Watching Anime without sub-titles... oddly enjoyable.
Well, revelation. I'm loving watching anime without sub-titles.
I thought I would be forcing myself through it. I still don't understand everything that is being said after all. And, I'm watching my B-list anime. Those I have no plans of watching with my wife. So, I'm watching "second rate" anime (in my opinion) in a fashion guaranteed to leave me not 100% sure what is going on. And I'm actually loving it.
I already feel like my listening skills are improving. If I can find a good source for the scripts, there is a chance I could actually start using this to expand my vocab and grammar.
For now, I'm happy to just follow along and picking up on what I can. In addition to helping to train my listening skills, it is a great reinforcement tool as well. Essentially, anything which couldn't be inferred by watching the scene without the audio, I can only pick up on if I both A) accurately hear it, and B) know the words or, if the scene provides enough information to help me remember the meaning of a word I had forgotten or was forgetting.
Right now, while I do understand a lot of the words, there is also a lot in that last category. Words or grammatical concepts which I barely know or have half forgotten and watching the anime is helping there a lot.
But, even when I'm totally baffled as to the exact meaning of a scene, I'm still actually enjoying it.
In fact, I think I'm enjoying these anime FAR more than I would have with sub-titles.
A nice next step would be, as I suggested above, if I could find scripts in Japanese. Then I could read through and translate in advance. Then, I could watch through the anime once and see how much of what I translated sticks.
I don't really have much of an urge to watch a show more than once. Or translate it more than once. But, translating something as big as a show and maybe choosing a few choice grammatical or vocab points from the translation to focus on, and I think I could benefit a lot from this.
I'm learning that I'm a VERY self-directed learner. I can take cues from others. But, I generally work best by adapting those things. Right now, I have a bit of a hodge-podge of things going on. Sometimes I tie things back into my programming skills. Sometimes music. Sometimes anime. Sometimes it is purely traditional study methods.
I think, if there is one thing which I'm going to be most disappointed with when I finish this, it is that I don't think I will come out of it with something marketable. I mean, the new skills will have value. And I definitely think I have opened up new doors for myself. But I was kind of hoping to end up with something I could turn into a program (either a software solution, or something I could provide online in a guided fashion). I don't think I'm getting there.
If I could turn this into something, it would be more like providing a 道場 than an online course. And, maybe I will get to a point where I feel confident enough in my Japanese that I could and would want to do so.
Basically, I'm uncovering a wealth of learning techniques. But, what makes them most interesting and effective is the ways in which they are personalized to me. Music is an uninspiring means of learning a language if you can't find songs you enjoy listening to. Anime suffers from a similar problem.
So, unless I make my own anime or music to address specific things in learning I won't be able to offer much unless it is in a class room environment with some degree on course customization.
But, I guess that IS an option.
Anyway, that is all a bit tangential. I'm not learning Japanese to make a profit from it. And this post is more about learning from anime. 思いましたより「南鎌倉女子自転車部」より良かった.
I thought I would be forcing myself through it. I still don't understand everything that is being said after all. And, I'm watching my B-list anime. Those I have no plans of watching with my wife. So, I'm watching "second rate" anime (in my opinion) in a fashion guaranteed to leave me not 100% sure what is going on. And I'm actually loving it.
I already feel like my listening skills are improving. If I can find a good source for the scripts, there is a chance I could actually start using this to expand my vocab and grammar.
For now, I'm happy to just follow along and picking up on what I can. In addition to helping to train my listening skills, it is a great reinforcement tool as well. Essentially, anything which couldn't be inferred by watching the scene without the audio, I can only pick up on if I both A) accurately hear it, and B) know the words or, if the scene provides enough information to help me remember the meaning of a word I had forgotten or was forgetting.
Right now, while I do understand a lot of the words, there is also a lot in that last category. Words or grammatical concepts which I barely know or have half forgotten and watching the anime is helping there a lot.
But, even when I'm totally baffled as to the exact meaning of a scene, I'm still actually enjoying it.
In fact, I think I'm enjoying these anime FAR more than I would have with sub-titles.
A nice next step would be, as I suggested above, if I could find scripts in Japanese. Then I could read through and translate in advance. Then, I could watch through the anime once and see how much of what I translated sticks.
I don't really have much of an urge to watch a show more than once. Or translate it more than once. But, translating something as big as a show and maybe choosing a few choice grammatical or vocab points from the translation to focus on, and I think I could benefit a lot from this.
I'm learning that I'm a VERY self-directed learner. I can take cues from others. But, I generally work best by adapting those things. Right now, I have a bit of a hodge-podge of things going on. Sometimes I tie things back into my programming skills. Sometimes music. Sometimes anime. Sometimes it is purely traditional study methods.
I think, if there is one thing which I'm going to be most disappointed with when I finish this, it is that I don't think I will come out of it with something marketable. I mean, the new skills will have value. And I definitely think I have opened up new doors for myself. But I was kind of hoping to end up with something I could turn into a program (either a software solution, or something I could provide online in a guided fashion). I don't think I'm getting there.
If I could turn this into something, it would be more like providing a 道場 than an online course. And, maybe I will get to a point where I feel confident enough in my Japanese that I could and would want to do so.
Basically, I'm uncovering a wealth of learning techniques. But, what makes them most interesting and effective is the ways in which they are personalized to me. Music is an uninspiring means of learning a language if you can't find songs you enjoy listening to. Anime suffers from a similar problem.
So, unless I make my own anime or music to address specific things in learning I won't be able to offer much unless it is in a class room environment with some degree on course customization.
But, I guess that IS an option.
Anyway, that is all a bit tangential. I'm not learning Japanese to make a profit from it. And this post is more about learning from anime. 思いましたより「南鎌倉女子自転車部」より良かった.
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