Beginner lesson 50 and upwards

[mariyo]

I'd like to share with my fellow-JPOD listeners and the JPOD crew that I found the switch to the beginner lesson 40 -series to the 50-series very difficult.
I don't know what caused this, whether it's the content or the fact that there are other native speakers in the dialogs.

Did anyone else experience the same problem?

Douzou Yorushiku,

Mariyo
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[seasurfer]

I'd like to share with my fellow-JPOD listeners and the JPOD crew that I found the switch to the beginner lesson 40 -series to the 50-series very difficult.
I don't know what caused this, whether it's the content or the fact that there are other native speakers in the dialogs.

Did anyone else experience the same problem?

Douzou Yorushiku,

Mariyo

I found it just nice. You just need to listen a few more times.

[mariyo]

I repeated the lessons in the 50-series by now, but I did need to listen to them one time more than when I was listening to the 40-series.
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[metablue]

For me, it got a lot harder in the 40s. I had to listen to 40+ a lot more than one extra time.

[mariyo]

For me, it got a lot harder in the 40s. I had to listen to 40+ a lot more than one extra time.

Hi there,

It's getting worse . I'm currently at the upper end of the 70-series beginner podcasts and I'm really having a hard time. I'm taking on a class course and hope that this will help me to get to the next level. I think the cause is that I need more practice with the grammer.

Have you figured out what the root cause is of your problems?

Best regards,

Mariyo.
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[metablue]

I think the first lessons were just really simple and I got used to understanding the whole conversation quickly and remembering it all. Then after about 40, the lessons got more complex, and I didn't retain everything.

That's fine though. If there's a lot of depth to the lessons then you can keep going back to them over and over and still get something out of it.

[mariyo]

Hi metablue,

I agree with you. However, I would prefer that we would get some more lessons with the past tense for example before going on to the next grammer topic. Note that this is a luxury problem: The current lessons already are "sugoi" !

Best regards,

Mariyo
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[Traveller]

I'm having a similar problem.

For a long time, I tried to "keep up" since it's a podcast, right? But this podcast isn't normal, I feel behind and now I found myself in the #90s without a strong foundation to build upon. I know I'm still learning but... I have a unique learning style which is that I want to completely master where I am before I move on.

There's a certain point where the "beginner lessons" are no longer for beginners. They've reached this point.

I'm ready to start over at lesson #1 and see what I actually know.

[metablue]

I do that all the time - go back and listen to old lessons. It's really easy to forget what you learned a few months ago. I find that things that I didn't learn the first few times I listened to a lesson, I often pick up later because they're repeated in other lessons. If I thought I had to remember everything in all the lessons I'd go crazy and give up.

It reminds me of a program about archaelogical digs I saw once. They said you always leave part of the dig site untouched because in the future you'll have more advanced science, and you want to leave something to apply it to.

[Traveller]

Well sure, but why do you think they're repeated in other lessons? Reinforcement.

The trouble is now I have a distinctive feeling that they're beginning to reinforce things (ie scream through verb forms and sentence structure) that never sunk in for me, hence my starting over. There's a fine line between forgetting some things you learned, and wondering if you learned anything the first time around at all. But it's alright, If I'm lucky, I'll catch up by episode 300.

I suppose my only complaint is that they don't briefly recap the concepts from previous lessons that formed the foundation for the hypothetical current lesson.

[metablue]

I'll guarantee you're learning, even if it doesn't feel like it. I do know what you mean though. I sometimes feel like there's so much new stuff that the old doesn't have time to get cemented. The really good thing about podcasts is that the old lessons never go away, so you can always go back and review. They probably take that into account when making new lessons. They have started going back and doing some review lately, too.

Have you checked out the intermediate lessons? They're kinda scary actually, they're so fast.

[Traveller]

That's the real question. When are they going to stop? I mean has anyone given that much thought? Lesson 500, Lesson 1000, Lesson 2000? When does the amount of podcasts make the system unwieldy? It will be interesting to see how that question is answered.

With their current system of building upon previous lessons (which is a great idea, don't misunderstand me) it would be advantageous to list prerequisit lessons for each lesson. A rough map of those foundation blocks would be fantastic!

I do listen to the Intermediate Lessons, mostly for my subconscious mind, I think. My conscious mind definitely can't pick it all up. I look at it as more real world preparation for Japan: this is how it's going to sound. Which begs the question, what is the best balance of preparation vs redundancy when listening to JapanesePod101 and are planning a trip to Japan in the coming years. When is much preparation too much?

[mariyo]

Hi Traveller,

I don't think you can get too much preparation. We shouldn't forget that Japanese is a very tough language to master, and to my feeling you can't get enough exposure to Japanese to ensure that you'll really be able to use it in real-life.
I have a Japanse collegue which came over for a short period and I discovered that I actually couldn't talk about a lot of subjects because my vocabulary was too limited.
To increase the process, one can only listen and relisten to JPOD101, watch JDorama, Japanese news broadcasts and anime.

Also, I test myself from time to time : when I'm in a certain situation I query myself on whether or not I would be able to express myself in such a situation using Japanse. The scary thing is that in many cases I just can't, but I do feel the progress I'm making and I'm sure everybody will feel that progress when they stick around long enough.

Best regards,

Mariyo[/quote]
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[DanS]

I'm glad that I read this. I just finished beginner lesson #70 and for the past few lessons, I've become frustrated that I can't keep up. Before that, I was able to tell what was going on and after reviewing the new words, could following along with the conversations.

I don't remember when it started, but I have noticed that they were using a lot more expressions to spice up the conversations rather than sticking to simple dialogs. Stuff like "more than anything", "piece of cake", "brightest crayons in the box", "so in the end". These expressions are making it too difficult for me to actually follow the text.

I think I need to jump back 30 or 40 lessons and start again!

[mariyo]

I'm glad that I read this. I just finished beginner lesson #70 and for the past few lessons, I've become frustrated that I can't keep up. Before that, I was able to tell what was going on and after reviewing the new words, could following along with the conversations.

I don't remember when it started, but I have noticed that they were using a lot more expressions to spice up the conversations rather than sticking to simple dialogs. Stuff like "more than anything", "piece of cake", "brightest crayons in the box", "so in the end". These expressions are making it too difficult for me to actually follow the text.

I think I need to jump back 30 or 40 lessons and start again!

In the meanwhile I have progressed to lessons 115-120 and it is going a lot better. There' s a lot of grammer to review and as of a certain moment it is not just enough to understand the grammer: you really need to master it completely. In November last year, I started following Japanese evening classes and I have to say that this helped a lot to *drill* some key grammer into my head.
It's no shame to go back a couple of lessons and to review what you have learned. Especially in the later lessons there is a lot of grammer, and when I see how long it takes to cover some of the grammer in class, it is absolutely normal that you need to replay the conversation multiple times before you master it.

Patience is an important virtue when studying Japanese, so hang in there!

Mariyo.
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