How to practice listening comprehension?

Hi,

I'm looking for some good recordings that could help me work up my listening comprehension from beginner level to intermediate... But, most of the sites I've seen which have downloadable audio clips are way too easy. The clips usually contain short, simple conversations for educational purposes, and the speakers intentionally speak VERY SLOWLY so no one gets lost. I borrowed a copy of Pimsleurs too to see if it was any good, but even there, they speak at a very slow rate.

On the other side of the coin, there's anime, J-Pop, or Japanese radio stations, but listening to those isn't going to help because then they speak way too fast, and the grammar and vocabulary they use is quite advanced...

So does anyone know of any good listening samples for an "intermediate" level? (Either available on the net, or on a CD that can be purchased).

Btw if anyone is interested, here's some links I've collected so far:

Japanese-Online.com | Home
http://133.6.76.62/~jems/hosokyoku/bangumi.html
First Year Modern Japanese
Japanese Listening Comprehension Exercises
mic-J (English Home)
Radio Stations Around the World
Search Index Page
Dan in Japan - Japanese Speech "My First Homestay" [speech]
KIDS WEB JAPAN: Say It in Japanese

Here's one I think is really good (below). It's got clips you listen to, and then it asks you a specific question about the clip you listened.

This one is also pretty good, very basic but at least the speakers seem to talk a tiny bit faster than they would in most beginner-level recordings:

'É'Ù'ñ'²'ð'Ü'È'Ú'¤

Thanks!

Raj

rajs20 said:

On the other side of the coin, there's anime, J-Pop, or Japanese radio stations, but listening to those isn't going to help because then they speak way too fast, and the grammar and vocabulary they use is quite advanced...

Click to expand...

There are a few news sites that have radio / video with full accompanying text. www.fnn-news.com and one of the NHK sites for a start.

Doesn't help with the grammar and vocabulary bit but at least you can see what they're supposed to be saying.

Check this out: speaking-japanese.com/literature.html

You can download MP3s for seven short stories. Interesting stories and well read by actors. I have the book as well since it would be way to difficult for me just to listen to the stories, but I believe they can be helpful even without the book.

Cool thanks a lot, those links look promising

PaulTB said:

There are a few news sites that have radio / video with full accompanying text. www.fnn-news.com and one of the NHK sites for a start.

Doesn't help with the grammar and vocabulary bit but at least you can see what they're supposed to be saying.

Click to expand...

Anyone know of even a partial transcript or news brief to supplement some of the extended NHK broadcasts (NHK journal, Today's news, etc) for those of us that want to listen all day at work ? The longer formated segments with interviews & features make it quite easy to pick up the gist of a story but more difficult to get a very large percentage of it.

NHK ラジオニュース