Hear me out. I've been posting in this subreddit for 10 years on this account.
I've been learning Japanese for at least 10 years on and off now. The biggest growth of improvement was from 2023. Speaking & Listening.
From 2023 -> 2024 I put more conscious effort into listening via random clips.
From 2024 -> 2025 I took the entire year seriously to improve my listening by socializing with Japanese people frequently but also listening to podcasts everyday if possible on Youtube and Spotify.
You know those podcasts where the Japanese Native is talking about their daily life or random topics. Yeah those ones.
At first, they were perfect because everything sounded like a blur and I couldn't follow along so just simply being able to comprehend was the end goal.
Now after 2 years, it's extremely easy to understand at native speed and I came to a sudden realization while I was working out at the gym. I realized that I found it really boring hearing about someone talk about how they went to the grocery store, got groceries, and ran a few errands. lol. The reason it took long to realize is because I stopped listening to podcasts for months and instead relied on just conversations in real life.
Not trying to throw any shade. I just found it funny because I also realized, I would never listen to an English podcast speaking about the same topics lol. I love podcasts about technology so I'm going to finally look for Japanese ones related to that.
Just wanted to share that.
by japan_noob