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[R-18 Otome Audio]🎧 No Japanese? How do you listen to & enjoy raw R-18 Otome Audio / ASMR?

darlenexie said:
Japanese is a very charming language, so I'm really drawn to the way voice actors speak and express emotions. I don't know how to explain it, but I'm quite fascinated by it.
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Yes, I love japanese too, although it is really hard language to learn how to read and write, but listening japanese is kinda easy somehow compared with other languages.
 
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i never use a translation because i never knew that there's a translation for audio...? are there? 😭 anyway i know some japanese words because i love to watch anime and somehow the word just got stuck into my mind and i can somehow understand what the VA's are saying 😭 and when there's word that i got curious about, i search the translation for it and keep that in mind also. learning japanese by hearing otome cd is kinda freaky but fun!
 
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lovingarlert said:
i never use a translation because i never knew that there's a translation for audio...? are there? 😭 anyway i know some japanese words because i love to watch anime and somehow the word just got stuck into my mind and i can somehow understand what the VA's are saying 😭 and when there's word that i got curious about, i search the translation for it and keep that in mind also. learning japanese by hearing otome cd is kinda freaky but fun!
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There are a lot of translation tools for audio. I use TurboScribe of Google mostly, but like the other members said, there are some websites/forums of fan's translation.
 
Translation tools definitely help, however, I don't use them for CDs. If there is a CD where I don't understand more than half of the conversation -- which is most likely the one with historical themes and backgrounds, or dialects characters -- I will just leave it in a specific folder and try again a year later to see if I can understand it better.
The reason I don't seek translations for drama CDs is quite similar to what mii0 said, it was awkward to read script / translation together --as CDs are quite unique; I can darken the room, close the eyes, and let myself relax and immerse into the story and atmosphere. Reading along with a script feels like reading a novel or playing a game. I find that the charm of the experience is reduced when I do it that way.

I used to play otome games with the original Japanese scripts instead of translated versions. I found that reading the Japanese script while listening to the voice acting actually helps improve your listening skills a lot. When I return to the CDs after playing a few games, back and forth, I find they become much easier to handle!
I also like to listen to podcasts in Japanese -- including those from the VAs' channels. Sometimes I download them and repeat them many times just to get familiar with the content and, of course, learn vocabulary and phrases.
 
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Momoo777 said:
Translation tools definitely help, however, I don't use them for CDs. If there is a CD where I don't understand more than half of the conversation -- which is most likely the one with historical themes and backgrounds, or dialects characters -- I will just leave it in a specific folder and try again a year later to see if I can understand it better.
The reason I don't seek translations for drama CDs is quite similar to what mii0 said, it was awkward to read script / translation together --as CDs are quite unique; I can darken the room, close the eyes, and let myself relax and immerse into the story and atmosphere. Reading along with a script feels like reading a novel or playing a game. I find that the charm of the experience is reduced when I do it that way.

I used to play otome games with the original Japanese scripts instead of translated versions. I found that reading the Japanese script while listening to the voice acting actually helps improve your listening skills a lot. When I return to the CDs after playing a few games, back and forth, I find they become much easier to handle!
I also like to listen to podcasts in Japanese -- including those from the VAs' channels. Sometimes I download them and repeat them many times just to get familiar with the content and, of course, learn vocabulary and phrases.
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It´s really amazing that you can read japanese. I can hear and understand somehow but I am completely blind in reading and writing.
 
Tirin said:
It´s really amazing that you can read japanese. I can hear and understand somehow but I am completely blind in reading and writing.
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Oope sorry I was not very clear here - Yes I played the japanese version of the game HOoWEVER I was also with my google translator and dictionary when I was playing the otome games :LOL::LOL::ROFLMAO:,
It is only the otome CDs I dont grab any scripts or translate tools
 
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Personally, I don't speak Japanese, but I've consumed content in the language—such as anime, songs, and otome games—because I dislike dubbing in my native language. Thanks to that, I understand a few basics, but I also use a program that leverages AI and my graphics card to extract most of the text (I say "most" 😅 because it doesn't catch everything if there's a lot of background noise). First, I split the audio into 10-minute segments (or 2- to 5-minute chunks if the audio is hard for the program to process); then, I use the program to transcribe each part; and finally, I translate the resulting text files. I know it's a lot of work, but the effort is worth it because I'm the type of person who likes to understand everything.
Whenever kind souls provide English translations, I read those to understand what's going on—though that happens very rarely, as it's hard to find both the transliteration and the translation.
.
 
