I’ve been studying for what will be 2 years this coming April and I’ve realised that my listening and speaking (and If I’m being honest all my Japanese) is absolutely abysmal.
My first year I only used Wanikani for Kanji and JP > ENG vocab. Since December I bumped that up to KameSame for ENG > JP vocab production, BunPro for grammar, and Podcasts and TV shows for listening. I also do a weekly speaking hour with a local at my city’s international center in Japan.
I’ve recently begun spending a few hours per short podcast or short episode (5-10mins) literally writing everything down that is said, to check my comprehension. Anything I don’t understand or can’t quite catch I will listen to over and over until I figure out the meaning (either an individual word, a piece of grammar, or a full sentence). For weeks I couldn’t figure out what “Chuyunoha” or “Duyunoh” or “2yunoha” meant that I kept hearing in podcasts until today I listened to it over and over and then doubled checked with a nearby teacher to learn they’re saying “というのは” which is a word used to explain the ‘meaning’ of something.
I just wondered if anyone else has had experience doing something similar to this and if it was effective to speaking/listening in the long run. It seems like it’s helping but if there’s anyone with first hand experience it would be great to get your opinion. It takes quite a big chunk of time to go through a short piece of media that no doubt will speed up, but I wanted to make sure I’m not wasting my time with this if there’s little positive returns, before I continue.
Thanks!