mezbup
Member
From: sausage lip
Registered: 2008-09-18
Posts: 1681
Website
K so I'm still learning and I've only been at it for 1.5 years now but I can understand quite a bit and generally follow what I'm watching/reading. Recently made quite a few Japanese friends and they all speak Japanese to each other... trouble is it feels like I don't understand even half of what they hell they say to each other.
Makes me think though, like anything the only way to learn to understand real conversation is to just listen to it endlessly until it becomes clear. Scripted stuff is helpful but still quite different I think.
I'm interested to know others experience that have studied Japanese outside of Japan for an extended period of time, doesn't matter which method, then suddenly been immersed in lots of real Japanese conversation. What was it like for you?
ta12121
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 2009-06-02
Posts: 3190
Scary at first. Although it does become easier when you just keep listening to it over and over again. For me I could understand what was being said, but there was phrases/words i didn't understand at all.
I remember there was a site about people talking about a variety of subjects. All audio, so you can keep listening to it over and over again until you understand it also you can download the audios. I think personally that once you've reached a certain level, you can learn purely by listening/reading only.
Last edited by ta12121 (2010 March 26, 9:34 pm)
Asriel
Member
From: 東京
Registered: 2008-02-26
Posts: 1343
Real conversation is much tougher than scripted stuff. Playing games, reading novels, watching drama, it's all pretty simple to follow.
I came to Japan last September, and my conversation-following has improved greatly, but is still much poorer than when watching things like drama. For instance, I'll be in a group of Japanese people having fun, and I can follow their conversation, but can't necessarily participate too actively. Granted, this varies on how well I know the people and my own personality, etc, etc
One thing I've found helpful is to watch game shows/gaki no tsukai/unscripted things.
I've often heard people way "watch/listen to the news, it's the best way to get used to spoken Japanese"
The news is actually one of the easier(est?) things to understand.
ta12121
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 2009-06-02
Posts: 3190
I agree with Asriel. Unscripted stuff is wayyyyy harder than scripted stuff. For me personally I'm finding that nowadays my mind has switched to full Japanese when watching things or trying to go into a conversation. I don't really worry about translating stuff, i had that problem with auto-translating in my head. But nowadays all i did was watch/listen to a lot of japanese and it corrected it.
I've found out through experience that, if you keep watching things over and over again you will eventually understand all of it. So news, keep watching it/srs stuff related to it and you will be able to understand all of it in due time, same with music,dramas,animes and anything else in japanese that one has difficulties with.
Last edited by ta12121 (2010 March 26, 9:43 pm)
ThomasB
Member
From: Tokyo, Japan
Registered: 2010-02-27
Posts: 139
For me it is almost the other way round. I can understand a good portion, probably the majority, of when Japanese people are talking to each other but I am pretty much lost when it comes to news.
That probably comes from the fact that I started studying Japanese BECAUSE I had a lot of Japanese friends around me who would always talk in Japanese. I remember the days when I would spend hours without them saying an English word and I had no Japanese ability whatsoever. I guess subconsciously I picked up something...
