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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Lower Intermediate Season 4 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
19 Responses to “Lower Intermediate Lesson S4 #6 - Journey to Japan 2”
Tuesday at 12:58 pm
Please be sure to visit Eve’s blog and try her quiz to win her new book, Crazy for Kanji: A student’s Guide to the Wonderful World of Japanese Characters.
Her quiz is running through March 29th!
Eve’s Blog: Kanji Curiorsity
http://blogs.japanesepod101.com/blog/category/kanji-curiosity/
Wednesday at 6:30 pm
Mina-san, kon’nichi wa!
Can you make a request using -te kurenai now? Give it a try in the comments!
Thursday at 1:19 am
Thursday at 1:48 am
みなさん、鼻水をこっちへ飛ばさないでくれない?
Thursday at 4:08 am
皆さんこんにちわスパインから!。
First of all greetings and many thanks to all of you who make possible this podcast!!! I have been enjoying some beginner series till now! 最近 Intermediate lessons はじまります!すごいです!
Eve’s contest 難しくて、面白いですけど。次のコンテストはヒントあってくれません!:)
Thanks!
Thursday at 9:35 am
Mr. Boogersさん
おもしろいサンプルセンテンス!!
Albertoさん
がんばってください!
Eve’s contest is difficult for me too!
Thursday at 10:58 am
(Beau) William David Dunville-san
Mr Boogers -san
Alberto -san
Lower Intermediate へ、ようこそ。
Welcome to the Lower Intermediate Lesson!!
Thursday at 11:27 am
Woww :]
Lower intermediate S4 feels so natural to me. Just the right difficulty for my skills! Also, I love the Japanese explanations & the great acting. I’m so excited to keep up with this series.
こんなレッスンもっと作ってくれない?便利で勉強にいいから!
ありがとう!
Thursday at 12:54 pm
Nigelさん>
Thanks for the wonderful comment. We’re glad you found a series that perfectly matches your level! We hope you will continue to enjoy studying Japanese with us
Thursday at 2:04 pm
子供の頃毎週の日曜日に母にケーキを焼いてくれないかって聞きました。今でも聞くけど、母は君が大人になって自分で焼いてよって答えます。
Friday at 3:41 am
Concerning as the study question asked in the lesson - I first study the vocabulary to become familiar with new words and kanji. I then read through the discussion in the pdf to become as familiar as possible with the conversation. I then listen to the lesson as a tool to reinforce what I have learned.
I find that listening to the lesson before reading the new words and phrases is generally not as helpful. I don’t understand what I am hearing and find myself trying to listen over and over to figure out what is being said.
Friday at 5:20 am
あたしも機内食が好きで~す!
最近、レッスンノットを読みながら聞いてない。free content membershipしかないから。
現在、アルバイトだけがあるので、お金が少ない。誰かbasic membershipを買ってくれない?
Friday at 9:26 am
プチクレアさん>
自分でも焼けますか?お母さんはどんなケーキを作りますか?
仁居流さん>
Sounds like a good way to study!
Thanks for letting us know
デボンさん>
機内食、おいしいですよね
Saturday at 3:38 am
What study method is better? Reading along while listening? It’s an interesting question, but we have to put it in perspective. Look at the bigger picture of learning a language. Actually, I would also ask weather one should read at all…
Learning does not mean finding listening easy (at least not only), as it would be the case if one reads along, but something along the line of being able to use what learned, in different contexts, not just after ten seconds or minutes, but the next day, month, and so on.
So the question would be, who will learn more in the long run, somebody relaxed and reading along
, or somebody working hard with dictionaries and, say, other computer tools, do discover the meaning of what spoken on their own, maybe after hours or days of painful work?
I am hinting at the distinction between deep and surface approaches to learning.
Deep:
a) Intention to understand material for oneself
b) Interacting vigorously and critically on content
c) Relating ideas to previous knowledge
d) Using organizing principles to integrate ideas
Surface:
a) Intention simply to reproduce parts of the content
b) Accepting ideas and information passively
c) Not reflecting on purpose or strategies in learning
d) Memorizing facts and procedures routinely
e) Failing to recognize guiding principles or patterns
(Entwistle & P., 1983)
I believe its a matter of engaging the brain, if reading along its an excuse not to make any effort, then it will slow down things, if its part of an organized effort than it should have a positive impact.
In this optic a great responsibility goes to the “teacher.” The way things are taught could encourage the wrong approach to learning. Let me give you an example. If jpod presents the Japanese Grammar as a list of disconnected bits
forgetting that the term grammar “refers to the logical and structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words,” then blind memorization will be the elicited response from learners. I would like to ask other listeners, weather anybody thinks that “-te kurenai” should be considered a grammar point. If presented separately, it’s easy to miss the guiding principles or patterns as one “can`t see the forest for the trees.”
Tuesday at 4:04 pm
Hello,
I think it would be helpful or at least interesting to hear more about how the native English speakers on your program learned Japanese.
I like to study using a textbook (minna no nihongo) along with your program and lesson notes. I even mix your vocab into my textbook vocab cards. I find this really speeds up studying and cuts down on review time.
-Jack
Wednesday at 2:40 pm
giovanni-san,
Thank you for your feedback!
The distinction between deep and surface approaches to learning is a useful reference!
jack-san,
When you go to our forum, you’ll be able to hear more stories about how other listeners are studying Japanese.
Friday at 11:36 pm
Hello,
I have a question here. Isn’t it incorrect to use expressions like “uchi no kaasan” or “ore no kaasan” instead of “haha”?
Thanks in advance.
Tuesday at 11:22 am
Elena-san

Great question!!
In a casual conversation between young speakers, they tend to use (o)-kaa-san to refer to their own mother. It’s perfectly natural. If they used “haha”, it sounds too formal as a conversation of high school kids.
However in a formal situation, a test or a Japanese classroom, I recommend that you stick to “haha” regardless your age.
We actually talked about this matter in the audio lesson of Lower Intermediate season 6 Lesson 2. (around 6:00) Please check out that Audio too.
Saturday at 4:54 am
ありがとうございます、先生
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