Anime (turn off the English subs. Honestly. It's hard in the beginning ("I don't understand 'anything'! I *need* subs!") but it's worth it. ), movies, drama... It takes time to get used to processing spoken Japanese. It's just a different thing from written, almost 'totally'.

And... try to turn up the volume a bit

I consider myself to be fluent in English... Yet I've realised I still watch English shows without subtitles at a louder volume than I'd watch Dutch shows... I suppose I'm scared to miss words... Missing words happens in Dutch too, but I'm not scared of it (you don't even think about it when it's about your native language.) So, lately I've turned down the volume a bit with English, and of course I can still understand it...

But starting out, turning up the volume a bit can actually help.

... And... well, I'm not sure about this one. Some days it helps to actively *focus* on what's being said, other days I forget about focussing on Japanese and the understanding just happens. I suppose focussing with listening could help with speaking, because you're more aware of which words are used and *how* something is said... While if you just 'listen' to follow the story and all, you're more focussed on the meaning than how it's being said.

Both are useful though

You're right about subtitles. At times (especially when I'm watching anime together with friends or my sister, or when I can't find the raws and only avi files are available) I'll watch it with subs, and at times it really works well. But... you have to make sure you're not just reading the subs and ignoring the audio... And that can be a hard thing to do.
Especially if you're used to watching things with subs all the time.

Actually, what's a great compromise (if you have the time and enjoy something enough) is to first watch something without subs, and after that (a day later, or whenever you feel like it) *with* subs ... The other way around doesn't work well for me... If I watch something with subs the first time, I will remember so much of the subs that the next time I'm still thinking of the subs, even if I'm watching it without. ...

But, whatever works for you... because really, there are so many different ways... And not everything works for everyone.

Audio books with text...you'll be able to read what you're listening to. I figure finding anime, etc with Japanese subs is easier said than done. After all, Japanese viewer don't need subs, and I've never seen anime aimed at foreigners with Japanese subs.

i would love to get japanese subs for anime.
cant find those anywere.
i found that lissening to music video`s with japanese subtitles helps enormous, you can find somewhat easier.

Maybe you are wanting too much.
Japanese subs are not that hard to find.

Look what I got: Gokusen 3 (Edited for Students) [Japanese Subs] (Ep 1-2)

It's also useful to check out a synopsis and then just watch a show (subtitleless) that's more transparent (which would be most anime. Just uh, avoid things like Ghost in the Shell). For example, I'd been watching the whole first part of Claymore without any kind of trouble.. I enjoyed it, found it interesting, understood what was going on. I was missing subtleties and lengthy (but irrelevant) plot exposition(you know how the Japanese get), but nothing important - I picked up on all the significant stuff.
Of course, downfall here is that by episode 6-7 I became too interested in the story and wanted to know EXACTLY what was going on, so I've swapped to subtitles.
Sigh.
It's an obnoxious balancing act. I have to be interested enough to actually watch it, but not interested enough that I can't bear to miss anything.

Japanese subtitles would be keen.

Oh yeah, you can find scripts for dramas(which I don't really watch), but I haven't found any for anime. I really wish I could.

Speaking...now that requires another person. If you don't know a Japanese person, you could try mimicing audio("shadowing", "chorusing", I don't know much about it), but that's not making your own sentences... I find that when I study more often, read more, etc. I think in Japanese more and with more flexibility and complexity.

If you have the luxury of having Japanese people around, then hanging out and actually using Japanese is the best option.

What I used to do back in the day was I had three Japanese friends that I'd always go out to lunch with.  One was a couple, and the other was just a guy.  We'd go out to lunch and speak in Japanese over the course of the lunch (about an hour).  If need be, offer to compensate by paying for the lunch, washing their car, or reciprocate in English or something.

