Totally! I’ve been browser refreshing for 4 days now.

I’ve been waiting for all day~~~time to go home now.
Miss you guys!

Nathan-san, still alive?

Welcome back!

It was so quiet in the forums for the last day.

Welcome Back!

Oh man, you’re charging for the PDFs . Don’t get me wrong, you guys deserve to charge for this awesome service, but this might be a problem for me at least… for the moment. We shall see I suppose.

Oh good. iTunes is downloading it now. Looking forward to listening on the train ride in today.

Daniel B

It’s awsome what youve done, and I know you need to make money, but this leaves me in the dark now.

I would like a question for all those people who can’t afford it. How will they learn all this?. I just happen to be one of these people who at the moment is not able to afford alot of money. Is there anyway that you could e-mail txt.* files or doc.* files of the pdf eg. transcript, kanji closeup etc. to those people temporarily? ください?

TK: Yes, which is a bit upsetting as the PDFs where extremely important too.

i agree with Helen-san. We all like free stuffs.
Trying to make some connection here~~~Nathan?

Wonderful new look, I love it! Great new features, I’m so excited to explore it all.
WONDERFUL JOB, EVERYONE! ^^

I’m really sad … because JapanesePod101 charges for the PDF

Welcome Back!

Things have been extremely hectic where I work (weekends included), so I haven’t been able to explore the new premium offerings. You’ll get my comments when I do.

In response to TK, Bennity and Helen, we all love getting something for free, but not many among us would want to work seven days a week without a salary. I’m sure that Peter and the whole JPod101 gang would like nothing better thatn to be able to offer everything for free, if a sponsor with those sorts of deep pockets could be found. And suppose, just hypothetically, that somehow the Japanese government could be convinced to support this. Do you think that JPod101 could maintain the same level of inspiration, and get away with teaching slangy expressions like “meccha yabai”, “hisabisa” etc.? Or talk in terms bordering on admiration about young people who party all night in Shibuya and then fall asleep circling around Tokyo on the Yamanote train line? You’re getting the real deal here from an inspired team whose only guiding principle is to serve the interest of their listeners without having to glance over their shoulders to see what somebody else considers presentable.

When Peter and the JPod team spoke at our Ringo MacUsers meeting in March, the central point of incredulity in our club was “How can you offer all of this for free?” Peter admitted at the time that despite all they have done to keep costs down, the rising popularity of the podcasts (just paying for the bandwidth to service all the downloads run into big bucks) and the need for additional staff had caused them to grow beyond the point of sustainability with just their one sponsor (you know that inobtrusive acknowledgment of Erklären at the top of each podcast).

Again, in their hearts, I’m sure they wish they could offer the pdf downloads for free. Nevertheless, I think it is great that they can continue to provide the audio downloads for free. I really hope that with this they will achieve a SUSTAINABLE model, so that even those who do not support JPod101 at all financially can continue to benefit from the podcasts.

Just my $.02 (That’s all I have left after saving up for my subscription)

Aww I’m a visual learner dangit! Oh well…. I’ve gotta stop printing so much anyway…. Okay, Nathan, can we advertise anymore!! Alright, you’ve convinced me, it all sounds great..
Doumo Arigatou Gozaimasu!!!
Thanks guys for all of your hard work!!

Welcome Back!

If you remember that first email I sent to you guys way back in Jan, I wrote “I would even pay you guys for this if I could!” And actually, you guys have that email reprinted in your “Testimonial” section, so there’s no way I can deny saying it.

Well, I am a man of my word. Say hello to one of your first paying customers.

And I’m proud of it! (^_^)

みなさん、がんばってください。

None of this language-for-the-masses, Shanghai socialism, ‘ey? Y’know, over at ChinesePod, they embed the dual-language transcripts right in the podcast. Just do Info on one of their items, and look at Lyrics. That’s how high the bar is set.

