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This entry was posted on Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 6:30 pm and is filed under All About . 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.
67 Responses to “All About #1 - Introduction to Japanese and Top 5 Reasons to Study”
Monday at 6:30 pm
みなさん、こんにちは！ Welcome to the first installment of the All About Japanese series! We shared some reasons for studying Japanese, now share with us your reasons for studying!
Monday at 7:05 pm
I like Japanese movies, TV shows, pop-culture!
There are very interesting
Monday at 9:12 pm
Bad episode, you should have your own reasons to learn japanese, you can’t tell people reasons 0.0 learn japanese to get money> I don’t think someone will learn kanji because of this.
JPOD diissapiont me.
Monday at 9:24 pm
Would you please use more Japanese than English in the lessons?
We can rewind and download lesson notes when the lessons become challenging. I’ve been waiting to study another great JapanesePod101 lesson, but PR is about all I got this time. Granted Peter and Naomi’s enthusiasm runs very hard, but if I wanted to listen to only English I’d subscribe to Englishpod101. Honestly, I’ve given you all complements in the past because you delivered some great lessons. I hope those challenging lessons will return soon.
How about asking one of your super native Japanese teachers to translate everything you worked so hard to tell us into Japanese?
Peter, you have a great site. I hope my comments help it to become a greater one.
Monday at 10:30 pm
I have been studying Japanese rather passively for many years. About two years ago, I started getting much more serious with my study of kanji, so that I can read newspapers, manga, and essays. I also started visiting JapanesePod101 to enhance my learning.
The main reason I study Japanese is because I find the language to be extremely fascinating. There is always a treasure to discover, especially through words made up of a combination of kanji characters or through idiomatic expressions.
Early on, I often encountered situations where a Japanese who was fluent in English would tell me that it was very difficult to translate certain things into English. And so I wanted to dive in and better understand how our world looks from the perspective of a non-English speaker. This has enriched my life.
Some of the previous comments seem a bit discouraging. I think sometimes it’s good to take a step back and re-examine the reasons why we might undertake a language like Japanese. I will be looking forward to future installments of the “All About…” series.
Regards,
Tommy
Monday at 11:16 pm
as a long time listener (since the beginning actually), I have to say things are kinda dull around here these days. and the constant barrage of PR these days has just been wearing away at the coolness of the old days.
about a year and a half ago or so things were getting so good. what happened?
I have faith you guys will get it together again. but seems like the fun is gone these days.
sorry to only speak up to complain, it’s just been on my mind for a while now.
Monday at 11:38 pm
Having been with JPod almost from the beginning, I have watched the Beginner Series involve into something I found the most useful to me. I will miss it. Looks like I am going to have lots of time to review those old lessons as I don’t see very much coming.
Sincerely,
Stewart
Monday at 11:43 pm
I kind of agree with tttt and Spidey.
However, since it’s just the first lesson of the serie, so a little bit PR is acceptable to me this time.
So 頑張って下さいね。。Peter, Jessi and Naomi-sensei
Monday at 11:45 pm
I started in 1991 a Japanese friend taught me after he went back home i only had a Dictionary, in 2001 i reStarted & was influanced by Japanese culture through Loudness a Japanese band & Godzilla movies
im Glad to say in wasn’t Anime to many people ask me if i watch anime.
thats ok if you do, Learning a Language for money is the WORST reason anyone could have.
I want to be able to communicate with people.
understanding songs is also a good one.
One main reson is that Japanese have been studying English for years because of our movies & Music, we have had Huge support from them so it makes sense to show interest & respect Back.
Tuesday at 12:02 am
Thanks, Peter and Naomi sensei, for the great effort to deliver today’s lesson. Perhaps the team has in mind to create materials suitable for different needs of all sorts. Perhaps this lesson has some greater purpose which I am unaware of. I’m sure our voices are heard and will be considered.
The reason we’re all here is because we are convinced that Japanese language is facinating and worth learning… Hearing a persuasive material why it’s great to learn Japanese is probably the last thing we are expecting. I am kinda hoping a resurrection of the JCC from within this series.
Tuesday at 12:38 am
Hello everyone!
