Wayne-san, more details about the trip!! Wow, sounds great.

Stanely-san, thanks for the post and for listening! Kongo mo yoroshiku onegai shimasu.

Merkel-san, thanks for taking to time to write such a long post.

Tohru-san, thanks for the post. Let us know if there is anything we can do for you.

The weather is really starting to get warmer now:)

Wayne

Those of you working in a company with time to learn only a few pieces of information every day, people who only want a meal and a room in Japan, voracious students without appetite (the true ones never feel close to egomaniacs or aren´t afraid to be taken by one of them, they feel proud to be like that and don´t take precautions when the say it), newcomers (I can´t imagine a more lively and rewarding Japanese learning than doing it by speaking and writing to my family but I suppose Tohru will have his own reasons to do it that way), manga fans, kids… Japanesepod101 is for all you whithout any doubt and I never said the opposite. I spoke in yesterday´s post about a desirable wider range of topics covered in the lessons and a more eclectic approach to teach Japanese but listeners preferred to call my comments “studying 1300´s Japanese legal system” or “discussing n-manifolds with a waiter”. On the other hand, I never showed any doubt about japanesepod101 credentials to teach japanese, never said that it is not to the point within the narrow limits the staff chose to move, never said that it is not useful to learn conversational Japanese plus some hundreds kanji… but people felt anyway that they had to remember all this to me. What all this means is too clear to spend time commenting on it. Facts like that (and many others) sets the tone of what´s discussed in this section and shows its real (and very low) value as a forum of discussion on what´s done in japanesepod101.

I think podcasts are a great way to teach languages but japanesepod101 doesn´t make use of all the potential advantages it has. The humor, entertainment and liveliness that Peter tries to show in every lesson (very good though occasionally it is overdone) sets at the same time the limits of the podcast because the pressure he puts on himself to be fun and entertaining will make hard for him to take on issues that are taken on in other webs or books that teach languages. This web, for instance, says in its “About us” section that “…Lessons are carefully crafted to include current events, words, celebrities, and so-on. For example, when the Japanese baseball team made it to the finals of the World Baseball Classic, we were able to do a lesson about this on the very same day. Before the Olympics we had a lesson introducing the big name Japanese stars. And of course, we’ll be doing the same for the upcoming World Cup in Germany…” and, leaving aside the English grammar mistakes, when you give three examples of current events and the three of them are about sports it is very clear what you understand by “current events”. One can be lucky if the evolution of Nikkei, the latest scientific breakthroughs or the political situation of Japan are mentioned once per year (how may the businessman listener call my three examples? Yeah… I remember now… “…to disucss Fourier Transforms…” (I copied and pasted) and things like that) Culture classes are so few and far between that, in fact, one can´t complaint too much about this. That paragraph doesn´t mention the fact that only advanced Japanese students can find useful to know the kanjis or pronunciation of Japanese Olympics stars names (and we already know that this is not for advanced students), in that particular lesson about the Olympics, no Japanese language item was explained (at least I don´t remember it), no vocabulary related to Olympics was taught systematically (only a bunch of words), and on and on. How can you say that “Lessons are carefully crafted…” when there is no Japanese lesson.

Does this mean that I think Japanesepod is doing it wrong? Not at all. It is enough to see the posts in the forum (Food and Entertainment 45, History and Tradition 6, General culture, 0) to realize that what Peter is trying to do is totally right. I just mean that Japanesepod101 may work in the future perfectly well as a business by teaching basic Japanese or being the very good survival audio phrasebook for tourists that is now (it has already everything to be successful. Its faithful listeners remember it in every post and I agree with them on this) but it could be much more than that and so far they have hardly showed a true desire to become it. This web could be an excelent platform for people who wants to live Japan (and also live in Japan) and not only survive in it. The pompously called “2.0 version” of this web was a missed opportunity to do it. They failed and I regret it because I truly believe in this idea and, above all, in the people working on it.
Take care all of you
See you again on Japanesepod101 8.0

Your list of links is truely impressive. I am sorry I missed the reference to them - I am a newcomer and am listening with awe, as well as laughter, to as many lessons as I possibly can. Thank you all for all your hard work. All your efforts are making a difficult task much more enjoyable for me.

Thank you for your link. The site looks very good. I am going to try it out ASAP.

I am half Japanese and have lived outside Japan all of my life (however I do visit my Japanese relations!). What you get on Japanese pod 101 is, in my opinion, really good. It is useful. It is to the point. And it is what you hear in Japan - - as the presenters stress again and again context is very important, so you have to be very, very aware of the context these lessons, just as you have to be very, very aware of every interactive situation in Japan … So, as a half Japanese, non-native speaker with real problems when it comes to reading and writing Japanese, not to mention just understanding what half my family say! - I thoroughly recommend listening to Japanese pod 101: it’s alive the way alot of classrooms, real and virtual, are not.

Saludos desde México!!!

Learning languages lends naturally to an entertainment approach, and me, for one, enjoy thoroughly the JP101 experience.

Science is quite important for me, but getting across with the basics is a most. And that I get from JP101. I am going nowhere else for my nihon go learning for the moment. Other sites are great if you have more than the basics covered. I am sorry to say that I am merely a begginer, and as such, this site is just what I needed.