How to consume media/immerse correctly

Japanese
#9

At this point I’ve watched hundreds of hours of Japanese TV and YouTube, closer to a thousand than to zero. It gets much easier, don’t worry. I had many of the same doubts when I started as well.

I wouldn’t worry too much about efficiency and instead just focus on enjoyment and paying attention. Some intensive pausing and sentence mining etc is fine to do, especially at the very low levels of comprehension, however it’s also worth watching stuff at normal speed just so you get more exposure to the natural speed and sound of the language. My experience was initially just being able to catch words or very simple phrases here and there and then eventually you catch sentences and so on and so on. Obviously it’s personal how much you can tolerate not understanding stuff but it’s also a skill that can be trained in itself. I personally allow reading time to be a lot more intensive and when listening I will look stuff up on my phone whilst watching or on the rare occasion pause to check something (normally cultural and not linguistic). You don’t need to know every word and it is more helpful and psychologically easier to go for low hanging fruit (phrases you think you’ve head before, words with kanji you know if you have Japanese subtitles on, etc). Occasional machine translation is probably fine but if a sentence is essentially incomprehensible to you then just move on - you’ll understand it eventually, don’t worry.

I can now comfortably follow a large variety of things and I have 99% comprehension for easier youtube and TV shows. One caveat is that I live in Japan so my listening hours are probably higher than I realise just from real life listening but that doesn’t change my advice.

At the end of the day you need to work out what works for you personally as part of this is a matter of personal inclination and interest but don’t worry too much and keep going and it will start to come together. Good luck!

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#10

Imo if you want to read, open a book and read. TV is good for listening so constantly pausing it seems like a bad idea to me. You don’t need to look up every single word either. Turn off the subtitles and just watch it and work on developing your ears.

If you want to improve your vocab, read a book.

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#11

I find a mix of listening at my level/definitely can understand (Japanesepod101, Japanese with Shun podcast sped up a bit) and things that are a challenge (normal youtube vids, anime etc) really helpful, as it’s really gratifying understanding and being able to focus on the few small things I don’t understand, and then letting the more advanced waves was over me and try to pick up what I can! it seems like a good balance.

I also most days listen to the Bunpro example sentences before reading them to check my comprehension. Love that there are so many for both grammar points and vocab.

If you’re using ChatGPT free it’s really dodgy; it’s not cheap to pay for the upgraded version and I do so for work reasons but it’s much better and there are custom Chats, such as “Japanese Proofreader” by Taiichi Hirano that’s trained to answer questions on Japanese grammar and goes into pretty amazing detail explaining things I come across or want to write in my journal. I can also feed it a grammar point and what I’m trying to say and it’ll give me that, or answer questions about nuance.

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#12

I’ve bought a couple audiobooks in Japanese for stories I’ve read before in English (a while ago) so I don’t have to worry so much about figuring out the context and can focus more on catching as much as I can. I know Harry Potter really well so the first book is one of the ones I listen to and will repeat entire chapters a few times. I have the option to listen to it at 3/4 or 1/2 speed but I’m trying to get used to full speed audio. I also have Ascendence of a Bookworm, for some variety, since I’m reading the series in English.

For series I’ve watched many times before and know the story already, I turn off subtitles and try to just enjoy it. Realizing you understand a conversation between two characters is really motivating. Even if it’s only about buying and eating way too many apples before they go bad :apple:

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#13

I want to do something similar, I’ve been actually just running full episodes without subtitles, and I understand maybe 30% of it, mostly based on context.

If you don’t mind me asking, where are you guys getting anime with Japanese subtitles? I’ve been mostly watching kids shows via IPTV (like japanese dubbed Disney shows). How were you able to set it up to pause every subtitle?

I find this way of learning way more rewarding because it actually feels like I’m making progress, rather than just bulk studying random words and concepts.

#14

Animelon is one site I’m currently using. They don’t have everything but definitely a heck ton. Option for eng/romanji/jap subtitles with any combination of the three or none at all

No idea about the pause after every sub thing tho
Welcome to the community :tada:

#15

You can download subtitle files on kitsunekko.net, or watch on animelon. I think sites like netflix include subtitles in most languages as well.

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#16

I agree with Brand. Ones where you look stuff up are “active immersion” and ones where you don’t are “passive immersion”.
I look up words more often in Manga, cause I find it frustrating to pause all the time.
I personally just set my Netfilx account to Japanese.

https://animecards.site/minefromanime/
and

both have instructions on how to run scripts that automatically pause every time the subtitle changes and export that information to anki, and a browser where you can use yomichan to make an anki card.
I followed tasumoto ren’s guide and made two anki cards this way. Subs 2 SRS looks easier to set up.

I’m not hard core enough to All Japanese All The Time.

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#17

To auto pause I get my subtitle files online and my video files…… ripped from legally purchased DVDs :eyes::eyes::eyes: and then I use a program called Memento which is similar to mpv. On my mac I press command+P and it auto pauses at the end of each subtitle, Memento includes yomichan so you can hover over and use the dictionary on words

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#18

Language Reactor allows you to pause after every subtitle: https://www.languagereactor.com/

For example, on YouTube:

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You can use the AP toggle on the right which is labelled: “Automatically pause playback at the end of every subtitle [‘Q’ key]”.

Note that the automatic furigana on Language Reactor isn’t always correct, so sometimes I double check it with Yomichan/Yomitan or Jisho.

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Method Effectiveness
#19

Sorry if it seems obvious, but Japanese Netflix has a whole lot. If you’re subscribed you could try a VPN and check out the catalogue. The only disadvantage is that many of the items don’t have english audio/subs at all. My recommendation would be ‘Frieren’ its a pretty heartwarming slice of life in a fantasy setting if thats something you’re into.