I guess I don’t get the right idea of this lesson yet. Acutally it only was a long ad for Japanesepod101
…. It was a bit annoying like the audio-tags which are playing in the lessons everytime (reading lesson-notes while listening etc…) .
I hope that this lesson only was a kind of indroduction and that the following are more like true lessons
!
Tuesday at 12:41 am
My reason for learning Japanese is just so i can have the ability to speak 3 languages I’m fluent in spanish already since it is my native language, but I plan to visit “The Land of The Rising Sun” one day. I’m sure these lessons will help me a great deal since I know, not one drop of Japanese.
Thanks.
Oscar. O
Tuesday at 12:47 am
Yes, I miss JCC and Miki’s blog.
Speaking of kansaiben, you told us that Yuri’s blog will teach us kansaiben.
I’m waiting for that!
I find Tokyo fashion and bars series not so interesting, you can find the same in Paris, London or New-york.
Tuesday at 1:02 am
I strongly empathize with dillypod101, Stewart and chin as I too am nostalgic for the early days when JapanesePod was simpler and more fun. You are preaching to the converted as it is we who are already committing our time to listen to the podcast.
Anyway I am looking forward to some new intriguing stories , with their wonderful humor and perhaps the return of the Beginner Series!
Gambatte kudasai
Tuesday at 2:29 am
I got a basic membership a few months ago and went right back to the beginning, listening to all lower-intermediate/intermediate lessons. I’m still more than a year behind the present so I won’t be listening to this lesson for a long time.
With that said, I second the vote for more Japanese in lessons; we can always listen again and check the PDF for help.
I’m very enthusiastic about learning Japanese (like so many) and I’m also very enthusiastic about this podcast, possibly because I’m going through your best stuff from about 18 months ago (according to dillypod101).
So, let’s focus on the Japanese please and don’t worry, your fans will do the PR for you! If you continue to offer the best/most enjoyable Japanese learning podcast then you’ll continue to be talked about enough.
Tuesday at 2:46 am
Hi Peter,
I am sending my post here to increase my chances to be read as this is a new lesson, but I am actually studying your Beginner series. I started listening to Japanesepod two months ago and I just wanted to say that I find it absolutely GREAT!!! You and your friends did a wonderful work with this material. I love Japan, I have already been there five times (the last one I was invited to a japanese wedding!) and I count to go there again in the future. Until now I just knew some basic sentences, but this is the first time I find a course flexible enough to allow me to study the language in my spare time without getting too tired or bored, so… these lines are just to thank you and all JP’s team for the great job done
As for the new series, the theme sounds interesting, so… take note of the criticism but keep going. I am sure the best is still to come!
PS: my reasons for studying Japanese: I am completely fascinated by the culture, the people and the language of this magical country
Tuesday at 3:05 am
Who here needs to know the top 10 reasons for learning Japanese??
We’re already here learning Japanese
It’s such a royal pain in the **** just to sign up and listen to a lesson without being hit with verbose and boring spammy page after page of sales crap. But then when you’re in and good, you still get spammed constantly. Porn sites are probably more laissez-faire than JP101
I don’t wanna complain since so many people already have, but surely you saw this coming? This has no value to me as a listener. Only to you and your greedy wallet.
I let my sub run out last summer and decided to give it another shot. But this “lesson” is too much - and a SERIES no less!!
Nothing educational in here at all. Even if the other lessons are great, it’s not worth being irritated like this.
I miss the days when we could do this with pride:
Tuesday at 3:55 am
Peter- san, Naomi -san, おはよう
おはよう
ああ ! あたらしい serie !! だいすき だ よ !!
どうも ありがとう !
あたし は にほんご を ならって いる から にほんじん おんがく に むちゅう で あって と にほん に くらしたい, あそこ せいけつ です, みんな は やさしい と あそこ の けしき は うつくしい も げんご は すごい と あそこ は そうい して は !
またね
バイバイ
( おねがい, あたしのまちがいをなおして ください!
)
ありがとうございました
Tuesday at 8:37 am
I have to agree with everyone. I was holding out that maybe this series would be a replacement for the dropped Beginner and Newbie series. Doesn’t look like that is going to be the case, which just means, there is no more new content coming for me.
