new series

[cisldj]

Actually, I don't like the new series in this season(all about Japan, survival phs).Both of them are too simple for advanced learner. So far we need to wait for half week to get the upper intermediate or onomatopoeia lesson. In my opinion, new series should not only care about new learners. It has to be balanced to have the same percentage bwt newbie users and advanced users. Can we have more detail classes about Japanese grammar "anuansu"....etc.I really like the period time that we have lower- intermediate, and upper intermediate classes.

[nichatha]

私もそう思います。

[hajime]

I have found that my engagement with JapanesePod101 took a huge plummet when the newbie and beginner seasons ended. I'm at Lower Intermediate level now (and studying for JLPT 3級）so you could say that I don't need Newbie/Beginner anymore, but I really enjoy them and I manage to learn something almost every lesson. Now I get a lower intermediate lessons every other week and that's about all I find of use. The video lessons are also very basic and burning a lesson on common vocabulary words or kanji just doesn't seem that engaging. 　I can do better with smart.fm or my own Anki decks.

It seems like the production costs were slashed. Significantly less lesson planning (c'mon, an entire Survival Phrases lesson about もう一度 + ゆっくり？), All About is very lightweight and not that informative (JCC was much better). It seems like JPod can no longer afford voice actors. It's sad because cost cutting like this is going to cause me to not renew or downgrade from Premium to Basic. Once I exhaust the Lower Intermediate lessons I have already downloaded, it may be time to part ways. It seems like most of the lessons have digressed from the wonderful production values of seasons 2 through 4 to the beginning of season 1, but with much less useful content.

I don't see much other traffic about this. Is everyone else content with the current state of things?

私はとても悲しいですよ。

[nichatha]

I have found that my engagement with JapanesePod101 took a huge plummet when the newbie and beginner seasons ended. I'm at Lower Intermediate level now (and studying for JLPT 3級）so you could say that I don't need Newbie/Beginner anymore, but I really enjoy them and I manage to learn something almost every lesson. Now I get a lower intermediate lessons every other week and that's about all I find of use. The video lessons are also very basic and burning a lesson on common vocabulary words or kanji just doesn't seem that engaging. 　I can do better with smart.fm or my own Anki decks.

It seems like the production costs were slashed. Significantly less lesson planning (c'mon, an entire Survival Phrases lesson about もう一度 + ゆっくり？), All About is very lightweight and not that informative (JCC was much better). It seems like JPod can no longer afford voice actors. It's sad because cost cutting like this is going to cause me to not renew or downgrade from Premium to Basic. Once I exhaust the Lower Intermediate lessons I have already downloaded, it may be time to part ways. It seems like most of the lessons have digressed from the wonderful production values of seasons 2 through 4 to the beginning of season 1, but with much less useful content.

I don't see much other traffic about this. Is everyone else content with the current state of things?

私はとても悲しいですよ。

I really like your comment .

[watermen]

Have the same feeling with the poster above.

Initially I thought the new season All About Japanese and Survival Phrases S2 were good, but after listening for nearly 2 months, I am getting bored with it.

I started listening to Jpod since its inception, having a lesson on arigatou, domo, sayonara etc. again is just a pure waste of time, I can just listen to those old lessons again.

Please produce new contents, I believe most people do not need so many lessons on how to use domo, satonara etc.

New Jpod101 users will first go to those newbie S1, beginner S1 series, they are most likely not going straight into S4 etc. Therefore having so many lessons that repeat the same contents is futile.

[vinodmp]

Yes, I completely agree with hajime and others. The old newbie and beginner series brought real value addition even when I had moved on past that level. But in this season, the replacements, i.e., all about and survival phrases are way too lightweight for somebody like me who is really interested in learning the language and culture. I really liked the old style where there were no all-out culture lessons (like the current "all about" series), but still I got to learn a lot about the culture through the regular lessons; it was actually the trademark style of Peter-san and the other sensei chatting about this and that alongside the language stuff which made this happen. Right now, only the two intermediate lessons and the onomatopoeia lessons have managed to keep that unique style going. I also like the audio blog (though I'd prefer a slightly longer version as when we had Mikki's blog with Yuichi-san and others chatting around it); it has real learning value. Peter-san, please don't water things down as part of any cost-cutting as the correspondents upstairs suggest. お願いします。

[Ulver_684]

I also like the audio blog (though I'd prefer a slightly longer version as when we had Mikki's blog with Yuichi-san and others chatting around it); it has real learning value. Peter-san, please don't water things down as part of any cost-cutting as the correspondents upstairs suggest. お願いします。

Vinodmp-san!

