Subject line says it all. Does anybody have comments on making it through the "real" dialogue comprehension curve? I'm trying to burn through Core6K and I definitely feel like the larger my vocabulary gets the better chances I have at comprehending a basic sentence (the whole "bag of words" approach -- ignore grammar, logically piece together vocabulary tidbits). But is that all it is? Are there any thoughts or good posts on this topic somewhere on the forum? It's getting kind of frustrating only reliably recognizing "yoroshiku" in speech hehe...

k.

Hi,

you could slow down the movie speed a little bit. There are some programs like mplayer which can change the speed without altering the pitch. I found 0.8x a good value to begin with. I think its very motivating, when you suddenly recognize a lot of words... or at least more than before. Over time, you can increase the speed factor until you are back at the original speed.

The more movies you listen to, the "slower" it will become. The only way to get better at listening, is to listen more.

I'm trying to improve my listening comprehension in Korean right now, watched about 30 hours of video and I'm starting to get the hang of it. But vocabulary is still holding me back.

I also basically just watched a bunch of dramas when I was learning Japanese, that helped my listening comprehension a lot. I'd say, you'll probably need 300-600 hours to get really good at it, and of course, a decently sized vocabulary.

There are several reason why:

1. You just don't know the words they are saying

2. You know the words they are saying but it doesn't register in your brain

3. You are just not paying attention

4. You know the words but the grammar doesn't make sense

5. There's a disparity between how the words are actually pronounced and how you think they are pronounced.

6. The are speaking Kansai lol (or some other dialect)

Can you post an example, maybe a video from youtube? I want to show you that what you don't think you understand, is something that you may already know.

It takes time actually. I thought news was so fast and impossible to understand but it just took more listening and vocab to understand it better. You brain just needs to take time and acquire more vocab to understand what they are saying.

another way is to follow the subs. If you can understand the subs 90%+ of the time, you will definitely gain a better understanding of the words+patterns used. And once's that done, it will carry onto other things that you may have difficulty with.

mr_hans_moleman Wrote:There are several reason why:

1. You just don't know the words they are saying

2. You know the words they are saying but it doesn't register in your brain
(...)
4. You know the words but the grammar doesn't make sense

5. There's a disparity between how the words are actually pronounced and how you think they are pronounced.

Our friend moleman here pretty much nailed it with these four (the others were good points as well).

He sort of covered it with his second point, but to emphasize; we can't discount physiological reasons (ie. your brain simply doesn't have the neural pathways required to process this new language yet).

mr_hans_moleman Wrote:Can you post an example, maybe a video from youtube? I want to show you that what you don't think you understand, is something that you may already know.

Hm, I mostly watch movies and jdrama torrents. I don't have any specific youtube videos but I might try to dig some up later.

My current approach is to watch the episode/scene with English subtitles, just to get a vague sense/context, then I turn the subtitles off (or leave them on and honestly don't read them) and focus on listening. I _do_ catch a lot of words, but a lot of the time I just fail, even if I try to repeat a single phrase a few times over.

Actually, I know the scene from Fight Club where Tyler Durden first says "I want you to hit me as hard as you can," and then again, with emphasis... That was a phrase I thought would be fun to learn (as a joke), but I didn't get far with that. That was a few months ago and I've learned a lot (I hope) since then.

I feel like there are a lot of informal conjugations and tough-guy speak that I'm not familiar with, too, but that's just a hunch.

k

Kodorakun,

Here's my interpretation of the matter I wrote up in August. There's been a few changes but the overall results have been extremely possitive.

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...9#pid64369

Thanks for all the comments and links guys. I watched one episode at 80% playback speed and it was _way_ more comprehensible -- what a great suggestion! It really demonstrates a lot of interesting "things" going on, as far as language production/comprehension goes.

On the topic of having difficulty understanding fast speech, when I hang out with my Japanese friends or when I'm in Japan I find it fun to try and say some of the fixed phrases I know as fast as I can to see if I can be understood. It's a fun game to play, because to me, the newb, I think "holy smokes I am saying this WAY too fast, nobody will understand me" but, in reality, it's probably closer to average speaking speed, or, if anything, slow. Give it a shot if you get much time to speak with native Japanese people.

k.

When that happens I usually go back to the show after I'm done, and then rewind and listen to the same section a half a dozen times. I get it by the 3rd or 4th time, usually. Sometimes I don't need to go back to it at all, because I've grown used to the actor's way of speech, and I understand what he was saying at that point.