JapanesePod101
2008 Award Winner Japan Podcasters' Language Study Excellence Award
JapanesePod101 is not only a great free language podcast, but also a clever entrepreneurial business venture.
There really is not any other Japanese language podcast that offers as much for the Japanese language student as JapanesePod101. With several levels and series of recordings, there is valuable content in this podcast for most everyone, from those seeking a few phrases for Japan vacations all the way up to those seeking reinforcement lessons and listening practice to go along with more advanced and serious language studies.
Japanese Pod101 started out exclusively as a free podcast. Shortly into its production run the creators dropped a little surprise on everyone; It was announced that a paid auxiliary service with enhanced companion study materials would be offered on the JapanesePod101 website.
At first there might have been an inclination by some to view this as a bait and switch business tactic. However, one certainly cannot complain about JapanesePod101's business model when the value of what they are giving away for free is so substantial.
Elsewhere on JapanPodcasters.com I have complained about people trying to teach Japanese who don't really know the language well themselves. Peter, the host of Japanese Pod101, would at times seem to be such a person. But Peter knows his limitations, and even in the early days when their resources were obviously more limited, JapanesePod101 always made sure there were native speakers in every episode. The importance of modeling your speech after native speakers is rightfully stressed in this podcast.
Despite Peter's occasionally poor pronunciations, he obviously knew a bit more Japanese than he openly let on in the early shows. In the JapanesePod101 podcast Peter is the host and guide, but he also plays the role of enthusiastic fellow student, someone who is learning Japanese along with the audience.
Peter's enthusiastic approach might be viewed as a little excessively exuberant at times, but it definitely helps keep the lessons from becoming boring. A happy, polite host is infinitely better than an unpleasant, boring one.
In this podcast, the host being a non-native Japanese speaker and not really an expert works well because expert native Japanese speakers are always on hand. Peter just becomes our friendly course guide and grammar concept explainer, carefully keeping everyone else involved with the show on track during each lesson.
I should acknowledge that though I have jumped into some of the intermediate and "over my head" content to see what awaits deeper in JapanesePod101, I am mostly commenting on the beginner level content with this review. I am very much looking forward to advancing in my studies far enough where I can also use the intermediate lessons in JapanesePod101.
JapanesePod101 can be an extremely valuable tool for the Japanese language student, and I am sure it has become an almost indispensable resource for many. If you have been considering attempting to learn Japanese, I encourage you to jump in and get your feet wet as quickly as possible with the exceptional JapanesePod101 podcast.
JapanesePod101's iTunes Link
Personal Language Study Anecdotes
One reason I have not sampled JapanessePod101's paid content (as I intended to do in the months leading up to my Japanese Language Proficiency Test date this past December) was that I was fortunate to stumble into a new friend in Japan who happens to be a college professor specializing in language instruction. In the months leading up to the most recent worldwide annual JLPT test, I miraculously had an amazing and expert private teacher who generously took me all the way through the Minna No Nihongo 1 textbook via daily conversations over Skype. This book covers all the testing content of the JLPT level 4 test (and more). Though an excellent book and one I do recommend, Minna No Nihongo is written completely in Japanese with no English (and no romaji) whatsoever. It is not the easiest book to go through by yourself, even if you buy the Translation and Grammatical Notes companion text.
Probably less than one in a million Japanese language students living outside of Japan will be as fortunate as I have been to find someone as incredibly capable as my new friend and Japanese teacher, but finding "someone" to speak with online in a language exchange is a critical objective if you really want to learn Japanese while living outside of Japan (unless you are fortunate enough to spend a lot of time around native Japanese speakers living in your own country, who also happen to be eager to help you out with your conversation attempts). I will add more about that later, with suggestions on how to go about finding a good language study partner online.
I will write a lot more about the other language podcasts listed below as I spend more time using them. I have sampled most of these podcasts already, but I have not spent enough time with them to write valid reviews yet.
Please check back throughout 2008. I will elaborate more on my own study methods and experiences, as well as providing thorough reviews of all the Japanese language study podcasts listed on this page. Additionally, I am interested in examining the paid content of JapanesePod101. I will also report on my experiences with the JapanesePod101 paid site if I add it to my study regimen.
