JapanesePod101.com Blog

Today, we bring you another blog post from Motoko, JapanesePod101.com lesson creator, host and Office Party Planner! Motoko will be sharing more bilingual posts on our blog, so check back often and leave a comment! Hello everyone, Motoko here. Today’s post is a report from our bowling tournament! The full-time staff at Innovative Language Learning (which I’ll call just Innovative from now on) all took part in a bowling tournament. Initially we were going to have a team-on-team match, but we ended up playing as individuals. 　 A グループ対抗戦　(gurūpu taikōsen) means, just as you can see from the Kanji characters, competing as a group. Conversely, a 個人戦 (kojinsen), individual match, is when you yourself are your only ally and you compete... Show more

Hello Listener, Get ready! We’re getting some new additions to the family! No, you’re not getting a brother or a sister. Come July 2nd, 2012, 6 new languages will join the Innovative Language family. That’s a total of 27 languages that you can be fluent in. And knowing how insanely passionate about language our listeners are, 27 will not be a problem. Want to know what the new languages are? Here are the first three! Bulgarian, Finnish, and Vietnamese. And the others? Find out in an upcoming blog post, but in the meantime, tell us which languages you’d like to see next! Why learn with Innovative Language? It’s the tried and tested Pod101 method we’ve been doing since 2005! And it’s the lessons that our listeners... Show more

Today, we bring you another blog post from Motoko, JapanesePod101.com lesson creator, host and Office Party Planner! Motoko will be sharing more bilingual posts on our blog, so check back often and leave a comment! Hi everyone! Motoko here! A few weeks ago, we celebrated the marriage of Marvin. He's part of our Technical Team and is from Germany. The wedding ceremony was held in May – and what’s more, his bride is Japanese! In Japan, there are all kinds of wedding ceremonies. There’s the traditional Shintō shinzenshiki, which is held at a shrine, and the Buddhist butsuzenshiki, which is held at a temple; there’s also the kyōkaishiki, or church wedding, which has been gaining popularity in recent years. Another more unusual variant... Show more

Hey there Listener! Here’s a thought: The world around you needs to have little Japanese labels. Anything you see, you’d know its Japanese meaning immediately. Office building? Check. Train station and everything inside? Check. The items in your kitchen? Check. Learning Japanese would take half the time! With InnovativeLanguage.com’s Visual Dictionary Japanese iBook, you can do just that. This Visual Dictionary is the first of its kind. Even iTunes has noticed! Learn by Exploring the World in Japanese! Just tap and zoom through 26 different everyday scenarios. You see the word in its real-world context, read it and hear its pronunciation. From the city streets, to train stations, and right down to your own... Show more

Today, we bring you a blog post from Motoko, JapanesePod101.com lesson creator, host and Office Party Planner! Motoko will be sharing more bilingual posts on our blog, so check back often and leave a comment! Hi everyone! Motoko here. Today’s blog is about the concept of off-kai. At the beginning of this month, two JapanesePod101.com listeners came to visit us at the office. Apparently we often used to have listeners come and visit us, but for me it was the first time, so I was really excited. Christophe was from Switzerland, and said that he tries to come to Japan at least once a year. It was really clear to me that he loves Japan! This time he visited our Tokyo office with his friend, who is also a JapanesePod101.com listener.... Show more

Speaking Japanese without stopping to think... Understanding Japanese as soon as you hear it... And reading Japanese with one glance? If you can do that, that’s a Pretty Big Deal. Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com? No big deal. Why? You jump right into native Japanese conversation with native Japanese hosts. They break down Japanese grammar and phrases so you can speed up your learning and speak like a native. Master real-life Japanese conversation, learn the words and grammar behind it and you’re ready to speak ASAP. Japanese gets even easier with this Pretty Big Deal! Start speaking from the first lesson and save 27% on Basic and Premium Subscriptions until May 25th at JapanesePod101.com It’s a Pretty Big... Show more

Today, we bring you a blog post from Motoko, JapanesePod101.com lesson creator, host and Office Party Planner! Motoko will be sharing more bilingual posts on our blog, so check back often and leave a comment! On the 17th of April here at Innovative Language Learning, we had an afternoon tea party. Although Kim (a member of our Business Development Team) moved to Hong Kong, last week she came back to Japan for a brief visit, so it was her ‘welcome back’ party. Meanwhile, Pim (host of ThaiPod101.com) is going back to her home country to have her baby, so it was her ‘farewell’ party. We all ate pastries, chatted, and enjoyed ourselves. There was a choice of pastries: strawberry, green tea, custard… It was really hard to... Show more

You’ve downloaded. You’ve tuned in. You’ve learned. And iTunes has noticed! Today, InnovativeLanguage.com is featured on the front page of the US iTunes Podcast section. The InnovativeLanguage.com iTunes page brings together 21 language 101.com sites, 19 Survival Phrases series, over 300 mobile apps, and more. But it’s not only a collection of language lessons, it’s a community of passionate language learners like you that download, tune in, and learn regularly. And we wouldn’t be on the front page without you. Whether you tune in on iTunes or with a Free Lifetime Account on one of our websites, thank you for learning with us! JapanesePod101.com, our Japanese language learning site is also featured in the New... Show more

Your first Japanese word. Remember when you knew no Japanese. At all. Then one day, somewhere, somehow, you learned how to say hello. Suddenly, you could express yourself in another language. And it didn’t stop there. You learned a few more and picked up some grammar. Word by word, your ability to express yourself in Japanese became greater and greater. You went from “hello” and “My name is...” to expressing opinions, starting up conversations with native Japanese speakers. Because of more words. All the best Japanese speakers understand this one rule: Want to speak advanced Japanese? You need more words. April is Vocabulary Month, so start speaking more Japanese and get even better! Get 30% OFF all Premium accounts... Show more

Hello Listener, Just one of many redesigns coming your way! Recently became a Premium member? Don’t know your way around? Premium tools can really speed up your Japanese progress. If you know how to use them, that is. When you visit My Tools you’ll notice a cleaner layout, descriptions, quick links, and video tutorials perfect for new members who have just started exploring the fast track to Japanese fluency! Ready to start? Check out Word Bank and Flashcards! Since you’ll come across a lot of words and phrases in our lessons that you’ll want to remember, save them in Word Bank and drill them with spaced repetition Flashcards. More words means having more to say in Japanese, after all! Want to review your lessons... Show more