A couple of questions

[ingvarulpre1885]

Hi all,

Been a member of the site for a few months now and recently upgraded to Premium. Really enjoying the resources.
I'm a beginner, currently working my way through Beginner Season 4.

I need some help with listening practice. I study by the book so I don't listen to any of the 'lectures' and prefer reading the notes / transcripts instead. I was wondering whether there's anything that I can watch / listen to for a longer period of time in order to improve my listening ability?

I understand that I'm still far from being conversational, but right now I am not getting any listening practice. I did a crash course in Japanese a few years ago and they recommended watching some kind of all-family soap opera about a 13 year old girl living in rural Japan or something like that. Sounds like hell on earth, but I really need to practice. Does anyone know the series that I'm talking about?

Also, I recently got an iPad and was wondering what kind of resources others use on their devices. I've got the WordPower app thus far.

As for some minor criticism - the lessons could benefit from more consistency. It is evident that many of the lessons have been written by different people because the styles really vary across the board. You (and us, the students) could really benefit from some internal drafting guidelines to ensure a higher standard of overall coherency.

Thanks a happy upcoming holidays to everyone.

[wesleejr1893]

Howdy, ingvarulpre1885!

Simply answering your first question: Listen to anything and everything, especially if it interests you.

Delving deeper into the topic: Not bashing your study style, because we all differ, but you "study by the book and don't listen to any of the 'lectures'..."? That works with some subjects, but in regard to learning languages, I feel that may cause more harm than good, forming bad pronunciations and whatnot. Which brings me to the first question: The Main track for each lesson is great listening practice, in my opinion. But, if you simply can't bother with the breakdown of the 'lectures', then the Dialog Review track is probably your best friend, repeating only the Japanese conversation from the main lesson sans translation. There's also individual sound clips to most vocabulary throughout the site. All great listening tools, which you are already aware. However, for a "longer period of time" of Japanese audio outside of the intended structure of studying a language, your options are varied. Using my myself as an example, I like "cartoons," including Japanese animation. As listening practice, I'm re-watching my collection of DVDs in Japanese without subtitles. Sometimes, I'll go on the youtube and search for Japanese television shows to watch, or bloggers, both native and foreign speakers. Then there are songs from Japan to consider. Again, because the purpose of most of these is not to teach, quite a bit of what is being said is beyond my level of comprehension, but it certainly helps with improving my hearing of the language. So anything can help; it's just that if you have a interest in the material (other than the language of course, i.e. me liking animated shows versus soap-operas/dramas) you're more likely to stick with it.

As for the name of the soap-opera series, sorry, can't help you with that. For other devices, I only have a blackberry phone and use that to listen to some JPod podcasts when away from the house. I imagine you could download some Japanese story books and songs on your iPad for more listening practice, and find their script and lyrics to read along.

In response to the criticism, keep in mind that JPod101 has been around since 2005. Seven years! is quite the accomplishment. It was recommended that I start with Season 4 of the Beginner Series, but I chose to start with Season 1 because of "behavioural quirks." haha. True, it seems a lot of the early stuff was done by the "seat of their pants" so to speak. And from my understanding, the newer lessons are far more structured than the older ones, which is natural. JPod is still growing and changes are going to be made, some better than others, but this is what I am coming to like about JPod - its flexibility, which is prefect because language is flexible and dynamic. This truly feels like learning from a friend or family instead of studying with a teacher in a classroom(though nothing is wrong with the latter).

Anyway, hope I was able to help you out a little. Congrats on upgrading to Premium, and may it prove worthwhile to you. I just extended my subscription as well. And Happy Holidays to you as well.

[community.japanese]

> ingvarulpre1885-san,
First of all, thank you very much for your feedback!
I'll share your post with my team to make our lessons better!

Regarding the listening, I agree with Wes-san (who replied before me); listen to anything and everything.
It might also depend on what you're actually interested in and/or what your goal is. If you're into music, for instance,
listening to the Japanese music can also be a training.
I'm sorry, but I don't know what soap opera you mentioned...
I was also wondering why you can't use our lesson dialogs for listening training. If you think your listening comprehension
is beginner, materials like music and/or soap opera might be a bit difficult (not just because it's fast).
Hope you can find our materials useful!!

> ウェズsan,
Thank you very much for a wonderful advice to your colleague!

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[Mermaid2]

Hi again, thank you very much for both of your responses!

Pronounciation is fortunately not a huge issue for me because Japanese pronounciation is fairly close to that of my native language. Moreover, I have a very specific way of learning languages (Japanese is my 6th), where I focus heavily on grammar and vocabulary and not so much on speaking, writing or listening. It works for me, but obviously it has its shortcomings, which need to be compensated for at some stage. As far as listening goes, I am not so concerned about understanding what is going on, but rather want to be able to distinguish between different words in a verbal volley and understand the grammatical structures used. Once I pick up the structure of the sentence, it is much easier to fill in the vocabulary from the relevant context. That is why I am looking for something longer than just the regular audio lectures. On the other hand, the easier the material in question, the more I should be able to pick up.

I like the idea about audiobooks! If you have any easier ones to recommend, I'd really appreciate it (not fussed about the content/topic/theme).