And no offense, but I suspect you may have underestimated the small change velocity at a far lower price point. Think shareware, dudes. You’re not Howard Stern.http://www.japanesepod101.com/wp-images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif

Mina-san,

First of all, we would like to say thanks to all for the comments and feedback. Bob-san, Jason-san, Joey-san, and all of those who understand our position, we truly appreciate your support. We understand that this transition might be a bit tough on everyone - it certainly has been for us. From the beginning, it was our intention to provide everything for free. However, in order to constantly improve the quality of our materials, the time needed has increased exponentially. To address this, we have had to work longer, add many to the team, and make many, many sacrifices. After all of this is said and done, the podcast is still free. The informal track is still free. And there are a number of other free resources still on the site. We still feel we are giving away a tremendous service for free. However, we feel that the amount of work and effort that has gone into the new PDFs warrants the 17 or so cents per day that we charge for them.

We feel that a successful Japanese language learning site that will continue to grow and improve is in the best interest of the whole Japanese language learning community. Perhaps some people are under the impression that we are in this for the money. While we would love to all retire to Cancun, this could not be further from reality. With the revenue that we receive, we will not only be able to maintain our current service, but bring you new and improved services as well. We have so much more planned for everybody, but have been held back by staff and financial constraints. We understand that some of you may be disappointed at this time, but in the end we hope that you all can come to understand our decision.

これからも、宜しくお願いします！

I’ve got it! The answer to all your financial support problems! How about shaking down–err–asking the Japanese Lawyers Guild for a donation to express their, umm, gratitude for all the fine publicity you’ve given them?

Seriously, I think that leaving Tae Kim’s post up is exhibit 1 in demonstrating the openness and sincerity of the JPod101 crew. And all power to you, Tae, for offering free lessons over skype. But as you say, for you, the benefit is to practice your teaching skills. When you no longer have free time–perhaps you might have to get an actual and demanding job to support yourself–those free lessons could go poof. Or they could remain posted through somebody’s generosity somewhere, but you would not have time to update the content with the latest topical material. And unless you have monastic dedication coupled with a da Vinci intellect, you are not going to single-handedly produce a web site that offers everything JPod101 is trying to do. (While on this subject, might I note that da Vinci also relied on patrons?)

JPod101 is making a bet–and it is a wager–that enough people want something more constant and responsive to their needs so that at least some will be willing to pay for it, and so subsidize the free side for those who do not subscribe. They could be wrong; maybe Peter thinks a lot of people want a Ferrari, when all they want is an old jalopy. If that is the case, JPod101 will become just one more asterisk along with all the other dotcoms that are no more. But I really hope not. I’ve seen a lot of passion and creativity from this group and they have helped me improve my Japanese. And somehow, they’ve managed to keep it fun. I see nothing shameful about trying to make a living from doing that.

I second Jason and Bob1. Japanesepod101 has been a tremendous help for me so far.

My greatest help has always been the audio material. I’m studying to improve my listening and oral skills, therefore Japanesepod101 is the best resource for me.

Only from time to time I have the time to look at the pdfs.

I’m totally opposed to those claiming that the podcasts have no value without the written material. What is hard to find for us living outside of Japan is daily conversations in the right context. Written material is much easier to find.

I think japanesepod is doing such a great job that I’m happy to contribute by paying the modest subscription fee whether I use the pdfs or not.

Not quite sure what all the fuss is about. But I’ll chip in a quick word.
A subscription to total film from future publishing is $60 per year (to uk citizens)
http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/store/displayitem.asp?sid=477&id=4344&custid=25@04@200633605@088490259

This service is also $60 per year so in effect its just like subscribing to a magazine for a year so it is competitively priced even if i would still prefere it to be free. I’m sure most would be able to afford that.

Welcome back jp101! I love the look of the new site. One constructive critism of the site though, you have your subscription information scattered in a couple of places, the help-center and the signup page. It would probably help to actually have links to that information all in the help center or even in this blog post. I spent 5 minutes hunting around trying to find out what basic and premium meant

sy: If you only want the PDFs, its only US$60/year (http://www.japanesepod101.com/help-center/subscription-information/) The $180/year is for all sorts of things that I’ve never seen before on the version 1 site like some sort of learning centre software.

