Danmont. My level is intermediate. I never saw harm in your posts, only a (serious) game that will improve (or not) depending on the time you take to answer.
Ersby. I am a teacher too and most of what you say makes sense to me. I also use a combination of online and paper Japanese lessons. I think the sheer volume of materials on offer is online, not on jpod (maybe you were speaking about this too) The linguistic and pedagogical grounds of jpod are close to zero though it is true that they have improved recently. There is no continuity on jpod lessons but there are alternatives. A more careful preparation of classes would make a difference (that´s my experience and the experience of my colleagues). If we can divide classes in 1 hr units people should be able to adapt them too to the 15 minute constraint.
Peter emphasizes the emotional side of the classes and tries, above all, not to be boring. There is nothing wrong with this (obviously, it is only positive) but I don´t see it as positive if your teaching fails because of that bias. He tries to channel the chinesepod.com idea through his own personality and hopes that the final result will be a good Japanese online course. He is not a teacher and even have a gentle disdain towards what they/we do. His web´s hype underline in a more or less subtle way the differences with the so-called traditional methods but he has to face up once and again in his daily work the problems traditional teaching has. He is able to create an emotional attachment with many listeners thanks to his great personality (I sincerely consider him a wonderful person) and this will certainly helped them to start to study such a difficult language like this but, in my opinion, he mixes things that shouldn´t be mixed. The truth is that there are no shortcuts to learn a language and, sooner or later, every listener will have to face with the fact that the one-of-the-most-difficult-languages-in-the-world reputation is not just a white lie. Basic japanese learners won´t feel its shortcomings but the more Japanese I learn, the more limitations I find in this web and the less I use it. Nowadays teachers are expected to be clowns too and Peter is a clown who risked into the teaching field (clown is for me an actor who wants to make other people laugh. I have the highest consideration for both activities and so this word has no negative nuance for me) I think mixing both activities leads nowhere. Teachers should teach and clowns should be clowns but when people doesn´t want to make an effort or is unable to find rewards whithin the learning language process itself, “nice-guys-2.0” will take the lead.
Take care
. Would you mind to tell me the subject you teach?
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