Do you have any plans to start Advanced lessons?

[kanjiplus]

Hello

I have been studying Japanese for quite a few years. JPOD has helped me a lot with my listening and grammar skills. Thank you. It is really effective.

My Japanese skills have improved a lot so I want to study more advanced materials.
Do you have any plans in the near future to start Advanced lessons? I would like to hear more short stories, monologues, and advanced dialogues or interviews.

These would add to your (already) huge collection of listening materials and make the website even more useful to myself and others.

Many Thanks

[Jessi]

Hi kanjiplus,
We have had many requests for more advanced lessons, so it's something we are looking into. Thanks for your feedback

[watermen]

I have been listening to Jpod101 since its inception. Requests for more advanced lessons had been made since then. We keep getting replies that Jpod101 will look into it, after nearly 4 years, we still don't see a lot of advanced lessons, in fact, advanced lessons are getting fewer and fewer. Redundant lessons with repetitive contents are getting more and more to a point that it becomes practically useless for many old members who has been supporting Jpod101 since the beginning.

Don't get me wrong, I still love Jpod101, but as old members continue to progress, we need more advanced lessons to justify our subscription.

I understand some people have the idea that Jpod101 need to chunk out lowbie lessons to attract newbies, but now, I really doubt that idea. Imagine if you were a newbie, not knowing any Japanese, upon arriving this site for the very first time, where would you go? Most people will naturally go to the introduction, newbie S1, beginner S1 lesson 1 and start from there. Will a newbie jump straight into Newbie S4? or Beginner S3? I doubt so. By the time those newbies finish beginner S1 or S2, or newbie S1 or S2, they should have a pretty good grasp of the language, another lessons on teaching you how to use Onegaishimasu is not going to help at all.



Jpod101 needs to keep in mind that you need to retain your old members' subcription, sacrificing old members to get more new members does not makes sense from a business stand point.

Even if Jpod101 do not produce anymore new lowbie lessons in the future, you will still get new users using Jpod, because people will go to the old content first, look at the comment pages of those old lessons, you will see how active those old contents are. Your new series of All About Japanese and Survival Phrases S2 are no where as active as those of Beginner S1, Survival Phrases S1 or newbie S1.

Please look into it very seriously, I really hope to see more lessons for the upper levels.

[Jessi]

I also see the need for advanced content, and have been pushing for more advanced content whenever I can I hope we will be able to offer something soon!!

[burroh]

I am also one of the people waiting around for advanced content. Like watermen, I've also been listening to Japanesepod101 since it began, and it was great when I was a beginner, but is honestly no longer useful for me. I study Japanese Linguistics at my University and used to listen to Jpod101 to help with listening comprehension and for phonetics study, but with the lack of advanced content it isn't much of a help any more. I think that Jpod could increase revenue quite a bit if they had more advanced lessons that appealed to university students- I know that my professors would love something with higher level content. They might even recommend that students in their classes subscribe, so that they could listen to the podcasts that covered grammar learned in class.

It just makes me sad that they keep repeating lessons on basic grammar that has already been covered, but ignore the grammar that people would need for the higher levels, like JPLT1. I canceled my subscription a while ago since the new content continued to be stuff I had already learned.

I really hope Jpod101 starts a more advanced series soon- I would resubscribe in a heartbeat!

[julian_81015]

I agree with the above comments. I’m quickly finding myself searching the site for more advanced grammar points and topics than are covered in the vast majority of the lessons. I personally would love to see the JPLT practice tests page updated to include level 2 & 1 too. Only having 3 & 4 on the site really makes me feel something is lacking from an otherwise great resource.

[alexlimbert]

Hi,

When I was signing up, they said that there were Advance lessons. However, after I signed up, lessons seem to stop at Upper Intermediate. That is, I can not locate the Advance lessons that were offered prior to me signing up.