As for the website, to be honest, I’ve stopped visiting. I don’t set up my browser to auto-log into sites, so every time I come here, I get that awful looking thing that drops down and covers the content.
I’ve had a membership here since early 2007, but don’t really see why I’d continue, if nothing new is coming.
Tuesday at 9:20 am
Hi JPod Staff. Was gone for a while and was not able to comment but have been listening. I really enjoyed the Newbie Series and I am sad that it is gone. I am even more sorry that I just listened to the replacement. How did this happen? What a bummer.
Tuesday at 9:48 am
Hi everyone,
Thanks for your comments and feedback. The All About Japanese series will feature lessons that focus on both culture and language, with a majority of the language lessons being geared toward those who have NO knowledge of Japanese and are just starting out (this is why they are all in English) - I think maybe it would have helped if we had made this a little more clear. In the culture lessons and some of the language lessons, however, there is content that we think learners of all levels will find interesting, so we hope that you will keep listening
Tuesday at 2:02 pm
I think I will just hold on judgement until the end of week, because I think the site needs to attract total new comers, which are apparently this lesson’s targets, as well as more seasoned listeners.
Hopefully some of the lessons in the next few days will be more geared toward beginner/intermediate, and also advanced students. So we will have Monday for total newbies, maybe a mix of beginner/intermediate/advanced lessons over other days of the week.
Also, I am still going over the Season 2 beginners series, and by the time I finish all beginners (will take awhile), I hope I’m good enough for intermediate and then advanced. It seems to me as of now the materials in beginners series are sufficient to help students advance to the next level, and I am happy with that.
By the time I am through with intermediate and has no problem understanding the advanced blogs, I would consider myself 卒業 and can keep up the language with news, TV, radio shows instead of needing help from classes.
Tuesday at 5:23 pm
皆様、（Mina-sama), hello everyone, thank you again for listening and for commenting on our boards, both positives and negative.
We thrive off user feedback and it’s great to have a supportive community, who isn’t afraid to tell it like it is. 
Your feedback, good and bad, was the subject of discussion for most of the day at the office.
So let me explain a bit about the logic behind this course, and some other projects going on.
Pre-Absolute Beginner
I would like to reiterate what Jessi talked about. This is a course aimed at someone brand new to Japan and Japanese. Think about the first foreign language you were interested in, or the relative who you tell you’re studying Japanese, but has zero clue about Japan or Japanese. (They do exist.
) We had a lot of requests from younger listeners and potential listeners about a pre-newbie course, so this is what the series is all about. It starts out slow, but there is some very good stuff in there for the Absolute Beginner (Japanese 101 at school, etc.).
Again, think completely new to Japanese. If you know someone interested in Japan, but intimidated by Japanese, this is the on-ramp series designed just for them.
This is the recommended pre-requisite course for a new Absolute Newbie through Upper Beginner package 75+ lesson course we just developed:
http://www.japanesepod101.com/gengo/index.php
We’ve also been putting a lot of energy into video, SNS and the blog:
Have you seen the new, and old, videos here? Have you seen the gesture video?
http://www.youtube.com/user/japanesepod101
Have you seen all the new content here? Even advanced lessons written by a Japanese teacher, with perfect English translation?
http://blogs.japanesepod101.com/
How about the Kanji pictures from around Tokyo here:
http://www.facebook.com/JapanesePod101
And how about the mini-lessons and games on Twitter?
http://twitter.com/japanesepod101
You’ll see some nice video coming to the site shortly.
So basically, we’re filling in some holes and getting into some new channels.
This is all part of a major overall to the way the content is stored, displayed and interconnected.
I must admit, the fact that you’re asking for more is a testament to your passion for Japanese. So, we’re discussing what course we’ll do our best to get to you starting September.
Thank you again for posting and commenting we are definitely listening and responding.
Tuesday at 5:29 pm
I loved it. I don’t know why everyone is complaining so much. It was a fun episode and it’s a nice reminder of some of the upsides to learning Japanese.
It’s more of an informative/motivational episode, rather than an actual Japanese lesson. People, stop complaining that a ‘cat isn’t a dog’! This podcast is what it is!
