I’m a beginner learning Japanese and Mandarin. I could listen to mini-stories Mandarin audio, but I couldn’t listen to mini-stories Japanese audio. That was blah blah blah to me. I wonder whether the mini-stories Japanese audio is hard to listen to or Japanese is hard to listen to? Anyone has advice ?
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It is my impression that Japanese people have a tendency to speak faster than English speakers. That takes some getting used to. That may be what you are experiencing. There is nothing wrong with slowing the speed down. I like 0.75X a lot, because it still sounds normal, if slow, and that makes for more relaxed listening. Once you start to understand the slower speech, you will automatically start to pick more of the faster speech. The same is true for speaking. If you have ever played a musical instrument, you will have used the same technique for playing new pieces.
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I like your metaphor with the playing instrument. I haven’t thought about that. Thanks for your advice.
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Also I don’t know what your native language is but this could be a factor to consider if one’s native language is closer to japanese vs chinese can affect comprehensión. Your profile says vietnamese which I would argue is more similiar to chinese than it is to japanese.
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I’ve been listening to them almost every night as I go to sleep and find that even the most comprehensible mini-stories have parts I just don’t seem to grasp - parts where it just becomes gibberish to me. The good news is that ALL Japanese was like that to me at one point but it began to slowly make sense over time.
I think it’s also important to listen to different things so it doesn’t feel like you’re hitting a wall. Take a break from them and try listening to other things for a bit. Quite often you’ll come back after a break and find you’re understanding phrases that you couldn’t follow before 
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wow… that’s a tipp right there. Never thougt of it but I it sounds awesome.
I’ll have to try it out the next few days.
Thanks a lot!
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