Jan 13, 2017

Bit another bullet and signed up at nicovideo.jp

So there are some Japanese video streaming sites that have the user comments superimposed on top of the video at the time of comments. So the video, in a sense, changes anytime a viewer posts a comment, and it happens at that place in the video timeline. NicoNico is one such site. This is sort of what it looks like.

EDIT(2020/12/29): I lost the images here at some point in the last 3 years. Unsure where I got them from but they’re gone now. Sad! I’ve added a short clip from this video which is better than a screencap.

A little strange compared to what I’m accustomed to, and it sounds weird/distracting, but it actually offers a distinct advantage. It keeps you engaged with both audiovisual content, and contextual native-speaker-written text. This is incredibly valuable for someone learning via immersion.

This streaming site is also ostensibly reserved for native Japanese people. You need to sign up and even indicate which prefecture you’re from. I’ll be honest, I just chose at random. Signing up for another site all in Japanese is, as always, an adventure.

Anyway, I’ve had let’s-play videos running in the background for a couple hours. As I write this, some guy is playing Pokemon Pinball (oh the memories) and the chat is, as far as I can tell, mildly amused. At least compared to when he was playing Pokemon Snap. All the same, it’s a good time.