Advanced lessons are few and far between.

[chasius]

I have been listening for over a year now. You guys do an outstanding job and this site is a great resource which is why I pay for the premium service but lately most of the lessons are low level. There has only been a small handful of blogs and upper intermediate lessons since the beginning of this year. I loved Miki's blog and was sad to see it end. The new blog is good but lacks the conversational followup.

Recently, I just listen to the englishpod since it's mostly spoken in Japanese. I would love to see more conversational segments, no English, with perhaps a simple dictation. That would be awesome. Any plans guys?

[Javizy]

I'm not a big fan of the new schedule either, really. I like the upper intermediate lessons a lot, so it's really disappointing to only get 2 a month. I can't understand the decision to scrap the blog commentaries for this new series after having them for so long, either. It's like taking a massive step backwards, and I don't find a short blog very appealing on its own. You can find all sorts of interesting podcasts with more than 3minutes of Japanese all over iTunes, but you can't find any that discuss interesting points about the language like the JPod blogs used to.

The schedule changes from time to time, so hopefully it balances itself out again sometime soon. I always love what the guys do, but I'm feeling a bit starved without my weekly intermediate lesson

[Neil53]

I must agree. I continue to encourage pushing out quality material and the quality and depth of the pdfs have greatly improved. I also recommended a reduction in the number of advanced lessons, if that was necessary to gain the necessary quality, but the cutback on advanced lesson volume has been somewhat drastic and unlikely to keep the advanced student satisfied.

Working the staff forever isn't the answer either because then you just get greater staff turnover.

It seems perhaps more staff are needed to be able to produce both quality and quantity. I understand that means more productions costs that may require a slight increase in subscription prices, but I think people would be willing to pay a small increase to get the amount of advanced material back. Greater communication from management would be helpful so that we understand why the changes have happened and potential solutions. Cutbacks without an explanation may have created some aggravation and hostility.

[Jessi]

We appreciate the feedback It really helps to hear what our listeners would like to see. Our current series will be starting a new season this year, and around the same time we'll be thinking of some new ideas, so we'll definitely keep this in mind.

[blaksage02]

Just figured that I would heap on my vote, too. The lack of upper intermediate lessons this season has really made me look hard at my decision to continue my premium subscription at Japanesepod101. I really love the site, but the new season hasn't offered as much for more advanced level students. I would really like to see an increase in more advanced lessons, at least back to what it was the previous season.

[oaktree]

Hi,

Just want to add my voice to the chorus here. Really disappointed to see how few upper intermediate lessons are being produced just now. And I also really enjoyed the previous blog format with more discussion before and after, and am missing that.

Thanks for all you do to make this a great site.