Jpod101 Academy - Graduating from Jpod101

[watermen]

Everyone who goes to a school/attend college wants to graduate some day. It is not the end of learning, but the beginning of a new journey. After studying hundreds of lessons, people will start asking when can they become proficient. If you attend a Japanese class and you follow their structure, you will graduate one day with an advanced level. What about Jpod101? Can we graduate too?

Here is some of my suggestions:

In order to graduate as an advanced student, the graduating students must fulfill the following requirement:

1. Complete a minimum of 50 Newbie Lessons.
2. Complete a minimum of 200 Beginner Lessons.
3. Complete a minimum of 200 Intermediate Lessons, which can be broken down into at least 60 Lower Intermediate, 80 Intermediate and 60 Upper Intermediate.
4. Complete all 60 Survival Phrases.
5. Complete at least 50 Cultural Classes.
6. Complete at least 20 Audio Blogs.
7. Jpod101 will need to create 20 Advanced Lessons for the graduating class.

After all 600 lessons were completed, Jpod101 will let that student sit for an exam. That exam level must be as tough as JLPT1 or even tougher than that.

Once the student achieve a certain score, Jpod101 can graduate that student. This student will be certified achieving Advanced level in Japanese for Reading, Writing, Listening and Comprehension. In order to be certified in Conversation, the student has to fly to Tokyo HQ to sit for a conversation exams with the hosts. Jpod101 will then offer an extra certification in Conversation. A diploma can be offered too.

Doesn't it sound good, please consider this idea. Maybe we can have a class of 2008?

[Psy]

While I agree it might be nice to give the students at Jpod101 milestones to reach for, I think you're underestimating the sheer amount of effort it takes to gain that kind of proficiency in Japanese, and oversimplifying the process of language learning down to an issue of "if I just study material A, when I finish I'll have all I need." If my experience has taught me anything, it's that in real life things don't quite work that way. No, to gain real proficiency you need more than just a single source-- you have to use everything to your advantage... a few dictionaries here, a few books there, a small library of movies, tapes, CDs... beyond that you will need countless hours of real-life conversation, the time to expose yourself to the written word. the ability to ask questions, more time to drill vocabulary/grammar, still more to review, to relax, to let the information absorb... no matter how hard you work, there are things which will come easily and things which will not, strange vocabulary you can remember easily and yet simple words that fight your attempts to memorize, grammatical structures you've studied endlessly but still struggle with, things you can understand when hearing but not yourself speak...

It is said that some 900 hours of classroom study are required before one should think of attempting the JLPT 1kyuu. Seeing as, in total hours, 600 episodes of J-pod constitutes barely 1/3rd of that, it is clear that more work needs to be done. J-pod101 is a great resource, but it is not the great resource.

Not that you should be discouraged! It's a long road, yes, but all of us on the forum are walking it together, are we not?

[jemstone]

from the academic point of view, i think it's a good idea as it may spur us to attempt to go through all the lessons. it's a huge milestone and i want a piece of paper to say that i've done it.
edit: but when i think about it, there's no "finishing line" here. jp101 always produces new lessons and new materials.

from the organization's point of view, i think not any organization can issue certifications. ok, let me quantify that a little bit more.

for a school to issue certificates like degrees or diploma, they must be empowered by a governing body to do so. failure to gain that kind of accreditation would mean that the paper or certification issued is just another piece of paper. there is no recognition.

while this generation of jp101 "students" (i use this term here loosely to represent all of us) may understand that the issued certificate is just a piece of paper, the next generation of students may not understand this and maybe some of them might feel that jp101 is doing something weird... like issuing a certificate but it's not recognized anywhere.

[Ulver_684]

Mina-sama!

It sounds like a great idea, there are already college online, etc but you can't compare the online learning with the real life teaching (classes) just like Psy said it's a long road ahead for the online courses to reach that level and beside that I think JP101 is a non profit organization so I don't think that if they give a diploma out it would be worth just that you complete a Japanese course online.

[Javizy]

I'd like to see some online exams based on the lesson material, especially now that they're starting new seasons, but what watermen is suggesting is completely unrealistic. I don't know all the academic lingo, but I know that jpod shouldn't be issuing diplomas nor would it profit from doing so. If you want a recognised qualification, do the JLPT, and let jpod do what it does best.

[watermen]

You all misunderstood my meaning. I don't mean issuing a cert or diploma for any recognition. What I mean is a cert or diploma just to indicate that you completed all the basis requirement. It is just for fun only. Any real cert should be JLPT 1! I don't think any organization cert can replace that. But I will be happy if Jpod101 give me a piece of paper telling me that I finished so and so...

900 hours of classroom for JLPT 1? Are you sure? Isn't that too much. That will translate into at least 5 years of study with 4 hours per week. I believe it is possible to achieve JLPT 1 in 1 year time if you study everyday.

I have only finished 170 beginners, and all the newbies and S2 and a few lower intermediate, but I have already felt the real power of Jpod101, I am capable of understanding quite a lot when I watch Japanese anime or drama. I can't imagine my level after I finish all the intermediates??? The down side is I couldn't speak Japanese well, since I have no one to practice with me.

[Psy]

You all misunderstood my meaning.

Firstly, no we didn't. Both myself and Jemstone are with you on the milestones, and the others offered further elaboration. Giving students something to reach for would indeed be a huge source of motivation.

900 hours of classroom for JLPT 1? Are you sure? Isn't that too much. That will translate into at least 5 years of study with 4 hours per week. I believe it is possible to achieve JLPT 1 in 1 year time if you study everyday.

No, I'm not, nor was that site, exaggerating about study time. The 1-kyuu is infamous for its extremely intense reading and grammar sections. Preparing for the exam is a full-time affair, and those who aspire to it often already have a strong grasp of the language. 1 year isn't enough to learn the kanji, let alone all the needed grammar and vocabulary. Assuming only 4 hours a week, you'd be doing well to reach that level in 5 years.

I have only finished 170 beginners, and all the newbies and S2 and a few lower intermediate, but I have already felt the real power of Jpod101, I am capable of understanding quite a lot when I watch Japanese anime or drama. I can't imagine my level after I finish all the intermediates??? The down side is I couldn't speak Japanese well, since I have no one to practice with me.

While I do offer my congratulations on your making such progress, there is a considerable difference between watching anime and interpreting the kinds of things the JLPT listening exam will throw at you. Aside from more difficult constructions and conversational traps (for lack of a better term), you will not have circumstantial reinforcement beyond "a woman and gentleman are talking in a cafe, what did they decide to do next?" There will be no gestures, no scene, no backstory and also no subtitles. The vocabulary, in many cases, will also be more difficult.

Again, not wanting to discourage you, but try to have a little more appreciation for the enormous task that lies in front of you.

[untmdsprt]

I think I speak for a majority of people here that we're doing great if if we can get an hour or so in a day. Most people work or have families.

I've been going over the newbie lessons again until I can fully understand them without needing them to be translated. To me, that is more important than some piece of paper stating I've completed such and such classes.

[markystar]

i intentionally sat out of this one.

but now i feel like chiming in. i agree that milestones are a good thing. ジャブちゃん's suggestion about a a cumulative test (say, at the end of the season or every 25 lessons) would be a fantastic way for people to chart their progress. issuing a kind of document that we have no authority to grant wouldn't achieve much, altho it might be in good fun for some of our most loyal (or fanatical) listeners. i think generating milestone tests would definitely be the way to go. unfortunately, if i bring this up in a meeting i know what the response will be. "great idea! who's going to do it?" meaning everyone's workload is so crazy that taking on such a daunting task would be difficult to delegate (because we'd have to do it from the very beginning).

that said, i wonder how much effort it would be do something like this for, say, nihongo dôjô season 1 and season 2. or i wonder if we could implement something for the new 2008 seasons.... again, we're a small operation just in our infancy. so i'm not sure if we have the resources, but i'm going to talk to peter about this and see if we can realistically pull it off.

this is exactly what i love about my job. it's a work in progress. and we learn a lot about how to improve from you guys. so keep the comments a-coming!

[watermen]

I need to emphasize...the cert or whatsoever is just for fun...jpod101 no need any authority to grant the cert.

[Ulver_684]

i intentionally sat out of this one.

but now i feel like chiming in. i agree that milestones are a good thing. ジャブちゃん's suggestion about a a cumulative test (say, at the end of the season or every 25 lessons) would be a fantastic way for people to chart their progress. issuing a kind of document that we have no authority to grant wouldn't achieve much, altho it might be in good fun for some of our most loyal (or fanatical) listeners. i think generating milestone tests would definitely be the way to go. unfortunately, if i bring this up in a meeting i know what the response will be. "great idea! who's going to do it?" meaning everyone's workload is so crazy that taking on such a daunting task would be difficult to delegate (because we'd have to do it from the very beginning).

that said, i wonder how much effort it would be do something like this for, say, nihongo dôjô season 1 and season 2. or i wonder if we could implement something for the new 2008 seasons.... again, we're a small operation just in our infancy. so i'm not sure if we have the resources, but i'm going to talk to peter about this and see if we can realistically pull it off.

this is exactly what i love about my job. it's a work in progress. and we learn a lot about how to improve from you guys. so keep the comments a-coming!

Marky-san!

If you really guys are going to give a diploma either for fun or for real then I want to gradute from JP101 too!