Tuesday at 9:29 pm
I think the people who are complaing here are people whose japanese are from ” Intermediate ” and higher. Like Peter-san said, the new lessons (maybe 80% of Jpod101.com) are mainly for people whose japanese are under Intermediate lvl.
For people whose japanese lvl is close to lvl 2 and above, there are just around 300 lessons available for download. If you are still under Int. lvl, you have an option of about 1000+ lessons available.
In other words, as soon as you reached lvl 2 japanese, there isnt much new information available for adv. students here in Jpod101.com anymore. Furthermore, english is still beeing used even in some adv. lessons.
Int. and adv. lvl students are very sensitive to other languages beeing used other than japanese especially for adv. lessons. Advance lessons are 100% japanese because students are expected to understand them. They are mainly for students ranging jlpt lvl 2 and higher, but please get rid of english.
Tuesday at 10:43 pm
Peter-san, Jessi-san
thanks for explanations.
Now I completely understand the aim of this lesson.(I didn’t realize it before) and I always appreciate your efforts for those valuable materials . 
Tuesday at 11:39 pm
@Jessi and Peter, thank you for the explanations and the way you cope with our “negative” feedback
! I know sites where such kind of comments would have been erased…. And I guess everyone appreciates the Team’s work here on JPod! It’s a very familiar place and the site grows step by step 
.
@Michael: Well said
!
Wednesday at 4:47 am
Roger that Captain Peter.
Wednesday at 8:42 am
Estimados Amigos;
Estoy muy agradecido, el que tenga la oportunidad de aprender la cultura y el idioma del Japon.
Ustedes hacen un trabajo excelente, creo que no hay en Internet nada mejor que lo que estan haciendo ustedes, la forma en que enseñan.
Una de las cosas por la cuales quiero saber, mas Japones es porque tengo nos libros de Oriami en Japones y quiero saber leer lo que dicen.
Muchas gracias por todo, sinceramente.
Carlos Ruiz Checa
Wednesday at 11:47 am
I hope the advertising for the free lifetime account at the start of the lesson (that I now hear over and over and over and over again) will only be on the first 3 lessons of each new series. It now takes 40 seconds of music, promo and ads before the lesson actually stats ( the same for video lessons )
Us subscribers don’t need to hear this, for the remaining lessons in any season.
Wednesday at 12:47 pm
皆さん、コメントありがとうございます。
Mina-san, komento arigatou gozaimasu.
Thank you so much for all the comments and feedback, everyone.
Zhan4ik-san
What’s your favorite TV show?
Alain-sam
もうすぐだと思います。少々お待ちください。
Sabby Brann -san
I think if you use にほん instead of あそこ, your sentence sounds more natural.
Thank you for writing comments in Japanese.
Wednesday at 5:30 pm
I have been learning Japanese over 10 years and speaking Japanese everyday in my workplace in Japan, I agree the number of reason of learning Japanese said mentioned by Peter.
Wednesday at 8:25 pm
Thank you Peter.
I must say “All about Chinese” lessons are the first I looked on Chineseclass101, knowing nothing about Chinese.
So I understand the utility of this lesson for Japanese pre-newbie.
Ganbatte!
Thursday at 12:34 am
I want to dissociate myself from most of the reasons to learn Japanese provided in this lesson. They are not good reasons to learn anything!
#5. To communicate with Japanese people! Over 130 million people throughout the world speak Japanese, placing it in the top ten languages spoken in the world. Just imagine all of the conversations you could have!
Throughout the world? This is definitely misinformation. Reality is much closer to:
“Japanese language is the sixth most spoken language in the world. However, the language is spoken in scarcely any region outside Japan.”
Why do marketing people always fall for this “ad populum” fallacy? It has to be worthwhile, hasn’t it? Otherwise we would not be interested.
If this is your attitude then its better stick to Spanish, you will cover much more ground with it.
#4. Japanese pronunciation is easy! Japanese is pronounced just the way it looks, so you can start speaking it right away.
