Recommendation on listening order of podcasts?

[Naguib]

Hello,
I'm new to this site so if I shoulda posted this in a different area, I apologize.
Since I just joined I'm not sure what is the best order to listen to the gazillion podcasts available. I read the site's recommendations, but that would mean I'd do Newbie season 2 with Beginner season one, then Newbie season 3, and then beginner season 2, 3, & 4. Only then could I move up to lower intermediate. That seems really repetitive to me. Also, I already know some Japanese, I'm in second semester of a college course, and I'm mid-way through the second disc of Rosetta Stone (don't judge, I still think it's helpful..)
So I'm not completely useless, and I'd obviously like to progress as quickly as possible, so if someone could tell me which order they think would be best for me to listen to the podcasts I'd be really appreciative!!! Thanks a lot,
-naguib

[gerald_ford]

I'd say forget the beginner series and jump to a lower-intermediate or even intermediate series. There all isolated lessons, so you don't actually have to start with the new/beginner stuff if you don't want to. The recommendations are for folks who are utterly new to Japanese.

I did find though though doing a couple different lesson tracks in tandem was a nice way to study too. The easier lessons are good for vocabulary and fixing loose ends on "easy" Japanese grammer.

The harder lessons reinforce listening which is a deceptively difficult skill to master. Don't underestimate that one, even with college training (speaking from experience ).

I did a mix of both and found it useful. I finished the beginner series and now exclusively focus on the intermediate one.

Best of luck!

[melitu]

Listen to few a podcasts from each level to help figure out what works for you.

Personally I listen to the beginner dialogs (and then the lesson if there's anything I need clarification on), and focus more on the lower intermediate (probably about the right level for me right now in terms of listening comprehension) and upper intermediate podcasts. I also like listening to the audio blogs, which can sometimes be challenging (though some of the upper-int dialogs have quite specialized vocabulary beyond the audio blogs!). With the audio blogs, I usually listen to them a few times through to see how much I can understand. Then, I listen to them while also reading the transcript and look up words with rikaichan that I don't know.

Each lesson is pretty self-contained, though sometimes there's a storyline that spans a few lessons. Also, with the beginner and newbie, each season goes through a series of grammar of points, so you might want to listen to the whole season from beginning to end for those. Listening to the seasons out of order is fine though (like season 4 before 2 or 3, etc).