Hi, I’m living in Japan for a year and have only had some basic japanese teaching, so your website is of great interest to me! I have only just found it and will follow on from here with great gusto!

One thing (its not of great importance though!) When it is morning in Tokyo and evening in New York, it’s midnight in London!
But I admit “Ohayho Tokyo. Konbanwa New York. London, nerujikan desu!” isn’t as catchy!

Ormo-san! Thank you for posting! My friend, my wife and I went to Aomori last year (2004-5) and counted down at a shrine with about 1000 other people while the snow fell around us! It was amazing! Aomori was great! Stories or pictures are always welcome!
Yes….the opening theme…. Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll run it by the producer!

Keep the posts coming! Any send over any questions!
By the way, would you be willing to help with Aomori dialect? One of our listeners was asking about dialects, and Aomori is famous for its unique dialect!

まぁ、内容的にはよかったと思うが、中級としてはすこしレベル低すぎるのではないかと私は思った。中級ってこんなもんでしょうか。そのうち上級のレッスンも作成しますか。期待しております☆彡

Hi crew,

Thanks heaps for the lesson, this is a bit more like it! It was maybe still a smidge easy for me, but you can’t get a grade that suits everyone

I hope you keep up converting all the stock bits into Japanese.. it’s better that way because I find myself learning the in-between phrases without realising.

I look forward to the next 中級 lesson.

Awesome lesson! I’ve been studying Japanese in Gifu City, but the classes are 100% in Japanese so it’s really tough. Your format is great. Thanks so much and keep up the great work!

Nathan-san, thanks for the support! Lots more to come. Keep ituning in!

Jonas-san, コメント入れて頂いてありがとうございます。確かに第１回中級レッスンはやや易しいが、これからですよ！ 　

Marcos-san, great job! Keep up the good work. Yes, this series will be very good for you!

Matthew-san, thanks for posting! Yes, since it was the first lesson, we used quite a bit of English, but that should be reduced in the next episode. Please keep letting us know what you think! Always looking to improve.

Lyndsay-san, thanks for the supportive post. Yes, we’re very excited about this series, as there is so much we can do with it. Please keep the posts coming!

Jonathan-san, Gifu!! Sugoi! Any pictures for us?? Please let us know! Yep, the 100% Japanese classes, I actually started my studies in Hitachi, Ibaraki in the same manner. Didn’t even know how much my tutition was until the 3rd month or so. Please keep the posts coming.

マービンさん、ありがとうごさいます！Thank you for the support. Yes, we plan to do a lot with these characters! We’re really excited. Please keep the posts coming!

That was a great lesson. I am a high school student and want to go to Japan someday, but teaching myself was rather difficult to say the least. While I am still at the point where I can learn a lot from the normal lessons, it was very exciting to be able to start comprehending the intermediate conversations. I discovered your podcast about a week ago and went throught all of the lessons in a day or two. Thank you so much for allowing me to learn everyday on the bus to school!

Steve-san, thanks for the post! Lots more to come! We’ll have a lot more stuff coming soon!

Coop-san, great to hear that you’re studying on your own! If you have any questions, please feel free to shoot us an email, or post them on the board. Recently other listeners have been helping out a lot. Wow! In one or two days!! Sugoi! Keep up the great work.

Phil-san, thanks for the great post. Lots more in store!

Clarissa-san, コメントありがとうございます 　It’s nice that many people who are in more advanced levels like you are also listening to our shows. これからも是非聴いてくださいね！

Just wanted to tell you that the wrong audio track is up for the lesson.

Hi all!

I have just discovered these great podcasts! I started with the beginner stuff but actually found it a bit too easy - it has boosted my confidence as I truly thought I was still a beginner! I decided to have a try with intermediate ones and although they are a challenge I really enjoy them! I am picking up loads of casual expressions which I am not yet learning in my Japanese lessons! It takes me a few times to get the whole conversation but once I do it feels great!

Keep up the great work - this is just what I needed!

Thanks!

It is quite good and you shouldn’t change a thing.
NHK has severe shortcomings by comparison as do the general Japanese textbooks to which you’ve refered. Basically, your current format fixes these problems well.

Hmmmmm. Interesting. I need to have some of those old rules replugged into the cranium - it keeps leaking out every few months… And the audio files are a lot less painful than pulling out the text books for a refresher. Shall continue checking out the intermediate stuff.

