Help with Japanese listening - sites?

At the moment I'm listening to Japanese audio books to help improve my listening, and it's a lot of fun and very useful. Unfortunately I study Japanese completely alone and don't know anyone to help, so when I get stuck, I work it out myself after a long time, or... I'm just hopelessly stuck for good, as in this case.

There's one I'm really enjoying, really into and picking up 80 - 90% of what's being said, but there are some parts I am completely lost on because one of the characters is very elderly and gruff sounding as well as fast-talking and it makes it extremely hard to pick out what he's saying - I get the odd word or two, but I can't for the life of me figure out others - and another is a growly, evil, type with a rough voice who slurs the words together a bit, talks *very* quietly at some points and is near impossible for me to make out when he's angry.

I literally have no one to ask for help and I really want to know what's going on (I write it down for practice.) Are there any sites or places that help people out with listening and languages or even just general language help? It all seems to be writing based mainly. Forums like these don't seem appropriate to keep sending audio links to and I don't want to be a bother. :?

Rinilex said:

There's one I'm really enjoying, really into and picking up 80 - 90% of what's being said, but there are some parts I am completely lost on because one of the characters is very elderly and gruff sounding as well as fast-talking and it makes it extremely hard to pick out what he's saying - I get the odd word or two, but I can't for the life of me figure out others - and another is a growly, evil, type with a rough voice who slurs the words together a bit, talks *very* quietly at some points and is near impossible for me to make out when he's angry.

Click to expand...

If it is any comfort to you, that's not a bad description of what listening to real life Japanese can be like as well. You described some of the people I work with every day.

Is it not possible for you to get the text of the book and refer to it?

Mike Cash said:

If it is any comfort to you, that's not a bad description of what listening to real life Japanese can be like as well. You described some of the people I work with every day.

Is it not possible for you to get the text of the book and refer to it?

Click to expand...

True, I'm sure they're more typical than the other clearly spoken characters (the main character talks quite slowly and articulately, so maybe I've been spoiled) and it's all the better for practice, but when there are parts that are impossible for me to get without help... the evil sounding guy has a habit of whispering nearly silently, and there's constant background noise when he does it. Guesses don't yield much too.

None at all. It came with an album, and I've scoured the internet high and low, all the Japanese pages I could find, and for some reason not one person has written down the script. It's why I started it writing it down myself. It's strange though, the artist it's from, I would have thought it'd exist somewhere.

I don't have any good advice or ideas for you, sorry! But could you offer any good suggestions suggestions on audio books? That sounds like an interesting way to practice.

Prende is a good site for free audio dramas.

@Rinilex: how are you with reading similar types of dialogue in something like a light novel?

I've recently started using NHK Easy:

NEWS WEB EASY

The audio on there comes with written transcripts so it's good for listening and reading/speaking practice.

Thank you for the recommendations guys, I'll make sure to check them out! I just tend to get them where they came up, download odd ones here and there or go on learning sites where they post a few.

@nekojita - Not too sure, probably not great. My listening is far stronger than my reading, purely for the reason I've been neglecting my kanji a bit. I can get by with furigana. It all depends on the kind of novel. Trying to get back into doing reps again...

Really want to get this story done, though. If I posted a collection of the sentences I'm stuck on in one clip, would someone be able to try and make out (purely the Japanese) what's being said?

We are blessed with some very helpful native speakers here on the forum and I feel certain you will receive the help you need. Just try not to make clips that end up being so long they're a chore to work through.

Thank you very much! The clip's here, I made it a minute long (hope that's all right.) It's just a collection of sentences, the ones I've tried for days to work out but am still very unsure on. I'll have another go myself at the others before asking about them, but these are the impossible ones.

audioq.wmv

(Sorry for the odd picture, I don't know how to make it audio only. ) A lot of it is the same guy.

Here's what I could get, and some context:
Clip 1, he says before this "Even though I'm giving a lecture, you... [...]" The person he's telling off was noisily chatting to someone just before.
Clip 2, I think he's saying something about their army and Normandy, and being coerced by the Allies into something? (It's set in WWII.) I understand from "yuyushiki..." to "shiteiru darou", and then he says something about German spirit ('hiun'? Something to do with misfortune or a bad fate?) and the outcome of war being decided on the number of 'pieces' one has?
Clip 3, "Your family [...]" No clue. He's trying to persuade him with something, from the context.
Clip 4, again "your family is the army's..."? Don't understand the rest apart from 'promise.' The person he's talking to is showing hesitation about doing something for him
Clip 5, no idea. "Still [...]" Umoku? Nothing came up for this. He's just come across someone who is still alive.
Clip 6, no idea what he said. "kono..." 7 is the same. Something about getting rid of remains/ all traces? (He had just shot someone.)
Clip 8 - something to do with Munich? He's talking about how he is glad his friend isn't going out to war, and they live in Munich.

Sorry, hope this is all right. ^^

1)
婦女子と戯れあまつさえたびたび大声を出すこのアンチ ノミーに対する、君の考察を述べよ。

2)
我が軍は、先のノルマンディー以降糞連合軍に苦戦を強いられるという由々しき事態に なっているのを貴様も知っているだろう。ゲルマン魂は 決してひるむことはないが、やはり戦争は駒の数で決ま る。わかるな。

not ひうん but ひるむ
not している but しっている

3)
貴様の家族もそう望んで？(The last half is inaudible.)

4)
貴様の家族は軍の保護下で何不自由ない暮らしを約束す る。

5)
まだ動くのか。

not うもく but うごく

6)
この出来損ないがー

7)
何一つ残すな。こいつらの痕跡をな。

8)
ミュンヘンもいずれは危なくなるだろう。

Thank you so much! Really, I can't thank you enough. Ah! I do recognise it as しってる but my lazy brain often spells it the same. ^^; My mistake.

But really, this clears up so much for me, thanks for taking the time to do it!

If it's any help, the context for the third one - before that, that he's talking about "[if you do this for us], we'll become an invincible military power, we can end the war quickly, and your family ____"