At what point should I expect to understand *some* Japanese?

Bunpro
#1

I’m a very casual learner and I’ve been studying Japanese for around 4 months I think. This is the first time I actually study a language so I’m not sure if I’m doing good or bad so I wanted to ask about your experience. Basically problem is this: when I listen Japanese people talking, I don’t understand ANYTHING at all. Like if I watch a video like “Japanese listening for beginners” on Youtube, sure I understand decent part of it but again, I have no clue when I listen actual Japanese speaker.

Again, I am a casual learner so I want to explain what kind of studying I’ve done in those 4 months.

  • I’ve been doing Anki everyday since start. I finished a 700 card long deck and I also started a new deck about a month ago, I spend around 10 minutes for Anki, according to the app stats,
  • I’ve tried 3 different learning apps for grammar (each for around 1 month maybe?), quit all of them,
  • I started Bunpo around 1,5 months ago, finished around %60-70 of N5 I guess,
  • I don’t study Kanji at all.

So in the end I guess I’ve been spending around 20 to 60 minutes studying per day for last 4 months.

I know these numbers are low but like I said I’m a very casual learner, I’m basically learning for fun still I’m surprised at the fact that when listening Japanese speakers, I don’t understand anything at all. Especially it is pretty hard for me to find the actual word from conjugated form, like I can’t process that on the fly.

So what are your experiences? When you consider how much I’ve studied, is that normal? How long it took you to understand some Japanese, I know that’s not an easy question but hopefully you get what I mean.

And I wanted to make sure this is not a “am I too stupid to learn?” post, I know learning language is all about the time you put it and learning Japanese is not a priority for me right now so I’m not looking for motivation or anything, I am motivated already. I hope this doesn’t sound rude, I just wanted to make that point so people wouldn’t misunderstand the point of the post. I mean I could learn Japanese in a year if I wanted, we all can.

Thanks

7 Likes
#2

I’d say that you are not really targeting the listening appropriately if that’s one of your main goals.

Why not try to add some listening exercises to the daily tasks as it’s a different skill set?.
Also depending on what your mother tongue is, the pronunciation might be basic if it’s very different from Japanese.

I’d recommend something you can read along while listening to be able to associate the sounds to the words, the audio from BunPro is not nearly enough IMHO.

6 Likes
#3

I was actually using one of the apps for only listening but my issue is more like, I simply don’t understand the sentence. I mean I can tell what are they saying (in romaji for example) but I simply don’t understand what do they mean. Missing grammar or vocabulary issues are the biggest problems I guess but to be honest I expected I would understand some of it after studying for a while.

Like I know probably around 500 most popular words right, I know some simple grammar, I feel like I should at least understand I don’t know %10 of the sentences or something?

1 Like
#4

I’m unsure of what level you are trying to listen to, but I’d say 500 words won’t let you understand 10% at all depending on what level of listening you are being fed, at least from my experience.

N5 requires about 800 words, without counting the grammar. Did you try listening to some N5 exercises? Maybe

You can try some sample listening N5 exercises here and see if you understand some of those:
https://www.jlpt.jp/e/samples/n5/index.html

5 Likes
#5

Out of curiosity, what Anki deck did you do? Might change what suggestions I/others give you.

2 Likes
#6

Hi there, I have had a very similar experience. Isn’t it frustrating!

I’m not sure from your post how much listening comprehension practise that you are doing.

I wasn’t doing any at all for a long time, grinding SRS apps for vocab+grammar+kanji, and I was still surprised that I couldn’t understand anything. Why did I expect to ? I hadn’t been practising that skill.

Yeah it’s really hard isn’t it, there’s only one way to get better.

To add to the resource that @Megumin mentioned, take a look at About | Comprehensible Japanese if you subscribe you can download the MP3… I put the subtitles on her videos and then turn them off… unsurprisingly it’s still tough.

I’m listing to the MP3 that come with my graded readers, you can actually just download those https://tadoku.org/japanese/audio-downloads without the books

I’m using a Genki deck on Kitsun that gives you an audio question too.

I try to do some passive listening by playing the audo books on loop or listening to NHK radio whilst I work, I’m not convinced it works for me, I’m too good at zoning out as I code.

8 Likes
#7

Yeah, I understand most of them, I’ve tried some videos on Youtube too, beginner stuff, I’m fine at them too I guess. Maybe normal speech is too fast for me.

