#Long Post About Finding Content

11 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

fading hemlock
#

This process is teaching me a lot about the kind of content that I consume in English. All I do in English is listen to long podcasts about AI (or something similar) or listen to music. I hardly ever watch TV or even read fiction. I know I've asked this before, but I still feel pretty lost. How do I find comprehensible Japanese input that I enjoy, when I don't even enjoy things like television or vlogs in English. When I look through my English YouTube history, all I see is music and videos like, "Humanity: Firstborn Space Civilization" or, "Crypto Outlook For 2023: Main Areas Of Focus". I end up having trouble with this because everything I like in English is either not language (music) or it won't be comprehensible if I try to find similar content in Japanese (videos like, "How To Terraform Mars - WITH LASERS").

Sorry for such a long post, but I'm not sure what to do because I hate immersing in my TL. All I do is watch anime and lets plays and cooking videos. It's not enjoyable at all.

rugged moth
#

I struggled a lot with finding new content to watch in the past for this same reason, although I’m fortunate in that my tastes grew a little bit and now it’s gotten easier. I’d personally recommend you watch what you like—look for channels that talk about those topics in Japanese, and mine vocabulary from them. Nothing about the Refold method requires you to watch SOL or anime altogether. It’ll be tougher at first, and imo you’ll prob want your free flow to stick to computer science or space or another tight domain so that you can build listening speed with words you’re somewhat familiar with, but by all means do intensive immersion on anything that’s piquing your interest.

#

You can still throw in 20-30 mins a day of easier vlogs and such to help with general vocabulary without forcing it to be the only content you consume and burning yourself out.

brisk jay
#

I still struggle with finding content occasionally, but I never did in the beginning. I just watched what I wanted no matter what it was, if it was something I was interested in.

I've made list of everything I've seen and occasionally go back and rewatch it as I progress and it gets more enjoyable each time because I understand more and more of it.

You aren't restricted to just SOL stuff. SOL is a pretty wide blanket term anyway. I've been watching a long drama series about the Japanese Cost Guards but it has heavy romance elements to it. It's essentially just "SOL" with a couple of domain specific words that you hear very often.

Tldr; watch whatever you want even if you don't think you'll find it comprehensible.

Note: don't go too overboard in the later stages. I tried to watch a drama earlier about the economic bubble that burst in 1996 and understood maybe 3 words in an entire hour lol

fading hemlock
fading hemlock
brisk jay
#

Don't veer off into a domain that's too far outside of your vocabulary range

#

E.g.
Almost the entire episode I watched used like 99% domain specific vocabulary

fading hemlock
brisk jay
#

Np!

plucky timber
# fading hemlock This process is teaching me a lot about the kind of content that I consume in En...

You might like different things in different languages, which surprised me but it's certainly a thing. The advice I can give follows two paths.

The first path has two parts, corresponding to two broad categories of language motivation that your brain cares about:

  • you want to connect with at least one specific person
  • you want to connect with at least one specific event, story, or cultural practice

If you care about someone, try to understand the things they understand, and if you care about some part of culture or entertainment, then you should try that or topics related to it.

If your interests aren't specific yet, then the challenge you face is that falling in love is hard work sometimes: you don't know exactly what you're looking for, but you do know that you're looking.

This means you need to give people and things a chance. Parasocial dating, almost: put in some energy and see how you feel. But it's better for this to be guided by the things you do know about yourself, even if they're non-specific.

So, do your best to say what you love. This is probably a little too personal so you don't have to say it here, but journaling it for yourself? Yes.

The other path you can follow is a kind of age regression. Imagine you're about ten years old again. What do you like, and what would you have liked if you had grown up in a different place or time?

Along both of these paths you'll learn new things about yourself. I like classic folk stories, especially for kids - I'd have overlooked that if I stayed monolingual. I grew out of anipoke in English, but I'm back to liking it in Japanese. I have an irrational warm spot in my heart for Aomori and Iwate dialects that started with particular celebrities. Or, this is embarrassing but 福山雅治 has a very sexy voice.

The things, people, places, and ideas you fall in love with will be different. But I almost feel that's how to approach it. Be a romantic, an obsessive nerd, a wanderer, a very empathetic listener - something like that.