Something i've found is that... when I listen to a sentence and try parrot it back, all the grammar that isn't fully ingrained in my head seems to have not even been heard for I can't remember which particle was used at all. It's like my brain just ignores it.

Is this normal?

I can't directly answer your question, but it reminds me of how as English speakers we essentially ignore the particle-like words (I've forgotten what we call them in English atm) like "the, a, in, on, at, of" and focus more on the meaning-heavy components of a sentence.

Here's the F counting problem if you're interested.

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.

There are 6 F's, most people miscount because the F in of is ignored.

it makes sense though I guess because in a sentence certain words carry much more value than others.

The, a, it, in, of

have pretty much 0 value. That is to say, in the sentence "There is a bag on the table"
The words "bag" and "table" are the only words which really have any value. If all you said was those two words... you'd probably get your point across... if all you said was "There is a on the" you'd get a big fat "What?".

Don't worry. It happens to everyone. When you find text you can't understand without the particles, but you want really badly to, like Professor Layton for DS, you'll gradually start noticing the particles easily.

When I'm SRSing, I try to make sure to pay attention to the sentences' particles, depending on what kind of cards I'm doing. In general I just try to make sure that I've internalized how the particles are used in the sentences when I see them, for grammar cards I'm extra picky. That way when I encounter similar usages in the future it's instantaneous, part of the 'learn, master, and dissolve' process. I've never had cause to, but if I were specifically doing particle cards, then I might try experimenting with colours/highlights/cloze deletion of particles...

Sometimes I can't hear particles. I know a particle was said, but I can't distinguish what sound it was. Usually with fast, unclear speech.

I find pronouns in English get blurred too. He, she, it, and I, you we. I end up having these kinds of conversations with family members:
Me "We should do dishes now."
Sister "Why do I have to do the dishes?!"
Me " I said we!"

Particles aren't all that important in casual texts anyway, which is why many of them are removed in casual speak. As you start reading more convoluted texts, like mentat said, you will notice them.

This article from Antimoon seems relevant

http://www.antimoon.com/how/readhow.htm

You can understand conversation and books without fully grasping particles, so your mind wonders to the main points. It becomes impossible to speak and write without a grasp of connectors and particles.

Nukemarine Wrote:This article from Antimoon seems relevant

http://www.antimoon.com/how/readhow.htm

You can understand conversation and books without fully grasping particles, so your mind wonders to the main points. It becomes impossible to speak and write without a grasp of connectors and particles.

yeah i've read that one before but it was good to refresh on it.