Japanese listening practice for people living outside Japan

Think that you have to live in Japan to get good at Japanese? Crap! Didn't you read the Tae Kim interview? Here's a quick example of the kinds of things those of you learning Japanese outside Japan can do to increase the amount of Japanese you are exposed to every day:

• Fire up your computer and listen to the NHK News as you eat breakfast: 10 minutes

• Grab your iPod. Jump in the car/on your bike/on the train/on the bus and listen to 2 or 3 episodes of the Learn Japanese podcast as you head to work/school: 30 minutes

• Lunchtime. Go to the Yomiuri Shimbun website and read the Japanese news online using rikaichan: 30 minutes. Then go outside - you need the exercise. Go for a walk for half an hour, listening as you go to the Yomiuri News podcast.

• Go home. You are probably tired after work/school but try not to fall asleep on the bus. Keep yourself awake by listening to Japanese music, say Orange Range: 30 minutes.

• Get home. Listen to the afternoon version of the NHK News: 10 minutes.

• Rent a Japanese DVD. Turn the subtitles off. Watch it. 120 minutes.

Total listening time: 230 minutes (give or take a few minutes because the Learn Japanese podcast has English commentary)

Total reading time: 30 minutes (I am focusing on listening, but reading the news will reinforce your comprehension of the news you listen to)

Notes:
1. This is by no means exhaustive - please add lots of suggestions to the comments section.
2. I am assuming you have an iPod and an internet connection. Then again if you don't have an internet connection I doubt you'll be reading this......If you don't have an iPod.....Christmas is only 8 months away.
3. I am assuming you don't have a significant other who is Japanese. If you do, you could easily add a couple more hours to your tally.

Tag learning Japanese | self learning | study Japanese

Comments

[Paul D]

Great advice all around. Also, in my experience, a Japanese friend or tutor to talk to for at least an hour or two a week is indispensable, if one can be found. Nearly every Western city has Japanese residents these days. Speak no English at all with that friend, if possible.

One more thing: turning on the Japanese subtitles for Japanese DVDs can be a big help.

[Will Jasprizza]

Cheers Paul

In my haste to showcase technology I overlooked the best source of Japanese - Japanese friends.

Japanese subtitles are great but (a) they are normally only available on non-Japanese DVDs retailing inside Japan and (b) due to the wonderfully enlightened practice of region coding, DVDs for the domestic Japanese market are not necessarily playable on DVD players outside Japan. If more DVD producers take into account the needs of the hearing impaired and add Japanese subtitles to Japanese language DVDs then we J-learners benefit too.

[Tae Kim]

If there's no Japanese people near your aread, you can also look for a language partner via mixxer and talk with skype. (Haven't tried it myself though)

http://langtech.dickinson.edu/globalclass/

[Joe]

I can vouch for The Mixxer + Skype: I live in a midwestern US city with very few Japanese and little opportunity to practice. Over the last year I've found several Japanese conversation partners and have had many hours of fun and productive language practice. Very good stuff. I've never had any luck finding partners on the Skype forums or Jyve, but on The Mixxer Japanese people come looking for ME.

Thanks for the great links to NHK and Yomiuri. I desperately need to work on my listening and comprehension, and the ゆっくり NHK update is right up my alley.