I took a conversation test today for my university class Japanese 2A
It hasn’t been extraordinarily difficult and I’ve maintained fairly high marks. But all tasks have either been writing, reading or recorded oral tasks where we prepare a script. But this task was on a random topic and a conversation, I not only had to listen and understand what the examiner said, but also formulate my own answers.
I’ll be honest, I thought it went dreadfully, I could just barely hang on by hearing specific words and guessing the context and could not think of ways to apply my grammar at all. It’s really discouraging because this is where language skills matter most.
But I’ve never learned ways to improve my listening, all we do is listen to some dialogues every couple of weeks. And it doesn’t feel like it helps me be more prepared to listen and digest. Naturally I should study dialogues more, but I’m just not motivated to unless I know I’ll see results.
How do people here improve their listening and cope with how much more challenging it is than simply being able to read and write? It makes me feel like I’ve plateaued.
3 comments
Watch television or listen to podcasts. Many people swear by watching children’s tv because it’s usually relatively simple. There are various easy Japanese news podcasts. NHK has やさしい日本語ニュース. I’m a fan of podcasts that mix English and Japanese because you can use the English to understand the Japanese from context.
Be careful when watching shows, stuff like anime or far-out shows can be harder to work with since the actors aren’t speaking as they usually would. I loved watching Tokyo Vice, and it helped me a bit.
Flashcard sentences are prob my main exposure, then tutoring, then songs, then youtube, then anime.