Japanese is pronounced just the way it looks? Have you looked at Japanese writing lately instead of your own sanitized version? Let me remind you
梅白し昨日ふや鶴を 盗まれし
Sure, once you learn a few thousand kanjis and their different pronunciations, then it “kind of” is pronounced the way it looks.
If by “speaking Japanese” you actually mean reading a highly processed and simplified romanized version of a Japanese kindergarten sentence, then we could agree.
Again, why do things have to be easy? (Bad) Marketing people are scared to say the truth fearing that people might be deterred by difficulties. If you cannot
deal with problems, than Japanese is not for you (or anything serious for that matter).
However, say it were true, what would be the point then? Let me paraphrase JFK Moon Speech, (we are approaching the 40th anniversary…):
“We choose to learn Japanese, not because it is easy, but because it is hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept”
This is the key point. Let me add that a leading expert in aging recommends playing chess and learning Japanese to improve your mental abilities and
keep your brain young. (Of course, this is from a western perspective).
#3. You will learn more than just a language. Learning Japanese will give you great insight into the world of Japanese culture you just can’t get any other way. By learning how the language works, you’ll learn more about how the culture works.
This is kind of self-evident to most people. “How the culture works” is an intriguing statement. Maybe somebody should elaborate on that.
#2. Japanese is fun! Japan has a lot to offer in the way of pop culture-fun and interesting movies, music, TV shows, comics, games-you name it! Learning Japanese will give you even greater access to the rich world of Japanese pop culture.
Again lot’s of things are fun and lot’s are sad, indeed very sad, or difficult. Should that discourage people? I think not. Actually, I take a different view. The
part of Japaneses we get exposed to in the west and that most people associate with Japan (horror, manga, anime, and so on) is mostly the sad part. The part that the west decides to import, because it sells, because it suits them. Not because it is a different culture, more because it is the same! Besides, do we really want more access to pop culture? What about learning in the hope that there is more than juvenile fun to Japan?
#1. You can make money! Japan boasts the second largest economy in the world after the United States. Proficient speakers of Japanese can find jobs in various fields such as business, international relations, finance, electronics, information technology, tourism, translation, and much, much more.
This is a key point “proficient”. By the time you become a proficient translator, maybe you’ll make a few bucks when jobs become available. You can go and teach English in Japan, again for a few bucks. Good luck! This is again the work of (bad) marketing people. It is more likely, you could make a lot more money, if you actually did something more productive instead of learning Japanese… Opportunity costs are high here! Would you really learn Japanese for money? Number one reason? We are here to waste money on Japanese not make it!
Thursday at 12:50 am
I am still struggling with the the statement “Japanese is pronounced just the way it looks”. Once Japanese is romanized following the English phonology, what does that mean? It’s like saying once we convert Japanese in English characters and sounds it can be read just like English…
Thursday at 2:04 am
Peter, Your above link to the 75 lesson pre-requisite course does not work for me…..
I get this error message:
“Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.”
Thursday at 9:21 am
giovanniさん＞ What we mean by that is that the vowel sounds never change, so once you know the pronunciation of the vowels, you’ll be able to get the correct pronunciation. Unlike English where we have both long and short vowels with different pronunciation (like the “a” sound in ape and act..)
Thursday at 12:27 pm
Maranyc - Please try this link instead:
http://www.japanesepod101.com/gengo/index.php
Thursday at 8:38 pm
Dear Jessi,
once a phonetic system is created to match sounds and orthography, again what does that statement mean? If I write English in the international phonetic alphabet (also used in english dictionaries), then we are in the same situation. Wasn’t hiragana created for this purpose? Moreover, how can you separate accent from pronunciation. Words can acquire different meaning in stressed differently.
Thursday at 8:41 pm
Over 130 million people “throughout the world” speak Japanese is definitely misinformation. Reality is much closer to:
“Japanese language is the sixth most spoken language in the world. However, the language is spoken in scarcely any region outside Japan.”
