I'm curious about a little advice from people that have better listening comprehension than I. Currently with these articles I try to listen to the audio or watch the video from the get-go as to see what I can comprehend. This is usually a very low percentile. Then I read it, then listen to it again while following the text. This is significantly higher. Finally I try to watch it one last time after knowing all the words I hadn't known and without following the dialogue. This usually retains a relatively acceptable understanding of the material (for obvious reasons).

My question is if I will soon see signs of progress. Every time I go into an article and listen or watch it without first going over the material, I still feel at quite a loss. It's honestly quite frustrating. On some level I understand it because there are simply so many specific words used in the various categories of the news.

For the articles on the main site I would suggest that you try to follow up on a certain story or topic everyday if you're feeling overwhelmed with too many new words. I've been following the North Korean stuff on there recently and until now I never thought I would know the word for UN Security Council so effortlessly.

There will be a lot of repeated vocab and slightly different ways to say pretty much the same thing. You'll feel more comfortable going into something you're already familiar with.

Then when you get sick of that or they run out of things to say about it move on to the next topic and start over again with an increased understanding of general news talk.

TheVinster Wrote:My question is if I will soon see signs of progress. Every time I go into an article and listen or watch it without first going over the material, I still feel at quite a loss. It's honestly quite frustrating. On some level I understand it because there are simply so many specific words used in the various categories of the news.

In my experience, it's just hard and it takes a lot of time to improve. You should look for improvement on the order of months instead of weeks (I'm guess you started reading news articles with the beginning of the first challenge?). Just keep plugging away at it and reassess your progress in the fall, or even this time next year.

You could even try listening to the NHK podcasts for extra practice.

Halfway there, keep up the good work everyone. Read or Die also started today so if you have lots of time on your hands you can participate there as well.

What are people doing on weekend, when no news are published?

There's a list of old easy news from up to 1 month ago, but for some reason there they take out the normal version link.

I guess I can just read some easy news there and normal news elsewhere, but it would be nice having the same news in normal and easy versions.

BTW, everybody keep on reading!

Sebastian Wrote:What are people doing on weekend, when no news are published?

There's a list of old easy news from up to 1 month ago, but for some reason there they take out the normal version link.

I guess I can just read some easy news there and normal news elsewhere, but it would be nice having the same news in normal and easy versions.

BTW, everybody keep on reading!

On the weekend I just read 6 normal NHK articles (sometimes one or two of those are from other sources). This of course depends on how comfortable you are with normal articles, and also if you have the time to do 6 articles.

[Zgarbas]

So... no news today? o.O

Edit: Just realized it's a national holiday, so I guess no news today. Anticlimatic.

TheVinster Wrote:On the weekend I just read 6 normal NHK articles (sometimes one or two of those are from other sources). This of course depends on how comfortable you are with normal articles, and also if you have the time to do 6 articles.

This is definitely above my level, comprehension takes a big hit if I don't ease myself with the Easy article first. Core6k has a ton of formal vocabulary that shows up often in normal NHK so I don't think thats the problem, maybe its more of a question of grammar and being able to "digest" longer strings of information?

Anybody knows how to download the videos?

I tried with Orbit Downloader, and it works well with the easy version audios, but it's no use for the videos.

I tried with Firefox Video Download Helper too, but it does nothing.

Sebastian Wrote:Anybody knows how to download the videos?

forum search: link

Thanks for the link.

Replay Media Catcher does work perfectly, but the free version only let's you record half of videos that aren't from Youtube.

The free trial lasts 30 days, so I'll go with that for now.

thurd Wrote:

TheVinster Wrote:On the weekend I just read 6 normal NHK articles (sometimes one or two of those are from other sources). This of course depends on how comfortable you are with normal articles, and also if you have the time to do 6 articles.

This is definitely above my level, comprehension takes a big hit if I don't ease myself with the Easy article first. Core6k has a ton of formal vocabulary that shows up often in normal NHK so I don't think thats the problem, maybe its more of a question of grammar and being able to "digest" longer strings of information?

I honestly don't think I'm above your level of comprehension. I treat it like how I treat Easy articles, which is watch the video and try to focus, then read the article, then watch the video again. Depending on the difficulty of the topic, the 2nd time watching the video I may decide to try listening without the text or follow along. I agree that Easy articles are like a nice warm-up that gives you the theme and setting in a more accessible package, but by watching the video on a Normal article, the addition of video can help achieve the same thing.

I've only been diligently reading the news since starting this challenge and I don't think I'm any sort of special case. I have plenty of difficulties, and it can sometimes be time-consuming, but I feel I'm making progress.

[Zgarbas]

This was a great month for me thanks to this challenge and Tadoku . Thank you for thinking it up!

Will there be a new challenge starting tomorrow?

Also, congratulations to everyone who managed to keep up with the challenge =). Especially to those with perfect records orz.

Zgarbas Wrote:Will there be a new challenge starting tomorrow?

I would love that. I have been working hard lately and I think now I have the level to read easy news articles. It would be great for motivation. If so I'm definitely on.

I'd like a chance to start over. This month I started reading native materials almost every day but never finished all three articles. lol. I don't read the news in English and am not very interested in Japanese news either. However, I am trying!

winterpromise31 Wrote:I'd like a chance to start over. This month I started reading native materials almost every day but never finished all three articles. lol. I don't read the news in English and am not very interested in Japanese news either. However, I am trying!

Same for me. I only read the headlines and maybe a few sentences when it comes to English news. My indifference to the news finally caught up with me and I fell off towards the end of this month. I'll probably sit out of the next challenge and focus on something else for a while.

Hello everyone!!

Sorry about the delay, sheet for #3 is up and waiting for your submissions.

As always I'll leave #2 unlocked for a few days so everyone who posts their progress late can do so. Official #3 thread incoming.

[Zgarbas]

New interfaces always confuse me =/.
Also, Easy articles with no normal equivalent.

Whenever I run out of easy articles with a normal equivalent, I just jump onto the main site and other news sites. There are plenty of new articles with videos to choose from.

Why'd they change the layout of the NHK Easy site? It was fine the way it was before. :\

[Zgarbas]

I kept wondering why the bird flu articles(and nhk articles in general) seem off to me and I realized that it's due to the lack of caps lock. It's really weird to see the news with monotone voice and font.
Don't Japanese news have sensationalism/SEO?

Are we still continuing into May too ?

Forthem Wrote:Are we still continuing into May too ?

Yes of course. I just created #4 sheet so you can track your progress for may there.

thurd Wrote:

Forthem Wrote:Are we still continuing into May too ?

Yes of course. I just created #4 sheet so you can track your progress for may there.

Sweet! Signed up, as I've been slacking on reading NHK News the past week or so. Great article today on 富士山 becoming a World Heritage landmark:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20130501...61000.html

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to remind you that the next edition of 1M Challenge will be running along side of Tadoku Challenge so we all get double motivation points

I've created #5 spreadsheet in the same file as usual, so everyone who wants to participate can sign up beforehand.

Summary for the month May will come as usual 2-3 days after the deadline.