I would think of the money more as a donation or appreciation for all the work that has gone into the last 100 episodes, and I think it is worth it. It’s not like this is some podcast about people rambling on about their lives, this is something that is genuinely useful for people who really want to learn Japanese but just can’t bring themselves to listen to textbook style audio lessons.

I’m a sofware developer and I have something that was downloaded more than 100K times, yet when I asked for donations, I only had 15 or so people donate. So I can understand why they’re going to a value-added subscription model. Best of all, the lessons anre JCCs are all free. If you’re just listening for the fun of it, you can still do that If you’re serious about learning or just want to support jp101, then just knock over a bit of cash to them.

I just want to back up what Jason etc have said.

I must admit that I was a little upset at first at having to pay, but now, I have no problem with $180 a year (which I plan on getting). At the moment, I am doing Japanese at university, and from doing research about the content of my course, relative to others in the country, the one I’m at appears to be the best in the country. Now, for that course, I am paying a little over £1000 per year ($1800), not to mention about £4000 a year on accomodation to live here ($7100), and that’s not even considering food, bills etc. The course I’m doing at university is very good, it’s very grammar, kanji and vocab intensive, but sometimes I feel it is lacking in useful phrases, little known culture facts, common every day things, as well as a feeling of informal, natural conversation.

Now, here’s what I think of JP101 - it does provide all the things that I think my formal course is lacking, and quite a few things that it is offering. I listen to plenty of other podcasts, and sometimes, they actually complain on air that doing 2 podcasts a week is far too difficult. What with preparing, creating pdfs, and all the work that goes in to a podcast besides actually recording it, it takes a lot of time, and I applaud JP101 for creating a podcast every day. It also creates a good, informal environment to learn actually useful material, in a fun and relaxed way. $180 may seem like a lot at first, but after the consideration of everything I have mentioned, I have no problem paying it.

P.S. I would like to contribute to the site by creating some kind of page, I have a few ideas in mind, but I have 5 weeks left for this semester (so it is the heavy time for essays, exam preparation etc), but after that, I would like to offer my ideas, as I’ll have more time to create them physically.

Well I certainly hope it works out for you guys as jp101 is a great resource. For me, I mostly tune in for the intermediate lessons so I’m not sure it’s going to be such good value as they are only once a week but I’ll take a look at the learning center and see what’s on offer before I decide.

you guys are great!

I have one request. I would like to see (and you may have this already…) a lesson plan for one hour a day. This would be another page showing how to get started, and the most efficient way to study. Also, since you may have this, it would be nice to see a Mac screen shot of all the site areas. I’m sure this is all on it’s way.

2) just a thought! I just wanted to search for something while in this reply– would it be wise to have this reply in a popup?

oh and last… this is about the same price as the K1 visa… ah, .

I have to say I am dissapointed (although I understand). Even more dissapointed because I am a visual leaner, and I found my japanese improving by leaps and bounds with your podcast with pdf. I can’t afford to pay If I’m lucky around christmas time I might have some spare money to buy a month’s subscription where I’ll do a mass download.

So yes, I understand, but my enthusiasm for this podcast has gone down a bit

今日は。Nazと申します。Japanesepod101.comの新しいファンです。初めて書きますから、よろしくお願いします。 I’m one of the listeners who have been following japanesepod101.com but this is the first time i’m putting my comment. Firstly, I would like to congratulate the japanesepod101.com team for the new and impressive version. I’ve listened to many of your podcasts and I think that it is a very good place for us to learn the listening part of japanese from native speakers and pick up the skills for those of us whom are interested in japanese but can’t afford to move to Japan and learn the language. I think with the increasing the quality of the lessons and opportunities that you have set up of us, I do understand your justification for payment of the service that you are providing for us. However, could I just make one suggestion? Could you decrease the subsciption and premium fees? To me, if I were living in the US, the fees of $5-8 per month for subsciption and $15-25 per month for premum users does seem reasonable. I would like to ask you to consider listeners from other parts of the world, who would be disadvantaged due to the exchange rates. For example, for someone who works in the USA and earns $1000 per month, paying the fees is hardly anything. But for someone who works in Malaysia and earning RM1000 per month, with the exchange rate of about RM3.60 for every £1, it would affect our monthly expenses significantly. I hope you’ll reconsider the fees. It’s been great learning japanese from you and I hope you keep up the good work.じゃまたね。

