Are you ready to take the vocabulary, cultural knowledge, and the confidence you’ve gained through JapanesePod101.com and deepen it? Our trusted partner LiveFluent seeks to shed light on the lesser talked-about aspects of learning—and grasping in its full essence—a new language. 1. Immersion LiveFluent holds the view that a vocab list and good memory are not enough to become fluent in a language. You need to live that language and that culture; you need to actively apply the language you’re learning to the real world and not look back. The necessity of immersion in mastering a language is quite interesting. This tactic implies that you go and live in the country of the language you’re studying if possible. As LiveFluent points... Show more

As someone who had wanted to master the basics of Japanese, it had taken me a surprisingly long time to find the most suitable method to tackle the language head-on. It is true that everyone has their own unique ways of learning a language. As for me, I am the type of individual that requires a lot of motivation on my part and a really good teaching resource if I were to self-study, which is why I had decided to venture forward and test out JapanesePod101.com by Innovative Language. So here’s my take on JapanesePod101 after using it for a week. I’ve summarized the key features in bullet points for your convenience. The Lesson Library Covers a Wide Variety of Topics The topics range from learning how to order food in a... Show more

Recently, I moved to Japan for a few months to experience an internship abroad and improve my Japanese skills. In the US, I had taken four semesters of Japanese and felt the need to improve before entering my third year. I thought the easiest solution would be moving to Japan for the summer and forcing myself into total immersion. When I arrived I was surprised by how much I could get around with english and how timid I was about using the Japanese I had learned for the past two years. I realized that I was never going to progress with my skills unless I actively studied and forced myself to use what I had learned. This is where JapanesePod101 came in. I've been following the lesson plan that they gave me and it's been really... Show more

I knew essentially nothing about Japan when I made the decision to study in Tokyo for my Fall semester. Fortunately, in the 2 months I’ve been here, my lack of preparation hasn’t stopped me from enjoying all that Japan has to offer. Of course, Tokyo is a good place to be for the ill-prepared, English speaking 外人. I’ve been getting around fairly well, but lately I’ve felt that maybe I would get more out of my experience if I knew at least basic Japanese. Plus, I have to leave Tokyo every once in awhile, or else I’d miss out on things like this: My biggest problem with learning Japanese was always my perceived lack of progress. It just never felt like I was learning anything applicable to everyday life, and even when I... Show more

わや*！That was a hard decision to make Kyushu? Okinawa? South Korea? Taiwan? No… I made it to Hokkaido and have to start this article by talking about Salmon Ikura Don (raw salmon with salmon fish eggs on rice that I ate in Sapporo), in honor of the best dish I’ve ever eaten. First, If you want to travel in Japan and don’t know where to start, I suggest you to take a look at this list: here So...why Sapporo? Well, my two closest Japanese friends are living there... What better reason to fly north? First of all, I love big cities. Tokyo is massive and I enjoy it. However, I’m still a Swiss girl from the Alps… So I was actually really excited about this trip. The image I had of Sapporo is pretty similar to the one foreigners can have... Show more

理解することはまあまあできるけど、話すのは難しい！ Understanding is alright, but speaking is hard! Hi, my name is Noemi and this is what I have been saying for over a year whenever someone asks me about my level in Japanese. I have tons of learning books, and I think they are all good but just too heavy to carry. My Japanese friends are helping me, but it is impossible to remember everything they are teaching me, especially in a more casual context. I also took Japanese classes for 2 years, and those are generally a great option, but not so much for my wallet. In other words: I was stuck at my let’s say lower intermediate level and this needs to change. I am in Japan now, so it’s time to learn. Basically, what I need is something light and... Show more

I was always interested in traveling to Japan. The culture, people, and natural beauty of the country were what drew me in. I knew that it was definitely a place that I wanted to visit in the future and something that would be on my bucket list. But for one reason or another, I had never really had the opportunity to travel across the Pacific. I was either too broke or too busy. That changed last summer when I decided to put an end to my procrastination and fulfill my dream. I purchased my ticket to Japan online and celebrated with a triumphant cheer. However, I soon came to a realization. I did not speak one word of Japanese. I had one month until I embarked on my adventure and I wanted to learn as much Japanese as I could, so I... Show more

Hello Everyone! Ai-chan here! Just a random guest who was given the opportunity to write on JapanesePod101’s blog! ヽ(*⌒∇⌒*)ﾉ First off, a big round of applause to JapanesePod101! Why, you ask? Cause they are awesome! I started using JapanesePod101 about two months ago and I LOVE it! To be honest, I was never the type to learn from websites or apps because I always find myself giving up halfway (too boring). So I took the Japanese classes offered in my university and learning it directly from a teacher was the best. Unfortunately, it had to come to an end when I graduated last year. Unable to give up on my passion for the language, I tried all sorts of method to keep learning Japanese...from playing Japanese games to reading... Show more

Hello everyone! Ai-chan here! I was talking to my Japanese friends recently and realized how much they use onomatopoeia in conversations. Onomatopoeia in English never amazes me as much as it does in Japanese because in Japanese, it feels like they have a word for everything! Unlike English onomatopoeias, Japanese has words to describe not only the sounds made by animate or inanimate object, but also feelings, actions and state. I’m pretty sure manga lovers would have known this already! I think some of the common ones would be ワンワン (wan wan), the sound of a dog barking,ドキドキ (doki doki), the sound of a heartbeat, and キラキラ (kira kira), to describe something that is glittering. One of my favorite onomatopoeias is ゴロゴロ (goro goro)... Show more

Guest Post by Jon Kreps Before I tell you about how I learned Japanese in just 1 hour using JapanesePod101, I would like to begin with a little background information. First, I am an American and am fluent in both English and French. I studied French in middle school, high school, and college for a combined total of 8 years or 16 semesters of study. Unfortunately, I rarely have need for French in my business but I have enjoyed travelling and using the language on several glorious adventures abroad. I consider them “adventures” because despite studying French for roughly ¼ of my life, when I actually conversed with Native-speaking French speakers, I kept running into two problems: My accent was horrible after 8 years of... Show more