch content, I understand enough so that if there’s a new word; I can just naturally remember it from hearing it.
The only advice I have is that while this is a good method, the problem is it can be tiring and it might end up burning you out. I also suggest that if you’re listening something four times and that podcast happens to be 30 minutes or longer, you’re spending quite a lot of time on just one piece of material. Even as a beginner you will see more benefit from a variety of content, even if you don’t understand a lot. Of course it depends on your level, but at a certain point your brain is internalizing a variety of sounds that will get meaning applied to them with enough exposure. It might be a better idea to cap it at 2 maybe listens max so you can improve the variety and allowing your brain to intake more kinds of people speaking, speaking styles, accents, and age differences.
When doing ‘active’ listening (i.e., steps 2 and 3 in your list) I would suggest going line by line, making sure you fully understand it. Look up unknown words immediately. Pause and rewind multiple times if necessary until you can hear every word and understand the sentence. Then move on to the next sentence. No need to pause if you can understand it in real time.
That’s what I do anyway. You do whatever works for you, but in particular I would suggest looking up unknown words immediately. Writing them down for later isn’t going to do anything to help your comprehension in the moment, and will make it harder to understand anything that follows because you will be missing critical context.