New Shadowing Let's Speak Japanese -- Beginner to Intermediate [New 2022 Edition]

As a self learner, I got this to help me improve my Japanese listening and speaking. The book and CD have you start at an N5 level and gradually (over a year or two) can get you to N2 level. I think there are over a thousand recorded phrases. Plenty to keep you busy for a while.

However, shadowing is trickier than you might think! It kind of explains it in the book, but I had to watch a few videos on language shadowing to really get it. You see, with shadowing you should start repeating the phrase or sentence IMMEDIATELY after it is started. You don’t wait for the speaker to finish their sentences. You’re supposed to talk over them similar to how a child would annoyingly copycat whatever someone else would be saying. There are 4 levels of shadowing: silent shadowing (in your head), whispering, prosody, and contents shadowing. The authors recommend you spend about ten minutes a day for a week on each section. Those ten minutes are actually pretty intense since the voice actors speak at a very fast pace (to my ears). However difficult it can be, eventually you’ll start snapping off some tricky phrases and feeling good about yourself. The repetition can really get Japanese phrases, accent, and cadence seared into your brain.