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Yashalun said:
Personally, I don't speak Japanese, but I do consume content in the language—such as anime, songs, and otome games—because I dislike dubbing in my native language. I understand a few basics, but I use a program that leverages AI and my graphics card to extract most of the text (I say "most" 😅 because it doesn't catch everything when there's a lot of background noise or the voices aren't clear). First, I split the audio into 10-minute segments; then, I use the program to process each part; and finally, I translate the resulting text files.
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Yeah just like I do 😊
 
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Tirin said:
I've never come across this translation tool before. May I ask if it's free and if the translation quality is good?
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not all the models are free but there are a couple of free options. i find the transcription quality to be pretty good, the translation quality is a little weaker, but i find it is good enough for me to at least understand what is going on when i am listening.

i tend to prefer the transcriptions rather than the translations purely because of my own experience level with japanese, and then i can use higher quality translators like deepl to supplement.
 
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innikomoru said:
not all the models are free but there are a couple of free options. i find the transcription quality to be pretty good, the translation quality is a little weaker, but i find it is good enough for me to at least understand what is going on when i am listening.

i tend to prefer the transcriptions rather than the translations purely because of my own experience level with japanese, and then i can use higher quality translators like deepl to supplement.
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Thank you for the advice. It's very helpful for me 😊
 
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Well at first I found online fan translations which I really enjoyed, they were well written. And than I tried to find the files online since at the time I was a teenager with no money lool I understood a bit Japanese I had years of anime experience xD after that a became a young adult and got money. I started to buy CDs and memorized the vocab for some reason because I've been listening to the same trope over and over again lol.

Now my process start with finding good work, take the description and translating it in a translator so I can have the main lines of the story (Tracks number, names and content) and after that while listening to it, I mainly guess lool It's been okay so far.

But now I want to have my own translations without waiting for someone to translate it so I'm interested in AI audio translation to script and then translate the script to English.

So yeah ! :D

But if you guys have more tips please tell me :>
 
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For me, I downloaded the audio file, transcribed it on a website to get the dialogue, and then gave it to Gemini to translate 🥰
 
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daisyz said:
For me, I downloaded the audio file, transcribed it on a website to get the dialogue, and then gave it to Gemini to translate 🥰
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Could I ask which website you use to transcribe audio files? For me I use TurboScribe, but to be honest, I don't really like it.
 
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Tirin said:
Could I ask which website you use to transcribe audio files? For me I use TurboScribe, but to be honest, I don't really like it.
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I use TurboScribe too 🤣 Tbh, I haven't found any other website that transcribes the audio as accurately as this one 🥹 (What don't you like about it?)
 
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daisyz said:
I use TurboScribe too 🤣 Tbh, I haven't found any other website that transcribes the audio as accurately as this one 🥹 (What don't you like about it?)
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I don't like Turbo Scribe, largely because it produces quite a few transcription errors, even when I select the highest accuracy option. It also sometimes struggles to transcribe effectively—or fails altogether—when dealing with audio that contains a lot of whispering or overlapping sounds.
 
No translation. I read the synopsis and hold on for dear life.
I've actually gotten a lot better at understanding it this way too. I try looking up a word, something common enough that I'll be likely to encounter it, and I'll see if I can find it while listening. It's not the perfect method, but I'd be lying if I said I haven't learned a lot of words this way.
 
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I guess this is more like a side effect, hehe. I actually studied Japanese for a while, but that was a really long time ago. I've also been watching anime almost every day for over 10 years, plus I've been listening to drama CDs to fall asleep almost every day for over 5 years.