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#20

I’m not a big media guy, a lot due to being busy often, so don’t take my opinion to heavily.

I never really liked how people call it immersing. You are not immersing yourself, you are subjecting yourself. You are actively choosing to force yourself to do something that your brain is going to resist
But I always thought a good way of going about it would be as follow.
Find something that is native to japanese, that has a full english translation. Preferably shorter form (10-15 minutes). Watch the content in japanese, while pausing and rewinding when you inevitably start to lose focus, and then mull over it for a minute or two. Then watch the English (or which ever native tongue you have) version. Then rewatch the japanese version, this time pausing after every couple of sentences to make sure you are still following. This way you familiarize yourself with the content (and give yourself a chance to understand it in japanese) in japanese. Then you understand it, and see if you had any bad on the fly comprehensions, in your mother tongue. And finally you connect it all by reviewing. Just what I always kind of thought at least

Also, I always thought songs would be a good way to do it.

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#21

What they said^

I try very hard to keep the media I consume in pure Japanese (no English subtitles sort of thing) to about 80% comprehension, 70 at a stretch if I really, really want to consume that particular thing.
I mostly read, though, I don’t actually know enough Japanese for pretty much any anime to fall into that category, though looking at jpdb there appear to be a few; I also just don’t really tend to watch anime in the first place, so grain of salt.

I also don’t do the thing where I just listen to Japanese just to hear it / let it wash over me–that never did anything positive for me at all and in fact actually had some detriments I had to work extremely hard to get over–but I get that a lot of people like it so I wouldn’t recommend against it or anything.

I think, do what you enjoy, but it seems to me and many other people (such as Steve Kauffman) that 80%ish is really the sweet spot. I naturally gravitated towards that when I started reading because it felt like I was really reading, but it also felt like I was learning, but it’s also what many people recommend.
The more you do the thing (read, watch, listen–I should also mention that all the stuff I read has audio, so I read, then read and listen, then listen, only checking English if I just cannot figure out the sentence lol, and I’ve gotten MUCH better at both reading and listening doing it that way) the faster you get at doing it and the more you can handle. I stopped translating in my head about 60% of the way through N4 because of all of the reading, which I’ve heard is fairly early on, but it made listening so much easier, like holy wow, it was like I beat a much higher level boss and suddenly jumped up 15 levels at once, lol.

So I guess the tl;dr is if you can find some content that is at about 80% for you, and you don’t hate it, consuming a lot of that will be very beneficial. Stuff that’s lower is also great if you want to do it, but I think the 80% range seems to be the best balance of enjoyment and learning.

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#22

I’m watching some anime that I guess could be considered “more advanced” anime (Niche isekais with abnormal story telling) and I’m getting about 30-40% of the conversation. however whenever I hear/see a word that I have studied in the show, it helps reinforce the word tremendously. I’d say even if you have lower than 80% (Which let’s be honest is a relatively high level of japanese, at least in this genre) it would still benefit you greatly just watch for words that you do understand in context.

#23

I think the name ‘immersion’ originally referred to schools where all classes are taught in that language, instead of just language class.

Yeah, immersion is hard. Congrats to everyone here who immeres! It’s a struggle every day.

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#24

I’m curious about what detriments that caused you - I don’t actively do that myself (sometimes I zone out accidently if I’ve been listening for too long), but it’s not immediately obvious to me what the negative consequences could be

Also I’ve really been loving watching Peppa Pig in Japanese recently ( ペッパピッグ ー Peppa Pig - YouTube). As a British person, I watched that show obsessively as a child so it’s really fun to look back on it now, and I think it being in Japanese makes it a more pleasant experience than it would be watching it now in English. But yh, I definitely lean on the side of understanding 80% personally because I think having to look up every other word would drive me insane

#25

Honestly it’s hard to explain, especially via text and I’m still a little afraid after the last time I tried to explain it online, a few weeks ago :sweat_smile:. I spent hours but they didn’t get what I meant. Others have understood it immediately, though, so I don’t know. I don’t want to mess up explaining it on the internet where it might do more harm than good.

I was going to make a video (I sometimes make educational videos on the internet,) about how to get over it since you are legitimately incapable of learning with that debuff, but in doing research for potential terminology and language psychology, I discovered that I could not find a single other person who had reported the issue! No one complaining on Reddit. No tips and tricks on youtube, etc. Nothing.

So, I concluded that this problem is ultra rare shiny, or it would be everywhere since so many people suggest the very thing that caused it for me :joy:. I’m probably just the extreme example of a brain that adapts too well to passive input, but it’s why I always make sure to point out that the passive thing does not work for everyone, (also listening to audio while sleeping.) Fo
many people, it seems to just do nothing at all. For me, it caused an issue. For some people, I imagine it’s like extra SRS points or something similar. FWIW I already make listening flash cards for all of my SRS cards (I was told this is very abnormal,) so I am getting that help, plus the comprehensible audio clicks in my brain in a way that that the less than 60% stuff never did.

I am aware that this was probably not enlightening and that it was also long and for that I apologize. If I ever do think it’s an issue worth a video, I’ll post it somewhere. Hopefully I’ll have a better grasp on an understandable explanation of the symptoms at that time.

#26

Can you link the explanation you already gave before? I have an idea of what could it be, but without knowing anything, it’s just conjecture

#27

Unfortunately I cannot, it wasn’t public and I no longer have access.

#28

My biggest piece of advice is to make sure the content you’re immersing is in the right language. I spent four months accidentally watching anime in Spanish and it was muy malo for my Japanese learning.

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