My biggest obstacle with spoken Japanese

Japanese
#1

I’ve been learning Japanese for about a year now. I’ve used WaniKani for the majority of that time, I got to level 20 in about 10 months, but the I lost interest in that and I switched over to BunPro which I’ve been using for the past two months (I swear WaniKani I have not given up on you, I will be back when I can!). I think my comprehension is somewhere around N4. Despite this, whenever I’m watching anime or listening to Japanese music, I can never get a good understanding of what I hear because I can’t make out the verbs. I can make out small phrases, nouns, and adjectives, but the verb always seems to elude me in whatever I listen to so I don’t know what’s going on. Some common verbs like 考える and 分かる are easier to hear, but it seems like so many verbs in Japanese are just a single syllable followed by 10 kana of conjugation or so.

I think this is because Japanese has so many verbs that start with a same or the similar kana but conjugate slightly differently. For example there are works like 書く(かく), 描く(かく), and 掻く(かく), but there are also 勝つ (かつ), and 買う(かう) are all very common words. AND IT GOES FURTHER with 借りる (かりる), 掛ける (かける), 掛かる (かかる), 返す (かえす), 帰る (かえる), and others I’m not going to list for the sake of time. That’s just for words starting with か!

I wanted to know if you guys had any strategies for studying these and learning how to better pick out verbs in sentences. As I am now, I feel like I’m just gathering breadcrumbs of the topic of what I hear.

tl;dr My monkey brain isn’t good enough to pick out the similar sounding yet common verbs in spoken Japanese

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#2

Just continue to study and immerse a lot, things will become easier as you go.
You have already made good progress in that year.
One tip I might have, though I am not advanced enough to explain it fully, but verb endings usually have some way in which they alter the meaning. Eg. 帰る vs. 帰す the first one means to return the second one to make someone return (to send someone back). The same kind of difference can be found in many るvs. すverbs.

Other than that I feel context is key in japanese, so for beginners and intermediates it is probably better to learn with resources that have clear visual aid.

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#3

Japanese is difficult. Far more difficult that I could have possibly realized when I started studying Japanese in a UCLA extension class in 1984. My frustration only mounted when I was an expat in Japan from 1992 to 2000 when, despite a private tutor and many, many hours (when not actually doing what I was paid to do), I felt that, apart from my teacher, I could understand no one around me. And forget TV.

With covid and retirement, I needed an immersive hobby so I joined Wanikani and BunPro where after almost one year I’ve reached levels 42 and 82, respectively. Sometimes I venture out into actual Japanese, but other than with Japanese language teachers on YouTube, I really still only catch bits. This year though, has been amazing in so many ways. I just didn’t realize before just how much effort it was going to be to get fluent, but for the first time, by doing Wanikani and Bunpro together and spending 90%+ of my time reviewing rather than stuffing in more kanji or “grammar”, respectively, I actually see a light at the end of my very, very long tunnel.

TL/DL: Keep at it.

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#4

As the others mentioned immersion is the way to go. But you should go in aware that it will take some time to notice any progress, and until that happens it can get sometimes a bit demotivating. Once you see the fruits of your effort, it will become more bearable.

Bunpro on it’s own is not enough, neither is Wanikani on it’s own. It seems to be a common mistake people think either of these tools are the complete package.

From what you are describing it seems the main thing you might be lacking is vocabulary and the context of when it’s used.

Funny enough, after I started taking reading more seriously and immersing myself more, is when I started to notice I now understand more things, like songs.

Do take in mind, in the case of songs, it can be one of the more difficult listening practices, as like songs in any language, liberties/sacrifices are taken vocabulary/grammar wise for the sake of artistic expression.

Keep at it, and good luck.

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#5

Songs are so difficult to understand. Not only because of what you mentioned, but also because of the liberties taken when pressing words into rhythms. Like 分からない normally pronounced in pretty much one go (Wakaranai) is stretched almost beyond recognition (wa-kaaa-ra-naaaa-iiii), which becomes really difficult once the sung word is not as strong in your memory as 分からない。

That said it feels amazing when you understand a song or parts of it. The closest I get is with this one: ヨルシカ - 言って。(Music Video) - YouTube
And I really started to love it (and the artist in general) because of it.

#6

This is very inspiring to hear.

While I haven’t studied as long as you have, I have a couple decades under my belt and still not fluent. And if it wasn’t for technology and the convenience of it now, I don’t think I would be where I’m at today.

Thanks for sharing.