For listening, I watch a lot of Japanese television and I watch it raw -- or if available, with Japanese subtitles/closed captioning to also put more emphasis on the grammar.
For me, that's been the best way with the listening. As for grammar, we're both in the same boat. I've mostly been maintaining my Japanese blog on lang-8 as well as doing all the exercises here and supplementary work.
I could go for some shows with Japanese subtitles, but those are a bit more rare! Right now I cover the bottom of my screen with a towel to avoid seeing the English subs...
I illegally watch japanese dramas, downloading them and if there's a capper who's grabbing the closed captioning, I download them along with the episode. Also, music shows that have emphasis on interviews (Music Station, old Utaban, etc) are great for picking up casual, on the spot, conversation.
If not, I buy a lot of Japanese movies and tanpatsus and watch them, if they have it, with the Japanese subtitles :)
d-addicts is a great resource for closed captioning, if that person is still uploading them to the site. Jpopsuki is a place where you can grab the music shows from :) But that's a private tracker and you need an invitation as well as maintaining a good ratio.
I have the captions on my Mac, currently, for フリーター、家を買う so if anyone is interested in watching it -- I can send them to you :)
You can (totally legally but not great video quality) watch Japanese TV and listen to live radio online, for free using keyholeTV software, I have it confirmed working on both win XP and ubuntu 9 based linux:
Guide how to set it up here: http://xorsyst.com/japan/watch-japanese-tv-online/
most channels don't have a password and those that do the password is just the name of the channel most times, e.g. NHK.
a great place to get jdoramas the shady side of copyright law is the live journal communities jdramas and jdorama. There are also communities for films and other types of TV show but I am not so into them. People rehost them raw but compressed through sites like rapidshare, and you can get the text soft subtitles files from separate links there, then use software such as VLC player to toggle them on off. I try watch things without then read the subtitles for bits that confused me (a lot at the moment haha)
I am planning to appear for JLPT N2 in July 2011. I need your guidance about the books to refer for the preparation. Also please provide info about online links for mock tests if available.
Special inputs from those who appeared for N-2 on Dec-5 would be highly appreciated :)
http://mykikitori.com is good for listening mini tests where it gives you a choice of speeds and some multi-choice questions where you can check your answers
[quote author=Ladymercury link=topic=1051.msg6088#msg6088 date=1290438102]Jpopsuki is a place where you can grab the music shows from :) But that's a private tracker and you need an invitation as well as maintaining a good ratio.[/quote]Does anyone have an invite to that site? I was a member forever ago on their old site, but when they moved it to the new 2.0 URL they didn't transfer accounts over, and I missed the open signup period XD -Edit: Never mind... open registration until Jan 2nd for Christmas! Yay~
For listening practice, watching dramas is great. Some shows really clicked with me, and I'd play them in the background while I was doing other things around my apartment... I'd end up memorizing the whole script from hearing it enough times. Listening I always do well on.
another great listening practice is music - although I will caution that a) you should try and find music where the words are readily recognizable (ie no screamo ;)) and b) listening to Japanese music will most often *not* help your grammar, just as listening to English music wouldn't. But it is a great listening practice! I also recommend movies - not so much anime (besides Ghibli), as there tends to be a lot of language that's pretty much only used in anime, but live action movies and the Ghibli movies are really good for practice, and some of them will have Japanese subtitles as well.
Here's a good song that is actually not so bad for grammar (it's more of a sung narrative and less of a 'song'); I heard it on NHK's year end finale thingy. It's a bit of a weird name for a song, but once you listen to it, it's quite touching.
