Calling advanced listeners! Audio Blog ideas wanted

[Jessi]

Hi everyone!

I have a question for our advanced listeners: What kinds of topics would you like to listen to/read about in our Audio Blog series? We'd like to get some feedback from you all as we get ideas for our next installment of the series.

Please let us your thoughts and ideas! Feel free to mention what you have liked/not liked from past audio blogs as well.

[Taurus]

Personally, I'd find it interesting to hear about Japanese pop culture - movies, manga, books, websites.

For example, there are times where I just want to procrastinate and I'd love to do it in Japanese - to be able just to head to a Japanese website to read something interesting, but I just don't know enough of them so I end up on some English-language site instead.

Or, for example, I'm reading a novel by Higashino Keigo - I think he's a pretty interesting author since as far as I can tell he's responsible for about 90% of everything on TV, so maybe it would be interesting to take an author/director/actor and give an overview of their work, or even an overview of one of their works.

And I'm always looking for cheap manga in Book-Off, but I never know where to start. Recently I've picked up some Azumi and Nodame Cantabile, and I would love to find Omohide Poro Poro, but what else is there? And where else can you buy it, for that matter. (In fact, Nodame Cantabile might be another interesting topic, given the recent popularity of the live-action drama and movies - or you could take a broader look at manga aimed at young women etc.)

So yeah, your recommendations for what to read/watch/play and where to buy it would be of interest to me. What's popular in Japan right now (and in the past), and why?

[mslozada]

well it depends on the person. so I'll start.
If you look at the Books like みんなの日本語初級１初級で読めるトピック２５ or New Approach Japanese Intermediate Course, the topics inside these books are very useful. The reason is, the information in (almost) every topic are based on research which can greatly help us advance in our daily life. Like the Sumo and the first TV in Japan (minna no nihongo topic 25) or the experiment about colors, parkinglot, etc. (new approach). The topics are written in a very easy way, that even a beginner could understand it.
If someone would ask me:
" Hey, you are learning Japanese right? "
" Umm... yes... why? "
" Can you tell me something about sumo? "
" sure, thanks to Jpod101 "

I doubt someone would come to me and say:
" Hey, you are learning Japanese right? "
" Umm... yes... why? "
" Can you tell me something about sumo? "
" No, but I can tell you what Miky did last week. "
" Who the hell is Miky? Look, I have a homework to do. I need to write something about sumo and not about a persons life. "
" I see... well sorry, I can't help you. "

In short, I (we) need informations that can help us progress both Japanese and about Japan.

" Dear Diary " Audio Blogs definitely helps us practice our listening and understanding, but thats about it. No information about Japan and its past nor neither research or science stuff. Only blogs about someone who went out last night to eat ramen. So what, everybody can do that.

Thats the reason why I choose www.asagaku.com because I can also learn new stuffs everyday besides Japanese.

[Maikuru]

hmm, I have found all past audio blogs useful in one or another. しかし　to branch out in a new direction the suggestion of including stuff like manga strikes a chord with me. I get bogged down with all the 擬態語　and slang terms. Maybe some stuff explaining manga language. AND it would be good to get pointers to where Japanese film and アニメ　scripts are so it would not be so laborious to watch them with constant rewinding to get the words and then looking them up in dixtionaries - this would be an enormous help.

[toonygal5459]

Maybe you could do one about the International Space Station (ISS) or something about robotics relating to current events.

[tanitayou]

[quote="Taurus"]Personally, I'd find it interesting to hear about Japanese pop culture - movies, manga, books, websites.



so maybe it would be interesting to take an author/director/actor and give an overview of their work, or even an overview of one of their works.

Nodame Cantabile might be another interesting topic, given the recent popularity of the live-action drama and movies - or you could take a broader look at manga aimed at young women

I completely agree.

[shimewaza]

I don't have any specific ideas for audio blog topics but I do wish to complement you on the current Takamura-san audio blog series and lesson notes, which I think are very well done. I just wish there were more of them, but I guess that's why you are asking this question. Well, I do have one suggestion. When I was living in Japan I used to watch a program that gathered teenagers in a roundtable format for a free discussion on various topics of interest to them, moderated by a host. For the life of me I can't remember what it was called. It was great for listening practice and I always wished I could somehow get a transcript. I suppose it would be difficult to recreate something like that on JapanesePod101.com but I thought I'd mention it because I found it so helpful.

[Jessi]

Thank you all for your ideas - keep them coming! Contemporary pop culture seems to be a pretty popular topic so far - I think it sounds like a great idea, so we'll see what we can do

shimewazaさん、
Good news! At the moment we plan to make our next Audio Blog series bi-weekly

[bogart96]

It has been ages since I last listened in to Englishpod101, but once a week there used be a lesson called "News or not news", where some weird news was read, and the question was "is this story real or made up?". I loved that lessons. Why not make a J-pod101 version of it? The blog entry could be the so called "news". The discussion could involve 2 people, one bringing forward their argument pro and the other contra the likelihood of that news. Listeners could comment on which party they believe, and the truth would not be uncovered until the next lesson. Wouldn't it be fun and intructive, listening to these discussions, which I imagine would be very lively, and wondering who is telling you the truth and who is deliberately and skilfully leading you astray?