... or ChinesePod.com too?

Considering the controversy involved in discussing The Heisig Method here ...

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=2344&page=1

.... I thought it could be nice with a very basic question. :-)

The reason why I ask is that I find both services to be on the more expensive side of the learning stuff. I mean: for $25-29 a month I can get a couple of decent books. On the other hand I find these sites extremely well implemented and stimulating.

Any experiences to share?

ADMIN: Please stop repeating your website link at the end of your posts, you can add it to your profile.

I paid 40usd for a 12 month subscription to Jpod. However, I put it on hold while I'm doing RtK b/c I'd like to finish it asap.

From the 15 lessons I've done of intermediate, its really well done. However, I tend to skip the slow mode section. The basic subscription give access to transcripts of everything. I'm planning on using this to mine sentences for SRS later.

Finally, I think this is 10 levels better then Pimsleur and completely resonably priced. (free or very little)

I pay. I'm not sure I'm getting my money's worth. I'm doing the beginner lessons (because intermediate is above my head) and there is -far- too much English. They spend a lot of the time joking around and talking to each other in English. It got to the point that I would tune out most of the lesson because it was BS, so then I missed anything that actually was good. Now I basically feel like I lose 15 minutes of my life every time I listen to one of their podcasts.

It wouldn't be so bad if I had a commute or something that was killing my time anyhow, but I don't.

As for the extras... I find them... Interesting, but less helpful than Heisig/iKnow/ReadTheKanji/etc. They try to do too much and end up with too little of everything.

Also, they recently made it so only the very newest lessons are free. I think this was a monumental mistake since each lesson builds on the previous ones. They've effectively driven away all newcomers (they can't start from scratch) and kept all the current non-customers as non-customers forever, since the stuff they want will always be free.

Also, the English guy is a tool. He's so annoying that most of my friends refuse to even consider listening to another podcast from them, and that's usually after only a couple. Seriously, he's amazingly annoying. I doubt I could stand to be in the room with him.

I don't pay, but I could easily see myself doing it. Of the learning alternatives I've seen (which cost money) Japanesepod101.com is faaaaar beyond ANYTHING else. Rosetta stone? Please. Pimsleur? Hell no!

Question is, is the gap from free subscription to paying subscription big enough to be worth the money? From my limited experience with the material you pay for, I'd say no. The voice actors in Japanesepod101.com speak so clearly that it's easy to look up the words you're not understanding, and it's easy to find dialogue where you already understand 90% or so.. so personally, I never found the need for transcripts.

wccrawford Wrote:Also, the English guy is a tool. He's so annoying that most of my friends refuse to even consider listening to another podcast from them, and that's usually after only a couple. Seriously, he's amazingly annoying. I doubt I could stand to be in the room with him.

I feel stupid asking this but, what is a tool? I have heard the expression before and never really got it. Why is being called a tool an insult? I don't mean to sound like Seinfeld but don't tools help people get things done? You would think it is a positive. "That guy is a real tool. He could fix anything!"

I assume it means the same thing like douchebag.

Please help update my slang.

Wisher

Wisher Wrote:I feel stupid asking this but, what is a tool? I have heard the expression before and never really got it. Why is being called a tool an insult? I don't mean to sound like Seinfeld but don't tools help people get things done? You would think it is a positive. "That guy is a real tool. He could fix anything!"

I assume it means the same thing like douchebag.

Please help update my slang.

I never really like tool as an insult myself, but I think the reasoning behind why 'tool' is became an insult is that it's basically saying that the person (the tool) is being used by someone/something to do something. "6. a person manipulated by another for the latter's own ends"(From dictionary)

Though a lot of the time I've heard it used not really in that definition but more as just a replacement word for some regular other insult (like douchebag).

I subscribe to ChinesePod for learning Chinese and it is super useful. Especially having the dialogues to listen to repeatedly. Also being able to read the transcripts. Plus if you have iPod/iPhone you can read the dialgoue transcripts on there as you listen. Also going to put the audio files and transcripts into Anki.

I'm guessing Japanese101 is similar.

Wisher Wrote:I assume it means the same thing like douchebag.

Wisher

Pretty much. A tool is somebody that thinks they are cool, and in their own little world they are, but in reality they're just an asshat (there's another one to add!).

