Postby MichaelMcDonald » June 3rd, 2008 7:22 am
Hi,
I found JapanesePod101.com by accident while browsing the iTunes store for anything Japanese in January 2008, and it has completely changed how I use my iPod and my music-listening habits ever since - I almost never listen to music anymore on my iPod! I don't know if anyone else does this, but I started with the very first lessons and I've been downloading all the lessons month-by-month. Then I arrange them in iTunes to play back in chronological order. I'm now up to May 2007. I download several months at a time. I listen non-stop on the way to work and back, and when walking the dog. Occasionally I listen to the new lessons, too, since the new lessons have so many more nice add-ons like review tracks, video vocab, etc.
One thing I find annoying is that podcasts downloaded through My Feed play on the iPod once and then stop and return to the main menu - instead of continuing on to the next podcast. You have to go back through several menus until you find your way back to the next podcast in the list (and the file names are so long you have to wait for the title to scroll past 'Lower Intermediate Lesson #77 - LI2:' part before seeing if it's part one or two, etc.). The only way around this that I know is to download one at a time and arrange them in iTunes to play as normal sound files.
Since getting interested in Japanese, I've bought ten different books to teach myself, but JapanesePod101.com is an indispensible part of learning Japanese because books cannot really help you with listening practice (not to mention informal Japanese). Thanks for all the great lessons!
Michael