Listening Practice - How to improve?

Open Forum
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I live in Japan as a native English speaker from Canada and learning Japanese has been a fun challenge. Although I’m improving my speaking everyday I am finding it difficult to improve my listening. Unless people speak to me like a baby (Slowly, simple words, etc.) I just don’t understand them, especially so when they speak to me as though I am fluent.

How can I go about improving my listening in these contexts?

Certainly I want to speak with people, but I also don’t want to burden Japanese people with conversation that feels uncomfortable for them. I get the chance every now and again in unique ways. For example when I get a haircut I can shoot the shit with the barber, but I’m payin’ the guy for a haircut and indirectly for Japanese conversation. I’d like to have these opportunities more frequently without being a burden.

Curious everyone’s thoughts.

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ポッドキャスト（podcast）などを何回も聞くのがいいです。
リスニング（listening）を特に練習したいなら、文字おこしを見て内容がわかるものを選びます。
（「文字おこし」というのは、話していることを文字でそのまま書いたものです。）
内容がわかっているものを、何回も聞きます。
そうしたら、音のつながりや、変化に慣れることができます。
同じものを10回以上聞きましょう。

文字おこしを見て内容がわからないなら、ことばや文法の勉強が必要です。
でも、漢字の読みはリスニングとは関係ありません。ひらがなで書いてあるものが読めればいいです。

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That’s why LingQ exists. Listen and read YouTube videos on topics you love, with transcripts. It helped me a lot.

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Find content that is:
a) Around your current level but slightly challenging.
b) Relevant to your area of focus (e.g., everyday conversation, business casual, anime discussions, etc.).

Look on YouTube for videos that align with your lifestyle, such as:

  • Getting a haircut in Japanese
  • Izakaya conversations
  • Marketing meetings in Japanese

I recommend listening to:
a) Beginner podcasts
b) Natural, native-level podcasts

Most of the content I enjoy is everyday conversation (日常会話).

How many hours a day are you listening? If you want to make significant progress, you may need to double or triple your input.

A minimum of 1 hour is good, but ideally, aim for 2 to 3 hours per day.
Three hours of focused input daily is typically the minimum required to achieve fluency within 2 to 4 years.

Most of my friends who’ve lived in Japan, especially ones who moved without 0 knowledge of Japanese - still do not speak nor comprehend Japanese at a respectable level, even after 10 years of living there.

The ones who became fluent fell into these categories:

a) They knew some Japanese beforehand, had the process down to a tee, and motivation to study.
b) Started life in Japan by being a student, learning Japanese
c) Had some sort of intrinsic motivation, as if they wanted to ‘become Japanese’. They ended up making Japanese a part of their everyday life (they did one, or both of these things: Married Japanese spouse, worked in Japanese environment)

To sum things up, there is no shortcut or ‘best way’. It’s time, motivation, and lots of sake.

Good luck, Mr. Bates :wink:

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Best explanation. I love it! :heart_eyes: