hello! i see that you’re watching anime without subtitles to prepare for n2, and as someone who struggles with listening comprehension, i was wondering if you have a specific system for practicing this skill that’s worked for you? e.g. listen without subtitles and then try to transcribe what you hear, then go back and double check with subtitles
listen without subtitles and then try to transcribe what you hear, then go back and double check with subtitles
This is basically how I’m doing it with the help of AI so it works even if I can’t find the subtitles. The process goes like this: since an episode is usually around 20 minutes, I usually only focus on phrases that I absolutely don’t understand and skip through the parts I “kinda” understand to keep the process bearable.
Listen to the sentence that I don’t know what they’re saying
Write down the “sounds” I hear
Explain the scene to AI and what I heard
Check what I guessed right/wrong and then listen again to see if it sounds like what the AI suggested
Put down my list here (which I’ve only started recently 🤣)
And if I’m reading manga, then I have to add an extra step of looking up the intonation of the word in Japanese.
I’ve been watching/listening to a lot of BL lately and unfortunately/fortunately it’s not as popular as “mainstream,” so it gives me tons of opportunity to be on my own since it’s harder to find stuff about them in any other language.
Also the vocabulary that BL uses are actually quite specific as they’re mostly around romance, so you’ll keep hearing the same vocab over and over again even when watching different works.
For example, words I keep seeing:
照れる (てれる) – shy/embarrassed/害羞
挙げ句の果てに – “in the end,” “finally,” or “to top it all off”. It shows a negative final result after a long time, a lot of trouble, or a bad process.
人の言うことを聞かないし – you never/don’t listen to what others say
からかう (揶揄う) – からかわないで don’t tease me 不要鬧/笑我
惹かれる (ひかれる) – to be attracted/drawn to someone
Not sure if I’ll end up with a very weird set of vocabulary, but at least this keeps me “studying” for at least 1 hour per day, which I couldn’t do before.
Ultimately, as there are no shortcuts to training my ear, I think spending more time with Japanese is what I’m aiming for at the moment as I haven’t passed the test yet to prove anything. At least I’m enjoying the process which I think has been one of the hardest thing of language learning once I get into an awkward intermediate level.
Another sentence structure that I often get the order wrong.
母ほど綺麗じゃない。
Notes to help me remember:
First look at the second part of the sentence: 綺麗じゃない Not pretty. Then ask myself: to what degree am I not pretty?
Answer with the first part: I’m not pretty to the degree of my mom.
Another example:
バカな私にもわかるほどこの宿題は易しいです。
The homework is easy. To what degree is it easy?
Even as stupid as me I can understand.
The second part is the part I want to convey, and the first part is for adding details of to what degree.
Another example sentence I used to struggle with but can understand well now!
彼の話は想像できないほど面白い。 His story is unimaginably interesting.
His story is interesting.
(to the degree that) You can’t imagine.
I can finally say I understood the usage on my first try today! (Took me almost a year! FINALLY!!!)
そのとこが、泣きたくなるほどうれしいんだ。
happy
(to the degree that) it makes me wanna cry, this isn’t the literal word for word translation, but I think I can grasp what it wants to convey 泣く->泣きたい->泣きたくなる
As I’m prepping for N2, I’ve started watching anime without subtitles to improve my listening, so these words probably don’t have too much of a connection, but just capturing what I heard from the anime.
堪らない たまらない meaning Irresistible
俺のことを庇った 庇う（かばう）- protect, defend, stand up for someone
馴れ馴れ（なれなれ）しくすんな stop acting like we’re buddies, 少跟我裝熟 馴れ馴れしい – overly friendly, cheeky すんな – rude way to say するな ヤンキー likes to talk like this
普通、引くだろう？ 一般人通常都會退縮吧？（你這傢伙是怎麼回事？） Normal people would back off by now (what’s wrong with this dude)… 引く（ひく）put off by someone’s bad behavior, grossed out, 感到反感
親しくもねぇだろう 親しい（したしい）- close, intimate
よくねぇつってんだろう つって as a very colloquial contraction of って言って つってんだろう == って言っているんだろ
As I’m prepping for N2, I’ve started watching anime without subtitles to improve my listening, so these words probably don’t have too much of a connection, but just capturing what I heard from the anime.
堪らない たまらない meaning Irresistible
俺のことを庇った 庇う（かばう）- protect, defend, stand up for someone
馴れ馴れ（なれなれ）しくすんな stop acting like we’re buddies, 少跟我裝熟 馴れ馴れしい – overly friendly, cheeky すんな – rude way to say するな ヤンキー likes to talk like this
普通、引くだろう？ 一般人通常都會退縮吧？（你這傢伙是怎麼回事？） Normal people would back off by now (what’s wrong with this dude)… 引く（ひく）put off by someone’s bad behavior, grossed out, 感到反感
親しくもねぇだろう 親しい（したしい）- close, intimate
よくねぇつってんだろう つって as a very colloquial contraction of って言って つってんだろう == って言っているんだろ
