I stopped learning Japanese in a classroom about three years ago, with passing N4 being my biggest achievement. Since then, I’ve been occasionally doing my Anki reviews and trying to read and listen from time to time.
As a molecular biologist, I was thrilled to find a couple of great thematic podcasts: Researchat.fm and 研エンの仲. A game-changer for me, though, was Nihongo Con Teppei, which I could actually understand.
The problem with the first two podcasts, which are not designed for Japanese learners in any way, is that while I’ve started to pick up some nouns and phrases over time, I can almost never, for the life of me, grasp the meaning of entire sentences. I can tell they’re discussing a specific topic, but the overall gist almost always eludes me.
Does anyone have advice on how to improve comprehension? I feel like verbs are the trickiest part to understand…
As you’ve already discovered, the answer is to instead focus your listening on simpler material like Nihongo con Teppei. I’m an acolyte of Krashen’s i+1 input hypothesis for second language learning: we progress in language learning when we’re exposed to input that is slightly ahead of our current level. I do think intermediate level can be a real struggle because there is tons of beginner-level material out there and (of course) endless native material, but the stuff in the middle is much harder to find. It really does have to be modified/simplified in some way from native level to be effective. Even native materials for kids doesn’t always work out because they learn the language differently than we do.
Also, while I read more than I listen personally, within groups of material that we know is an appropriate level it’s a good idea to push right past the stuff that’s totally incomprehensible–it happens–and concentrate on the i+1 content. Do a quantity over quality approach when possible. I find this naturally easier to do when listening; it’s too easy to stop constantly and go on a text parsing or copy/paste spree to dissect sentences when reading.