News Report Style Lesson

[Javizy]

I think it'd be cool if you made a lesson or even a series to help people understand the news. There seem to be certain phrases and structures that are continually used, for example, I often hear 明らかになりました, which I assume means 'it became clear that...', and hear the masu- stem being used instead of the te-form for connecting sentences.

I'm sure there are lots of other examples that I can't pick up on, so maybe a lesson examining the type of language and structures used would be helpful in the impossible task of trying to understand the daily News.

[Psy]

容疑者, 事件、逮捕されました, 関係者によると、and となりました are some others you'll run into quite a bit. At any rate, I totally second the idea. The news is tough-- fast, furious, complicated. The moment you get lost it seems impossible to get back on track, so a J-pod series that "breaks it down" would be really, really useful for higher-level students.

[watermen]

Agree, I would love to hear this series.

[maxiewawa]

Hear, hear. I've been listening to CSLPod, a podcast that includes news reports with transcripts spoken slowly, and it's helped a lot. Deutsche Welle also has a podcast of news read slowly which I think is a great idea for learners of German.

I had a look at NHK but couldn't find any news podcasts. Sometimes news read at full speed is helpful for learning if it is accompanied with a transcript. Maybe there are podcasts, but I just can't find them...

I've made great progress with other languages listening to news readers, and it's something that is hard to find in Japanese.

おねがい！

[Shaydwyrm]

Yomiuri has a podcast, though it's not spoken particularly slowly: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/podcast/

[Javizy]

Max, if you do a search in iTunes with language set to Japanese and category set to News and Politics, there's even a high-quality video podcast that lasts about eight minutes. It's helpful because statistics, lists and other things are displayed during the report, which give your struggling ears some much-needed backup. I don't know some of the kanji in the name, but this is the website iTunes sends you to - http://www.nikkei.co.jp/bb/index.html I don't know how to find the podcast on that site, but maybe it will be helpful if you can't find it through iTunes, plus it has a streaming video.

[Psy]

The closest match I found on iTunes to your description was　日経朝刊解説 "にっけい　ちょうかん　かいせつ". I was also able to find an online directory of Nikkei podcasts here:

http://www.nikkei.co.jp/podcast/

Can't vouch for the contents because I haven't listened yet. I will later when I have time!

[maxiewawa]

Ooohhh thanks! I never thought to look through iTunes!
That's exactly what I was looking for, ta everyone!

[Javizy]

There are a few on there that I listen to. シネマー People is quite a lengthy, semiformal one that's slightly easier to understand than the news. If you want to learn some "raunchier" aspects of Japanese, then there's Marimo's English; again quite lengthy, but extremely informal, natural conversational style, which is pretty hard to come by.

[Psy]

For the benefit of those searching, it is シネマPeople without the dash. Thanks to motivation of this thread, I've signed up for a number of Japanese podcasts, and in spite of the majority of them being well above my listening level, I still endeavor to listen to a little bit every day, taking notes and picking out new words as I am able.

I advise everyone who has reached intermediate level here on Jpod do the same thing. Exposure to listening works-- a shame I haven't done it sufficiently for the amount I've studied.