Hi, long time lurker, first time poster. My listening skills are terrible, so I’m trying to find fun ways to practice. Music is a big one, obviously, so I’d love some recommendations if you have any. This can be just Japanese artists you love, specific songs you like, or even whole genres to check out. Most of the songs I know are from animes, which is fine, but I’d love to expand my horizons. I’m the kind of person who listens to the same couple of songs/artists on repeat until I feel physically sick, so searching for new stuff is not one of my greatest strengths.
If I you’ll allow me to ramble on the whole "listening practice"thing. I took the Bunpro N5 JLPT practice test just for fun, and the listening part tripped me up pretty bad, it felt like my brain panicked at the onslought of words and just said “no”. But after repeating the sounds files multiple times I was able to pass. I just know that’s not how life (or tests) work, so its a real wake up call on the gaps in my study routine. I actually liked the test format, though, because the need to focus really hard on what somone was saying, and then getting quizzed in it made me feel like I was actually using my “listening muscles.” Since then I’ve been listening to podcasts and audiobooks sometimes while I do other things, but my brain only really picks out one or two words every other sentence, so I don’t actually understand any of it. I’m hoping that general exposure will make it sound less garbled and I’ll start being able to distinguish words more easily.
A few of my co-workers friended me on Duolingo a few months ago, which is the first time I’d looked at it in probably years. Its changed a lot, and a lot of new stuff has been added. I don’t hate it. Its all a lot lower level than the stuff I’ve been learning, but its been great for listening, it reminds me a lot of that test scenario, which I liked. I keep doing the translation exercises while covering the text with my hand. I hit replay over and over again until the sentence makes sense to me and I can process the words (its all vocab I know, so its frustrating that it doesn’t just click), and then I replay it a few more times so that my brain gets used to hearing and understanding it at the same time. There’s no science to that, I just feel good doing it. Its too soon to report any real progress, but I’m hopeful.
So anyways TLDR I’d love some recs for any music or otherwise helpful audio, and if you have any tips, tricks or personal anecdotes you want to share on listening, I’d love to hear them.
)
