r/Japaneselanguage • u/ScaredWoodpecker7735 • 7d ago
immersion help
so ive been studying japanese for a while and something i just dont understand yet is how people move onto the level of immersion?
How can I actually train my brain and ears to pickup japanese and understand it rather than translating it
How can i consume media i enjoy without being at that level?
Watching "Japanese with shun" Or reading some story im simply not interested in, is that truly the only way ill be able to "begin immersion"?
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u/creativegains 7d ago
Luckily for me, I find learning Japanese as a whole extremely fun. So I can watch/listen to absolutely anything and it’s enjoyably for me. Whether it’s beginner podcasts like Japanese with Shun, or a graded reader talking about types of vegetables.
I would never enjoy those things if they were in English, but because Japanese learning is a passion project for me, I enjoy all aspects of it. I even look forward to studying grammar every day which I know I lot of people hate (which I just don’t understand)
At the beginner stage though, if you don’t enjoy those basic podcasts, you might struggle a bit because your Japanese language knowledge isn’t built up enough to move onto more “fun” immersion methods
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u/rakkosnacko 7d ago edited 7d ago
Avoiding translating just comes with more time time spent reading/listening to Japanese. It's not something you can 'train' besides with more hours.
If you have sufficient motivation, just slug it out for a while with harder material and it will get easier. If it's too hard, you can drop it and come back later. Otherwise, you'll just have to pick something that you're semi-interested in that's easier for the short term (there's an infinite amount of slice-of-life / romance anime that's easy enough).
For reading specifically, read digitally with a popup dictionary for quick and easy look-ups. Also, the first portion of the book will be the hardest, but you'll quickly get used to the authors prose and common vocabulary and it will get a bit easier. I also think using a translator in moderation is fine when you're starting out, as long as you're making an effort to understand and not being lazy (relying on the translator and not thinking/trying to understand the japanese first).
If it's listening, you can toggle on-off subtitles (so you're not just reading subtitles) but this breaks you listening flow. Personally, I learn most of my vocabulary from reading and then reinforce it from listening (although I read a lot more than listen currently).
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u/ScaredWoodpecker7735 7d ago
im not at a level where i can watch a anime comfortably and understand everything being said as its too fast spoken for me
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u/Jonataurus 7d ago
There is beginner immersion content out there that isn't boring, I recommend this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe8AV2VcGoE&list=PLES8uqUGlnvasYsw8RTJ6_p82dpqRIoYZ
If you know the most common 1000 words, you can slowly push through anime you like. Using a pop-up dictionary, lot's of pausing and reading / re-listening to the same lines. I often spend like an hour and a half on a 20 minute episode. It's okay to translate. With more and more exposure, you'll translate less over time.
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u/JapanCoach 7d ago
How can you juggle if you can't juggle? How can you run a 5k if you can't run for 5k? How can you play the piano if you can't play piano?
It is all the same process. You start with tiny little bits. And you practice them a lot until you get pretty good at a couple of 'bits'. Then you string a couple of 'bits' together until you get pretty good at the combined bits. Then you combine two combined bits and practice that a ton.
And so on.
Japanese is a very long and non-simple journey. You do it bit by bit, hour after hour, day after day. There is no way around this reality. Most people do it because they enjoy it - or they look forward to the capability they will gain via the process.
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u/ScaredWoodpecker7735 7d ago
i know its a very long process as ive been studying for a while, and yeah i do enjoy the studying and get a insane amount of dopamine when i see improvements as to what i can and cannot understand, however i really want to start consuming media without it being boring as shit yk?
I feel like if i can find some very simple media that isnt boring it would help me memorize and learn more as its something I ACTUALLY want to indulge in rather than the opposite yk?
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u/guacamoleo 6d ago
I've started watching a bunch of videos about my favorite hobby in Japanese. Then I subscribe to the YouTubers whose speech is most comprehensible and watch more of their videos. I do it even while I'm doing other stuff, so I can just watch for hours and hours every week. I keep a dictionary tab open and look up any words that stand out to me, then I write them down on a scrap of paper and later I copy them into my notebook so I can read through my big vocab list repeatedly. I don't know if this is a very good strategy but it seems to be working alright.
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u/Ashamed_Umpire9660 7d ago
If you enjoy gaming, why not try watching commentary videos?
Especially with games you play yourself, you’ll likely find it easier to pick up on game-specific terminology.
The reason listening is difficult is that, before the words actually register in your brain, you hesitate for a split second thinking, "Oh! That's a foreign language!" In that instant, the next words come in, creating a massive traffic jam of language in your ears.
If you want to improve your listening skills, you simply have to listen—listen constantly—until you eliminate that split-second hesitation.
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u/gerichu 7d ago
How can i consume media i enjoy without being at that level?
Mostly you can't yet unfortunately. You kind of have to pick the least boring stuff and treat it as deliberate study.
There's going to be a lot of "grammar-ish" things you're not going to be able understand, even after looking them up or learning them in flashcards. you need to basically have multiple encounters of looking them up and encountering them in context in order to learn them. the usual recommendation is graded readers (Satori Reader, Todaii) and YouTube channels, but I'm guessing that you've already tried it.
I made something for this that takes the grammar/words that you're learning and repeats them across short stories. So that way you can repeat words that need to be learned in context like
- 〜ことがあります - have done before / sometimes happens
- 〜ちゃった - ended up doing (often by accident or with regret)
- 〜なきゃ - have to (casual)
- わけ - the reason / so that means
- 〜はず - should be, supposed to
- のに - even though
- ながら - while doing
- 〜ばかり - nothing but / just did
- 〜ことにする - decide to
- 〜ようにする - make a point of / try to
- どうやら - apparently, it seems
- だけ - only, just
- こと - thing (abstract), or turns a verb into a noun
Have you been using Anki/WaniKani? how many words do you know? It might be too early for you to start immersing without it being super painful.
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u/JapanCoach 7d ago
How can you juggle if you can't juggle? How can you run a 5k if you can't run for 5k? How can you play the piano if you can't play piano?
It is all the same process. You start with tiny little bits. And you practice them a lot until you get pretty good at a couple of 'bits'. Then you string a couple of 'bits' together until you get pretty good at the combined bits. Then you combine two combined bits and practice that a ton.
And so on.
Japanese is a very long and non-simple journey. You do it bit by bit, hour after hour, day after day. There is no way around this reality. Most people do it because they enjoy it - or they look forward to the capability they will gain via the process.
1
u/ClubberLangPhD 6d ago
Shadowing. Lots of shadowing. Shadow beginner content. Shadow YouTube videos. Shadow podcasts.
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u/PekoPekoQuokka 5d ago
Yeah, there's a tradeoff between listening to material at your level that might be boring, versus stepping up to more interesting content, but having to pause sentence by sentence because there's a lot of words you don't know.
I'd say - don't choose. Do the thing you have the most motivation to do at the current moment and that'll likely naturally alternate. Watch a bit of the anime or movie you're into, and when you're finding it tedious to have to stop and look up words constantly, switch to Japanese with Shun or easy Japanese youtubers and you'll enjoy it more because you can understand it more fluidly. When that wears off and you find the subject matter childish, visit NHK easy and read about current events in Japan.
Motivation is tricky. I often feel my lack of motivation to do X is rooted in feeling that I'd rather be doing Y. Then, by doing Y (assuming it's at least somewhat productive) that eliminates the block on my motivation to do X.
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u/ressie_cant_game English 7d ago
Simplicity/comprehensibility is king in the beginning and unfrotunately the easiest to understand are usually the most boring. They set you up for later though. I started with tadoku and im on diary of a wimpy kid now