Before I knew it, I could understand like 70-80% of the dialogue without translation. Back when I still couldn't really catch what they were saying, I'd read the summary first, listen once, then find a translation and listen again while reading along. Once I understood each sentence, I'd loop it several more times without the translation.

I did that with so many works that I eventually got lazy lol. And as my listening got better, I didn't really need translations anymore. Nowadays, I'll just translate the summary to see if I'm interested in the plot, and if I am, I just listen to the raw audio.

But honestly, I only did all this cause I enjoyed it. I never really intended to study or anything. Still can't read Japanese to this day, only understand it by listening lol:oops:
 
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mostly by gut feeling. i usually read a translated summary first, then listen to it. since i have watched a lot of anime and some japanese dramas and movies, i can understand a few words, which helps me understand the situation and context.
 
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Fan translations were so helpful while listening to the drama cds, now I can understand the context (…mostly). But now I know a bunch of lewd expressions ehe
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Sometimes I look at translations made by other people but to be honest I mostly just listen to the voices. I can enjoy the sounds even if I don't understand much.

That said I'm actually currently learning Japanese so I have high hopes that someday I'll be able to understand all of it. Or at least most of it. I can already understand something at least but there's still a long way to go.

The funny thing is that by listening to r18 drama cds, you'll probably learn some words textbooks won't teach you (nor duolingo).
 
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Hmm... if you keep listening, you'll come across repeated words and sentences.
Once you translate and memorize it, and keep building on it, you'll find that you can understand about 50% of it before you know it! I'll leave the rest to AI, haha
 
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I'm actually not fluent in Japanese, so I usually focus on the voice acting, the tone of their voice and the emotions they convey (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶) ♡ Sometimes I look up translations or summaries to understand what's happening, but honestly, a good voice can make me enjoy the audio even when I don't understand every single word hehe 🎧
 
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For mee, the voice acting and sound design do 80% of the heavy lifting! Even if I don't catch every single word, the tone, breathing, and 3D audio make the mood super clear and immersivee (*^^*)
 
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Tirin said:
🎧 No Japanese? No Problem! How do you listen to & enjoy raw R-18 Otome Audio / ASMR?

Hey everyone! 👋

One of the biggest hurdles for international otome audio fans is the language barrier. While some popular releases get fan translations or official English releases on platforms like DLsite, a massive portion of R-18 drama CDs and indie ASMR works remain 100% raw Japanese.

Yet, somehow... we all manage to enjoy them anyway! 😂

Whether you're a seasoned Japanese learner, a machine translation (MTL) wizard, or someone who relies entirely on "vibe listening" and Voice Actor emotion, I'd love to know how you navigate un-translated audio works.

A few prompts to jumpstart the discussion:

1. What is your main strategy? (e.g., Reading fan/community scripts, using AI subtitle tools like Whisper, translating track descriptions/summaries first, or just raw-dogging the audio?)
2. Tools & Tech: Are there any specific apps, browser extensions, or translation tools you rely on for understanding audio tracks?
3. The "Vibe Listener" Experience: Have you ever listened to an entire R-18 CD without understanding a word, but still loved it purely because of the Voice Actor (CV) performance and sound design?
4. Tips for Beginners: What advice would you give to someone who wants to try R-18 otome audio for the first time but is intimidated by the language barrier?

Let's exchange our best tips, workflows, and funny "language barrier" moments! 🎙️✨
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I'm more of a dive in listener and luckily I'm at a level of understanding %85~%95 of spoken lines, unless it's very scientific or technical, which I have to search for later on after taking mental notes and context clues, then if I have the script I might follow some tracks with it and it usually does it more for me to see it written and recognizing the kanji and so on~
For tools, I depend on Jisho, translating services like google or reverso (it's not accurate 100% but it helps me especially with the "read out" choice), the dictionary of JP-My native tongue, and sometimes I even look up videos or articles on certain topics ~

And I mostly never rely on translation when listening to things because I don't need it to be honest ~
My advice for beginners would be to immerse yourself with SFW works first to gradually grasp the flow and normal conversation then slowly build up with other works hehe ~ It may come off as a surprisingly tame method but this is how I got to this level
 
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