He’s pitching a serious tent

Hahahahaha not at all. I’m barely picking anything up but I was watching Doraemon and I was only getting the same 30% of the words so I just decided that if I powered through Gintama I might end up picking up more. I’m about 30-40 episodes in because I skipped around and boy has it not made any difference.

I actually recommend this podcast. I found it when I first started learning Japanese by using Google Translate to look up “Pokemon podcast” and clicked the first result. I liked it even though I didn’t understand anything so I watched another episode and that’s where I found out that not only is it not a Pokemon podcast (they only did one Pokémon episode), it’s called the Badonkadonk podcast and the dude is from the US and starts every episode off by saying Daaaaayyyuummmmm that’s a badonkadonk! before continuing the podcast in mostly Japanese. Over time the intro has turned into him referencing some pop culture references but replacing words or actions with badonkadonk and the woman tries to guess the reference.

It’s great because his Japanese is more basic, he randomly breaks into English which gives me more context, and he speaks a bit slower. I’m usually able to understand 15-40% of it and I’ve noticed a lot of the words I’ve learned from Anki show up so it reinforces the learning. They’re both comedians so the bits I’m able to pick up usually crack me up.

Yeah that Jerry episode 🥹

I love Gintama. I’m rewatching without subs to help my Japanese learning by immersion and there’s so many gags I’ve completely forgotten. It’s nice because I get taken by surprise again

That episode made me cry, I wasn’t expecting out given how silly that arc started off. I kept metronoming between laughing my ass off and fighting back tears.

It’s a two episode arc the scene from that screenshot is in the next episode. The show is pretty episodic so while there is an overarching plot you can just jump in on those episodes and be fine.

I had that exact same conversation with my mom but it went like this:

“Ok mom, picture a cow in your head”

“Oookayyy”

“Now you can see a cow right?”

“What do you mean”

“Like… You can see a picture of the cow, right?”

“Nooo”

My dad chimes in “yes, obviously”

“…crap. Mom, I have some news for you”

Both of us grew up thinking we had no imagination or were dumb. I remember being incredibly frustrated when a teacher taught us the concept of the Memory Palace where you picture things in rooms of a house. Like if you had to remember five playing cards you’d picture a room with 7 red clowns, with hearts on their cheeks. Then in the next room you’d picture a king, holding up a spade, etc. That just made it harder for me to remember and the teacher kept telling me I wasn’t listening or trying.

I feel that explanation about being useless to a sketch artist on a spiritual level, that blew my mind as a kid. To this day I can’t really describe what my parents or wife looks like, I can just list characteristics. I feel my brain trying to visualize but then it comes up empty

Look at you, already deducting the taxes 🚣‍♂️💸

And those 🐜 That was the only movie I’ve watched in a movie theater that was so bad that I fell asleep

I wish they’d bring these to the US, not our shitty K-Mart versions that taste like they’re sweetened with Splenda

Can’t wait for Dave to taste test

That’s how you earn the + in a LGBTQ run

St Pete is right.

To subtly draw your eye’s focus on the important words, letting it dance playfully over “This One” before stressing the importance of “Just”, and once again with “Rock”

“This One is Just A Rock” You have no idea how satisfying it feels seeing this expressed so accurately, I wish I could make some of my elementary school teachers see this meme because it so succinctly summarizes the struggles I experienced too.

Maybe then they’d think twice before dismissing other kid’s issues in the future 🙏