I normally listen to music while I work but I was thinking that I should probably start listening to Japanese conversation instead of music. The problem is, I can really only listen passively, since I need to pay attention to work. Would this be of any benefit?

Can anyone suggest any podcasts or other material that would suit my needs? Also, would listening to something like Pimsleur passively be of any benefit?

Listening passively may not boost your knowledge of Japanese enormously, but it is certainly better than not listening to anything at all! Your ears sort of "get used" to the language, and you pick up words and sentences here and there inadvertently, after a while.
I'm following these audio blogs:
http://www.voiceblog.jp/fuu/
http://www.voiceblog.jp/japaneselistening/
http://oda999.tea-nifty.com/kokoro/
http://learnjapanese.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/
http://www.tokyolocal.jp/blog/

Plus the news broadcast from Yomiuri and the like. I also like to listen to the Drama CDs of anime I saw, and rip the audio from some episodes.

I started listening passively to Japanese at work about a month ago and think it's a great idea. I'm an editor in an English-speaking newsroom, so I have to focus on English very closely on the job. There is often English conversation around me - sometimes I listen to it, sometimes ignore it - depending on how important it is and how busy I am at that moment. By having a set of headphones on with Japanese playing softly - not loud enough to block out the boss' voice if he calls me - I can change that exterior environment to a Japanese one. Sometimes I'm too focused on an immediate task to listen, so it fades into the background. At other times, if I am working on a photograph, or a page design, I can listen to the words without them affecting my work.

Anyone who has lived in other countries can understand the effect being surrounded by a foreign language has on the ability to learn it. Passive listening with headphones does something similar - it changes your linguistic environment - and the brain seems to be pick something up, even if you're not consciously working at it.

If you can do it without it affecting your work, I say go for it.

アキバ系！電脳空間カウボーイズ
知りたい！相手の気持ち

~J

I think the answer to whether or not passive listening is very worthwhile depends on three factors:

1. Current skill level
2. Complexity of the audio
3. Whether you are repeating the same audio or listening to streaming sources instead.

I try to listen passively to about a half hour of Japanese audio every day. It doesnt seem to help me learn much at all, but it seems to strengthen the understanding of vocab and grammar that I already have. It is good to hear what you already know from academic sources in the context of real Japanese spoken by real people. However, it can also be incredibly frustrating to realize how much you still don't know and, for me, the process can be headache-inducing.

Passive listening still yields the least results compared to everything else in my study regiment. As your skill level increases, passive listening will probably become more and more helpful until you can finally even start to guess the meaning of some words. Pimsleur should be fine for you because it is structured and because the English portions ensure that you won't be flying blindly. Japanesepod101 is a decent podcast with multiple skill levels.

With regards to Pimsleur ... It should not be used as a passive listening device. One of the great things about Pimsleur is that it asks you to participate in the audio to activate your memory. It's a great audio program, but using it Passively is a waste unless you also listen to it outside of the passive environment later. That's my opinion on that. I listen to a bunch of news broadcasts/podcasts in Japanese while at work and I would have to agree with timcampbell about his opinions on it. Good luck studying!

I listen to fairy tales on an MP3 player :0
There's a list of a lot of free material http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=752

How do you guys listen to these? I mean, what medium do you use? An mp3 player?

DanielC Wrote:How do you guys listen to these? I mean, what medium do you use? An mp3 player?

I have a 4gb sansa clip loaded with audio ripped from shows I've seen, podcasts, etc. that I carry around with me always.
When I'm on the computer I use that.

At home I have movies/drama/music playing on my computer/DVD player, etc. Then out of the house I use an iPod packed with all sorts of mp3s. I take it running, shopping, to work, pretty much everywhere. I keep the volume low (health and safety reasons) but it's almost always in the background - if I"m not actively working on it.

Oh man, I can't imagine that. Listening with headphones gives me migraines. Makes me sad.