How to LISTEN to Japanese. Techniques for building audio recognition skills.

Listening is often a major sticking point in understanding Japanese. Let's look at how to unstick it.▼Links▼

Easy early listening:

Anpanman (アンパンマン) videos come and go so try searching them (using the Japanese) on YouTube or Daily Motion. You may have to shift through game videos and other things to find the actual anime but some of them are little gems.

Visit my Patreon community:

Red Kokeshi Angel Patrons who help this work to be possible:
Lailani Faylinn
Tayruh
Penelope
WhyPenguins
Hibiki
Dr. Placksi
Bob Nagler
Full Name
Chris Noon
Nicholas
Valerie
Larry Layne
Lion Kimbro
Ted Ledbetter
Jasmine Sechrist
Jean-Marc Giffin
lateblooming
Tasty Treeko
Pamela J Leitch
Duncan Gilbey
Bob Dobbs
Tascha Keettel
Bibo
Liane Degville
Colin Jervis
Arzar
Kathy Worley
Mirnes Selimovic
Kate Shemwell
L3312n
DoNotReadName
Michael Albert
gasshou
Firmian
Paul
PM
mewin
Lovely Rubble
Arashi Coldwind
J. Rem
Joey Orellana
Terminus
Luis Philipe Rocha
Auguste van Pels
Loren Donelson

Sincere thanks to all my patrons, supporters, students and fans

▼Please visit us at KawaJapa

[PedroOliveira-slnw]

If I could gather the Seven Dragon Balls and ask for one wish, it would be for her to come back. She left us with the perfect (incomplete - because I'm sure she had so much more to teach us) LEGACY.

[japanrain]

It felt a little weird listening to you the first time i found your channel but now i think im addicted 先生、ありがとうございました！

[cureabees]

This was some really good advice, especially the points made from about 5:58 to the end of the video. Because gaining the ability to masterfully interpet spoken language can only be attained through hundreds of hours of listening, having the right mindset throughout all of those hours is essential. And you described that mindset perfectly! I think the most important thing when it comes to developing listening ability is to just not worry about it. Don't worry about what you're missing; just sit back, relax, and enjoy what you've got. Just immerse yourself in your immersion.

[firmian]

One of your best lessons up to now ...

[Knight-Cyberia]

Recently realized that my reading abilities are completely above my hearing abilities, so I started watching some raw dramas and animes... but with fear, thinking "what if this is just a waste of time ". And now with your video I know that it was the correct decition. Thank you Dolly先生.

[lazarossuleimanoglou]

In this video you' ve put together things that many of us have experienced and made a coherent theory with it. Thank you for your effort.

[seventhsheaven]

My listening skills are definitely behind my reading skills, but I have found that “shadowing” has helped improve my listening immensely. I have a textbook with a cd called “shadowing Japanese”, but you can shadow anything you want, really. One thing I struggled with was understanding where one word ended and the next began, but the shadowing has made that easier for me.

[danielirvin]

I do this with weather forecasts from Japan in the morning. I find the repetition of basic phrases and structures helpful, and most of them do have Japanese subtitles.

[kevitokagamine]

This video was exactly what I needed to hear. I’m rewatching some old animes in Japanese and I try not to read the subtitles, even though I don’t understand 100% I already have an idea of what’s going on since it’s my second time watching it. I still enjoying watching anime and I get excited when I hear some phrases and I don’t have to read the subtitles. I just finished watching ロザリオとバンパイア. I’m think about watching MIRAI NIKKI since that anime is one of my favorites 😸 THANK YOU SO MUCH CURE DOLLY 先生、I hope I can keep giving you my support as a patron, I’m running out of money 😅

[duunchannel]

It's helpful to stay relaxed during listening practice. Worrying about comprehension both limits your understanding and your interest in the material, and if you simply listen along casually and pick out words for an hour or two when you can, the improvements will actually be significant.

[DanneoYT]

Learning Japanese has made me appreciate my second language.
Despite neglecting it all my life, it would take thousands of hours of listening to Japanese to even catch up which just makes me treasure my second language even more

[ct_warrior]

One thing I found helpful is going through the first two episodes or 20% of a series with subtitles and familiarizing yourself with the words they like to use and any words you don't know that pop up. They say that 80% of all the vocab you need is in the first 20% or so. After that, you can watch raw and become more and more comfortable with that 80% and pick up some new words from less fuzzy context.

[saaah]

Absolutely true! It's also the guiding principle behind "tadoku" which I'm sure you've heard of. My reading speed (and listening ability) skyrocketed when I finally gave up on the 100% comprehension dream and put down the dictionary.
But good luck convincing any of the "glass case Japanese" scholars on any of this.

[cassandrabarrett]

What a great video Dolly sensei! Lately, I started to read more in Japanese while using a dictionary, but not making Anki flashcards because I genuinely don't feel like making cards for every new word anymore. Plus, time used to make new flashcards could be time to read a new page of a book because I want to enjoy what I'm reading rather than "study" as you said.

There's a manga I started reading called Great Pretender, and I found out it has an anime on Netflix! I figured since I'm reading the manga, I could watch the anime too. I want to see how much I understand while enjoying the show, and this video gives me the confidence to do just that. I'm always grateful for your videos Dolly sensei! <3

[moonmoon]

I have been stuck, felt no direction in language acquisition. Thanks Dolly, this really helped 🙇🏻

[smugfrog]

I wish there was some tool that lets you choose your listening level and based on that omit the appropriate parts of the subtitles to get you used to listening while letting you understand the more complicated sentences

[TIMRUM]

i practice my listening with doujin asmr, sfw ones of course

[just_another_Japan_Life_Vlog]

So useful. I've been doing this for years, just enjoying J-Drama and J-Pop, so my listening skill is reasonably strong. The rest is lacking but I can pick up things in real life conversation now I decided it should just be fun!!

[maxxi]

Thank you Dolly Sensei for once more giving us some awesome advice! :) Until today I used to always sit and watch an anime and worry about having to understand every word and every sentence.. but I'll scrap that off and watch animes in a completely different way now!! Thank you so much for your help :)

[cherubinth]

I was just listening to Japanese. Thanks for the tip.