How to Shadow when you Can’t Shadow
For the past 2 years on Jalup, my talk of shadowing has continued to grow. Due to my own personal experience of making it a major daily habit, I saw its raw power. Now I tell everyone to start shadowing. I’ve recognized the personal limits you’ll need to find and set. But I haven’t mentioned the biggest problem: how do you shadow when you can’t shadow?
You’ve heard me praise it to no end. You believe it. But when you try it, it just doesn’t work. You discover 3 obstacles.
You can’t:
- Keep up with the speed of the audio.
- Catch/understand what is being said in the audio.
- Repeat it while doing the above two.
There are four techniques to help you get around this:
1. Shadow audio books
Audio quality and “ease of listening” varies greatly in native Japanese material. Ever notice that irrespective of Japanese difficulty, the audio of anime just sounds cleaner than J-drama?
Audio books reign supreme with clean audio quality. If you are going to shadow, that’s the best place to be. This is why I am probably Audible Japan’s biggest fan. Make your life easier and stop trying to shadow that difficult to hear J-drama. News is the runner-up to audio books, but due to the significant increase in difficulty, you probably want to save that for later.
All audio books aren’t equal, and I recommend non-linear, non-story books with multiple chapters, sub-chapters and sub-sub-chapters. A story is harder to follow, and harder to jump in and out of for shadowing purposes.
2. Start shadowing parts – not the whole
Shadowing is about repeating everything you hear on a slight delay. This is the ideal. But you absolutely don’t need to and shouldn’t repeat everything if you can’t.
Start off repeating in this order:
- Individual words
- Phrases
- Connected Phrases
- Sentences
- Connected Sentences
- Then finally, everything
This progression matters. It takes time and there is no need to rush it.
3. Don’t set audio on a lower speed than 1x
It’s tempting to make your shadowing life easier. Audio books, news and other sources offer 0.5x or 0.75x playback. Lower the speed, understand more, increase your shadowing capacity. Except shadowing is about getting you used to hearing and speaking at normal speed. I’d rather you struggle with 1x only able to shadow a few words here and there, then slowly be able to repeat unnaturally slow Japanese at 0.5x.
4. Shadow even when you don’t understand
Shadowing isn’t just about hearing, understanding and repeating. Just like the earliest stages of immersion help get you used to the sounds of Japanese, shadowing can do the same. Repeat the sounds you think you hear. Even if they are wrong.
Sometimes just saying a word out loud while being wrong can make you realize it wasn’t what was being said. Other times saying something wrong out loud gives you an extra moment to internalize and analyze it in your head. Ever heard something in English, didn’t understand it, repeated it out loud, and then finally understood it?
Play the long game
Shadowing isn’t an instantly acquired skill. It works on all levels, from beginners to fluent, but you need to approach it properly.
Have you struggled with shadowing? Have any advice on how you overcame the struggle?
Founder of Jalup. iOS Software Engineer. Former attorney, translator, and interpreter. Still watching 月曜から夜ふかし weekly since 2013.
One thing I find helpful is to shadow something I’ve already listened to a handful of times.
That definitely should be added to the list. I repeat-shadow some of my favorite audio books.
Thank you for the post! I’m usually only able to repeat some words and a couple of phrases and have problems keeping up. I’m getting a bit overwhelmed between trying to understand what’s going on and repeating without stopping the audio.
It leaves you a bit with the feeling that you are doing it wrong, and just reading that this is pretty normal at the start, is helpful to me. So thanks a lot for that!
Also seconding the other posters suggestion: I like to relisten a lot and I feel less stressed when trying to shadow that (and it’s still really helpful!)
Yes, it’s completely normal :) And don’t stop the audio (that would make it frustrating and much less portable). Just continue shadowing the words here and there you can catch.
Since I live outside of Japan and can’t use Japanese Audible, I use Otobank for audiobook content. They do have a smaller selection than Audible however. They also have a subscription streaming service, so you can download lots of titles without having to commit to buying them.
Lately I’ve been listening to a bunch of short fairy tails (Japanese and otherwise), but anything beginning with “mukashi mukashi” may not be the best title to shadow.
Are there any other good Japanese audio resources for those of us outside Japan?
Simple Japanese podcasts work well for shadowing if you have limited access to audio books.
I tried shadowing for the first time today while running. Running and shadowing were a great complement for me too. I thought I may be too ‘beginner’ (I did rtk and just about finished jalup beginner) so I was going to try shadowing later on. But trying it made me realize that even at this stage it likely has benefits.
I was able to shadow much better than I suspected (of course I was still only doing small phrases here and there and understood <10% at best). I found it makes you a much more active listener. The words were breaking apart for me better than when I do it passively. Long term it will help pronunciation I am sure.
All in all I will keep doing it anytime I run outside (a couple times a week) and see how things go. I just wanted to post in case any other beginners are putting this off, there may be benefits to start now. I was going to passively listen to a podcast anyways while running so shadowing while I listen isn't really a huge ask.
Hey,
What kind of material are you shadowing? I’d be scared I run into a tree or lantern, while concentrating on too difficult material :D
Nothing I would recommend. It wasn’t really optimal for my level. It was just a random Japanese news podcast I found on Spotify called SBS. In the future i’d like to try something more along the lines of what Adam is suggesting but I could use some specific suggestions as well.
Thanks for sharing this! People are often surprised at how much it can help even at the earliest of levels.
You have me beat. I can’t shadow while jogging (the increased breathing gets in the way of talking for me), so the best I can do is a fast shadow walk.
sound library ～世界にひとつだけの本～
Search for it in your favourite podcast app. Fictional short stories related to travel, in Japan and abroad. Spoken by a lady with a very soothing voice.
I’m between N4 & N3 and began to practice shadowing daily, but I get so nervous while I’m doing this and then my concentration ofc suffers – anyone else here w the same problem? what helped you? (I try to calm down and breathe haha)
Hey Kerstin, I actually have two recommendations.
1) Try doing something physical at the same time. Running, walking, biking, or driving. I prefer to do my shadowing by myself where others aren’t looking at me crazy as well. For some reason physical activity helps me focus and not worry as much about messing up.
2) I struggled with shadowing until I started using these books:
https://www.amazon.com/Shadowing-Japanese-Beginner-Intermediate-Advanced/dp/B07FT8J74H/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_1/146-4136366-1804702?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07FT8J74H&pd_rd_r=baa4882f-bb0b-48a2-869d-b9d617d0d18f&pd_rd_w=lBAqK&pd_rd_wg=NCh0U&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=2JVZZ13M2SX2X157704R&psc=1&refRID=2JVZZ13M2SX2X157704R
The best part about them for me is I could first read the sentences, then practice the shadowing. It way upped my comprehension, confidence, and understanding. I have been working on the books for about 2 months now and really feeling improvement.