thanks fam...i should have registered that first :<
Elbow, I know you're native so question might not really apply to you, but for Kilrogg - that has to be all just gathered experience right? i'll sometimes play the same sequence over and over and just...fail to understand what is said because it's so fast; then ask a native friend for them to be like, "oh, it's this". now you're obviously not native, so going back to the question - just experience, or did you pinpoint that kind of speech as an area of focus?
Hm, it's tricky.
First, I'll come out right now and say that I actually suck at listening comprehension. For the life of me, I can't focus on what people are saying in Japanese for too long before losing the thread of what they're saying, and if they're talking fast it's even worse. On top of that, I have this weird thing where I sometimes break down what I'm hearing too much - as opposed to hearing words, phrases and sentences in a global context and automatically inferring what the person said -, and that goes for any language I can speak, even my mother tongue. I've been in situations where I've felt like an idiot because I would make people repeat something very simple because I was just juxtaposing every sound I was hearing without linking them into a meaningful phrase. Nothing severe though, it's not even a condition, but it can happen to me. So, what you just experienced with "overparsing" a phrase that was actually fairly simple? It happens to me too, in every language.
A while ago I tried making my own fan subtitles of a Jojo's Bizarre Adventure episode in Japanese, and I encountered the same problem as you. There was this one sentence I listened to over and over and over, and I couldn't parse the last bit correctly. Part of it was because I didn't know the word - 引きちぎる, FYI -, but still, I should have been able to hear all the syllables properly, or at least try out a few possible transcriptions and find the word in my description. But no joke, it took me 20 minutes to finally figure it out, if not more. Now that I listen to it again it seems obvious, but I can assure you it wasn't back then.
So I guess you could say it's:
- partly a matter of knowledge: knowing the words and the structures so you can identify whole words and phrases rather than individual sounds that might be lazily pronounced; maybe you just didn't know これについてはwas a thing people say. I don't know your level of Japanese, so it's hard for me to judge. Is this phrase complicated in your mind?
- partly experience: how much Japanese you've heard, and how many times you've heard similar structures; maybe you're not familiar with the way the Japanese speak.
For this particular example, you can actually cheat: look at the subtitles in the video. You'll notice this specific part of what the person said does not appear in the subtitles. From that, you can infer that they're just filler words with no real meaning or value, which is exactly what これについてはis. "With regards to this" is essentially an empty phrase.
With all that said, what do you mean when you say "did you pinpoint that kind of speech as an area of focus?"?
And again, where are you at in your "journey" towards mastering Japanese? I was under the impression you were pretty far along, but I might be wrong. What's your JLPT level, for instance?
[EDIT] @I'm an expert: come on, man, don't be so harsh on Resilient. Which instructions are you referring to, by the way? If it's something about your whiteboard method, I'll admit I've never read your full post lol, because I'm not in a place where I can or want to follow your method right now. Might happen some day though.
In the past I've used 過ごす, and nobody has ever corrected me, but I've just found that 送る is apparently the more correct verb to use here. (彼はだらしない生活を送っている