Overview
Me: How proficient is Eiken Pre-1?
(Trying the past exam questions available on the official website)
Me: The listening questions... I can't do them at all... (despair)
Surprised by the difficulty, Green Guy started studying to reach the level where he could solve the Eiken Pre-1 listening questions.
Things Tried This Month
I had no idea what to do for listening practice, so I tried various things.
- Shadowing TED Shorts. I looked up parts I didn't understand.
- The Secret to Making New Friends as an Adult | Marisa G. Franco @TED #ted #tedtalks
- The Secret to Making New Friends as an Adult (part 2) | Marisa G. Franco @TED #ted #tedtalks
- Is Democracy Doomed? The Global Fight for Our Future
- Do You Agree With Scott Galloway? Watch His Full TED Talk To Hear His Case @TED #tedtalk #shorts
- I made shadowing videos.
- Looked through the Distinction 2000 vocabulary book or recited example sentences.
- Listened to Japan Times' Deep Dive podcasts. I looked up parts I didn't understand. Since each interview is 30 minutes, I listened while doing a slow 5km run.
- https://www.japantimes.co.jp/podcast/2024/04/16/deep-dive/japan-tokyo-accessibility/
- There were 96 parts I didn't understand. That's crazy, right?
- Read Japan Times articles while listening to the accompanying AI voice, looking up parts I didn't understand.
- Listened to favorite YouTubers, looking up parts I didn't understand.
- Keeping a diary in English. This involves creating a four-sentence diary entry while walking outside and then having ChatGPT correct it.
- Collected incomprehensible words and sentences from the above activities in a spreadsheet to create my own difficult vocabulary list.
- Even though I'm aiming for Eiken Pre-1, I wondered if I could pass Eiken Level 2. So, I tried Eiken Level 2 past papers with my friends. I think I can handle it.
Thoughts
- I enjoy shadowing TED Shorts. Shadowing a full-length video is too tiring. It's more suitable for Green Guy to tackle compact tasks.
- I chose Distinction 2000 because it’s recently published and not reminiscent of school days. This vocabulary book pairs multiple words with example sentences, which is great. If you memorize the example sentences, you can absorb multiple words at once (metaphorically speaking).
- Japan Times' Deep Dive is easy to listen to because it's a podcast with transcriptions available online. However, this time the interviewee's pronunciation had so much liaison that it was very difficult to understand. Honestly, I thought Deep Dive would be the best for listening practice, but it requires a high level of effort.
- Reading Japan Times articles while listening to AI voices is tough. It's hard to read articles I'm not interested in, and the AI voices lack entertainment, making it difficult.
- YouTubers are the most approachable. The phase of “eliminating parts I don't understand within a video” was the easiest among the methods so far.
- The English diary is, well, just an extra thing. The Eiken Pre-1 includes a writing section after all.
- I'm relieved that Eiken Level 2 seems manageable.
