podcast inquiry 2: what level can you reach?

[Yoshiko]

Hi! I'm doing an inquiry on podcast (see my other post about learner types)
I decided to put this question in another topic. Well, here it is: Do you think it is possible to learn Japanese from podcast alone? If not, what do you need? (the additional learning materials, feedback, etc.?) Now you may ask 'what do you mean by 'learn Japanese'?'
I mean the whole picture: listening, writing, speaking, reading at an advanced level (or 'satisfactory level', I don't necessarily mean 'native-like')

People who followed the lessons all the way from beginner to (upper) intermediate and didn't get any classroom tuition: what are your experiences?

[Belton]

Well, If you only listen to podacsts I doubt you can. Listening alone isn't going to teach you to read and write. (maybe the ancillary materials might...) But more than that, learning a language is about communicating so on some level you need to speak to someone, make mistakes, get feedback.
Personally I believe classroom situations and/or tuition is very useful as well but I don't think it absolutely necessary.

But my question would be why would you want to limit yourself to a single medium and not find as much variety or exposure as possible.

[untmdsprt]

But my question would be why would you want to limit yourself to a single medium and not find as much variety or exposure as possible.

I've found the podcast and a main textbook are helping me stay on track with learning Japanese. I'll add new books, watch TV, listening to music as a fun diversion to see how much I've learned. I've also started going to a teacher once a week to help me more with conversation.

Before when I started learning Japanese, I was trying to do too much at once. I feel you need to have one or two main sources of material then add to it.

[Javizy]

JPod is great for beginners. Your ears will be trained from day one, you'll learn useful words and phrases in context, and you'll be introduced to enough grammar to build up a big enough base to venture outwards. Perhaps most importantly, it's entertaining and fun, which does wonders for motivation, and also gives you an insight into the culture and contemporary Japan, which you'll really appreciate when you start speaking to natives. I started the language with this website, and haven't regretted it in the slightest.

However, I voted for the extra reading materials. JPod, like just about anything else that aims to teach you any language isn't an all-in-one solution. You don't have enough to learn kanji at any reasonable pace or in a well organised way, although the videos might act as a nice introduction. The grammar explanations also tend to lack depth, especially when it comes to comparing similar expressions. As much content as they have, ultimately they can't offer you the volume of Japanese you're going to need to be exposed to in order to reach any form of fluency.

If you're interested in self-study, there have been a bunch of discussions about useful books, programs, etc many times over, so you might want to take a look around. A brief list of my recommendations would be the grammar dictionaries by The Japan Times, Heisig's Remembering the Kanji, SRS flashcard program Anki and the idea of 'sentence mining', website smart.fm, and everything Japanese (manga, books, TV, films, podcasts, the people themselves, and so on).

[Javizy]

But my question would be why would you want to limit yourself to a single medium and not find as much variety or exposure as possible.

I've found the podcast and a main textbook are helping me stay on track with learning Japanese. I'll add new books, watch TV, listening to music as a fun diversion to see how much I've learned. I've also started going to a teacher once a week to help me more with conversation.

Before when I started learning Japanese, I was trying to do too much at once. I feel you need to have one or two main sources of material then add to it.

I got the Kanzen Master 2 workbook, which is divided into sections that introduce a handful of grammar points, with JLPT questions. I spend a week on each section, reading about the points in detail using the three Japan Times dictionaries and an Alc one. After I feel I understand them, I make flashcards with a sentence that exemplifies the point, with a brief definition and key details as the answer.

In addition to this, I'm working through an Anki deck which is helping me learn to read, and I try to get an even amount of exposure to written and spoken Japanese through TV, podcasts, manga, and novels whenever I get the chance, as well as some shadowing. I try to have a Skype chat at least once a week, as well.

The grammar, shadowing, and flashcard reviews make for an average of about 45-minutes study per day. Since I can do shadowing when I'm ironing my shirt, and flashcards on my iPod at any time, I only need to spend 20 minutes at the desk with the grammar stuff. At the stage I'm at currently, the exposure stuff has pretty much become just pure entertainment.

Admittedly, I needed to finish Heisig to free myself of the kanji burden, and I was nowhere near this organised until about a month ago, but I think it shows that it's more about the quality of your resources and how you make use of them, rather than their number. I remember not long after I started and bought a silly number of books from Amazon, which led to chaos. I would have agreed with you then!

[chinz]

Hi,

Classroom has it's advantage in writing and actually putting the grammar and vocab learnt onto paper. It makes the mind more sure of how the sentence pattern should be formed.

Japanesepod's advantage over classroom teaching is that conversational and informal style is taught systematically, and in bite-size. And this is what i find most useful with this lessons here. Every lesson is packed with so much humor cracked by the hosts, that I would visit and revisit what they say just to catch the joke.