Can anyone recommend actresses or shows or reporters that would be appropriate for shadowing? I listened to the online samples from the Shadowing cd/book, but the female voice sounds so high and cute and genki that I would feel silly copying it. I saw a Japanese teacher's review of the book on amazon.co.jp, and that person also said the anime-style female voice was annoying.

I don't have many problems with listening comprehension or the pronunciation of individual words and sounds, but I want to work on my intonation within sentences, conversations and longer pieces. Something with a slightly deeper female voice would be ideal. My university has 5 seasons of Ally McBeal in Japanese -- I may try that but I can only use it in the library where speaking is tricky.

*Gasp!* You don't want to sound super-genki?!?

In that case, you might want to try Read Real Japanese edited by Janet Ashby. It's a book with a bunch of excerpts written by popular Japanese authors. It comes with a CD in which the book is read by a native female.

You could also try Miki's audio blog on Japanesepod101.

I found iKnow and a clip of Romi Paku on YouTube -- they do both have nice voices. I am not sure about the best way to study this since I don't necessarily want to go through the vocabulary exercises on iKnow. . . . I will think about this some more and see if I can find a movie or something with Romi Paku.

Edit: will also look into Japanesepod101 & Read Real Japanese.

Thank you for the suggestions!

Some of the suggestions in this thread might be useful. You might not be looking specifically for women in business roles, but they're not likely to sound quite as ...kawaii.

You mentioned Ally McBeal, I recently came across a drama, 働きマン, which strikes me as a Japanese version of that show. (Thanks cerulean for the mysoju link.)

Try japanesepod101.com, go to the intermediate, post intermediate lesson, and stories sections. You will have to put up will Peter, but I never found him to be too annoying. They have 5-10 minute dialogues in later lessons. There are also 10+ minute stories with just females talking.

The dialogues/stories are great and you can download them for free. They all follow the same pattern: introduction, dialogue, dialogue in slow motion, grammar notes. There are pdf files that transcribe each dialogue/story word-for-word and have vocab/notes.

However, you will have to pay like 60$ for a 12 month subscription that will grant you access to the pdf files. This is student discount http://offers.languagepod101.com/student-discount/

I've used Pimsleur extensively and by the end could (and still can) answer the majority of their question/answer patterns. However, the day I arrived in Tokyo I realized how useless Pimsleur was in the real world. Having done about 15 lessons of japanesepod.com I can definitely say that it 10 levels above Pimsleur.

KristinHolly Wrote:Can anyone recommend actresses or shows or reporters that would be appropriate for shadowing? I listened to the online samples from the Shadowing cd/book, but the female voice sounds so high and cute and genki that I would feel silly copying it.

Well... I just...

....sang my abc's with Anpanman. I don't think things get any sillier than that. There is a Kodansha series that came out in the last year to update it's Read Real Japanese series. I think it's called Read Real Japanese Fiction/Essays. It features the voice of well known female Japanese actress. Might want give them a look at. I was gonna give them a look myself, but...uh... talking like a child... is my limit. LOL.

I also second taking a look at Iknow.

田中敦子
Atsuko Tanaka. I'm probably being biased, but I think if her's would be a good voice to try shadowing that isn't really much of an 'anime voice'. I always thought she sounded more calm and mature than other voice actresses.

Samples:
Ghost in the Shell (film) (I think she's the only female voice in this clip):
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FUSl7caOMV...re=related

Armored Core:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7N3LYMxe18c

List of things she's appeared in:
http://www.mausu.net/talent/tpdb_view.cgi?UID=45

And Wiki's page/list:
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/田中敦子_(声優)

Thank you! This is great. I've started using iKnow sentences, and I'm looking forward to seeing some of the dramas and shows. It is harder to keep pace with the speakers than I expected, though -- I didn't realize how slowly I must have been speaking. I guess that's the point . . .