Had a good session today with Shin Kanzen Master's listening book. I'll try not to gush too much about this book series--again--but it's incredible how much confidence the listening book is giving me. Makes me wonder if someone ever did a listening training book or video series specifically targeting upper beginner/lower intermediate students, because that's often where self-taught students step out of the classroom (and those students tend to let their listening slip). Things like building the audio automaticity channel, key words and phrases to focus on that show up more in conversation than in print, and learning what speaking registers to seek out when finding content. For example, you want to be hearing everyday Japanese, not just anime; and definitely not only audiobooks.

If someone ever did do something like that, I could have used it a couple years ago. Tobira was kinda trash on the listening front, if I'm being entirely honest.

Anyway, SKM's grammar book is kicking my ass more than ever--it's a lot at once--but I can't imagine a better way of doing it. Haven't settled into the reading comprehension book yet. Didn't have a good first impression of it. If I do keep falling behind and need to adjust my study plan, it's probably going to be the first thing to get cut.