Urban dicationary has a few good definitons:

"a fake person. someone does things to impress people"

"someone who tries too hard. a poser."

We need a Japanese urbandicationary.

Tobberoth Wrote:Question is, is the gap from free subscription to paying subscription big enough to be worth the money? From my limited experience with the material you pay for, I'd say no. The voice actors in Japanesepod101.com speak so clearly that it's easy to look up the words you're not understanding, and it's easy to find dialogue where you already understand 90% or so.. so personally, I never found the need for transcripts.

Don't they have it so now you can only listen to the oldest lessons and most recent lessons with the huge gap in between being for basic subscription only?



If that is the case and I'm not just imagining it, I would suggest anyone interested to pay for the cheapest subscription, download everything, then just stay current with the lessons. I didn't find their learning center to be better than what is available free through other means.

I didn't like certain aspects of the beginner lessons. At least in the intermediate lessons the prattle is mostly in Japanese.

I would like a redesign of how they do the lessons.

- Have the dialogue start first. I don't want random chit chat leading up to it.
- Have all the new vocabulary for the lesson in the dialogue at the start. I would prefer to just listen to the dialogue and decide from that if I need to hear the details of the lesson. I did that for a while, but I found that I missed some vocabulary because some of it was only in the explanation.
- After the dialogue and the new vocabulary, then it's ok to go off into random chatter. Give me a choice of whether or not I want to listen to it.

I agree that the beginner level has too much English. Skip through the lessons with fast-forward to get to the dialogues and other important stuff. If you download the PDF, you can learn the grammar points and new vocab on your own so you would only really need the dialogue anyway.

You can still download all the old lessons for free during the free promo I think. The only reason to pay for subscription is if you like the transcripts in the PDFs. (I do.)

I just signed up to see what the site is about.

After listening to a recording or two in the upper-intermediate, it seems like they have too much English here, too. It's a little annoying that they translate every sentence immediately...

What do you get if you don't pay anything?

you can listen to and download any of the lessons for free. You just can't read the pdfs.

Wisher Wrote:I feel stupid asking this but, what is a tool?

Tool = dick, in this context, I believe.

Sorta like "This is my rifle / This is my gun"...

And back on topic...

I download the free version of JPod101 to my iPhone, and it displays a transcript on the screen if you touch it. Romaji for newbie and beginner, kana for intermediate. I don't have any advanced lessons on my phone at the moment, so I can't say about those. The podcasts on four-character idioms show the kanji, of course.

igordesu Wrote:you can listen to and download any of the lessons for free. You just can't read the pdfs.

OK, then I'm missing something. How do I listen to the lessons on this page for free?
http://www.japanesepod101.com/category/u...e-lessons/
Free content is all showing blank for me. If I click the audio it takes me to the pay to sign up page.

annabel398 Wrote:I download the free version of JPod101 to my iPhone, and it displays a transcript on the screen if you touch it. Romaji for newbie and beginner, kana for intermediate. I don't have any advanced lessons on my phone at the moment, so I can't say about those. The podcasts on four-character idioms show the kanji, of course.

How do you do this? Is there a free JPod101 app in the AppStore (couldn't find it)?
Being able to see the transcript would be useful.

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I tried going through the downloads link:

http://www.japanesepod101.com/downloads/

and all I get is audio/video choices in iTunes through podcasts.

I think they have achieved the older lessons, and require you to pay for them now. I have the basic subscription, and I can still see them all.

I also don't have a problem with Peter, and I'm not sure why he annoys so many others.

I think the intermediate+ lessons are great. I haven't used lessons below intermediate, so I can't comment on them. I would assume that the transcripts to lower level lessons are probably useless as well. After RtK I'll probably cut and edit the lessons to include only the dialogues and ply them on repeat.

@kfmfe04: If you open iTunes and search for "Japanese", it's the first item listed in the "Podcasts" section.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSto...=109573938

Kitty is right, not every lesson is available for free on the site anymore (I don't know about the feeds). The latest 13 pages are available, but before that there's only a few here and there, the first few of series.

I've never been that annoyed by Peter I'd stop listening, although I wish he didn't translate everything. Like one of the other hosts makes a comment, and he'll say it in English. I get that it's useful if people can't understand it, it just bugs me for some reason.