I’m fine with everything… but I think that now you’re charging, you should work harder on the PDFs. They DO look nice now, but they still have hardly any content. And the huge cover page and table of contents that just leads to a small list of words isn’t very practical. I think you should just stick with nothing but a small header title/title picture and have more notes. Not just detailed vocab lists/dialogue transcripts, but in-depth grammar notes, clarifications of some stuff in the cast, and conjugation charts. Also, it would be nice to have more detailed notes for the informal tracks, too.
I think if you were to do that (which hopefully isn’t too much of a hassle), everyone would be much happier to pay.

After reading all the comments from everybody else, I can’t bring myself to complain about the new costs. The audio is free, and that’s fine with me! I understand the world we live in, and I honestly believe you did your best to keep it free for as long as you could.

I have to laugh though, when Peter said, “We’re so excited! We’ve got something really special for you!” I thought maybe it meant we were going to have to pay. And I suppose, if we focus so much on what we DON’T get anymore, we’ll never see his side of it. We’ll never recognize all the new stuff that’s now available for those people who want it, think it’s worth it, and can afford it. That’s what Peter was so excited about, and I’m pretty darn excited, too.

Dr. Matt’s comment made me a little angry. I immediately became defensive in that I-can-insult-my-own-brother-but-don’t-you-mess-with-my-family kind of way! I didn’t expect people to blame JapanesePod personally for living in world that exchanges money for goods and services!!

So, I’m sure JapanesePod101 already knows this, but your audio is EXTREMELY useful to many of us. Don’t let one or two negative comments allow you to think what you do isn’t useful! I didn’t even open a PDF for months, and I still only do so when I have a lot of free time on my hands. And yet I listen, listen, listen to the podcasts, and love them!

Thank you so much. Keep up the great work.
Sierra Kenney, Nagasaki

P.S. Jason, thank you for your eloquent reply to Dr. Matts comment. Humor is the best response. There are so many on the internet who forget the “think -> post” flowchart.

Wow! The new site is very nice!

Is a shame that the PDF files are no more free, I used a lot but I can´t paid the prices. I agree with Triton-san.

Anyway, congratulations to everyone for the hard work!

The site looks great!

As I just returned from my first trip to Japan last night, I was quite happy to see I didn’t miss too many lessons

New site looks very nice, and I will definitely consider at least a basic account. One technical remark though. When I opened the main page, I was able to use the PgUp and PgDn buttons to scroll. However, after entering the “comments” section, scrolling is only possible using the mouse scroll button. This is even true for the main page once I entered the “comments” section. Please send me an email when a more detailed error report is required.

Bob1, I DO have a full-time job with lots of the usual Japanese overtime so I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m doing the free Skype lessons not for just selfish reasons you know. The other reasons such as, it seemed like a cool and neat thing to do seemed obvious. Anyway, do you think that my comment should be deleted? I was just giving some advice and also an additional resource. Did I say, “Hey you guys suck because it’s not free anymore?”

Free was nice.
However, unless Peter and crew can find sponsors and for the site to continue people need to pay.

Student discounts need to be considered.

Though I HATE Paypal and givving Paypal any of my information I will sign up for the premium.

Well… it looks like they ARE charging for the PDF´s, so apologies. Will there be a way to pay without having to deal with Paypal?

Advertising is hard.
From observation most users/students live outside Japan; most potential Advertisers are in Japan.

Hotels. Airlines, tourist agency are potential advertisers.

I would say that Hotels might be a better source of sponsorship then SONY etc.; especially if the Travel Center is grown. Think about offering a hotel a map and podcast of Harajuku and other sectionss of Tokyo in exchange for sponsorship. The hotel then offers it to their guests.