How much do you understand?

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***super happy to share the images that i’ve taken while watching my innocent japanese tv 😀
I actually have quite a few topics that I want to write on that I have on evernote. some of them i’m warming them up bcause I don’t want to write about something until I really understand the subject matter. I like to be thourough in my posts. there’s other stuff that I want to write about but I can tell if’l lbe long-winded and labor-intensive because i’ll want to flesh it out as much apossible and include all the links and book
titles that i’ve come across. BTW I thought the lsat hunger games movie was the least awful out of them all in that stuff actually happened since it is the last movie (in all the other movies literally nothin ghappens yet they act like shit actually happened and they make a big deal about it. my eyes roll behind my head and beyond. I only only only bitch I was dragged to all 4. so please do not bitch at me. likewise everyone has the write to hate on taylor swift etc etc because if you work in retail you will hear their damn songs over and over. so yes we have the right to hate on them we are being FORCED to listen to their music. that’s why mainstream artists get hate because people are FORCED to hear their songs for the umpteenth time). however it’s still an awful movie and I was especially irritated at the part where the person who is going to get executed was acting arrogant because i’ve heard so MANY horrifying execution stories from north korea. that scene really irked me.

ANYWAYS on to the MAIN TOPIC!
the plight of heritage language learners
i joined the ranks of heritage language learners about 4 years into my japanese studies. there were feeble, futile attempts in the past using awful methods that I was exposed to during my compulsory education. those attempts were failures so I do not count those.

anyways I wanted to explain my stance on the question “how much do you understand”

i run tinto situations where i’m asked this question like if the tv is in my heritage language and I happen to be there with not much to do except converse or look at MY smart phone, eat, whatever. THE TV has been news, documentary show, talk show, variety show etc etc whatever. and 99% of the time the show does not interest me one bit. I might pay attention to it here and there if something piques my interest but let’s be real that shit in korean not japaense. part of the reason why I think my japanese studies went so well is because they have great television and the entertainment in japanese is limitless. they have so much going for them and theyhave a lot of freedom when it comes to tvcompared ot korea and even to america sometimes (it feels like that). even if I tried to do the same thing that I did with japanese in korean which is not possible because korean doesn’t use hanja (which makes vocabulary learning extremely difficult and almost impossible at least for me),… so even if I did that it wouldn’t have worked because they don’t have geinin. yes korea does have interesting tv and I have to search for it properly or fast-forward the show properly or figure out which episodes of the show will hold my interest based on the guest etc but anyways my love and obsession for japanese tv is uncontainable. if the enteratinment that I get from the “best” japanes tv come across is a 10/10, it would be a 7/10 or something like that for korean tv. that’s how it is to me. of course korean tv offers stuff that japanese tv can’t and I appreciate that (they don’t have jessi and korea sure as hell does not and will never have a matsuko) and love watching it for that reason.

BUT ANYWAY as you can imagine when somebody asks me that question I say ” I don’t know.” I don’t really expand on it beyond that and run around the bushes. if I am prodded enough i’ll say 40 % or whatever depending on how boring the show is to me. of course i’m not saying this to make it sound like as if I do undersatnd 99% but i’m saing 40% becaues it’s boring…. further explanation below.

What I’m truly thinking in my head is I don’t care. I have no interest in understanding this show. that is the biggest factor as to whether or not this questions is answerable. I don’t really care how much I undersatnd the show so one I am not paying attention to it… so part of this question is asking me to pay attention to this show and assess how much I understand. but I have no desire to do that, if I did I might be like okay it’ll be around 40% but it could be half-assed attempt as in I am paying attention but i’m not laser pin-point focused and putting all my energy and concentration towards understanding and catching the words and the sounds and whatnot. maybe the percentage would be slightly higher or even 90% if I were to go balls to walls and use all my energy towards that. but at the sametime comprehension should be effortless… if I have to tax myself to get 90% comprehension that’s not my true comprehension ability. that’s the way I see it. BTW i think RAP is really helpful with comprehension as far as that automatic, effortless comprehension is concerned. i’ve been into rap but unpretty star sure as hell does encourage more attention and interest as well as zico lol. BY THE WAY THE PRIMARY ALBUMS WITH THE RAP/SINGING SONGS ARE AMAZING!!! the albu mthat features jessi, iron, benzino, rap monster. that album is an A+ IN MY BOOK! i listened to it probbably at least a 100 times. i was so obsessed with this album. i remember the first time iheard the song iwth iron and choa i wasn’t drawn in but after a while i was addicted. also also i was obessed with epik high’s 악당 && 비켜 　どけ　And　悪党 in japanese not in the respective orders. I know with language learning you tend to compare yourself and you might have an urge to brag about whtaever you learned or know in however short span of time. I suppose being asked this question is kind of an opportunity for that but first and foremost I have no desire to undersatnd said show. if sokmebody bragged to me that they read japanese newspapers aloud (keyword here is aloud because they have a lot of readings and sometimes I forget readings or i’m not sure which reading it is or I have no f’in clue which comes up rather frequently due to all the last names and locations in japan) fluently or effortless or whtaever adjective is impressive i’ll be like cool but I wouldn’t get my panties in a bunch and be all jealous or anything like that. the reason is that I have no interest in the news so I can’t comprehend why you’d spend so much time reading newspapers to get to that point ( i also understand that yto’ud only get to that point is if you do it consistently or did it al ot which is only possible if you enjoy it unless you’re a masochist) . if somebody said that about a movie that I only understood 80% of then I would be jealous and feel motivated to up my game and get my listening comprehension and inference on.

the question I s pointless to me. it’s not “do you understand”, it’s “do you find this show interesting or entertaining.” I don’t care how “bad” I look by saying 20% or whatever arbitrary number. I have no desire to undersatnd the show so for me to ansewr the question is …. wah? I don’t gain anything by trying to undrestand or try to figure out how much I understand it. I know the question is innocent and the person doesn’t have any specific intention behind that question but for me it comes with all these connotations so I am bothered. Of course i have no energy to explain this or anything like that. ALSO the heritage language learning forum on that big famous language learning forum is SUPER SUPER INTERESTING and i believe i have quoted many entries from that forum on my tumblr and they were mostly concerning korean but i have tkane stuff from the heritage learner thread as well. but aynways, that’s an interesting thread to check out whether or not you ar ea heritage language learner or you are obligated to be one but you refused to accept it. it was encouraging and there was a lot of interesting discussion and analysis and anecdotes there.

i really should try to find some more 19 금 korean tv shows. witch hunt seemed promising at first but then now i’m like it feels like eveyr episode is the same and hence my motivation to pay attention goes down alot but then some of the guests pique my ineterest so we’lll see. it’s interesting how they talk about sex on this show. i feel like they never say it. it’s round-about or it’s mentioned somewhere nonchalantly in a way that’s unnoticeable by using words that aren’t the actual words. the best way i can describe it is if you don’t pay atention you won’t know what they’re talking about or you won’t realize that they’re tlaking about sex or some other 19+ topic. in fact at one point of the people eon the show ask for clarification that you are asking/talking/insinuating about “that”. they’re very sneaky with those topics. you’d tihnk since it’s 19 금 they’d be more explicit, straight-out, and whatnot. if someone can come up with a better explanation please let me know! sometimes they have ome interesting talk! I thought korean was super against non-martial sex for some reason (i’ve no idea why…probably because they’re tv is so sterile… christinaity isn’t that widespread and i don’t know what buddhism or confuciianms’s view on that is) but from the show i’m not getting that impression