Thursday at 9:05 pm
A little experiment. I go to wikiedia and check an entry for, say, Mars…
Now, this is how Japanese “looks”:
火星には海がなく「海抜」という定義が使えないため、高度 0 の面、すなわち平均重力面を選ぶ必要がある。火星の基準測地系は4階4次の球面調和関数重力場で定義され、高度 0 は温度 273.16K での大気圧が 610.5Pa（地球の約0.6%）となる面として定義されている。この圧力と温度は水の三重点に対応している
How can you say:
“Japanese pronunciation is easy! Japanese is pronounced just the way it looks, so you can start speaking it right away”?
Saturday at 11:11 am
JP101/Peter-san!
This lesson is great it really teaches you about Japan!
I have to agree with certain people that it would be better to have more Japanese. I have to disagree with others who said they want to return to 2005-2007 era it’s crazy, people need to understand that we are no longer in those years and this is 2009 and things need to change even the listeners here have change from the ones from 2005. I like this year were are living better because JP101 is doing a great job and it’s bringing the best material to learn Japanese.
Finally I would like you to consider Newbie S5 and Beginner S5 because there are still things that were not cover in the other seasons and it’s not because we want to be Newbies or Beginners forever like one listener said before. Well thank you for your time and keep up the good work I support you Peter-san in anything you do for us to learn Japanese.
S_R_C
Saturday at 1:09 pm
I’ll have to disagree with #5. 99% of the time I get people speaking to me in English, NOT Japanese. This is even when I start off in Japanese. I’m having to take conversation classes to build up my speaking ability.
#4 - as long as you’re not using romaji then yes this is correct. Youkoso (correct spelling) is not the same as yookoso. (correct pronunciation)
#2 & #3 - agree
#1 - being fluent in Japanese will open more doors for you than being an English teacher.
As for the negative comments, do you actually have a valid point? Sure it would be nice for more material for people at Level 2 or even level 1. And yes, it would be nice for them to get rid of all romaji and English in all levels. But how would they do it? My conversation classes are all in Japanese because I can see the teacher, and she can either draw on the board, or demonstrate everything. She can give me a simple sentence to explain the more difficult sentence.
I learned ~どうしましたか, and didn’t understand until she put なにをしましたか。and said they were the same.
Tuesday at 2:37 am
The #1 reason is so disappointingly mundane.
It’s really sad if people learn Japanese not because it’s a beautiful language with a fascinating culture but because they think it’s going to make them rich
Tuesday at 5:03 am
I agree that money has to be the worst of all reasons to learn anything. It is more likely, you could make a lot more money, if you actually did something more productive instead of learning Japanese…
And why do things have to be easy? (Bad) Marketing people are scared to say the truth fearing that people might be deterred by difficulties. If you cannot deal with problems, than Japanese is not for you (or anything serious for that matter).
However, say it were true, what would be the point then? Let me paraphrase JFK Moon Speech, (we are approaching the 40th anniversary…)
“We choose to learn Japanese, not because it is easy, but because it is hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept”
This is the key point. Let me add that a leading expert in aging recommends playing chess and learning Japanese to improve your mental abilities and
keep your brain young. (Of course, this is from a western perspective).
Tuesday at 1:58 pm
Mina-san,
Thank you for your feedback and comments!
We would be pleased, if this lesson would be a great opportunity for you to think about why you are learning Japanese or remember the reason when you started learning Japanese!
Friday at 9:57 am
The link as mentioned above last week is still not working….
Redirect Loop
Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.
Friday at 11:24 am
Maranyc - I am sorry to hear that you’re still facing issues accessing the Gengo page. Did you try this link:
http://www.japanesepod101.com/gengo/index.php
If you’re still getting the Redirect Loop error, please email us at support[at]japanesepod101.com. Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience.
Friday at 4:18 pm
@giovanni - You hit the nail on the head. Where exactly is the challenge in learning French or Spanish? Since they are also roman languages, you don’t have the extra hurdle of learning numerous character sets to be literate in those two.
On the other hand, the most difficult language for someone to learn is the one where they are forced to learn it. The students I teach are forced to learn English. Some enjoy it, others could care less and wonder why they need to learn a 2nd language. Granted English may not have been the best choice, but the government should offer other languages to the students, not just English. I’ve started speaking Japanese to these students, and it doesn’t dawn on them that I’m speaking a foreign language. At least to me it is.
Saturday at 6:36 am
What is (was?) the strength of Japanese?
