Sorry to be of bother, but may I ask how you pronounce Eikoku (England/Britain/UK). Sorry if it is spelt wrong, I have only just started listening. Ive never listened to a podcast before either so its a new experience there aswell.

It’s been fantastic so far, and hopefully I do pick up the basics as I would like to be able to speak other languages as the career I am planning towards in some ocassions, needs the use of other languages.

Domo Arrigato?

AWESOME! This is really cool. Now when I click the link it says lesson 2. And the recording mentions elements from a previous lesson. Have the lessons been reordered? I want to start from the beginning

sorry for no one answering for a long time, okay like a month , but to answer your questions:
Chris-san, the first lesson recorded was survival phrases #1, making this the 2nd lesson, and so for Gary-san, survival phrases #1 is where they talk about onegai shimasu. And about the dropping the ‘u’ in pronounciation: I think that the ‘u’ sound is not completely gone, but just supressed by the ’s’ sound and is said much quieter to make is sound as if it isn’t there. And i think that the amount of suppression varies from person to person or region to region so that some people pronounce the ‘u’ more, like i think that Hatsumi-san pronounced the ‘u’ in ‘desu’ more than anyone else that i have heard. I am by no means an expert on Japanese pronounciation and the information i just gave is based upon my own understanding so you should probably get someone with a better knowledge of Japanese pronounciation to answer this one before you put this knowledge to heart .
Hope this information helps
Yoroshiku negai shimasu!

Joey-san is correct in his explanation, and there is not much else to add to it… Some people barely pronounce the last “u” at all, and some does it quite strongly… Having the “u” sound at the end makes it sound a bit more polite though, but be aware that when adding sentence ending particles like “ne” and “yo” (like “desu yo”) the “u” is almost not pronounced at all.

Jonas

Wow… what a website! I just found it reading a magazine in Tokyo.
Learning Japanese is not easy. Your method will surely help me. I thank you in advance.
Again… I am very amazed by your work. CONGRATULATIONS.

hang-san,

Welcome to JapanesePod101.com! In order to be able to access and view the PDF files on our site, you first have to be signed up to our 7-Day Free Trial, a Basic subscription, or a Premium subscription. To learn more about the various subscription levels please visit our Subscription Information help page.

To view the files, you must also have a PDF reader such as Adobe Acrobat Reader or FoxIt Reader installed on your computer. Finally, you may want to check out our New User Introduction Page as well as our Feature Guide to learn more about what the JapanesePod101.com Language Training System has to offer.  

If you have followed the steps above and are still having a difficult time viewing the PDF files, please contact us directly via email at support@japanesepod101.com.

Eran

Hi Donovan-san,

Welcome to our exciting, fun, and innovative language traning program! We are so glad that you found us and are here to answer any questions that you might have along your quest to learning the Japanese language and culture. You may want to check out our Introduction page as well as our Help Center, as both are great starting points for new users.

Once again, welcome to JapanesePod101.com!

Eran

Katagana? You mean KataKana, right Peter?

Also, is it such a good idea to teach beginers to say Watashi wa… Watashi wa… Watashi wa… ad nauseum like that? To most Japanese that would sound pretty awkwardly self-centered.

From my own experience, it would be more proper to introduce yourself like “Hajimemashite. (Name) to moushimasu. Dozo yoroshiku. (country)-jin desu.”?

It might also get beginers of the language off on the right foot to mention how Japanese often avoid speaking in full and complete sentences, omitting details that are assumed to be known by both the speaker and listener (another reason, other than the self-centeredness thing, why most Japanese wouldn’t keep saying the “Watashi wa…” part over and over again).

konnichiwa… may i know how to translit “i’ve 3 siblings” in japanese?

I just want to say thank you to everyone at japanesepod101.com! i have always had a strong fascination with the japanese culture and language. because i do so much driving, listening to these in my car on cd is PERFECT for me. hopefully in the next year or so ill be ready enough for my first (of many i hope) trip to japan. ^_^

I’m guessing that it’d be Burandon ブランドン
Bu Ra N Do N 5 syllables.

And Good Luck with learning Japanese.

ganbatte ne!

ANMさん,
Welcome to JapanesePOD101. Please feel free to post if you have questions about the lessons.
John C. Briggs

First, ARIGATO GOZAIMASU for making such a easy-to-follow and easy-to-listen-to series of podcasts. I tried Pimsleur a while back, but got frustrated with it because it was hard to listen to. I really feel like I have a little better grasp on the language even after just a few podcasts.

Second, is it better to start with the Beginner lessons, or the Newbie lessons? I started with Newbie, but I’m only on #3, so it wouldn’t be difficult to switch, if it’s better. Thanks again!

where do u people seem to get teachers?! LOL…wait…ROR! (er…Kinda racist ,… i am sorry.)
Anyway, Where do you people get teachers?
I can’t seem to find one, i never did ether!
I had to teach myself with the PC. TT^TT’ How sad…

hello everyone! Hajimemashite!

I’ve listened to the first week and quickly listened to the second week, and I have definitely learned how to say hello to someone for the first time. However, can anyone give me one (or more) greeings to someone I’m already familiar with? Even just a simple “hello”??
thanks so much.

Thank you for offering free seven day trial. materials appear high quality.

Gregg

Konnichiwa “the BOMB team”, Peter & guys!

Well, could you help me to clear my doubts with 2 questions only:-

Q1) When I click on Kanji Flashcards, I realized there are 2 types of reading for the Kanji:-

a) Kun Yomi &
b) On Yomi

Could you explain the meanings of these two? And must I learn the reading of these two or just only one of them?

Q2) “Add to my Kanji Bank”, if I add chosen words to my Kanji bank, can I print it out?

