Medium speed Japanese

Medium-speed Japanese is where talk between friends starts without warning. TV videos from variety shows sound natural and daily. Friends drop polite word endings. Words get shorter: te-iru becomes teru, de wa becomes ja. Small words at the end of a sentence, like yo, ne, and na, carry the feeling. English does this with the voice instead. Street interviews show young people using extra words like eeto and nanka. They change to polite Japanese fast when someone asks a direct question. Tokyo talk is the standard, but Kansai style shows up a lot in funny shows, with different words like ya for da. Pick one person and listen for when they change style. This speed is close to the JLPT N3 and N2 listening test, so it is good practice for that test too.