[wesleejr1893]

Hello. Hope you and everyone else had a merry Christmas.

Six languages? Oh my! Maybe it is I who should be asking for some advice? Though I see now how you do it. Japanese is my "3rd" with German being the "2nd." The reason the counters are in quotations is that I'm currently learning Japanese, whereas German was studied years ago, and because of neglect, it has deteriorated quite a bit. The whole axiom of "if you don't use it, you'll lose it" can be applied here, I suppose. But, to retain some of that knowledge can be attributed to me enjoying the German band Rammstein, which was introduced to me by a friend. Having a few of their albums, staying in touch with that friend(we both took German classes), and randomly counting in German every so often, helps the brain remember.

Anyway, that's quite the style you have. That's why it's your style and not mine. May I inquire about your native tongue? Can't recommend any specific audiobook since I don't listen to any. I actually need to remedy that intentional oversight. With that said, there's a Japanese Culture Class lesson that highlighted the author Natsume Soseki. But it seems to me, if you're looking to begin with simplicity, children's audiobooks would be ideal. And again, I'm going to praise the staff of JPod101. Voices from the likes of Natsuko-sensei, Sakura-sensei, Kazunori-sensei, and Chigusa-sensei, to name a few, really makes listening to the dialog tracks on here enjoyable. So different from other learning tools where you can't get to know the native speakers, making the lesson seem so rigid and bland and impersonal... for me that is. (however, I think I read in a comment somewhere that Kazunori and Chigusa aren't around anymore. ) Good luck, and if you find a nice audiobook to listen to, feel free to share with me.


奈津子先生、　it's a pleasure to try to give back to the community. どういたしまして.

[mmmason8967]

I like the idea about audiobooks! If you have any easier ones to recommend, I'd really appreciate it (not fussed about the content/topic/theme).

How about traditional children's stories? There are lots of them at http://hukumusume.com/douwa/betu/index.html. As well as an audio track, each story is also written out in Japanese so that you can follow along if you want to.

マイケル

[community.japanese]

Mermaid2-san,
if we can help you in any way, please feel free to ask us!

wesleejr1893-san,
thank you very much for comments (even with positive recommendation!!)

マイケルsan,
thank you very much for the link!! That's brilliant!

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[Mermaid2]

Hello. Hope you and everyone else had a merry Christmas.

Six languages? Oh my! Maybe it is I who should be asking for some advice? Though I see now how you do it. Japanese is my "3rd" with German being the "2nd." The reason the counters are in quotations is that I'm currently learning Japanese, whereas German was studied years ago, and because of neglect, it has deteriorated quite a bit. The whole axiom of "if you don't use it, you'll lose it" can be applied here, I suppose. But, to retain some of that knowledge can be attributed to me enjoying the German band Rammstein, which was introduced to me by a friend. Having a few of their albums, staying in touch with that friend(we both took German classes), and randomly counting in German every so often, helps the brain remember.

Anyway, that's quite the style you have. That's why it's your style and not mine. May I inquire about your native tongue? Can't recommend any specific audiobook since I don't listen to any. I actually need to remedy that intentional oversight. With that said, there's a Japanese Culture Class lesson that highlighted the author Natsume Soseki. But it seems to me, if you're looking to begin with simplicity, children's audiobooks would be ideal. And again, I'm going to praise the staff of JPod101. Voices from the likes of Natsuko-sensei, Sakura-sensei, Kazunori-sensei, and Chigusa-sensei, to name a few, really makes listening to the dialog tracks on here enjoyable. So different from other learning tools where you can't get to know the native speakers, making the lesson seem so rigid and bland and impersonal... for me that is. (however, I think I read in a comment somewhere that Kazunori and Chigusa aren't around anymore. ) Good luck, and if you find a nice audiobook to listen to, feel free to share with me.

奈津子先生、　it's a pleasure to try to give back to the community. どういたしまして.

Thanks for sharing your experiences I fully agree with the point on neglect - the process seems to be almost exponential, as you seem to forget more with each year. On the other hand, it is a little like remembering how to swim. Even if you have not done it for years, you will get the hang of it very soon when you're back in the water. I had this with my Spanish a while ago. It came back fairly quickly after I spent a couple of weeks in a Spanish-speaking environment. In addition, simply thinking in a different language helps. Every once in a while when I am really bored and idle, I try to translate my thoughts into different languages. Oh and since you asked, my mother tongue is Estonian.

Anyway, enough of clichés! I had a terribly busy past few months (new job and flat, etc) but am back in the fight now. I have been listening to some more audio clips from this website and you are right, they are very useful. The audio lessons are also helping me remember the vocabulary better due to the context. I'm also learning some songs by heart so that I can up my karaoke ante, though there obviously kanji is the essential requirement.

How about traditional children's stories? There are lots of them at http://hukumusume.com/douwa/betu/index.html. As well as an audio track, each story is also written out in Japanese so that you can follow along if you want to.

マイケル

Those are fantastic, thank you very much. The relative lack of kanji is indeed a very welcome sight.

Mermaid2-san,
if we can help you in any way, please feel free to ask us!

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

I might just do that, will let you know!