News and newspapers Japanese

[mikuji]

I am keen to exploit the variety of material we can access on the net or on paper and of course news sites and videos are an important resources when learning a foreign language.

I would like a lesson to cover the forms used in new reporting - I expect some of these are set phrases which are a bit more formal than what we need to use in speech but I think if we could get the main constructions our learning process would be simplified and accelerated when we access these sources of information.

Thanks

mikuji

[Bueller_007]

I am keen to exploit the variety of material we can access on the net or on paper and of course news sites and videos are an important resources when learning a foreign language.

I would like a lesson to cover the forms used in new reporting - I expect some of these are set phrases which are a bit more formal than what we need to use in speech but I think if we could get the main constructions our learning process would be simplified and accelerated when we access these sources of information.

Thanks

mikuji

Try Nihongo Journal's NJ News Section:
http://www.alc.co.jp/nj/2006_09/news_jpn.swf

Or pick up a copy of Hiragana Times, if you can find one.

[mikuji]

Bueller-san

Thanks for the referral - I'll look these sites up, but let me explain the reason I posted this.

I could get articles from the net and translate them myself with electronic dictionaries, make a list of the most often recurring words, check the set expression on www.alc.co.jp. etc..
というのか , I could just study by myself. It works but it is very time consuming.

Since JPOD101 is supposed to be a course in Japanese, I would like them to help me acquire the news-deciphering tools I need. Basically I'd like them to do the main groundwork for me.

Maybe I am the only one that would like to read the news but if not, it would be nice if the lessons could help in this direction.

mikuji

[Bueller_007]

Yeah, I get that. But studying a language is pretty broad-scoped. I'm not sure that jPod is in a position to provide every single aspect of language acquisition.

For example, some people have requested lessons about writing resumes, formal business letters, etc. That seems a bit outside the scope of an audio podcast to me.

The link that I provided to NJ News, sounds like it is *exactly* the "news-deciphering tool" that you are looking for. It's designed to get upper-intermediate learners over the barrier of reading Japanese news. If you think that NJ News requires too much "leg work" on your own part, you should probably be focusing more on grounding your Japanese than on the news.

All of the NJ News sessions since Feb. 2006 are available for free online at the Nihongo Journal website:
http://www.alc.co.jp/nj/index.html

Don't forget, in order for jPod to create more additional content like this, they would need more staff, more time and more money. Good advanced material is more difficult to create, and the market for advanced material is much, much smaller than for beginner & intermediate material. Which means a lot less turnaround on much greater investment.

[mariyo]

Bueller-san

Thanks for the referral - I'll look these sites up, but let me explain the reason I posted this.

I could get articles from the net and translate them myself with electronic dictionaries, make a list of the most often recurring words, check the set expression on www.alc.co.jp. etc..
??????????????? , I could just study by myself. It works but it is very time consuming.

Since JPOD101 is supposed to be a course in Japanese, I would like them to help me acquire the news-deciphering tools I need. Basically I'd like them to do the main groundwork for me.

Maybe I am the only one that would like to read the news but if not, it would be nice if the lessons could help in this direction.

mikuji

???????????????,

I would advise you to use Rikaichan (???????????????) to help you reading articles. It helps a lot as you can just select any Japanese word and it gives you the kana and possible translations. This goes a lot faster than when you need to look up every single word using a electronic dictionary, as this goes very slowly.

Best regards,

?????????
________
Berlinetta Boxer

[jkid]

I can vouch for Rikaichan I don't know where I would be without it...