How to simulate Amanda’s television watching experience

So, in order to get a feel for what it’s often like for me to watch TV in Japan, follow these easy steps.

1. Pick a show or a movie you are unfamiliar with. Your best option is something you have never heard of and know nothing about.
2. Mute the TV.
3. Begin to watch and try to understand the program.
4. Every now and then unmute the TV so that you pick up on a single word or phrase, but then mute it again.

And that’s pretty close. For bonus points, make it a drama with lots of dialogue. One where the conflict is all internal with people crying and talking about their problems a lot. Try to figure out what the heck is going on. For more fun, pick a kids show or game show with lots of visual action! Anything with physical comedy is also a winner. For an extra challenge pick a sci-fi, medical, or crime related show that likely has TONS of specialized vocabulary, and unmute the TV less (as the dialogue as a whole contains less words you might know).

It’s not quite fair, as I still get music and tone of voice to be able to pick up on things, but then again there are a lot of actions onscreen that are highly cultural based that make little sense even if I do pick up on some of the words.

This is pretty much what it was like in my first year, although I’ve improved a lot since then.  I love watching TV in Japan and will probably write up something later about all the great shows I watch.