all 9 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 3 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I'm slowly but steadily improving my comprehension of basic Japanese grammar and vocabulary though a combination of weekend classes and listening to streams and podcasts.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] [S] 1 point 4 days ago* (1 child)

    Sounds like a good mix. Kinda jealous of the weekend classes. :)

    Any particular streams or podcasts you've found worth giving a shoutout?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 4 days ago

    Well, I'm just starting so for basic grammar and vocabulary Nihongo con Teppei is what I've been listening to, mostly to reinforce and expand upon what I've seen during classes and what I've read from Tae Kim's grammar guide.

    I would say he makes for decent listening because he is native, but he can get a bit chaotic later on as he corrects himself mid sentence.

    For streams so far it's been mostly Japanese vtubers who speak slow enough to sort of understand what they are talking about, but that has been mostly to train listening and pay attention to the pronunciation and cadence of words when a native speaks. I'm nowhere near understanding many of their sentences due to a ton of missing vocabulary. They act more as a benchmark of progress.

    I recommend picking any that talks about topics you understand already, uses standard dialect and does not have a motor mouth. There's enough indies with niche content over there that there is a chance you might find one that appeals to you.

    The timezone makes it super rough to catch any livestream so for now looking through archives and finding ones about something you know and find interesting is useful.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] [S] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

    I've been all over the place this week.

    Doing a lot on Transparent to start familiarizing more with Thai and German. It's not the greatest, but free through my library. Reminds me of older Duolingo - basic, finite, and fun, even if it's not doing much teaching.

    I also took some old 'Learn German' CDs a relative was giving away. I wish dialogs and vocab were a little more isolated from the English explanations and translations. But it's enjoyable, has a mix of vocab, grammar explanations, and some dialogs.

    Falling behind regularly on isolated Kanji study, but been catching up on other Anki cards for Japanese.

    Started playing the new Trails in the Sky remake. Really liking how it logs all the lines from each cutscene and lets me replay audio. It's too much text for me to play it all in Japanese, but having just the voices seems like a decent splash of listening.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 5 days ago (2 children)

    Trails is one of my final bosses of Japanese. The esoterica abounds, and it only gets worse, way worse with it as the series goes on.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] [S] 1 point 4 days ago (1 child)

    We'll get there someday!

    Actually, I bet you're pretty close. Have you already made attempts to play through some of them in JP?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 4 days ago

    Too exhausting, ultimately. Parts of it I'll be okay (like the first half of Sky FC, I would be for example), if slow going. But once the technobabble or military jargon starts, I'm done for. I'll stick to easier stuff for a while. Games with lighter scripts (like 16-bit) have their own fun challenges between pixellated kanji or being heavier on hiragana, too.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    A car accident is hampering my studies and focus (not just at home but also at work). Uggggh. Well gotta take life and prioritize things. I'm fine (no injuries) but annoyed at all the work I need to do now to get my life back in order.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment