Oh my! Aren’t you great, guys.

I am part of this lovely family since last December, and geez am I enjoying it! (Though I still have to catch up.) I have a Premium subscription and I have to say it has been the best-spent money in my own private Japanese ordeal!

You are doing a fab job. Peter-san, where do you get your energies! Tell me only if it is legal

And what can I say about the girls? Natsuko-san, Sakura-san, Miki-chan, Hatsumi-chan… You are wonderful, cute and fun! And for the rest of the team too (including tech staff of course): monosugoi!

I run a website directory about Japan ( http://www.conocerjapon.com ) and although it is in Spanish, many links are to websites in English. I hope you find it interesting. Some links I added lately come from your podcast, so thanks a-plenty!

Regarding Japanese tales, I have always been interested in cranes in Japanese mythology. I also loved Urashima Tarou tale. It seems to be very important in Japanese folklore too.

Keep it up!

Greetings from Spain,
Marcela

すみません。一つの問題はあります。桃太郎の物語に感動はどこあるか？

*Not sure if this is how you say it. Feel free to correct my Japanese.*

Japanesepod101.com,
I loved this podcast so much! Take-san- what a great job you did with kandoteki na koe!

Peter-san with Sakura-san! What a great combination! (Isn’t Sakura-san the Alpha Female?)

Peter-san, did I hear you say “synapsis” instead of “synopsis”? hahaha We all know what you meant.

Check out the story of Urashima Taro here: http://woz.commtechlab.msu.edu/courses/theses/urashimataro/main.html

THANKS, AGAIN, FOR MAKING OUR LEARNING SO ENJOYABLE!!

Kingyo-san, please check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issun-b%C5%8Dshi for the story of Issun-bōshi.

Liz21-san, that flash story is great! I have a children’s book with the story in English and Japanese which comes with a CD with the story narrated in both languages, but this cartoon is fabulous, with subtitles and all. Thanks a lot!

Mata ne,
M.

totemo omoshirokatadesu

しみません！　I messed up with the 日本語 in my previous post I meant to say:

Peter先生　　私の日本語はお蔭様でいいですありがとうございます。

I have a question:

When I was listening to the dialogue and explanations about “wo”, I noticed in the PDF that there is no “wo” written! Instead, there’s: ”あつ、テｨｯシュどうぞ”

Can I write “テｨｯシュをどうぞ” in Japanese? (Or, is it “ｨｯシュォどうぞ”?)

ありがとうございます！

Not so great lesson for me.

Introduction of no/n desu entirely without explanation.

markysan,

The trouble is that you end up -at least in my case -with total confusion.

You introduce something without any explanation. I then have no idea if it is something new or something that I have missed from a previous lesson. In either event it simply adds to my frustration.

It may be that this is avoided after lesson 30 which I think becomes newbie series 2 and I also think that you suggest starting with newbie 2 in your guide.

BTW there was a double whammy in this lesson.

Apart from the “ii n desu “etc there was also the “na n desu” as in kandou nan desu referred to above by Alex.

Asking around I understand this to be a phonetic/grammatical change
making da=na before n/no desu. Could not a simple line of explanation have been provided?

Some on here do not appear to be genuine beginners but for those that are, the complexity at lesson 21 seems a trifle excessive.

Peter さん -

There are many elements in the newbie lessons that are more advanced than “newbie”. I value that the newbie lessons are not “dumbed down” and artificial like so many Japanese texts. I think it is important not to get too bogged down in elements that one does not yet understand. It will come in time.

Along with the Shadowing book, this is the best Japanese language resource I have ever used. I have hundreds of dollars invested in books and エレクトロニック 辞書. Premium subscription is the best money I have spent so far.

Mihara-chan

I’m sure you can enjoy many more interesting and useful lessons at our site!
がんばってください！

Well, I’ve been following these newbie lessons from the beginning, so I’m not very far xD.

But I don’t think these lessons are confusing. I just think you guys leave a lot of words and parts of sentences unexplained. But I’ve learned that everything in this series is basically “beyond the scope of this lesson” [lol], so if a true newbie, like me, just focuses on what the point of the lesson is and not on the excess things, then no confusion will come.

I love JPod. End of story ^_^ You guys rockkkkkkkk at what you do.