1 Like
#8

I started with a simple one, called “JLPT N5 vocabulary deck”, then I also started “Nihongoshark Japanese Core Step 2000 01-10”, I’m doing both now.

1 Like
#9

Yeah, I didn’t spend much time training listening, for some reason I feel like I can tell what are they saying but I just don’t understand the meaning of it, maybe I am wrong.

About the sources, Youtube channel of “Comprehensible Japanese” looks nice but I’m not sure what do you get when you sign up, different videos than Youtube ones?

2 Likes
#10

It might be encouraging if you try Teppei’s “Japanese podcast for beginners (Nihongo con Teppei),” which is a podcast you can download through your normal podcast app or you can get the same audio at https://nihongoconteppei.com/. Teppei speaks sloooowwwly and peppers his three to four minute podcasts with a liberal amount of loan words and maybe an actual English word here and there so as to help you not be completely lost. He also often repeats the same word three or four times in a row so that it will give your brain that bit of extra time to comprehend it.
You’ll probably “get the gist” of what he’s saying and you’ll probably understand 10%-20% of it right off the bat. I find that if I listen to the same three minute pod several times in a row, my comprehension goes up to around 40%-50%–not great, but a lot better than just turning on a random Japanese TV show. Try it out and see how it goes!

18 Likes
#11

I’m not getting the player on that site… is it using Flash or something, tried FF and Chrome
Probably doing something dumb.

Yep, no audio until the last few questions. Sigh no wonder learning Japanese is hard for me, the real world is hard for me.

2 Likes
#12

Then you’re doing better than me, quit complaining :wink:

2 Likes
#13

Wow, that guy actually has more than 500 recordings and giving it away for free. Pretty cool but after listening few of them I can tell it is beyond my level for now but I will check that out if future for sure. He sounds like the people you would listen on TV I feel like.

2 Likes
#14

Think so, there’s not so many of them marked as free (which presumably means on youtube), and you can downloads them as mp4 or mp3. Think it’s about 3 dollars for a month so it’s cheap to try it…

1 Like
#15

First off, it’s great that you’re having fun despite some of the initial frustrations every learner goes through, hell yeah! What are your immediate and/or long-term goals for Japanese? Reason I ask is because the inherit problem with pre-made decks (which I love and use, don’t get me wrong) is that they’re slightly tailored in one direction. JLPT-focused will make you slightly lag behind in listening/reading because it’s frequency is based on other factors, whereas the core decks have the same problems although there are like 20000000000 of them with their own custom ordering. If you really want to start watching anime, you could do an Anime deck (~2k words) that orders by frequency of words spoken in anime to help with slang, etc. If you want to watch a bunch of netflix/drama stuff, you could use the Netflix/Anime frequency list (I can PM it to you) and make your own cards based off that.

That said, the truth of the matter is that listening is a really, really hard skill and it just flat-out SUCKS in the beginning. @SFJerry hit the nail on the head perfectly - listen to simple things on repeat for a bit. The first one/two/three times you may not catch much, but as you keep listening to it, you’ll begin picking up more and more and notice conjugations along the way, etc. Teppei is a great podcast, make sure you sort episodes by release date so you start at #1. You’ll know it’s episode number 1 as he introduces himself like 30 times hahaha. You could do this same overall method for most listening resources, especially those JLPT listening videos that Japanesepod puts up on youtube that’s super long.

For some added practice, go through the example sentences on Bunpro. Go into settings and hide the English and Japanese by default, then listen to the sentences a few time. If you think you got the gist, click the Japanese to see if you got it right, this will also help with reading! 一石二鳥 :wink: After that, click English to see how you truly did. If you combine this with listening practice on youtube, podcasts, and eventually work your way towards VERY basic anime, you’ll be in good shape. I’ve probably missed some things here, but if you ever have any questions feel free to keep posting throughout your journey and we’ll all throw some more resources and help you along the way!

8 Likes
#16

Weird thing is, I don’t have any long term goals at all. I mean I watch Anime, I also love playing Japanese games and I’ve been playing them in Japanese voice overs even before I started studying Japanese so it would be fun if I understand part of those while watching/playing. I’m not studying Kanji or reading at all right now, maybe in future. Basically I do anki cards, grammar on Bunpro and was using an app for listening.

I subscribed to both “Nihongo con Teppei” and “Comprehensible Japanese”, I feel like “Comprehensible Japanese” is on the easier side so I will add that to my study plans. My deck also has sentence recordings so that helps too.

