JapanesePod101.com Blog

Hello everyone! We here at JapanesePod101.com hope you had a wonderful holiday season! We'd like to let you all know about the great lessons we have coming up for you in 2011. Here is our 2011 lesson schedule: JapanesePod101.com 2011 Lesson ScheduleMondays: (rotation) → Absolute Beginner Season 1  / Beginner Season 6 Tuesdays: (rotation) → Lower Intermediate Season 6 (all year) + New Feature Lessons (early 2011) / Keigo lessons (late 2011) Wednesdays: No Lessons Thursdays: Throwback Thursday: Old lessons from the archive Fridays: Learn With Video Lessons Saturdays: No Lessons Sundays: News (2~3 times a month) / Audio Blog Season 4 (once a month) Mondays will see a brand new series for beginners: Absolute Beginner... Show more

Have you used your Word Bank lately? Inspired by your emails, requests and suggestions, we upgraded the My Word Bank feature to make it even easier for you to study vocabulary on JapanesePod101.com! My Word Bank is a Premium feature that allows you to add vocabulary words from our lessons and word dictionary to a personalized central list for you to study from. Create online flashcards and hear native audio pronunciation with every entry. With the new My Word Bank features, you can organize, sort, export, and completely manage all of your vocabulary. Here is a complete rundown of the new features: 1. Group Words Into Lists – You wanted lists? You got it! Now you can organize your words with lists and labels. Create, edit and delete... Show more

Our annual Reverse Christmas countdown begins today with the biggest savings of the year! Save 50% off any Basic or Premium subscription until midnight EST tonight with our Secret Santa Holiday Countdown Tomorrow, the daily deal drops below 50% OFF, so upgrade to Basic or Premium right now. Just click the link below: Half off JapanesePod101 until midnight EST? Sign me up right now! Everyday until Christmas, we’re offering a daily deal on our Basic and Premium subscriptions. Act early and save more. It’s as easy as that! We can’t tell you what tomorrow’s deal will be, but we can tell you that it won’t be as good as today’s. New seasons of JapanesePod101.com begin on January 3rd, so there’s no better time than now to upgrade to... Show more

This lesson Will teach you some of the most commonly used and most hopeful expressions in Japanese. sō ieba (そういえば) "speaking of which" or "now that you mention it, and you use it when you are reminded of something and want to talk about it. toriaezu (とりあえず) A handy phrase that means, "in the meantime" or "for now." Use it to talk about some kind of action you take or decision you make "in the meantime" because for now, you feel like it's better than doing nothing. ryōkai desu (了解です) Ryōkai is a word that means "comprehension" or "consent." It is often used as an exclamation in the following ways: by itself (ryōkai!), with the copula desu (ryōkai desu!), and with the past tense verb shimashita (ryōkai... Show more

In this lesson, we'll offer tips to help you overcome some common errors that learners of Japanese make. Don't Attach -san to Your Own Name! One of the first things English speakers learn in Japanese is name suffixes used when addressing other people. The most common one is -san, which we attach to people's first or last names to show respect. Because we use -san to show respect for others, you should never use it to refer to yourself. Watch Your Politeness Level! One of the unique aspects of Japanese is the varying politeness levels that change according to a number of factors: age and status of the speaker and listener, the speaker's relationship with the listener, and so on. It is important to... Show more

The focus of this lesson is teaching you some very common Japanese expressions you might not learn from a Japanese teacher. すごい (Sugoi) - An adjective meaning "wow," "amazing," or "great." This word is commonly heard and is often used when one hears or sees something interesting or unusual. バカ (Baka) -  A noun meaning "idiot" or "fool." When used as baka na (バカな), it becomes an adjective meaning "stupid." This word can either be insulting or playful depending on how it is used. When used in a serious manner, it can come across as a strong insult, so it's better to exercise caution with this word. うそ！  (Uso!) - literally means "lie," but when used as an exclamation, it corresponds to "No way!" or "Really!?" in... Show more

In this lesson, we'll teach you the top five useful classroom phrases in Japanese, and then some! "Please say it." / "Please repeat." Itte kudasai (言っ てください) means "please say it." As a variation, you might also hear ripīto shite kudasai (リピートしてください), which means "please repeat (after me)," when teachers want you to repeat exactly what they have said. "Please look."  Mite kudasai (見てください) means "please look," and when an object comes before the phrase, it means "please look at (object). "Please read."  Yonde kudasai (読んでください) means "please read." You can expect to hear this phrase if a teacher wants you to practice reading some word, phrase, or passage. "Please write it."  Kaite kudasai (書いてください)... Show more

Hi Everyone, We just rolled out optional rōmaji support for our Premium lesson specific grammar, content, and vocabulary questions. Premium members can now choose to have rōmaji displayed from the My Settings page. Here's a quick video tutorial showing this new feature in action: We hope you enjoy this new feature! Send your feedback and comments to contactus@japanesepod101.com. We want to hear from you! Team JapanesePod101.com

This lesson offers a few tools to help you learn Japanese. Some of these great tools to aid in your Japanese studies include the following: Rikaichan a popup dictionary extension for the Firefox Internet browser that translates Japanese into English, German, French, or Russian. With this extension installed, you can easily look up the meaning of Japanese words that show up on webpages by simply hovering the cursor over the word. A box will instantly pop up with the reading and definition of the word. Rikaichan Kanji Dictionary Hover the cursor over any kanji, whether it is part of a compound or by itself, and press the Shift or Enter key to toggle between the word, kanji, and name dictionaries. The kanji ... Show more

Japan is a country rich in pop culture that has started to gain recognition and popularity throughout the world. As popular culture changes quickly and drastically, we focus this lesson on the most recent pop culture. Popular Music Japan boasts the second largest music industry in the world after the United States. Pop music is especially popular in Japan, although you can find all sorts of music in Japan done by Japanese artists-including rock, rap, hip-hop, reggae, and more. Popular Movies Recently, the popularity of domestic Japanese movies has been on the rise, with the annual box-office revenue for domestic movies hitting an all-time high in 2008. Of the top Japanese films of 2008, the highest-grossing... Show more