It’s a podcast! Easily accessible, constantly updated lessons where you can listen to spoken Japanese in many different situations. Lessons people can listen to while engaging in other less brainy activities. Even if the lesson is poorly designed or there is limited grammar, the information content for a non speaker is often very high. Only this and being able to check the translation of the dialogs is often worth the price of a subscription. Moving away from your strengths is for me a risky strategy. I hope I am wrong.
What is the rationale for the kind of changes you are implementing? Obviously an attempt to reach a wider market (and work less?). More money I guess (well you said that money is the big driver, isn’t it?). You call the new target audience a “Pre-Absolute Beginner”, i.e.. “someone brand new to Japan and Japanese”. I hope these “infants”, with virtually no knowledge whatsoever, have deep pockets, enough to compensate for all the other users you will alienate with this approach. From my experience, these do not look like people interested in learning Japanese. Maybe forced to learn it? are you fishing in an empty sea?
What has this new approach/series to offer?
English speaking. Do we need this? Random factual knowledge thrown here and there. Very diluted knowledge “land of the rising sun”, “the sun rises in the east”, the relationship between Japan and China goes back `many’ years”, and so on. Wow, now I know that Japanese is an Altaic language! That is going to impress people… A part from the name Altaic, have I really learned anything? A piece of knowledge for the sake of it? Did you have to prepare this lesson? Even non Japanese can come up with that, without even checking anything. What is your contribution? You increased the formality but decreased the content to nothing or less.
This has very limited information content to the point that it is hardly worth listening to! For example, abandoning the flagship beginner series for this seems to me dangerous. Will people pay to listen to a mildly (mis)informative English conversation?
You also have the 5 top reasons to study Japanese. I found them misleading, misguided, and confusing. Just think about the confusion you make between vowel sounds and the written symbols that represent them. As somebody who has though about learning for a long time, you managed to surprise me by stating that making money is the number one reason to learn Japanese. This is a first for me. If this works I can see teachers distributing cash for right answers. What a great society this would be!
How do you get loyalty? Certainly not by changing things drastically and dropping series, say, just because you have to go on vacation or something. My answer to this perceived behavior is: take what you can while it lasts but do not count on it and find more reliable alternatives. For example, you have reduced the frequency of the intermediate series (sure you added blogs and stuff). Personally, I found that higher frequency keeps the interest high. With this fortnight approach, attention wanes. More reasons to be less interested.
Wednesday at 10:21 am
Really Japanese pronunciation easy , I am from small country and my language allowed to exact pronaunce any Japanese voice. Unlike English , today I am not sure to correct pronaunce 13 , 30 , 31 …. also Thursday. Funny? Maybe.
But pronaunce any Japanese voice is for me more than easy , so I am not loose time with pronunciation, just continue learning Japanese.
In compare I am learn English from elementary school up to now.
If calculate school only 11 years and more. And Japanese for fun last 5 year intensive.
(OK my first contact with Japanese language is ancient history , but never learn correct)
Reason number ¸5 is my “top reason”
ゾラン
Wednesday at 12:18 pm
I am UK-Asian, and have mastered Japanese and got almost full mark across all JPLT and Jetro Business Test since many years ago, and even working in Japan right now.
I can tell you guy, please don’t waste time on studying Japanese, the ROI is not as high as 20 years ago, and the economy of Japan is decling, better put more effort to learn Mandarin which is the official language of mainland china.
If you are just learning it for fun, it ’s fine, if some people feel eager to move to Japan to live or work, I dare to tell, unless you are super outstanding, those conservative Japanese employers won’t give you any promotional chance to foreigners. Also, the more advanced your Japanese are, they more they will be afraid/jealous of you. As Japan is mono-lingual country in general, they would feel small when get to talk with multi-lingual foreigners who can even speak their mother language very well.
Put it short, Japanese can only be used as a supplementary tool of doing business with Japan, but definately NOT WORTHWHILE to spend your whole life time to learn it well. At the end of the day, only English should be the international language and no one will care if you can speak Japaense fluently or not if u are doing international business. And Japan salary is not so high as compare with the rest of the world. For the next decade, China will take over Japan and USA economic place, so to me, it’s time to learn Mandarin tho.