I guess I need to spend little bit more time because doing cards and Bunpro takes around an hour already so I guess maybe half an hour of listening should be done too.

1 Like
#17

I can share my experience, but I can’t say how well this will apply to you. It took me about six months of 3-4 hours of dedicated daily study before I felt like I could understand “some” Japanese. By “some,” I mean being able to pick up on bits and pieces of complete sentences or understanding very simple ones. My study has always focused more on the written language than spoken, so I was probably much further along with kanji than where you are now.

At this stage, I’ve been studying for two years at around the same cadence (trending more toward the two hours per day mark over the past six months) and while my comprehension has gotten much better, I still wouldn’t be able to follow a conversation with a native speaker. I can mostly figure out written language after looking up any words I don’t know, though.

I’m sorry to say that Japanese isn’t a language that is friendly to casual study. It’s consistently rated as one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn for good reason. It really requires dedication to become proficient–especially if you don’t live in Japan and benefit from daily exposure to it.

Your mileage will vary, but since you asked about how long it’ll take, I thought I’d share that. If you are really serious about learning the language, then please don’t be discouarged. You will get better the more you study. In fact, I’ve been consistently surprised how much I’ve learned in such a short period of time (two years really isn’t that much when you think about it). But if you aren’t serious, your time might be better spent doing something else. I say that not to dissuade you, but to point out you’re really gonna have to bear down if you want to become proficient.

By the way, my Anki deck is currently 16,000 cards and growing daily. Again, that’s not a brag (my Japanese sucks) and it’s not meant to discourage. Just giving you an idea of the road ahead of you. I sincerely hope you do stick with it because it’s a very rewarding language, especially if you love Japanese media.

10 Likes
#18

My recommendation is to start combining listening and speaking. One program that is decent is Pimsleur. It costs $20 a month or so for a subscription. But it will get you used to speaking and listening if you stick with it. Key is to add words you learn in Pimsleur to Anki and keep drilling the phrases. Pimsleur will not explain the grammar, so search on Bunpro if you find something unfamiliar.

Once you complete Bunpro, go use an app like iTalki and speak to native Japanese speakers. Again these things cost money, but it’s a great way to improve.

For pure listening, the advice on this forum is solid, I’d press with that.

Also, I would recommend you stop doing premade Anki decks and begin either WaniKani on the website or use the one on Anki (which is free). Bottom line. It works, and it works great for learning kanji and vocab.

Also, continue to use Bunpro, it works great (keep ghost reviews on)

You already have the number one most important thing: dedication. So you will get there eventually. Good luck!

3 Likes
#19

Just some words of encouragement:
As everyone stated Japanese is way more difficult than everyone originally expects. I intially thought that if I learned for a year I’d be at a high enough level to somewhat comfortably read japanese manga / play japanese games.
As it turns out that is not nearly the case. I understand small bits here and there and can painstakingly read manga or play games. (Not understanding all of it, despite Dictionarys on the ready)
But looking back at it, that is already a lot compared to how long our schoolsystems are making us learn different languages, so it is only natural that 1 year of studying a hard language does not equal 6 years of studying a simpler language.
Also people learn different things in different speed, so there is no point in comparing yourself with others, as comparing with fast learners will make you feel miserable and comparing with slow learners will make you lazy.

Try to look at the small achievements you have already made and be proud of yourself. Most people only watch netflix or play games in their freetime, but you are doing something productive that might one day come in handy.
As for small Achievements, I really mean small.

I played FF7 Remake (JAP speech DE text) after about half a year of 1-4h practice a day (Kanji / grammar, no deliberate listening aside from way to much subbed anime) and I was able to understand some sentences Aerith spoke, which made me really happy at that time.
And things like that add up a lot. Like catching characters speech patterns tells you a lot about their personality (which often does not make it into the translation). Or understanding sentences in hindsight.

Long Story Short:
Be proud of your progress and keep at it, you will improve tremendously as long as you don’t give up.

4 Likes
#20

I am far from fluent but here is just my 2 cents.

After about 8-9 months of Anki+immersion, I was able to pick out a sentence or 2 per episode in a Anime/TV show.

That was about a year ago for me. At this point my usually able to keep up with the plot on most TV shows, but I still miss a lot of details. Japanese just has a TON of words.
Currently I’m about ~50 grammar points into N3. Obviously, that doesn’t encompass everything outside of BunPro, but just adding in my experience as one more data point.

1 Like