About 3 years ago I finished my time at the language school in Osaka I was studying at, having reached N2. At this point I moved back to my own country to get a degree, with plans to exchange and later move back to Japan. I’m planning to take classes in Japanese when I exchange, so I feel a need (and want) to study more to get as good as possible before going.
I commute to work, and love listening to audiobooks on my way, as well as when I do simple tasks like laundry or dishes. I would like to move into listening in Japanese to get exposure, as best I can with the schedule I have now. My goal is to understand as much Japanese as possible, I’m not worried about speaking as I’ve always excelled at that. Now, I naively downloaded the first Harry Potter book and started listening this morning, only to realise I can only understand about 30% of what’s going on. Too many unusual and difficult words, and the pronounciation was not helping.
With this as context, I would like to ask if anyone has any suggestions to audiobooks, free or paid, I don’t really mind, that are good for my level. At a book store in Japan they once suggested I read works of 東野圭吾, as they apparently were popular among foreigners, having relatively easy language for learners. I haven’t really gotten into any of them yet, mostly because I haven’t been prioritising time to sit down and read, but I have finished a book by 乙野四方字, called “skeleton in the closet”, which I quite enjoyed.
TL;DR
Low N2 level wanting to listen to Japanese audiobooks for exposure, looking for tips and suggestions!
8 comments
Not sure if youll find any that you can understand at your level yet, the easiest I’ve found were magic tree house ones (though if you can understand them they might be kind of boring… but after listening to a few others will feel a lot easier)
the easiest not for kids I’ve tried were:
かがみの孤城
ひげを剃る。そして女子高生を拾う
また、同じ夢を見ていた
妹さえいればいい。
Also before listening to audiobooks I listened to a lot of Japanese with Noriko which I think helped a lot. You could also try studying the words of the audiobooks ahead of time (or go through them chronologically as you listen) [jpdb.io](https://jpdb.io) has a lot of premade decks of books that have audiobooks.
also I made a bookshelf of the ones I’ve listened to if you want ideas. most were pretty comprehensible for me so most of the early ones should be pretty easy: [https://bookmeter.com/users/1081142/bookcases](https://bookmeter.com/users/1081142/bookcases)
also a lot of the ones from 小学館 have all of the characters with different voice actors, those are a lot easier
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Have you considered listening to news broadcasts instead of audiobooks?
You could try listening to TV shows maybe? They tend to be easier than audiobooks since there’s a lot less vocabulary.
Harry Potters known for being annoyingly difficult in Japanese (depending on the translation). They also decided to go whole hog and put Hagrid in dialect and have Dumbledore talk like a old man. I struggled my way through the first couple chapters, thinking I just sucked at reading. Then I gave up and switched to reading the translation of Percy Jackson and was amazed by how easily I could just sit down and read it.
So yeah, pick literally anything other than Harry Potter and you’ll likely have better results.
Generally speaking, it’s easier to understand things if you already have an idea of the plot. That way you’re focusing on the language and not having to put extra energy into keeping the plot points and characters straight. I therefore recommend you start with listening to something you’ve already read before. It could be 乙野四方字 or something that you’ve already read in English.
I found light novels to be way more (1) understandable, (2) fast-paced, (3) engaging, and (4) easy to listen to for longer periods of time compared to typical fiction. Also easier to follow even if I missed a few lines. The narration on some are amazing – more ‘acted’ than ‘read.’ It feels like an ‘audio drama.’ If you try a bunch and do get hooked on one, it’s nice that they have so many volumes.
On most platforms like Audible Japan, they’ll be recognizable by the anime-like artwork.
My Japanese is somewhere btw N3-N2.
I would recommend you 流浪の月.
There is an audible option for it too. Please check it out!
In no particular order 魔女の宅急便, 本好きの下剋上, 時をかける少女, and 三姉妹探偵団 are pretty easy on the ears.