To help you break the monotony of Kanji study, we came up with a fun game using Twitter! To start, all you need is a Twitter account and to follow our Twitter account @japanesepod101 (What's Twitter you ask? Read our guide here.) How to Play Japanese Kanji Scrabble On the day we play in the morning (Japan time), we'll select 10 Kanji: 1 Key Kanji and 9 other possible suffix and/or prefix Kanji. Example Tweet: Kanji Scrabble #01 　二、本、一、国、人、十、中、三、時 (Learn How to Play Here is what you do: 1. Using the Key Kanji (the one in brackets): Make as many compound words using the Key Kanji and Kanji in the list *Remember each compound you create must included the Key Kanji* 2. Write those compounds in a reply to our tweet... Show more

To keep you updated on our lessons and better communicate with you, we created a Twitter account (actually a long time ago) and urge you to do so too! In case you're confused what in the world Twitter is or don't know how or why you would use Twitter, we've made a simple FAQ & guide just for you. What is "Twitter"? Twitter is a "micro-blogging" service. Each post is limited to 140 characters so that each post, called a "tweet", is short and to the point. This makes it perfect quickly sharing internet links, messages or ideas with others. To see automatic updates of others' tweets, you go to their page and then "follow" them. If they want to see your tweets, they'll follow you. 1. Start your own account To start using... Show more

Top Secret Project with the Legendary Jim Breen Finished! Well, it’s done, and it’s alive! Mr. Jim Breen, Innovative Language Learning, and JapanesePod101.com, are happy to announce that EDICT, Jim Breen’s legendary Japanese to English dictionary, now has… Audio clips for all entries! So what exactly am I going on about? First, let me back up a second. If you’re studying Japanese, you’ve encountered Jim Breen’s EDICT Japanese to English dictionary, whether directly at WWWJDIC or through another Japanese language learning tool. (Many popular Japanese language learning tools use EDICT.) Having used the dictionary at WWWJDIC countless times during my Japanese studies, I’m a huge fan of the site. Last November, I... Show more

Are you committed to studying Japanese? Do you study on the train? At home after a long day of work? While at the gym? Any moment of free time you can find? We know how serious our students are. Studying a language takes time and commitment. We know you have the commitment to study. Now we're providing you with the time to study Japanese for 2 full years, hassle free! You can now study with JapanesePod101.com with our new 24 Month Subscriptions! After studying Japanese with JapanesePod101.com for 24-months you can take the leap from Beginner to Advanced, have flowing and fluent conversations with native-Japanese speakers, and rread books, novels, magazines, and newspapers. We want you to be able to reach those goals. That's why... Show more

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar? * My computer crashed, and my JapanesePod101.com files are gone! * I lost my iPod! All my JapanesePod101.com lessons...gone. * I got a virus, and my computer is toast. * I reformatted my computer, and I didn't back up my JapanesePod101.com lessons. * I accidentally deleted JapanesePod101.com files, help! * My computer died. * My iPhone got wet, and.... Over the years, we've seen almost every possible scenario on how our Japanese lessons go missing. We weren't sure how to solve the issue. After all subscription do run out, but people want to use our lessons forever. This simple solution was proposed by one of users who lost his audio files when he lost his... Show more

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from everyone here at JapanesePod101.com! We're grateful to have listeners just like you, and we're eagerly waiting for the upcoming year to learn Japanese together! And when the New Year comes around, be sure to make a resolution to study Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Have a healthy and happy holiday season. From Peter, Naomi, Natsuko, Sakura and the whole JapanesePod101.com team!

Picture this. You’re out holiday shopping. You see a sign for 10% OFF. You feel like you’re getting a really good deal, so you rush into the store and make your purchase. You’re a happy customer. 2 days later… You’re out holiday shopping again. You pass by the same store, and the sale sign doesn’t just catch your eye, it punches you in the face! 20% OFF! You're not such a happy customer. Sound familiar? We’ve all experienced it. You buy something at a low price just to see it selling at a lower one the next day. Now the good deal we got suddenly doesn’t seem so good anymore. And you know what? It didn’t seem fair. In fact, we think responsible people who act early should be rewarded. So…we came up with the Reverse... Show more

Starting Monday, November 10th all lessons three weeks or older will be moved to the Basic subscription section of the site. The first three lessons of every season and every level will remain free forever on the site. What does this mean for you? If you’re an active Basic or Premium member, you will be unaffected. Absolutely nothing will change. Furthermore, long-time listeners enjoying the most recent episodes, you are also unaffected. Lessons less than three weeks old will remain absolutely free on the site and on the feed. In addition, the first three lessons of all levels and all season will still be free on the site for you to study from, so continue to enjoy JapanesePod101.com lessons. Listeners and users focusing on older... Show more

UPDATE: maintenance has been temporarily delayed but will resume again on Saturday, August 9th at 10pm EST thank you for your patience It’s time for scheduled maintenance at JapanesePod101.com. On Saturday, August 9th at 6am EST, JapanesePod101.com will go down for several hours. When it returns, there may be a few small quirks which will be ironed out ASAP. What can you expect when the sites go live again? Well, most of the changes are “under the hood” so you probably won’t be able to appreciate them fully right away (you will soon). What you will get right away is: 1. A new and improved vocabulary flashcards with audio that are more intuitive and easy to use. 2. A new sample sentence expansion section with audio in the... Show more

We have just added the AddThis button to our blog. Now you can share your favorite blog posts with your friends and colleagues via social bookmarking sites or by email. You can find the "Share" button at the bottom of each post. We hope that you enjoy this convenient way to share our content and encourage you to do so.