また、明日。

Hope that helps!

but what about “ni wa?”

In all the time I studied Japanese at high school and then went to Japan twice, I still do not understand the different between the particles へ　and に　and には　could someone please explain!

In what context do you use each of the above particles?! わかりません！

It is undeniable that jpod attracts and stimulates some listeners and they are influenced by it. It is undeniable that you and chinesepod try your best, etc. Nobody can deny what you say in your post and I never said the opposite. Feeling the necessity to remember those things to defend your position when nobody mentioned them only highlights your weaknesses. My comments and questions on today´s lesson (supossedly, this section is for that and not for commenting on jpod on general. These were the rules that you posted before but, again, they seem to be forgotten by you) were more concrete but they remain still unanswered by you.

I don´t want to be offensive but saying in your own web that one is inspired by chinesepod and saying now that “If people would like to compare us, I think it is unwarranted” doesn´t make any sense. We have every right to compare you with them when they were the origin of all this and when they provide a good reference, a good ruler, to measure and evaluate what you do. If this is not the place to do it and we should go to the forum, perfect, but, again, you should be first and set the example.

Friday Listener,

Our friends at ChinesePod have been nothing but helpful since we started.
http://www.japanesepod101.com/about-us/special-thanks/

If people would like to compare us, I think it is unwarranted. We are both doing our best to bring education in the respective languages we teach to people across the globe who may not have access to it. If what we are doing here has some positive impact on a listener out there, peaks someone’s interest in either of these amazing cultures and languages or in any other way postivitely stimulates someone’s interest in learning, then I would say what we’re doing here has been a tremendous success.

(By the way, if you’re really keen on pods, I recommend Chinesepod - go to the Japanese version to hear some useful conversations… especially useful if you can pick up the Chinese)

As different as the Japanese and Chinese people are, so too are the two pods. Chinesepod is much more dry, and only ever has two people. Japanesepod has serials, and funny voices.

I understand much less of Japanesepod, but I like it so much more!

Peter-san　の中国語はどうですか？

Although JP101 is influenced by CP (and they have said as much, no denials there), JP101 blows away CP IMHO. I like Mandarin and so after hearing Peter praise CP on this podcast, I subscribed to them too. And I have to say, I like JP101 WAY more than CP.

While CP may have paved the way, JP101 definitely excells them didacticly (in my opinion as a language teacher) and also as entertainment. I mean, c’mon, Shakespeare Takahashi and the Nagasaki Connection. They rock! And even though I give him a hard time occasionally , Peter is the better English speaking host.

JP101, you guys rule!

-Daniel B

Translated: You should go to another website, this one is not for you.

Anyway, “brand-name consciousness” is, I believe, a well-documented part of Japanese life. They are “rabid” about it, as far as I can see, much more than Americans, for example. Here’s a quote from “Vanishing Japan” by Elizabeth Kiritani, Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1995. It’s from the “Foreword by Donald Richie”:

“…….Japan now has more people in it than ever before. This means less space. Old-time spreading out — whether in public parks or private houses –has become more expensive. More efficient housing, more efficient methods of feeding, more efficient entertainment–all of this means enormous change. Brand-new poducts must be consumed in ever larger doese to spur an economy whose only consideration is its own steady growth. New products are welcomed everywhere in the world — if the hype is right — but only in Japan is the shin hatsubai (newly available) so ubiquitous as to be a national institution.

Added to this is a certain fecklessness, long visible and celebrated from the Edo era — it even had a name, iki — which finds in the changing fashions and the latest modes a gratification not unknown in other countries buy seldom elsewhere round in such a lavishly concentrated form. Fads and fancies follow each other in an endless parade across the tube, the screen, and onto the streets. All of these are fittingly expensive and all are dependent only upon naked novelty.”