JapanesePod101.com Blog

All, Although I said I would post my next blog this week, the truth is, I'm already away from Tokyo on vacation for the New Year holidays. I will be taking a brief hiatus and should return with a new entry on January 11th. Please check back then. Thanks for your understanding! Nathan

Hello again. As I mentioned last week, I have begun a weekly blog that will give you a look at one of the ways in which I study vocabulary and kanji living here in Japan. While you may not be able to replicate my process if you do not live in a place with abundant exposure to the language, I do hope that you might find the method, or perhaps the tools, of some use. As I left my keitai (cell phone) at home on the charger today, I am going to start with a brief outline of the tools that I use, and a bit about their purposes. This will also explain why leaving my cell phone has any relevance to this post. So let’s start there. 携帯 (keitai)： Short for 携帯電話 (keitai denwa), this is a word that many of you are likely already familiar with.... Show more

Good evening, friends. How do you study vocabulary? Kanji? Certainly there are many ways, and surely a good number of them are effective, especially considering that we are all unique individuals who learn in different ways. In addition to being a different person than you, I also live in a different environment than many of you – Japan, in particular. Perhaps this combination of factors (or perhaps simply the living in Japan part) will pique your interest in learning more about one of the ways in which I study vocabulary and kanji. And of course, it can’t hurt to read about one of the methods of just one more student of the beautiful language that we are all studying together – Japanese. Beginning next week (yes, I plan to be quite... Show more

Mina-san, We have successfully (we hope) completed the migration of our server to a new and improved platform. The JapanesePod101.com website should now be accessible again. If you experience any issues or notice something out of the ordinary, please post a comment or send us an email at support@japanesepod101.com. A big thank you to Marvin, our new Intern and technical guru, for his help with the upgrade and to our entire community for their patience during the upgrade process. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu. Eran

Mina-san, On Sunday, November 12th from 12am to 6am EST, we will be upgrading our server environment to improve the performance, speed, and reliability of our site and to support our growing community of listeners. During this window, the JapanesePod101.com site will be unavailable. For questions or concerns with regard to this maintenance, please contact us by email at support@japanesepod101.com or post a comment here. We appreciate your understanding while we continue to improve the JapanesePod101.com service. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu. Eran JapanesePod101.com

Mina-san, This Sunday (10/29/06) between 4am and 6am EST we will be upgrading our membership system. During this time, the JapanesePod101.com site will not be available. Please accept our apologies in advance for this inconvenience. Thank you, JapanesePod101.com

JapanesePod101.com published its first lesson less than a year ago, but despite the short length of time, we've come a long, long way! Our humble beginnings, although very, very nice, don't quite do justice to our current level of production, so we have released a series of three lessons designed to introduce the listener to what they can expect from our current Survival Phrases and Beginner Lessons. Although these lessons were designed with the first-time visitor in mind, all are free to listen! Simply click here, or use the filter on the front page to browse the Introduction category. Also, you might have noticed a few new links popping up in several places. While we're not giving the full details here, you can probably guess what... Show more

As you probably have noticed, we recently launched a new home page for JapanesePod101.com. The new home page is geared for new users who are not familiar with our innovative, fun, and easy to use language learning system. The home page shows visitors how to get started in 3 easy steps, explains the various types of lessons and courses available, breaks down the subscription levels and pricing, and finally provides some valuable user feedback. If you are already familiar with JapanesePod101.com and wish to skip the new home page, simply check the box next to “Skip this page on my next visit” on the top or bottom of the new home page and on your next visit to JapanesePod101.com you will be taken directly into the site. Yoroshiku onegai... Show more

Are you a Mac user? Do you listen to JapanesePod101.com? If you answered 'yes' to both questions then you are in for a real special treat! Our young friend and talented programmer, Dimitri from Los Angeles, has just launched beta version 1.2 of his JapanesePod101.com super-duper application (see screenshot below). Using our RSS feed, his incredible application enables end users to quickly browse, search, sort, listen, and watch our daily podcasts and videocasts using one convenient tool. You can even see the romaji as you hear each lesson! Anyone interested in beta-testing the application can get started on Dimitri's website where they can download it, see screenshots, and read frequently asked questions. Please direct all technical... Show more

Mina-san, Do you listen to JapanesePod101.com and live in or near Sydney, Australia? If so, our friend Barrett Newkirk from the "Sydney Morning Herald" can use your help! Barrett is doing some research on foreign language podcasts for a possible newspaper article and would like to speak to Australian listeners. If you're interested and would like to participate please email contatcus@japanesepod101.com and we'll put you in touch with Barrett. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu. JapanesePod101.com