The MP3 player is really proving to be super-useful, as I listen to things over and over again to make sure that I can parse (almost) every sentence that I hear. I think having video off and having my phone away both let me concentrate on the language in a very focused manner. Obviously I watch the episodes a couple times first before I switch to the MP3 audio-only repetition. The show has lots of visual narration so it wouldn’t work any other way. But yeah, the audio-only seems to be helping.

But is my listening comprehension for new material actually improving? It’s hard to tell.

Neon Genesis: Evangelion

There are still entire sentences that get lost on first listen. Some episodes are easier than others; in fact some scenes I can follow completely. For others I need to flip the subtitles on and try to decipher what I heard. The subtitles for this show don’t match the audio perfectly, which leaves me guessing, too.

This show is more complex with lots of sci-fi mumbo-jumbo which I’m trying to take in and kinda ignore. But ultimately it is a dubbed children’s show, so at some point I need to be able to follow it. Not gonna lie that it’s a struggle; it’s definitely i+1 meaning it’s challenging me.

On the Discord server, some of the learners say that I just need to keep plowing through and that there will be a breakthrough moment when my brain just hears German words, even if I don’t understand them all. I am looking forward to that happening – but we are not there yet.

I am on episode six of twenty-four. Then there are two final movies.

Verdict

Keep going.