I just want to thank everyone involved with this site, it has been very useful for me because I am stationed on Okinawa and trying to study Japanese as much as possible.

On the Intermediate Lesson 1, at exactly 14:30 into the episode they are discussing raishuu ( next week ). Then Peter says ” Sakura, Raishuu ???? wa ‘next week’ deshou ? ” I have listened a million times to try and figure out what he is saying before the wa particle or maybe I am just hearing it wrong, if someone could help me out with that it would be really appreciated.

ありがとうね。

ありがとう. I feel soo much better now that I know. It was just one of those things that was really bothering me, but listening to it again, it makes sense. Really appreciate you taking the time to check it out.

Hey all. Can someone explain the “joke” with the Japanese character’s names? Peter says “one little vowel is changed” in “Hideo Matsui” to “get around copyright” (as if a person’s name can infringe copyright!), and similarly with “Sayuri Suzuki”. What are the “copyrights” in question?

MinJungさん,
Welcome to JapanesePOD101. These are really great lessons. They are great fun and there are a lot of good people to ask questions to.
じゃ　また
ジョン

Jamesさん、
　　東京　にすんでいますか？
ジョン

Excellent lesson. Keep them coming!!

Extreme late comment but the story behind that is one for another time. As always you all managed to construct a great lesson. I always hear you in the news episode saying Thank you and Arigatou gozaimasu.. I think we should thank you. Hmm, might be an idea.

Anyway I was really excited when I realised, I just press the download button and load it in my MP4 player, you where going to remove the English and keep it at minimum. Really really excited.

I’ve also listened further so I’m not at the next lesson but a little further and you where saying, again, how excited you become after reading comments and posts. I thought to help you out and make clear that at least one person understands how you people feel

When people achieve success the brain makes some sort of chemical, which I’ll call the success chemical for the lack of a better term, this chemical gives a great feeling. Really good, much like adrenaline, just different. Note that this chemical is also the most likely reason why people become addicted to video games (I just call them games but to make sure no misunderstandings arise.)

This is also my first post and will probably be one of the few I do for some time since I’m still very far behind so I’d like to cover more episodes that really helped me or just added something special.

So I go to the V-Day Japanese Culture Class episode. Actually I write fanfics, read manga and watch anime. And I prefer to write about one manga/anime called Love Hina. But, as you might know, I’m not alone. A fellow writer and one who I call a friend consulted me last year around V-day, he had written a fanfic about his favorite, and mine, character of Love Hina. Trouble was, it was about half past eleven PM and he couldn’t upload it nor finish it. And he asked me, so I managed to write an ending for him, though I failed to upload it. But there was one thing I bumped against. The main character got HONMEI CHOKO from one of the other characters. I was really stunned. What the..? That’s an awful misspelling. Though I decided to leave it as that, you taught me that it’s exactly what it should have been. Arigatou Japanesepod 101.

Now I really want to thank you too for the counting lessons, I was a bit stuck o n it but you (all), once again, pulled me through.

As a side note, I am not studying Japanese at a school, all my knowledge comes from either you or anime. Mostly anime, but you always seem to handle the subject, phrases and stuff I learned but need clearification about or how to spell it. When or when not to use it. And of course, tons of new stuff. And every day.

Yes, every day. I always go to my school with the train so when I’m on the train and I’m not seeing any friends I listen to your podcasts and it’s atleast half an hour of traveling. If I’m lucky I can keep listening in the bus which adds another 15 minutes, lately I’ve even been listening when cycling home. Normally I just listen to fast music but more and more times I just leave your podcasts on and keep cycling slowly to catch as much as I can. Even before mowing the lawn, we have a lot of fruit trees so the fruit needs to be picked, half an hour atleast. Then the grass needs to be submitted to our machine, just put the MP4 player to the max and I keep on listening. Another one and a half to two hours.

Much and much more I want to say, but I’m afraid that the comment can’t hold much more characters, so I’ll leave it at this. Except for: I’d like to know if Oranda, おらんだ (Or is it オランダ?) really is Holland/The Netherlands (I prefer the latter as Holland is quite simular to a province).

Peter (Dutch listener)

P.S. Did you guys ever had a Dutch listener before?