1 MILLION Japanese words read and shadowed! 🎉Hear My Before & After Recordings—Rate My Progress!

Hey everyone, welcome back to Yuu's Japanese Challenge. Today, I'm super excited to share a personal milestone with you guys. That is I just reached a big goal. I read 1 million words in Japanese using LingQ. And as you may know, I always shadow native audio in the meantime. So technically, that's a million words read and a million words shadowed in Japanese. I've already made detailed videos about my learning journey, my methods, and how I do shadowing. So today, I'll just give you a quick rundown. Two years ago, when I started learning Japanese, I had to prepare for my life in Japan. So I needed to be able to speak as soon as possible. And that's why I chose a relatively fast method for myself. First, find interesting audio or video with transcripts. And second, pick LingQ as my content center and major tool. And third, read, listen to, and shadow every LingQ lesson either made by LingQ or imported by myself. Last, do it consistently, usually around 20 minutes every day. I also watch a lot of Japanese videos on YouTube and Netflix that I enjoy. I like to call it all Japanese at all time and shadowing. This simple practice has helped me improve my Japanese skills. As I continue to practice, I noticed that my pronunciation is getting better and sounds more natural. And I can speak as fast as the original audio. And then I understand Japanese better. I can recognize more language patterns and so and so. I thought it would be a great idea to record myself reading the same passage every now and then to track my progress. I will play two recordings from last year and this year. Please help me check whether I've improved or not. This is the recording from last year after my first year of shadowing practice. Some of you may have seen or heard about it on Japanese news. In Japan, the discounted price of plastic bags has started from July 1st this month. Plastic bags are plastic bags that you can get at the supermarket when you go shopping. Until now, plastic bags were free of charge. You could get as many as you wanted for free. But since July 1st, it has become more expensive. The government wants to reduce the amount of plastic waste. That's why they started the discounted price of plastic bags. How is it in your country? Are plastic bags still free? Is it discounted? And this is a recording from a few days ago after I've shadowed a million words. Some of you may have seen or heard about it on Japanese news. In Japan, the discounted price of plastic bags has started from July 1st this month. Plastic bags are plastic bags that you can get at the supermarket when you go shopping. Until now, plastic bags were free of charge. You could get as many as you wanted for free. But since July 1st, it has become more expensive. The government wants to reduce the amount of plastic waste. That's why they started the discounted price of plastic bags. How is it in your country? Are plastic bags still free? Is it discounted? But in Japanese, a foreign language for me, it took two whole years to reach that same number. Although I've read 1 million words in Japanese, I'm not quite at intermediate level yet. Still, this achievement has boosted my confidence to keep reading and shadowing more. If you're curious about shadowing, it's a simple technique. You repeat what you hear out loud, trying to match native speakers as closely as you can. It's a great way to improve your listening, reading, and speaking skills all at once. I've made a video explaining how I do shadowing, so please feel free to watch it if you want to learn more. And now I want to say sorry for not being around for the past two months. I got super busy with my work lately and we released our English vocabulary building app called Goikoi a few days ago. But thanks to many interesting YouTube channels and TV dramas, I was able to continue my Japanese learning casually even during the busy times. So for the Japanese part of this episode, I'd like to share with you my top 5 favorite YouTube channels and 3 podcasts. I usually import episodes from these channels into LingQ for shadowing practice. I hope this will be helpful for you too. はい、日本語バージョンになりました。 今回は私の個人的におすすめのYouTubeチャンネルをお話したいと思います。 この2年間、これらのYouTubeチャンネルにすごく勉強になったので、感謝の気持ちを持って皆さんにシェアしたいと思います。 じゃ、初心者向けのチャンネルからいきましょう。 一つ目、Learn Japanese with Tanaka-san このチャンネルは絵がすごくかわいくて、いろんな場面で使える日本語を紹介してくれます。 漢字のシリーズもあるし、特にビギナーたちにおすすめです。 もちろん、中級者も上級者も使えますよ。 次、次は何回もシェアしたMiku Real Japaneseです。 Miku-senseiのコンテンツはいつも実際に使っている日本語を紹介していただいて、本当に役に立ちます。 このチャンネルは初級後半の方に特におすすめです。 最近の新しいシリーズさん、ポトキャストもすごくいいと思います。 あとは、私はMiku-senseiのシャドウイングレッスンからいろいろなリアルな表現を学んでいて、今でも繰り返して復習しています。 三番目、日本語をできたwith Sayaka Sayaka-senseiはYouTube大人気のインフルエンサーですね。すごく明るくて、見たらやる気が出るほどです。 このチャンネルはショート動画の数が多いんですけれども、たまに長い動画を投稿しています。 レストラン、空港、カフェでよく使う日本語を紹介しています。 前のMiku-senseiとの会話動画も撮っています。 すべてのレベルの方におすすめです。 次、四番目、私がシャドウイングコンテンツとしてよく使っているチャンネルの一つをお話したいと思います。 アカネ的日本語教室です。 アカネ先生のチャンネルは人気が高くて知っている人が多いと思うんですけど、私が大好きなのは最近のVlogのシリーズです。 基本的にすべてのエピソードをシャドウイングしていました。 日常生活についてたくさんの単語や表現を学ぶことができるので、シャドウイングの内容としてとってもおすすめです。 最後は五番目ね。 春の日本語というチャンネルです。 前回の動画でちょっと話したんですけど、 春香先生の動画とポッドキャストではいろんな面白いテーマが出てくるので、 お笑い芸人とかMPTI性格診断とかすごく面白かったです。 若い人が使っている日本語を学べると思います。 日本語で男性と女性の言葉は結構違いますよね。 もし男性の方がこの動画を見てたら、三つの男性の言葉を真似できるポッドキャストを紹介したいと思います。 一つ目、Yuyuの日本語ポッドキャスト。 次、Spotifyで聞ける友先生のLet's Talk in Japanese。 三つ目、これもポッドキャストなんですけど、 鉄平先生のJapanese Podcast for Beginners。 この三つはテーマが豊かで、男性の言い方を学べます。 じゃあ今回はここまでです。いつも見てくださってありがとうございます。 最後に皆さんにお願いしてもよろしいでしょうか。 もし皆さんの周りに英単語を勉強する人がいれば、ご意向をお勧めしてもらってもいいですか。 映画やドラマの中の実際の場面から撮った音声例文を使って楽しみながら英単語を覚えられます。 文脈の中で単語を勉強するまで自然な英語が身につきます。 もちろんお気に入りの例文をシャドウイングすることができます。 ご意向を使ってみてください。よろしくお願いします。 また次回。さようなら。