Does anyone use Japanesepod101?

Japanese
#1

I’ve used it on and off over the years and I know it remains relatively populer, yet I never seem to see it on recommended lists of resources these days. You see a lot of books, apps, reading resources and recommended TV shows/anime. Has if fallen into obscurity, or has the community just shunned it?

Despite it’s camp, I find it to be quite resourceful and excellent for explaining the proper usage of many vocabulary words and phrases. While not as in depth on grammar as Bunpro, using it in conjunction with Bunpro gave me better understanding of grammar that sometimes isn’t explained well enough. I feel it was the first resource that helped me bridge the gap between textbook and real life conversation.

So yeah, just wondering if anyone uses it, or has used it before. And of course, what you think of it.

3 Likes
About 1 month into transitioning into more immersion based learning
#2

I used it for like a week so perhaps what I experienced at the absolute beginner isn’t relevant at later stages. It just seemed very bare-bones and a jack of all trades instead of being a master at one.

Bunpro’s grammar explanations (for the most part of what I’ve experienced thus far, nearly done with N4) usually provide you with the gist. If more explanation is needed, you have Tae Kim, Japanese Ammo, anyone else to fit in the blanks. Japanese Ammo (or any other youtuber) will provide added context and also does a lot more practice sentences + mini-tests.

If you want pure listening practicing there are websites that do it better for generalized use, or you could do anime/shows and get a more “real” grasp of the language. If you want reading practice then there are more detailed websites that will push you even harder.

But again, maybe I’m talking out my butt and japanesepod is actually really useful and really at the end of the day whatever works, works. I think a lot of people shun it because it costs money and doesn’t really offer a service that isn’t available through other channels.

#3

I actually do listen to podcasts, play videogames, and watch programming in Japanese on a daily basis. But Jpod101 has been helpful in getting a better grasp of nuances and understanding. I honestly think it’s quite underrated, especially with immersion methods being so popular these days.

#4

JapanesePod101 was the first Japanese resource I turned to when I was just starting out! I did all 146 lessons of Mastering Japanese: Level 1, as well as 95/100 lessons of Nihongo Dojo: Beginner, then 20 lessons from their intermediate-level path “The Path to Advanced Japanese” before finally moving on from it in various ways. I would always read all the explanations after listening, and would often write out my own notes.

Even though I ended up advancing past the beginner/low intermediate stage through other means, I’d say it was actually quite helpful in one aspect: the phrases they teach you are given in perfectly suited contexts… because of the way they present their vocab, in retrospect, I feel like I had a far less difficult time disambiguating the connotations of certain phrases and vocab I learned through their platform. (Compare to now, where even though I’m learning from context, it’s not context that’s chosen for the sake of the words and phrases, so I often struggle more with disambiguating new words and phrases I add via Anki.)

I think the main downside is it’s pretty garbage for learning Kanji. I also found the pace of the pre-defined paths slow, but ymmv, especially if you don’t mind shopping around for lessons (but then you enter into a worse downside imo: having a disorganized mess and making progress less visible for days where you question what you have accomplished).

But yeah, that’s my review :smiley:

2 Likes
#5

Do you have to pay for the service to get anything out of it or will free cover a lot of what’s useful? I never opted into the paid side of things just from the general consensus online it wasn’t worth it but tbh I can’t remember what those points are now

#6

This is just better in every way. Risa is very cute though so thats a plus. I also really like the Japanese pod Kanji Video.

1 Like
#7

I used it in the paid version. You can get 2 years with ~$80 if you use the 65% discount (VIP65). It might still be considered a bit steep, but it allows you to access the PDF notes and written summary explanations, list of vocab introduced in the lesson, and be able to play each individual line of audio from the main dialogue. There are other things too, but those are the main things, I think. I’m not sure if I would buy it again if I were to redo it with my current knowledge of resources, but I think I got the value I needed from it

1 Like
#8

Interesting. I think my gripe when I used it was that I wasn’t sure how to effectively go back and re-learn (or review?) past lessons because I’d either have to read from my own notes or go back to each individual section and go over things again. Just felt clunky to me and I could see myself just getting overwhelmed as the lessons piled up. I already do Anki + BP + (I try) to do one japanese ammo video a day which continuously builds on past points so I didn’t want to have another thing to keep track of.

Maybe I’ll give the free version another whirl to see if something has changed since then or perhaps me not being a total beginner allows me to somehow see things clearer. Thanks!

