Someone once said the best way to practice listening is by listening. Learning and managing a language is not something that is done in a rush; it’s a gradual process. And until you rightly follow the process, you will likely not get your desired result, which may either be learning to read, listen, write or even speak fluently.
Of all the foreign languages people are developing interests to learn, Japanese is one of the hardest. Even Japanese language experts agree that Japanese listening skills are the hardest to improve on. Listening isn’t all about hearing, but also understanding. Unless you listen to understand, conversations may be sound meaningless to you.
The best way to improve your listening skills is through constant practice. Take advantage of every opportunity you have to listen and learn, and in no time, you’d have developed a skill that cannot be taken away from you.
In this article, I’ll show you some self-study tips to help improve your Japanese listening skills.
Self-study tips to help improve your Japanese listening skills.
Maximize the use of the internet
Information about anything and everything you want to learn is readily available to you on the internet, all you need to do is search it out. With the internet, you can go online, search for and listen to several Japanese radio and tv programs, podcasts, shows, and any available resource to help improve your listening skills. You can even engage in a real-time voice or video chat with other Japanese language students.
Remember, Consistency is all it takes. The more you listen actively, the better you become.
Don’t ignore the basics
Unless you are an advanced learner trying to brush up your listening skills, I’ll advise that you start from the basics. You can watch videos, listen to podcasts or ebooks that teach you the sound of each character in the Japanese writing system, listen attentively to every sound, and repeat them until you get each sound right. This way, you are training your ear to become acquainted with these sounds, hence making it easy for you to recognize them when used in a sentence.
Watch YouTube Japanese channels.
There are various resources made available to you on this platform to help your listening skills. Watching Japanese YouTubers speak casually at native speed will definitely train your ears and improve your listening skills.
You can also check out Japanese live streaming, where you will find different categories of people talking about topics that may be of interest to you. Just listen to them talk, try to comprehend what they are saying, and interact with them by commenting.
Turn off the subtitles
Watch Japanese movies, TV shows, and programs consistently without subtitles, and you’ll be surprised how improved your listening skills will become. How so? You may ask. Watching movies, TV shows, and programs with subtitles take little effort from you to understand what you are watching. But every time you watch without subtitles, you make a conscious effort to comprehend what is going on. Although you may find it challenging, each time you make an effort, you’ll discover that your present listening skill and comprehension are different from the last.
Listen actively, not passively.
Listening is a tricky process that needs to be consciously developed. I’ve seen a lot of people confuse ‘hearing’ for listening without realizing that it takes more than hearing sounded words to listen.
When you listen actively, you listen to understand, but when you listen passively, you only hear what is being said at the moment. So, whether you are self-studying or studying with a group of people, learn to listen to understand.
Also, If you have
Japanese friends, neighbors, or acquaintances, you can initiate conversations with them in Japanese and get them to reply with the same. Listen actively to their responses and reply. This will help to strengthen your listening skills. For those who don’t have Japanese speaking friends or neighbors and also don’t live in Japan, you can always look for a language exchange partner online who wants to learn your language and can speak to you in Japanese.
Listen repeatedly
Whether you are watching a TV show, drama, movies, YouTube channel, or you are listening to a podcast, audio, or eBook, listen repeatedly. Don’t rush your learning process, take your time, and go over again and again! Not only will you become acquainted with each word or vocabulary, but your daily life conversation also becomes interesting.
Listening doesn’t have to take all your time. You can listen to Japanese audios, ebooks, and even songs when jogging, driving, cooking, washing, in buses, train station, etc. Every minute spent listening to a resource that will help improve your Japanese listening skills is not a minute wasted.
Now that you have these tips at your disposal use them actively by infusing them in your daily routine. With consistent listening practice, your Japanese listening skill will surely improve into something you’ll most definitely be proud of.
Speak!
There is no learning without practice. Verbally expressing what you listen to is a good way to improve your listening skills. When you speak with natives or other people who have advanced Japanese language skills, you’ll most likely learn from them.
Benefits of improving your Japanese listening skills
- When you develop and improve your listening skills, you unconsciously build your confidence, and so, Initiating or joining a conversation becomes easy since you don’t have to fiddle with words anymore.
- You can easily understand conversations, enjoy your favorite movies, music, and programs.
- Communicating with natives becomes easier and interesting, especially if you are a traveler.
- Your listening skill, as well as your speaking skills, is the link connecting all your language skills together. Hence, improve listening skills are a step towards building well-developed language skills in general.
In conclusion, it is important for you to know that it takes more than just an idea or your love for the Japanese language to learn it. You need to be conscious of the steps you take towards improving your listening skills and remain consistent in the process.
Good luck!