Spoken language comprehension

Hello,

I might have stumbled onto a weird problem.
Currently i’m in the early stages of N3, and I have the problem that when I watch something in Japanese, sometimes my brain just shuts off completely and I don’t understand much anymore… But when I read the spoken sentence, it’s pretty clear what it was about.

My daily routine is:
10 new lessons on wanikani; 2x N3 grammar points and vocabulary on bunpro.
For my immersion: Watching at least one Japanese video (1h+~)
And reading a chapter on Satori.

Is there something I should maybe add or do?

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I would highly, highly recommend some sort of Japanese show with Japanese subtitles. I feel like when I started doing that way back when I was around that level, it really helped.

I think it goes beyond just connecting the sounds with the words, as it also helped me better grasp what was going on in the story because I could parse the subtitles and catch anything I had missed.

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I had this problem before, I thought it’s just me!

I think what happened is I over-immersed in contents that are too high level/not understandable and ended up training my brain to ignore these patterns of sound that is Japanese. What I did to fix it (it’s not completely fixed) is that I focus a lot more on listening with full attention and trying to understand what is going on. Like Jake said above, anything with subtitles are good. I also bought a few shadowing books and started with pure listening, then listening with reading the text, then read the text carefully and listen again (and along the way trying to say it back, record it, and compare with what I listened too — killed two birds with one stone) until I can fully hear all of the words. If it’s impossible to fully hear all the words, the passage may be too advanced…

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If you play video games, some games have logs with replayable audio, so you if you play with both Japanese text and voice you can replay things any number of times to better connect the voice-over with what you’re reading.

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Thanks for the replies!
Reading actual Japanese subtitles is a good idea! I’ll give that a shot and see how it goes!

@slightlydizzy shadowing books? I know there are YouTube videos about it but books? Interesting.

Try this: Watch | Comprehensible Japanese

It’s been helping me a lot. Also there is JP subtitles.

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I found that one of my vocab books (this series) has audio recordings available. So I downloaded those and shadowed them (pretty standard way: listen blindly > listen while reading > read thoroughly and listen).

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Im similar level to you and have similar routine too. Sometimes this happens when I am watching stuff or at work (live in Japan). I realised I need 100% attention to understand and sometimes if I dont understand onething I shut off. I have been watching Kimi ni todoke, both the anime and live action netflix series. That with japanese subs has been a good level for me where I can understand most of it. Also it, particularly the anime, is amazing. I recommend using Migaku if you use Anki cuz it can make audio flash cards straight onto Anki

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That is probably the least weird problem you can have learning any language. It’s so common and I see it with so many learners.

For me the key was learning more vocabulary. A whole sentence can fall apart if you don’t know one word. Seeing that you use both Bunpro and Wanikani, you should also consider a basic vocab deck through Anki. Core 2000 and 6000 are highly used.

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You’re better off than me. Sometimes my brain shuts off and even reading the subtitles doesn’t help. I really wonder what I’m supposed to do in these moments.

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I had and still have the same issue you are describing. What worked for me was to drill some decks on JPDB specific for the content I was consuming (e.g. novels or VNs) and to trust the process.

I felt really discouraged over the months and years but over time it falls into place and patterns start to emerge when you see the same sentence structure for the 76th time and you finally fully remember how and why something is used and said in the way it is.

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Hmm, anki vocabs in addition to my existing bunpro vocabs? Is that not maybe a bit too much?

There is no right answer but my personal opinion is that you should watch stuff WITHOUT subtitles in order to train your ears. I know it’s hard but you have to focus on listening to the words. You’re not going to hear everything right away but keep going and you’ll get better in time.

Try everything. TV, radio shows, music, YouTube. Also TALKING WITH PEOPLE is a big aid in this area. Like yuge.

That would be a bit much. I don’t use bunpro for vocab and use Anki instead since it allows me to customize cards and add pictures and video. I’m a bit of a visual learner. But if Bunpro is working for you vocabulary wise, I would stick to it.

Perhaps, you’re just a bit burned out? It’s okay to take a break. Sometimes it’s important to remove a bit of that pressure and remind yourself why you started the process of learning Japanese to begin with? I know I get burned out from time to time even on topics I’m very passionate about.

What’s the reason you started learning Japanese? :slight_smile: