Many mistakes and unclear explaination in Jpod101 PDF

[watermen]

As I progress, I realized that there are mistakes in many PDF files. Most of them are usually katagana typo errors. Can Jpod101 do something to correct it? I will bring it up if you all are interested in correcting it.

Some of the PDFs do not really explain the grammar point clearly. As a beginner, I may have tough time understanding. One example being Beginner S2 Lesson 33,　私は、明日天気になって欲しいなぁって思った。 Nothing more is explained other than a translation.

A sentence like this is really not easy for beginner to understand.

I always thought that by subscribing, I will get a clear explanation from the PDF, thereby hasten my speed in learning, however, as I progress, I realized that the PDF can be pretty dysfunction some time, as it fails to serve its purpose to explain things that beginner don't know.

I hope Jpod101 staffs can look into this matter seriously, I like this podcast a lot and I can see that jpod101 has certainly put in a lot of effort, I just hope that it can be better. Thanks.

[jemstone]

i think for season 2, the basic understanding is that the student have gone through most, if not all, of the beginner lessons (season 1) and are assumed that the student knows the grammer points and does not need the breakdown for it (like in most season 1 lessons).

i think that way, they can spend more time talking more about the subject, giving the student a deeper understanding of the subject.

my two cents on this subject.

[watermen]

i think for season 2, the basic understanding is that the student have gone through most, if not all, of the beginner lessons (season 1) and are assumed that the student knows the grammer points and does not need the breakdown for it (like in most season 1 lessons).

i think that way, they can spend more time talking more about the subject, giving the student a deeper understanding of the subject.

my two cents on this subject.

Be honest the S1 is pretty tough as well. In fact, tougher than S2, that is why I am just doing S2 now for the time being.

[jemstone]

ahh.... actually i feel for s1, it is very linear... i started from the beginning and have moved quite a bit into the middle, and i can see exactly how far i've been. i'd say that if i started right in the middle, i'd be lost for sure. the lessons build on previous lessons, and by the time you finish all 170 lessons, you're actually more like lower or higher intermediate (sp?).

actually somewhere along lesson 150 or 160, our hosts actually mentioned that whoever goes through 150 (or 160) lessons, that person should no longer be classified as "beginner".

as languages go (as well as other form of artistic skills), there isn't really a clear line to draw where the beginner level stops and where the intermediate level starts.

[NickT]

OK, I'll bite.

First of all, one of the great things about Jpod101 is that they expose you to "real Japanese", not just sugar-coated textbook Japanese like most courses do. You have to be taken out of your comfort zone once in a while to really progress, and this example sentence is a perfect example of that.

Another thing to bear in mind is that this was presented as an example sentence. It is being used to illustrate a particular grammar point, and a full explanation of all the grammar present in the sentence is outside the scope of the lesson. It is actually a fairly advanced sentence with some JLPT2 grammar mixed into it.

That said, I can see why it confused you. I'll try to break it down.

The example is supposed to illustrate the と + verb quotation pattern. You are probably wondering where the と　is in the sentence? Well, in spoken Japanese, the と often becomes て　or って (or っつ, apparently), so basically the final part of the sentence could be re-written as と思った = "I thought that"

I see from another of your posts that the なぁ is also giving you some trouble. Basically this is just the sentence ending particle な, elongated into a long なぁ sound.　This is similar in meaning to ね at the end of a sentence, but more colloquial. In this case, although it is not actually at the end of the sentence, it is at the end of the sentence he thought to himself in his head, so it is OK.

The て欲しい construction is used when you want something, but rather than wanting to do it yourself (when you would use たい) you want someone else to do it for you, or just for it to happen without doing anything yourself. It is explained (briefly) in Intermediate Lesson 6, and is probably a JLPT level 2 grammar.

It does seem like there is something a bit off about this sentence, as I can't see where in the sentence he says he wanted the weather to become "good". He just says he wanted the weather to become, without saying what he wanted it to become. Maybe it is just "understood from context" that that is what he wanted? If I was writing the sentence, I would probably write it like this:

私は、明日いい天気になって欲しいなぁって思った。

or

私は、明日天気によくなって欲しいなぁって思った。

Which breaks down literally as

私は、..................って思った。 As for me, I thought that .........

明日天気によくなって欲しいなぁ　I really want the weather to be (become) nice tomorrow.

[watermen]

OK, I'll bite.

First of all, one of the great things about Jpod101 is that they expose you to "real Japanese", not just sugar-coated textbook Japanese like most courses do. You have to be taken out of your comfort zone once in a while to really progress, and this example sentence is a perfect example of that.

Another thing to bear in mind is that this was presented as an example sentence. It is being used to illustrate a particular grammar point, and a full explanation of all the grammar present in the sentence is outside the scope of the lesson. It is actually a fairly advanced sentence with some JLPT2 grammar mixed into it.

That said, I can see why it confused you. I'll try to break it down.

The example is supposed to illustrate the と + verb quotation pattern. You are probably wondering where the と　is in the sentence? Well, in spoken Japanese, the と often becomes て　or って (or っつ, apparently), so basically the final part of the sentence could be re-written as と思った = "I thought that"

I see from another of your posts that the なぁ is also giving you some trouble. Basically this is just the sentence ending particle な, elongated into a long なぁ sound.　This is similar in meaning to ね at the end of a sentence, but more colloquial. In this case, although it is not actually at the end of the sentence, it is at the end of the sentence he thought to himself in his head, so it is OK.

The て欲しい construction is used when you want something, but rather than wanting to do it yourself (when you would use たい) you want someone else to do it for you, or just for it to happen without doing anything yourself. It is explained (briefly) in Intermediate Lesson 6, and is probably a JLPT level 2 grammar.

It does seem like there is something a bit off about this sentence, as I can't see where in the sentence he says he wanted the weather to become "good". He just says he wanted the weather to become, without saying what he wanted it to become. Maybe it is just "understood from context" that that is what he wanted? If I was writing the sentence, I would probably write it like this:

私は、明日いい天気になって欲しいなぁって思った。

or

私は、明日天気によくなって欲しいなぁって思った。

Which breaks down literally as

私は、..................って思った。 As for me, I thought that .........

明日天気によくなって欲しいなぁ　I really want the weather to be (become) nice tomorrow.

Thanks for your explanation is make more sense to me now, but the word "better" did not appear anywhere in the original sentence, how do i know that it means better and not worst?

[watermen]

ahh.... actually i feel for s1, it is very linear... i started from the beginning and have moved quite a bit into the middle, and i can see exactly how far i've been. i'd say that if i started right in the middle, i'd be lost for sure. the lessons build on previous lessons, and by the time you finish all 170 lessons, you're actually more like lower or higher intermediate (sp?).

actually somewhere along lesson 150 or 160, our hosts actually mentioned that whoever goes through 150 (or 160) lessons, that person should no longer be classified as "beginner".

as languages go (as well as other form of artistic skills), there isn't really a clear line to draw where the beginner level stops and where the intermediate level starts.

I did follow S1, I am now in lesson 75. But my speed is really slowed down in S1 and I get pretty frustrated sometime because of the lack of explanation as well.

I will definitely con't S1 and finish all 170 lessons, but I wish to finish S2 first, since I only have a few more to go, I am in S2 #34 now, I enjoy the feeling of being able to catch up with the latest lessons.

Have you done all 170?

[NickT]

Um, the word "better" also did not appear anywhere in my explanation, so I don't really understand what you mean.

I think it can be assumed that he wanted the weather to become "better" and not "worse" if thats what you mean. Why would anyone want the weather to become worse?

[watermen]

Um, the word "better" also did not appear anywhere in my explanation, so I don't really understand what you mean.

I mean in the original sentence 　私は、明日天気になって欲しいなぁって思った。 No where in the sentence it says he wants it to become "better".

If I translate this sentence word by word it would be,
"I, tomorrow weather become wish I think." --- please correct me if i m wrong. So, no where it means better...of cos, like what you say, why should someone wants the weather to be worst...but for a beginner like me, I would not have thought of that and therefore, I feel that, Jpod101 should at least explain in the PDF if they decide to use such example.

[jemstone]

Have you done all 170?

i wish i had the time... i've listened to lesson 170 out of curiosity just to find out what i was expected to know and hear at the end of the whole s1. it's pretty impressive, to me at least.

[Shaydwyrm]

I mean in the original sentence 　私は、明日天気になって欲しいなぁって思った。 No where in the sentence it says he wants it to become "better".

Occasionally, 天気 on its own is read as "good weather". Actually, I think I've only seen this with 天気になる, so it might be worth just memorizing that as a phrase.

[Javizy]

I'm surprised that this is the first time you found something you don't understand. S2 assumes you know all the grammar from S1, so for those of us who have done these lessons, recovering this stuff would be wasting our time. When you see potential, passive, causative, volitional structures, giving and receiving structures, and a whole host of other speech patterns, you can't possibly understand them because you haven't covered them.