2 Likes
#9

I didn’t know Misa had a step-by-step course that builds on top of prior lessons like that, so maybe it’s superior, IDK. But yeah, the way I used it was to listen to the full podcast (often in the shower), then read the notes at the bus, then write my own notes at home. If I didn’t have time/motivation to write down my own notes, I’d often just go on. I rarely reviewed, and when I did, I mostly just reviewed my notes. The reason for this is that they re-use a lot of stuff you previously learned, so doing it every day almost is like SRS. But if I ever felt overwhelmed with the current material, I would back up, review my prior notes, and see if I needed to create notes for other lessons I didn’t write up notes for.

If you do use JapanesePod101, do not follow their “Mastering Japanese” path; the difficulty can spike quite significantly in some of the lessons. I’d recommend just following the particular pathway corresponding to your level rather than something that mixes from various levels like that

2 Likes
#10

I had a similar experience. I found JapanesePod101 really useful during the beginner/intermediate stages of my learning career. I like the way that they present a dialogue, which would have parts that were incomprehensible at the beginning, but by the end of the episode, I felt like I understood everything clearly. :blush: I also agree that the paid features were worth it.
(I agree with the other comments that “absolute beginner” was not that useful… Maybe it’s useful but just binge-listen to it in a week.)

3 Likes
#11

I subscribed for two years and listened to a lot of the content. I had a hard time retaining it. There are pockets of well-made content in there in between a lot of rote stuff. It feels like they recorded most of the content years ago and are just barely keeping the app running. Not a horrible deal for two years at $80, but I got a lot more out of Pimsleur.

1 Like
#12

My issue is there is a ton of frankly uninteresting banter as well as time wasted promoting their other services. I just use Speechling’s random listening comprehension a bit daily. With these settings.

speechling settings
speechling settings856×830 43.2 KB

2 Likes
#13

Another good resource that is free is just animelon.

https://animelon.com/about

4 Likes
#14

I hope the site continues to grow and more and more series are added, such an underrated tool for beginners (and really anyone) to learn from.

4 Likes
#15

I follow Nihongo no Mori as well.

1 Like
#16

What helps me is that there is a set of Anki flashcards in their shared decks section that helps me review. I think this helps immensely since it is a ton of content, and I take parts from the lesson transcript and add it to the flashcards.

#17

I really like Pimsleur, it was the program that really helped me build a foundation for and confidence conversational Japanese. I do agree that the content can be hard to retain. Currently using it with flashcards.

2 Likes
#18

I would say it’s pretty accurate. There were times that I would listen religiously, but felt I wasn’t retaining the information. A lot of really advanced grammar and vocab is sometimes mixed in with beginner lessons where the focus is actually a very basic grammar point.

But personally, at this stage in my Japanese I really don’t mind the mess. When I speak to a Japanese person, they’re not thinking of speaking to me in N3, N2, etc. It’s a mix of everything. So I take that approach.

1 Like
#19

I tried this long ago, back in 2012ish. The main issue I had with it was that there was just too much fluff. 30sec ~ 2min of helpful, usable content per cast, and the rest is just whats-his-name going on tangents forever and ever… I couldn’t stand it. I did finished the first 146 lessons as well as the dojo lessons, but honestly never felt like it helped me all that much even after all that. I was just too annoyed by the main guy to retain anything but a few vocabs here and there.

In contrast, I used Pimsleur Method at a later time and felt that those were massively more helpful and was able to start speaking and using right away, and I wish they took it to higher levels. They stopped way too early… I’d have used that up to N1 if they’d done it.

1 Like
#20

Hi everybody.

I use Japanesepod101 as my main source for learning Japanese and I absolutely love it.

As said by someone, I am surprised that people either don’t mention it or speak negatively about it. It is very helpful for starting learning Japanese. I am halfway through the “beginner” path. So I did around 300 lessons there and almost all I know comes from there.
There is a lot of content (maybe too much). But if you stick to the curated paths it is OK.

Each lesson is 10-15 minutes. With a dialog or around 1 minutes that you listen 3 times. In each lesson you learn new vocabulary (5 to 10 words) and one new grammar point.

For me it is the best source I found. I don’t like a lot of sources that people recommend a lot (Tae Kim for example).

Now I use only Japanesepod101, WaniKani and Bunpro. I tried a few other things that doesn’t work for me.

2 Likes