Alex

[adrian_m]

Hello. I'm also at the point where there needs to be more advanced content to justify continuing my subscription. Jpod101 got me through JLPT level 2 (and it was fun and effective!), but I'm moving on to other resources now. I'll check back from time to time for more content, and I'll resubscribe if it becomes available.

[shimewaza]

Hi, I will also second the requests for advanced lessons. Unlike most others who have posted on this thread, I joined only recently. But I joined at a high level, having passed JPLT1 several years ago. I've been disappointed not to find much advanced stuff. The audio blogs are pretty good, but spoken artificially slowly. One suggestion I have is to include lessons with real-life Japanese conversational dialogues, including the slang and deviations from 'proper' Japanese that we all know is the norm in actual conversations. For a hint at what I'm referring to, check out the Japanese Listening Advanced podcasts
http://www.voiceblog.jp/japaneselistening/
Unfortunately, the creators don't seem to be active anymore. But for two amateur guys just doing this on their spare time they did a wonderful job, providing Japanese scripts with English translation for each dialogue. With your resources, you could do something similar but higher quality. Anyway, just a suggestion. I also agree with the other suggestions for more advanced versions of other types of lessons. There are a million 'beginner Japanese" websites on the net but very very few with anything for advanced learners. You could fill that need if you want to.

[jbraswell]

It's so sad that these threads have just languished.

Seriously, it's really frustrating. Despite their crappy organization, the lessons at the site that shimewaza posted above are better than anything JPod101 has ever created. Would someone from JPod please tell us why we can't something similar here? I mean, it should be *easier* than producing a normal JPod lesson. You don't need writers to come up with weird dialogs and try to cram in grammar points all over the place. Just record natural Japanese, and provide a transcript. If they went the extra step and also provided a translation and, say, line-by-line playback, this site would be extraordinary.

Sorry for the rant, I just find the situation regarding language learning to be depressing. I mean, it's really ridiculous. Why the heck is there hardly any material based simply on how a normal, native speaker communicates 90% of the time? WTF? It's like teaching a typing class to people who want to be secretaries but not using QWERTY keyboards.

Hell, maybe one day I'll just break down and do it myself. I think I could hire a few exchange students and a web programmer and make the best language-learning site that has ever existed for less than $5,000.

[Ulver_684]

It's so sad that these threads have just languished.

Seriously, it's really frustrating. Despite their crappy organization, the lessons at the site that shimewaza posted above are better than anything JPod101 has ever created. Would someone from JPod please tell us why we can't something similar here? I mean, it should be *easier* than producing a normal JPod lesson. You don't need writers to come up with weird dialogs and try to cram in grammar points all over the place. Just record natural Japanese, and provide a transcript. If they went the extra step and also provided a translation and, say, line-by-line playback, this site would be extraordinary.

Sorry for the rant, I just find the situation regarding language learning to be depressing. I mean, it's really ridiculous. Why the heck is there hardly any material based simply on how a normal, native speaker communicates 90% of the time? WTF? It's like teaching a typing class to people who want to be secretaries but not using QWERTY keyboards.

Hell, maybe one day I'll just break down and do it myself. I think I could hire a few exchange students and a web programmer and make the best language-learning site that has ever existed for less than $5,000.

Jbraswell-san!

How dare you compare JP101 with a $5,000 site!!!
There should be more respect to Peter-san and JP101 including what the staff is doing to bring the best podcast/materials to us. JP101 is doing a great job to ignore so this and other threads about it should be close. You guys don't have education and discipline to count period!

[jbraswell]

Relax.

JPod101 is a good site for a beginner, and I used it quite a bit for six or eight months. (I kept paying them for quite a while after that merely out of inertia and some weird semblance of loyalty.)

However, it's *not* a good site for intermediate or advanced learners. It's just not. This isn't just my opinion; I've seen numerous numerous requests for more advanced material on this forum before, but nobody from JPod ever really responds. I would think JPod would be interested in hearing this kind of feedback since fixing this huge deficiency would most likely bring them more money, which is usually the point of running a business.