If Yes, how do I go about printing it out. Please tell me step by step as I am computer nuts.

Thank you so much!

Peter san, your lessons are really a “BOMB”, I enjoy it everyday.

one more thing about kanji……….

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji
wikipedia is always helpful

and yes, you can print out from the word bank!
i do it all the time:
at the top of the screen you can see this:

My Word Bank
My Word Bank Flashcards | Show Printer Friendly Version

click on Show Printer Friendly Version and it will print a clean version of your word bank.

hope this helps!!!

marky

I must say I am really impressed! I have always wanted to go to Japan and have the worst time learning languages. I find this webcast to be exciting. How would I pronouce my name in Japanese? And how would my name be spelled in Japanese?

Thanks a lot!!!

thanks usagiさん！ thanks & welcome kellyさん！
we’re just trying to have fun with japanese! it’s got a reputation as being difficult or something, so we want to take a different approach!

marky

I think it would be ライアン (Raian)

My name is Brenda. How do I pronounce my name in Japanese?

thank you.. ^^ Arigato!

hi there, guys! I’ve been listening to your lessons just last October and its really great because learning japanese in your site makes it easier to me than to read a bunch of japanese-english books specially if those books were thick in appearance… I love hearing your lessons and repeat it every now and then so that the japanese words would really stick in my mind …I found your site thru skype.com and I was interested to learn japanese through listening to your pod cast… omedetou gozaimasu for making this site and for having your amazing hosts…

I just have two questions. First, how can I renew my subscription because my account is already expired just 2 days ago and what (or who’s) website will I write when I want to join the affiliate program?

I also wanted to know how my name would be written in katakana and pronounced, if it is different.

I can’t think off the top of my head how an a as in “hay” sound is made.

I’m confused. I’ve gone through the entire ‘Newbie’ section and I was expecting the ‘Beginner’ section to be more advanced than ‘Newbie,’ but I find that this lesson is completely trivial in comparison.

Am I wrong in assuming that the level of difficulty goes ‘Newbie,’ ‘Beginner, ‘ ‘Beginner 22, ‘Intermediate,’ and ‘Advanced?’

Hajimemashite. Watashi wa Carura desu. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu. Watachi wa Porutogaru jin desu and I am enjoying so much hearing and learning japanese with japanesepod101 lessons that I made a blog where you can read what is said in the lessons with the meaning in portuguese.

Anyone interested in Portuguese, visit the above site for a Portuguese translation of this lesson.
http://aprenderjapones.blogs.sapo.pt/2008/01/14/

Doomo Arigatoo

Mata ne

AWSOME,
I’m stationed in Guam and there are ALOT of japanese tourist that come out here. I personally wanted to learn to better myself and to be able to make my way around japan too.

Uso means “a lie.”
So if you say, “uso!” it’s like “no way, you’re lying!”

こんにちは・・・Hallo from Indonesia ….
I love JapanesePod101 ..
Its so easy to understand. Especially for people new to Japanese.
In my office we usually have a Japanese class every Saturday. One day i try to use one of the material from JapanesePod101, and my friends said that it was really great material. They can easily understand it and they can practice their listening.
So thank you very much and please keep up the great work

O yeah, i think i will put JapanesePod101.com in my website so each of my friends can access it and learn some more …

Thanks ..

Hi guys,

Thanks a lot for the shows and all the most excellent quality you are providing.

I have been trying to learn using your site, and the talking and listening coming along nicely, my kanas are already good too, but I have huge problems memorising the kanjis.

I basically need something that will remind me where a kanji comes from, some sort of “logic”, or mnemonic.

For e.g. in the first lesson, I can easily see why 人 would be a stylicized person, and why 日 should be the sun, why 木 would be a tree, and therefore why moto 本 shows the root or the tree, or by extention the origin, so ni-hon makes “origin of the sun”, where the sun rises.

And when looking at other kanjis, I can see a stylicized moon in 月, I can see someone speaking in 言 (mouth with wind coming out of it), and some mountains in 山.

But for the more complexe ones, I am desperate for some explanation.

名 meaning “name” is a combination of evening and mouth, why? Is there somewhere an explanation?
Also why is 夕 the evening? Is it a stylicized moon?
for 私, I have no clue why it should mean “I” or “me”.

Do you know any website that explains the origin of the kanjis or gives mnemonics for them?
Have I missed a page where this is described on this site? Or are you planning to do that yourselves later?

I really feel I won’t be able to memorise any of the complicated ones otherwise.
You made the speaking easy, I am not used to learn the hard way any longer!

Many thanks.

Laurent Griot-san,

First and foremost, you’ll need to know that the current Chinese characters have changed a lot over the years.

名 is name probably due to historic conventions.

1) When a child was given a name, his father would go out at evening of the child’s birth and tell the child the name he has chosen.
2) When you want to identify yourself during the evening, you’ll need to call out your name.

Whether it’s 1 or 2 for the Chinese character, I don’t know. #2 is more of a mnemonic and #1 is a more of a historic convention by different cultures, but you can think of it as a mnemonic.

私 is a combination of grain and selfish/private radicals. This is probably another character based on historic interpretation, and could use the mnemonic “This grain belongs to me.”

夕 is probably a pictograph of a crescent moon.

I believe mnemonics may work if you don’t force them. The same can be said about looking at the radicals, pictographs, and ideographs.

However, I do recommend using flash cards in the long run. Its format doesn’t matter, but an electronic version on your ipod/phone/pda would be a good idea since you can take it anywhere and not bring too much attention to yourself.

Monica-san

It looks Japanese to me.

maxiewawa,

So it’s both Chinese and Japanese??

Oh I understand now. ^-^ Doumo Arigatou Gozaimasu Sasquatchua-san! :]