I don't know what you hope to achieve by speeding through the lessons without absorbing the grammar. You said you hope to reach lower intermediate level by next week, yet yesterday you were having trouble with na-adjectives, something covered in last week's newbie lesson.

If you want to get anywhere with this language, I think you need to start being more realistic. Your current level isn't measured by the last lesson you listened to, and doing lessons that are way ahead of you is only going to confuse you.

[watermen]

I'm surprised that this is the first time you found something you don't understand. S2 assumes you know all the grammar from S1, so for those of us who have done these lessons, recovering this stuff would be wasting our time. When you see potential, passive, causative, volitional structures, giving and receiving structures, and a whole host of other speech patterns, you can't possibly understand them because you haven't covered them.

I don't know what you hope to achieve by speeding through the lessons without absorbing the grammar. You said you hope to reach lower intermediate level by next week, yet yesterday you were having trouble with na-adjectives, something covered in last week's newbie lesson.

If you want to get anywhere with this language, I think you need to start being more realistic. Your current level isn't measured by the last lesson you listened to, and doing lessons that are way ahead of you is only going to confuse you.

Thanks for your reply.

I go straight to S2 because I feel that S1 is getting tougher, I will still continue to do S1, just that my speed is slow there.

I am actually capable of retaining 80-90% of the information of each lesson, so I am pretty comfortable with my speed, when I come across a wall, I will slow down too, few days ago when I was at S1 lesson 60-64, my speed was really so slow, as these lessons were tough to me.

The difficult part of it so far is the informal usage of Japanese, I am glad that Jpod101 offer this to its readers, however, it can be pretty tough if it is not explain clearly.

1. My intention was not to speed, rather, after finishing one lesson, I will just proceed to the next.There is no point staying in one lesson where I already understand and memorize it.

2. I enjoy the feeling of being able to listen to the latest lesson. So far, I am only capable of doing it on Newbie, I wish to do that at all lesson. Don't you find it exciting to listen to the latest lesson?

3. I may not have so much time to study in the future, so I better study now.

4. So I can be on par with you.

[NickT]

Shaydwyrm is right. I have done some investigative work, and it appears that 天気になる is frequently used on its own, without an explicit word for "good", to mean good/fine weather.

And there was me thinking they made a mistake in the PDF!

勉強になりました。ありがとうございます。

By the way, out of interest. Watermen, are you are true beginner? Or a false beginner? I realise you have only been doing Jpod for 10 days or whatever it is, but what about before that? Your grasp of hiragana and kanji seem pretty good, where did you learn that? Not from the podcasts, I take it...

Or do you just rely on MS IME 2000, and Rikai-chan to read/write all the kanji for you?

Just curious.

When I started jpod101 a year or so ago, I raced through all the podcasts too, in less than a month. Of course, the fact I had been taking classes already for a couple of years helped.

[watermen]

Shaydwyrm is right. I have done some investigative work, and it appears that 天気になる is frequently used on its own, without an explicit word for "good", to mean good/fine weather.

And there was me thinking they made a mistake in the PDF!

勉強になりました。ありがとうございます。

By the way, out of interest. Watermen, are you are true beginner? Or a false beginner? I realise you have only been doing Jpod for 10 days or whatever it is, but what about before that? Your grasp of hiragana and kanji seem pretty good, where did you learn that? Not from the podcasts, I take it...

Or do you just rely on MS IME 2000, and Rikai-chan to read/write all the kanji for you?

Just curious.

When I started jpod101 a year or so ago, I raced through all the podcasts too, in less than a month. Of course, the fact I had been taking classes already for a couple of years helped.

I am really a beginner and you are right, I highly rely on IME to type out and figure out the kanji, I also use Jim Breen's Japanese-English dictionary heavily. Whenever I open Jpod, I also open Jim Breen's dictionary. When I really don't know a word, I will really write it 10-20 times until I know it, no joke, this is what I called "forced memorization".

I am a final year medical student, I am very use to massive loading of information by now, when it comes to major exam in medical school in the United States, we have ton of books and questions to go through, so going through 10-20 lessons and PDF is 朝飯前 to me. 1 lesson has around 3-5 pages of PDF, so 20 lessons will have around 60-100 pages, the words in the PDF are very big too, so reading it don't take me too much time, besides that I read it while I am listening. And I always read the next PDF first while listening to the current one. If you ever grabbed a medical text book and read it, you will know what I mean by the PDF here is　朝飯前。そして、毎週はナルトを見ます。このアニメは大好きです。ナルトを見たように一生懸命勉強したい。 (Correct me if I am wrong.)