At the time my Japanese was good enough for basic conversation, but that's it.  The trick is, instead of letting your Japanese hold you back (e.g. only talking about the weather because that's all you can do), ask your partner(s) how to say something.  This counters one of the biggest problems I see -- "well I can't say x in Japanese so I'll say nothing or talk about the weather".  Well, if you don't try something new, if you don't challenge yourself, forget it -- you'll talk about the weather forever.

So talk about something a bit above you, and when you can't say something, ASK HOW, and then write it down.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  I did that for about a year, twice a week religiously and it was a huge boost to my listening/speaking.

Oh, and watch dramas and/or variety shows.  Dramas have subs available (plus scripts) and variety, although hard at times, is widely watched.  Saying you watch either will get a better reaction from the average person than saying you watch anime -- you might just get some respect versus the "sigh, not another one (foreign otaku)" reaction.  Plus, think about it for a second -- how many anime watchers are there versus people who know any Japanese comedy?  It's a good way to set yourself apart from the herd, which can help get you better relationships, and hence more people to speak Japanese with.

EDIT:  Almost forgot -- no matter what you do or watch, keep a memo pad handy and write down new words/vocab/phrases/whatever that pop up.  Long vowels in particular can be tricky ("was that しょう or しょ??") especially at the beginning, but try to guess which it is as accurately as possible (i.e. if you guess しょが but nothing comes up, try　しょうが or vice versa) then make note of any mistakes you make.  Bonus points for grabbing language that a normal person would actually use.

Last edited by ajishiosean (2008 June 10, 3:12 am)

For listening I find lots of repetition and getting the sounds/meanings through other senses helpful.It's especially helpful if I listen to my iPod while exercising or doing chores. Besides taking out CDs from the library I've also found Japanesepod101.com to be very good for improving my listening skills. They give you the dialog 3 times (at least) and at different speeds, i.e. natural and slow. They also give you the romaji or the kana (depending on what season) for reading along. You can still find the old episodes on bittorrent I think. Or you can download them with the trial subscription I think. You don't have to buy a subscription there to get the audio.

For speaking, if you can't take a class at a local Japanese cultural society or budhist temple, you can advertise for a language exchange partner on Craigslist or join a Meetup. I've never tried it, but there's also website that tries to arrange partners for language exchange by Skype http://www.language-exchanges.org/

Hope that helps.

@johnzep

Probably the best anime that I've ever seen is Tokyo Godfathers. I really enjoyed it and it revealed some aspects of Japanese society that I hadn't been aware of. I wouldn't class it as easy to understand but there's none of the specialised vocab that you said you didn't want. Although I do remember that one of the characters talks pretty quickly.

There's also English subtitles for the first watch if you want.

Last edited by wrightak (2008 June 11, 5:27 am)

Thanks for the tips.

I do meet up with a Japanese workmate once a week together with another workmate who's learning like me. She is very kind giving up her lunchtime to help us like that. But it's like I said. I have to ask her to repeat things slowly a couple of times, and when I talk I stammer and freeze up. When I was a teenager I didn't have to do that. I think I had better hearing and much better confidence in those days. Any help in this area would be appreciated...

A couple of people on Lang-8 have asked me to skype with them. Unfortunately it's not compatible with my OS (FC4). I can boot into XP/SP1 but that's got no Japanese support at all. I haven't been able to upgrade either OSs successfully--h/w problems I think, so skype will have to wait until I can save up for a new computer.

As for Japanese subs, neither the municipal library nor the hire place have any. As for most video stores, they don't stock anything Japanese at all. (I went into a new Blockbuster and asked for the anime section. The guy didn't even know what I was talking about.)

And I still have the problem of understanding what they're mumbling. A guy used the word こうかい. I thought he said ほうかい, but when I read the word "regret" in the subs, I figured he must've said こうかい (後悔). Seriously, to understand the Japanese, half the time I have to translate back from the English to figure out what words they must've used.

What I might do is have English subs on the first time I watch, so I get the gist of what they're saying, then listen to the Japanese without subs.