さくらさん、great to have you back! Nice job by everyone today! Please let us know if you like this format, or if you would like even more Japanese!

This is so much better now.

Please keep it this way with shorter chunks translated instead of long sentences. It makes it so far more effective for me. This way I can catch the bits which didn´t make sense the first time.

Also, how about picking up some of the small talk and translating it, too - for those who are somewhere between beginner and intermediate. I think this would help more than translating words like “type” which seem a bit obvious.

Sleep well and have a great weekend everyone

Aaaaah, Vicky beat me here!

Peterさん、

What’s up with the high pitch voice?

-Daniel B

The format is fine, but I was waiting for the next instalment of Satoko and Ryuta serial; now, I have to wait next year to see the next season!

Daniel-Beck-san and Vicky-san,
Yes, Peter-san is amazing! In this episode he makes his voice just a little feminine when he is translating what the girls are saying!! It seems appropriate!

Oh, what a 困っている web you weave! Will Sayuri and Yoko-san’s friendship survive the foreshadowed revelation?

I must say that -ba yokatta noni is a very interesting construction. Thank you a lot.

Liz-san, Nathan and I we’re eating sushi at 2 am. It was a late night.

Usagai-san, glad you to hear the feedback, and very good point. We’ll work on that a bit more. Also, do you like the example sentences in the PDF as well?

Daniel-san, I suppose my voice takes a bit of time to warm up. I never really noticed before as I’m always talking.

Alain-san, it shouldn’t be too much longer now. I’m looking forward too.

Liz-san, thanks for the compliment, but I wasn’t trying.

Laura-san, がんばって！Please listen to this one a few times. The day will come when everything you’re hearing will all make sense! がんばってください！

JockZon-san, yes, this is a really good one! Please let us know if you get a chance to use it.

Vicky-san, がんばってください！

陽子さんより、陽子さんが見つかれると、メルさんと学長の方がかわいそうじゃない？

Dear JPOD101 team

I really enjoy it when I can understand your explanations and comments directly in Japanese! I think the idea of weaning us off English is very sound and much to be welcomed.

However, I have to confess that I struggled in this lesson. I see from the comments above that other listeners feltthis way, too. There was a bit too much of it and it is a shame because I missed out on learning from the podcast conversations, which are as interesting and enjoyable an example of Japanese usage as the stories.

I have observed that in learning a language the brain slows down when unfamiliar expressions are encountered and if these follow each other too fast this prevents comprehension even of words one knows, and even more so of words one is trying to guess, for example because they are given in a slighlty different form. It is the natural process of learning and there is nothing much we can do about it.

I’ll give you an example to explain this phenomenon: when I was learning English (already at advanced stage) the most difficult radio broadcasts for me were comedy programmes with audience laughter coming immediately after the jokes- when the laughter kicked in it erased any memory of the words and the brain never got a chance to make sense of them! So even when I was able to understand perfectly the same words in a news broadcast (even the same jokes at times!) the comedy show was hopeless. I hope this is some comfort to all of you who have had the same experience- it is the nature of language learning, not us being dumb!

I probably experienced something similar with this lesson- new stuff coming at me just too fast.

I know there will be advanced students that will complain I am too slow. But, Jpod101 team, could I suggest perhaps that you help people like me and introduce stuff more gradually ?

Maybe more set expressions presented thoroughly at first as you did at the start of the intermediate course?

Maybe speaking a little bit more slowly when you use a lot of Japanese? Maybe more repetition of the same expressions before using new ones, so the sound sticks and we can look them up?

I hope you will be able to help me - I think your broadcast are fantastic - please keep it up!

Mikuji

As i cant edit and would like to add.

So I would have to say that as alot of the words and constructions are introduced at lenght and in full duringl the culture, beginner and survival phrase pod casts some where or other re-listening to all the podcasts is also a must to get more out of the intermediate lessons.

Clienad-san,

I agree with most of what you say:

1) you are spot on when you say that repetition helps
2) same when you say that intermediate has to stop the spoon feeding.
3) same when you say the weekly frequency justifies requiring more than one listening (more than 5, I could say)
3) you are right, a lot of expressions (and, keywords alas, why waste time in repeating these when there is so much to learn..?), are introduced in other lessons

but..

4) I did resent a bit non being able to make out the whispered parts and do people have to go ALWAYS at lighting speed?
5) I’d rather learn new expression than hear the word ‘taipu’ translated into ‘type’ with examples
6) why not exploit the comments that arise in this natural conversation to add to the constructions and expressions we can learn - perhaps by featuring them in other later lessons?

I do envy you !

I do not have the luxury of classes nor contact with anyone who can speak the language well- no serious classes beyond ‘konnichiwa’ level where I live, unless I spend a lot of time travelling.

I am afraid JPOD101 is my only outlet for learning the language.

Best wishes

Jason, Clienad,

I am coming round to your way of thinking….yes, sometimes it is no pain no gain.

Please forgive me if I expressed some frustration - it comes from trying to learn by myself and listening to material I had no hope of understanding no matter how often I repeated it. I can get plenty of such material on the net, it is the explanations I can’t get…

As for whispering, well, one can mumble in any language …..

You know what? Today, I listened to ABC Japanese news and I was hearing every word! Not necessarily understanding everything, but distinguishing every word. It’s working!!! Thanks guys!

mikuji