I've met Peter, and he's a pretty mellow guy in person. Not everyone can sound like the Movie Trailer Guy. If I hosted a podcast, I'd imagine that most of you would find me annoying, too. Same goes for you.

For some people, jpod101 is going to be useful, for others its not. I like listening to the intermediate + stuff when working out, just to have something to listen to that's related to Japanese. I don't mind the odd bits of English here and there. The beginner stuff does have too much English for my taste as well, but I found it useful to go through once during my workouts, just to pick over for random bits.

The one series that I found extremely useful (despite all of the English) was the survival series. That one had a few phrases and explanations (especially how buses work--the whole thing with the slips of paper and the big board full of numbers made sense when I actually saw it)-- that totally saved my butt when I was over there. It also did a good job of explaining how trains and taxis work, and gave some good stock phrases to use for those, too. Something as simple as using まで for telling a taxi driver where you want to go is handy.

They also taught me the minimum fare trick for unknown subway systems, which was handy in Fukuoka and Osaka. The minimum fare trick is pretty simple-- when you're in a hurry, and you don't know how much subway ticket you need to buy, just dump money in the machine and buy the cheapest ticket. Then go where you go, and use the fare adjustment machine when you get there. It sounds obvious, but it wasn't to me. This is really handy when the trains don't come frequently, and you want to catch one in a hurry.

Anyway, like anything, JPod is a resource. Some people are going to find it useful, others are not. I find the intermediate level stuff useful, but just for listening practice, and for something to listen to when I'm working out. I don't sit there and do the whole system. I just pick what I like and incorporate it into my Anki deck.

Most of my listening practice comes from TV-Japan, to be honest.

annabel398 Wrote:@kfmfe04: If you open iTunes and search for "Japanese", it's the first item listed in the "Podcasts" section.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSto...=109573938

Thanks for the quick reply. This is the same link from the download site.
I am only able to get audio/video here.

Maybe, Oregum is right - my new, free account has no access to pdf's. Oh well!

Oregum Wrote:I also don't have a problem with Peter, and I'm not sure why he annoys so many others.

Because he sounds like a fresh-off-the-boat Eikaiwa teenager (no offense intended to those who are)... ...I feel like punching the wall when I hear his voice 8~P

Japanese Pod 101 would be awesome if they didn't make the entire thing so annoying. Even just being signed up is annoying because they constantly bug you with emails. If you're not a paying subscriber yet they bug you even more, and every time they go, "We have this new double secret super cheap deal we didn't tell you about before." It's the internet equivalent of an infomercial.

They actually seem to spend more time making it annoying than if they had just recorded a dialogue, and put a transcript pdf up with a vocab list. It could be a really great resource if they stopped all the infomercial garbage.

As well, the guy's accent on the podcast is painful to listen to. I have no reason to hate him, but he just seems to exude punchability.

kfmfe04 Wrote:

annabel398 Wrote:I download the free version of JPod101 to my iPhone, and it displays a transcript on the screen if you touch it. Romaji for newbie and beginner, kana for intermediate. I don't have any advanced lessons on my phone at the moment, so I can't say about those. The podcasts on four-character idioms show the kanji, of course.

How do you do this? Is there a free JPod101 app in the AppStore (couldn't find it)?
Being able to see the transcript would be useful.

----------------------

I tried going through the downloads link:

http://www.japanesepod101.com/downloads/

and all I get is audio/video choices in iTunes through podcasts.

I've never been able to get the transcripts to display on my IPhone either. It would be cool if I could get it to work like that.

The transcripts display just fine on my iPod, FWIW.

Dragg Wrote:I've never been able to get the transcripts to display on my IPhone either. It would be cool if I could get it to work like that.

They encode the characters of their .pdf transcripts weirdly.

I mean, you can't copy and paste any of the Japanese text. Officially they say it's to minimize file size, but I suspect its so people don't steal it.

I subscribe as well, mostly for the paid feed. I don't really use the pdf's or anything as I pretty much only listen to the podcasts while out jogging.

Regarding Peter, I found him a touch annoying at first, but once I started picture him as Jerry Seinfeld it eased my annoyance considerably. Hell, I even missed the dude at the end of the introductory Nihongo Dojo series when Rebekah replaced him =D