Just my personal business experience, as I am a multi-lingual business executive in Japan actually, I just wanna share my life experience and idea to all of you.
Wednesday at 12:09 pm
=D im learning japanese cos im interested anime and manga.. nd one day i wanna fluently understand an anime without subtitles.. lame reason.. but oh welll!
Wednesday at 11:01 pm
I know it is very first lesson and my comment is maybe late. About pronunciation , in my language (Croatian and also other Slavic language) pronunciation Latin letter much more difference than other west languages , in my language basic rule is read like you see , same like Japanese people do. Peter先生 understand this, I hope so.
I remember one lessons and comments about(Introducing your self) one of student ask about reading name in Japanese. So I little make help , for me pronunciation so simple in Japanese, something native for me. I never need to think how to read and pronounce Japanese . I work in two ways my Japanese friends able to exact say much more Croatian words with no problems.
Last 3 years I improve my knowledge Japanese from almost zero level to now, able to read all kana text, and few hundreds kanji. Big step for me, free user.
So I can say べんきょうになりました。 I am learned something.
Thank you JapanesePod101.com
Thursday at 8:29 pm
I’ve been studying the Japanese language using JapanesePod101.com for around six weeks now, and have been really impressed by the high quality of the lessons and the interesting and informative way they are presented.
I’m an English speaker, but have always been fascinated by languages. I’ve always been surrounded by languages other than English since I grew up in a mainly Italian-speaking town in Australia, my grandparents were Scottish, and my husband is Tamil Indian!
I’ve decided to go to university next year and study an undergraduate course in Japanese language and culture, and have found that JapanesePod101 has given me a good grounding in Beginner’s Japanese. Thank you so much, I’m enjoying it immensely!
Alison
Friday at 11:47 pm
My main reason to learning japanese is to communicate better with friends..And one day when i go to Anime Expo i can have fun understanding what people are saying…
Tuesday at 4:08 am
Hi!
I think these language and culture lessons are very interesting and useful.
) increased and I expect it to increase more!
Thanks to JapanesePod101, my Japanese vocabulary (and English vocabulary too, I’m brazilian
どもありがとう！
Wednesday at 5:58 am
日本
Monday at 7:35 pm
Being Chinese makes it easier for me to learn Japanese because I understand most of the Kanji (even though I can’t pronounce it the Japanese way) and a lot of Japanese words and grammar is used similarly to Chinese. Lucky me!
Friday at 9:05 am
Good. Five reasons to learn japanese. I liked the second one ^_^
Monday at 12:43 am
I want to study Nihongo because I find Japanese culture fascinating. I love Japanese movies (Asano is my fave actor) and literature. Japanese people are the coolest.
Wednesday at 8:53 am
What is the difference between Lesson Notes and Lesson Notes Lite? I checked several lessons and they’re the same pdfs.
Wednesday at 9:39 am
Hi mee-san,
The content is the same, but different fonts have been used for users who have trouble viewing the original PDF on their computer
Saturday at 7:10 pm
I just wanna live there! I love everything about your culture! (and food XD)
Tuesday at 8:49 pm
Great series! ありがとうございます！
Monday at 4:18 am
I have always been interested in learning other languages. Once I heard Japanese I knew I had to learn it. It is such a beautiful language. The Japanese friends I have met through web sites such as lang-8 and smart.fm are so nice! They are always willing to Skype and help and in turn I have helped them with English. The culture is so interesting. Everything from classic films such as Rashomon and Seven Samurai to anime and manga, I just love it all!
Wednesday at 11:46 pm
I’ve always really liked foreign languages and recently I found out I’m really good at learning them. I’m only fourteen but my parents encouraged me to go for it and try to learn Japanese if I wanted to. It’s a very graceful, beautiful language! I’m not a huge fan of anime but I like a few anime movies and TV shows and I like to watch them without English subtitles. One of the main reasons I want to study Japanese is because next summer we’ll be taking in two Japanese exchange students so I want to be prepared the best I can. If there is anything else you can tell me about making them feel comfortable here in America, please let me know!
ありがとございます!
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