Challenging My Real Time Listening Comprehension

Sensei and her teaching assistants have started to play CD's containing Japanese conversations in real time. Our task has been to see just how much we can pick out. The answer? Not much.

Nothing makes it so blatantly clear just how far we have to climb than listening to that CD. It made it obvious just how much sensei and her assistants have slowed down their speech for us.

On the first pass, we caught the odd word. By the third pass, we were able to catch phrases - so long as the CD was paused after each phrase!

The question now becomes, "How to practice this at home during the week?" Here are a few ideas that sensei, my classmates and I have come up with:

• listen to Japanese radio shows

• listen to Japanese music

• watch Japanese shows - raw, or without looking at the subtitles

The trick is to listen to the track several times, to see if you can pick out a little bit more each time. むずかしい です ね？