I have been learning intensively for 8 months now and can read with only a few issues, I know about 2100 kanji and about 2800 words. But I have been neglecting listening a lot, I can barely understand anything, even simple conversations. When I do listening, I find myself really concentrating and then getting distracted because I don’t understand much. Where do I start?
by Egyption_Mummy
17 comments
Nihongo teppei.
tadoku free graded readers’ mp3 tracks
Listening is just hard! To me, it’s one of the hardest aspects of a language to try and consciously understand. There are a lot of interesting videos you can find discussing listening, how it relates to immersion, how you can tap into your inherent ability to understand patterns in language and form your own mental grammar. The most important thing I learned from all those videos was developing the ability to tolerate ambiguity. It’s a skill in and of itself, and one that you develop at the same time as listening. It took me a long time to be comfortable with just not understanding what’s being said and accepting that my brain was still benefiting, even when you don’t understand. If you’re at all interested in the topic, there are lots of people who can explain the science of it better than me so I’d recommend watching some videos on the topic.
You know much more vocabulary than I do, so you may not struggle as much as me, but I started with the easiest Nihongo Con Teppei podcasts and listened to a few hundred episodes since they’re so short. At that point I felt much more comfortable with listening, and I could’ve moved on to harder materials if I had more vocab down.
This used to be my problem but now listening is one of my best skills.
YouTube was my solution! I like to watch Japanese teachers on YouTube with Japanese subtitles on. The subtitles helps aid with tying the text with the spoken words and has the added bonus of reading and kanji practice.
At first, it was very hard understanding anything. But after listening every day even for just 15 minutes a day, after a month or so I could understand almost everything.
It’s best if you find videos that are about your level and even better if it’s at least 90-95% in Japanese with minimal English explanations.
Listen to stories for children. Get used to hearing the words. Listen to podcasts (preferably slower speaking). You aren’t going to catch it the first time or even the 10th. OkkeiJapanese is a YouTuber that speaks in simple phrases and words in his podcast episodes. I am not as far as you are in learning vocabulary but I’ve listened more and even that podcast a can grasp about ⅕ to ¼ of what he says at best but its a start. Sometimes I just catch a ですから when he pauses or a 勉強をします but once you start hearing it again and again you will pick up another word or two past the stuff you caught the first few times. It’s gonna be slow at first but if you keep listening and try to keep frustration levels down then I’m pretty confident you’ll start getting thing.
Maybe download an audiobook teaching japanese. You may already know the words but actually hearing them and having to say them out loud is different. One I’ve used is by Paul Noble on Audible. I think you can buy it on youtube as well. There is 2 books. The first bit in the first one is a bit…slow since it’s not so new for you but it will begin to get the repetition and the quicker comprehension started by hearing and speaking it over and over in various examples
As others have said, podcasts and YouTube. Also, any media that you can watch with Japanese subs. Lots of YT channels seem to do psuedo-subs, where they put subtitles that aren’t exactly what they’re saying, but are paraphrasing. One of my favorite channels かほの登山日記 does this.
I also like Teppei and Noriko’s podcast, it’s just normal conversation but sounds really natural.
Just watch lots of YouTube, anime if you like it, etc. Hundreds and hundreds of hours.
https://youtube.com/@cijapanese?si=Eh36x6IAMd4p86DG
Start with complete beginner. If thats too easy watch the bginner ones. If thats too easy watch intermediate. This channel has lets plays and story telling.
Use japanese subtitles and watch TV shows, movies, etc.
Train your brain to form a strong connection between the written you are familiar with and the audio you aren’t.
You will get faster at reading and improve your listening comprehension.
How do you know 2100 kanji while knowing only 2800 words? What is your definition of “knowing a kanji”?
Try watching Terrace House with subtitles. You will eventually tie the words visual representation to how they are actually pronounced. Great show for building native speech comprehension.
Not trying to be sarcastic, but have you tried simply reading more? For me personally I’ve found that my listening comprehension has gone up over time mainly from reading, subvocalizing (critical!), building up vocabulary, and generally treating Japanese like a language used by actual people rather than a game of “knowing X amount of kanji, knowing Y amount of words” etc.
Visual novels are a good option since they often come voice-acted, meaning you’ll get to hear characters’ lines spoken in addition to seeing them in writing as a kind of set of training wheels. Or anime with Japanese subtitles, although those can be a bit tricky because aside from often needing to be retimed, from experience some are outright garbage. But really anything is fine, books included.
That aside, there are a few decent YouTube channels for learners specifically. Kaname Naito does fully subtitled and translated dialogues in natural Japanese at a moderate pace that are often quite entertaining.
I also occasionally enjoy ゆる言語学ラジオ, but that one is fully aimed at native speakers and discusses fairly heavy subject matter, so only recommended if you wish to see where your journey might eventually lead you. With that being said, don’t limit yourself to “beginner-friendly” material just for the sake of it and instead try to engage with any content that interests you even if it seems too advanced.
Watch anything you like as long as it has subtitles. You’ll get tired quickly because it’s mentally exhausting so start with short bursts and gradually increase the duration as you get used to listening.
I’m not a fan of watching CI/Beginner Japanese/Kids programs even if they are easier. You eventually have to take the plunge and listen to real Japanese and also I find that kind of content insanely boring.
I personally started by watching an episode/video from start to finish without stopping. Then I’d read the script and review anything I don’t understand. Then I watch again straight through but replay sentences I want to practice repeating or that I struggled to hear properly.
I’ve also found Twitch to be a great place to practice input and output. Find a streamer with like 20-30 viewers and just participate. Most streamers with that size of viewership will read every message out loud so you get to read something first and then hear it said at native speed.
Interacting with people is a super important piece in language learning. I highly recommend it.
everybody’s already said stuff but IMO the best thing to do is to replace your media consumption in your native language with some of the same in japanese, If you watch movies start watching japanese movies. If you’re big on talk shows find some japanese talk shows. If you’re into gaming pick pick up some japanese games. etc etc. Podcasts are great but if you’re not into podcasts then listening to 2 hours of something you’re not even interested in when it’s easy to understand is not gonna be fun or engaging.
Start with Comprehensible Japanese website and their complete beginner and beginner videos.
Watch them all.
Then Beginner Teppei. Then Japanese with Shun.
Just curious how you know 2100 Kanji but 2800 words? Do you just learn the Kanji themselves and not much related vocab?
And did you just study all Kanji before any grammar?
私の英雄だよねええ！同じの質問があったそしてポストを書くが始まった。ありがとう英雄さま！(please feel free to correct, I am trying to do more output and be less scared to fail in it).
im in a similar situation to you, for the past 6 months ive been doing daily Anki reviews and that’s about it. ive gotten pretty decent at reading and memorizing things but Ive also been ignoring listening. I think it’s best to begin with beginner to intermediate podcasts or YouTube videos. ive been doing this for around 2 weeks and progress is slow but I am slowly starting to understand them. its best to start with videos that have Japanese subtitles so you could grow accustom to the speaking while understanding what the speaker is saying. Once you feel confident enough try listening without subtitles and see your progress.