Suggestions-podcast comprehension?

[Naguib]

Hallo! I'm in second semester of college japanese, have been studying on my own with Rosetta stone, this site, and the first Minna no Nihongo text book + workbook. I'm hitting a wall with the podcasts though, and I was wondering if anyone had some suggestions.
I started with newbie seasons one and two and the first season beginner lessons. I generally understood the whole conversations save a couple of words. Now I'm in beginner season one in the 70 ish episodes. I do not, pretty much always, know what's going on in those conversations upon first hearing them! I get it pretty much after hearing the whole episodes, but it's still tough to catch it all. Also the explanations seem to go really fast. I'm getting discouraged here. So should I listen to the old episodes again? Maybe? Thanks!

[Jessi]

Hello Naguib-san,
Why not try Newbie Series 3 and 4 first and see how you find them? You may find that after going through those, you will be better prepared for the Beginner Series

[Taurus]

That happened to me too, and probably to lots of other listeners - that first season of beginner lessons ramps up pretty quickly. I would just keep listening to them till you understand them. That's how to get better, I think (at the moment, for example, I am listening to Natsume Souseki's ten nights of dreams, Rashomon, and the Ghibli movie Omoide Poro Poro, over and over again. I understand all of them now, but I'm still listening to them). If you find that it's too boring to keep listening to the same podcasts over and over, just come back to them later. (If you're using Anki, you can also go through the transcripts and turn anything you don't understand into a flashcard.)

[mieth]

Naguib, It was the same for me around that lesson mark when I was first studying to. Right around there the lessons become pretty difficult. I recommend you just listen to ten a day. say 70-80 and then each day layer one additional lesson forward and listen to another 10. so like on day two listen to lesson 71-81 and then 72-82 and so on and so on.

[Jessi]

10... a day?! Does anything even sink in?? I'd think even 10 a week is a lot if it's a challenging level for you!

[Javizy]

10 a day is definitely pointless. In addition to the massive 2+ hours you'd need just for listening, there's just too much there to focus on at once. You could spend 30 minutes listening to 2 lessons a day, and the other 90 could be put to much more effective use with writing, shadowing, flashcards, Heisig, etc.

[mieth]

Well 10 a day is what I did. That was about 2 and a half years ago though. Anki was not quite as popular back then as it is now. I certainly don't think it is pointless. I guess that depends on what your goals are. certainly your brain does turn to mush sometimes while your listening but I don't think you have control over when your brain decides to learn something in another language. Anyway 2.5 years ago I was listening to beginner lessons at Jpod at 10 per day and today I am going to a Japanese University where all of my classes are conducted in Japanese. Granted for my difficult lectures I only understand about 40-50 percent. If I watch a normal movie in Japanese I use little effort keeping along. It all depends on the vocab that is used. It all depends on the style of the individual and how far you want to go with the language. I guess if that is a WASTE of time then so be it. To each his own.

[mcentire27]

One thing that has helped me is recording myself singing the dialogues.

First, write a sentence from the dialogue on a sheet of paper, then separate the sentence into short remember-able phrases (your brain processes information in 2s and 3s.) So try singing two or three words into a microphone several times, then sing the next two or three words several times. Afterward, sing the two phrases together using the same melody you used the first time.

The repeated phrases should resemble a chant, as you repeat each phrase for about 30-40 seconds. Remember to go back to chant and record the whole sentence in one long melody.

Repeat until you finish the dialogue. Then put the tracks you recorded on your ipod or on a cd in your car. It is really important to keep the same melody when singing a phrase. This shouldn't take more than an hour to record a dialogue. It will stick much better this way. gambatte

[Taurus]

10 a day is definitely pointless.

I don't think so, necessarily. When I went through the beginner series, I would listen to one full podcast, and then just re-listen to old dialogues, and 10 dialogues a day is about 20 minutes or half an hour. I would do it while out running, and I'd be running for at least twice that length of time. That's the great thing about the podcasts - that you can listen to them while you're doing other stuff.

It might feel a bit pointless - as if listening to stuff that you already know the meaning of (ie. podcast dialogues that you've already heard) isn't going to help you understand when you listen to things that you aren't prepared for (ie. 'real' Japanese), but in my experience, it it definitely does help. In fact, I think it helps even if you're not totally concentrating on it: whenever I hear or see the word 天才 now, I have a little aural flashback to the dialogue in which the guy's setting up a youtube channel, even though I haven't heard it for maybe a year or more. Which means it's difficult to forget the meaning. That's as good as a flashcard, I think.

[Javizy]

Listening to the dialogues is a good way to review, but 10 whole lessons would just take too much time, which could be better spent to improve your abilities more efficiently. Especially considering that 90% of the beginner lesson content is in English. That's all I was trying to say. I used to listen to a bunch of dialogues myself.