I'm serious, if they started having dialogues similar either to those at the site that shimewaza posted or to those you normally hear on, say, variety shows, I'd sign back up in a flash. Hell, I'd pay $500 in advance for a year's worth of lessons.

Also, even though it's completely irrelevant to the topic, I'll add that both my education and my discipline are well above average. The hours that I dedicate to studying Japanese qualify me as borderline obsessive.

[Yolan]

Yeah, I started using this site at an upper-intermediate level myself, although I found the intermediate level lessons pretty useful after having gotten a bit rusty while busy with my thesis. I'm now up to upper-intermediate S3, and its only a matter of weeks before I run out of any use for this site at all. I certainly wont bother renewing my subscription until some advanced stuff comes out, which is a shame. Oh well, at least I've found some good sites to watch streaming J-dramas etc.

[mykolos]

I think the main reason for the lack of advanced lesson is also the main reason why there are not so many good advanced textbooks in Japanese - the fact that there is a very small audience for these kind of materials.

Let's face it, people learn Japanese for a bunch of different reasons, and most language learners will drop out before reaching the more advanced levels of the language due to lack of time, motivation, etc...

So, it is natural that JapanesePod should focus on lower level learners. I am pretty certain they make up the majority of visitors to the site.

That said, increasing numbers of people are studying Japanese now, and the number of students approaching an advanced level out there must be growing. It would be nice if the site could offer some more focused lessons for those of us who choose to continue our studies at higher levels.

I think it would be really useful to have more of a business focus, for those of us trying to make some yen in the land of the rising sun. A good example of this kind of podcast for learners of English can be seen at http://www.businessenglishpod.com/. Obviously, the ESL market is much larger than the Japanese learning market. But even a few more focused lessons in this area would be great - especially lessons focusing on keigo and business manners.

Maybe the site could find a retired Japanese businessperson with international experience (and a love of teaching) to co-host a ビジネス日本語 series. A long time foreign businessman in Japan like Terrie Lloyd http://www.japaninc.com/about_terrie_lloyd would probably be a great host (or co-host) as well.

It would also be nice to have some more topical activities based around current issues in the news. Breaking News English ( http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/ )does a good job of this for ESL learners. It would be really useful to have something like this in Japanese for learners at an advanced level.　

Just a few ideas...

Keep up the good work.

[msako]

I have been a subscriber now for the second time. I am not a student of Japanese (formal classroom) but a frequent visitor to Japan with shameful (my assessment) Japanese skills. My receptive Japanese is OK but my expressive Japanese is pretty horrible. I can express all the usual stuff at a hotel, taxi, restaurant or on the street but random conversation without context is just not there, mainly for lack of dedication.

In preparing for an upcoming trip I've started listening on my iPod Touch and iPhone for at least four hours per day, usually in the background, when driving, when walking and whenever I have spare time. My goal is to start re"thinking" in Japanese. I find my skills are use-it-or-lose-it when it comes to Japanese. I lose it when I'm away from Japan.

My technique is to load all of the lessons on my iPod device and then "shuffle" the playback. I get repeated lessons but I'm pretty far beyond "learning" since I've heard all of them before, usually more than once and am pretty well versed in all content threads. But, the true value I find with J101 is the relevance to getting around in modern Japan. When a lesson gets really redundant I just skip it go to the next shuffled lesson.

Usually, after a month or so of intensive listening, I'm able to "think" in Japanese. By this, I mean I'm able to instinctively parse Japanese and understand newscasts (again in context) and other Japanese programming.

As for advanced lessons, I would love to have them. But, I also understand the investment required to facilitate this. Most listeners probably have no idea what goes into the production of a simple podcast. It's quite a complex thing to pull off and you probably don't understand this unless you've tried yourself. The writing, editing, recording, retakes, critiques and final mixing is a huge task. Contrary to popular belief, these podcasts are quite complex to pull off.

Thanks Peter, you and your team's hard work has been very useful to many people.