I definitive agree! That's why I'm asking to bring Miki-san blogs with Yuichi-san and others back. I even have a thread at this matter here:

http://japanesepod101.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2955

About new advanced content, I think you have the right to protest too but remember that JP101 was made for everyone at any level not just for advance people period.

[watermen]

About new advanced content, I think you have the right to protest too but remember that JP101 was made for everyone at any level not just for advance people period.

You are right, Jpod101 is made for everyone at any level.

But Jpod101 has too many lessons that teach newbies how to use Onegaishimasu and too few lessons to bring your Japanese level higher.

New users do not need another lesson on how to use Onegaishimasu. It is simply not productive from both the user and Jpod101 stand point.

With so many low level content, Jpod101 can really be safe not to produce anymore low level content if cost is an issue, simply because new users are highly unlikely to jump straight to those new lowbie lessons.

Like I mentioned in the other post. Beginner S1, Newbie S1 and Survival Phrases S1 are still by far the most active series and possibly the best series in the podcast, the comment pages simply reflect this fact. This make new series like Survival Phrases S2 pretty much redundant.

Jpod101 need to realize that there are users like me who pay subscription for 2 years and renew every 2 years. Therefore my Japanese is only going to improve as the day pass, and I will like to see more advanced lessons.

[Javizy]

About new advanced content, I think you have the right to protest too but remember that JP101 was made for everyone at any level not just for advance people period.

That's what this thread is about. There is a disproportionate amount of lower-level content. It might be okay if you're a new subscriber and have a backlog of lessons to go through, but if you're up-to-date with the podcasts, it's practically impossible to get value for money from a subscription if you're a more advanced learner.

[shiraz]

I strongly agree. I hope these don't continue into the rest of the year.

[sahmd2]

I second the motions above. I have written to JPOD and voiced the same concerns. They basically blew me off. I understand different levels, but loyal customers should come first. Their business model will fail if they do not listen to their regular customers who will go elsewhere if their needs are not met. I am thinking of dropping my subscription due to their lack of attentiveness.
Learn something management ... BusinessPod 101!!
Sean

[QuackingShoe]

The people who high-level content is suited to are few in the first place, and even fewer of them feel the need to get that content from learner podcasts. The vast majority of people willing to pay for this sort of service are very likely to be those at low levels or those who are only dabbling with the language and not likely to progress to a particularly high level anyway. So, though it may not be convenient to the vocal minority, their business model isn't broken.

Your complaints are valid simply by virtue of you having them, and you being customers. You have a right to request changes in their service. But there's no valid reason to cast doom on their business simply because they're running it in a way designed to make money.

[Yamanchu]

Quaking Shoe, interesting comment, BUT, when I paid for a two year subscription, they had a very professional beginner, lower intermediate and upper intermediate lessons. I paid assuming that the lesson format would continue as they had for the last two years, which doesn't seem to be the case.

Personally I'm not asking for anything new, only for a continuation of what we previously had. . . . .

[skushner]

I completely agree with almost all of the comments made on this post.
I've been extremely disappointed with this season, and am glad to see that I'm not the only one.
The previous Newbie and especially the Beginner Season 4 lessons were really excellent, and it was a tremendous disappointment when they just abruptly ended, especially after buying a 2-year subscription. The lessons in Beginner S4 were truly progressing at a perfect pace, and the accompanying pdfs were very detailed and comprehensive. Now I've essentially had to go back to using textbooks. The All About and Survival Phrases are not very good, even for beginners in my opinion.
I certainly hope this situation will be improving in the near future! I don't want to have to wait until December to see a resumption of the high quality lessons that so many subscribers have come to expect.

Stuart

[watermen]

The previous Newbie and especially the Beginner Season 4 lessons were really excellent, The lessons in Beginner S4 were truly progressing at a perfect pace, and the accompanying pdfs were very detailed and comprehensive.

Stuart

Completely agree too. The Beginner Season 4 were excellent, the PDFs are also the best for that level. The story were excellent too. I would love to see Haruya and Shimoyama meet face to face and would like to see a story about how the twins got separated.

However, I realized that there is a huge gap between the last lesson of Beginner S4 and the lessons of Lower Intermediate series. That essentially make a new comer unable to progress to lower intermediate smoothly, unless he went through Beginner Season 1. Beginner Season 1 is still by far the best series in term of continuity.

Meanwhile, Jpod need to increase the lessons for upper level too. It will be very nice to see if the Beginner Season 4 continues into Lower Intermediate series and progress from there.