pudding cat Wrote:I looked through the thread and I don't think the website is listed, apologies if I missed it somewhere.

http://prende-audio.com/

It has lots of free audio drama listed by genre.

How do you add that site as a podcast? I tried to find a way and failed.

wccrawford Wrote:

pudding cat Wrote:I looked through the thread and I don't think the website is listed, apologies if I missed it somewhere.

http://prende-audio.com/

It has lots of free audio drama listed by genre.

How do you add that site as a podcast? I tried to find a way and failed.

You're right, ugh posting fail...

The drama I'm listening to at the moment is also available as a podcast but I suppose not all the dramas are. I think it's a good resource but this is probably the wrong thread I'll try and find a more appropriate one to put it in.

pudding cat Wrote:The drama I'm listening to at the moment is also available as a podcast but I suppose not all the dramas are. I think it's a good resource but this is probably the wrong thread I'll try and find a more appropriate one to put it in.

I wasn't trying to be right. I was really hoping you found a way that I hadn't. I found that site looking for audio dramas, but I ended that search without finding any podcasts to add. It was a sad day.

Tokyo local is dead ;_ ;

Do you know of any cool podcasts that are updated weekly?

This forum is really resourceful, so much links,suggestions and helpful people (not like on a lot of other forums out there). I'll be sure to give back soon, just need to get a laptop

All the old Tokyo Local podcasts can be found here.

Yes, but tokyo local will not have any more episodes ;_;

Bokusenou Wrote:All the old Tokyo Local podcasts can be found here.

There were probably more.
I have 254 mp3 files in my archives, from 20060529.mp3 to 20110523.mp3.

Thanks for all of the great links. Im kind of late to this podcast stuff but there wouldnt happen to be scripts that accompany them would there? Ive downloaded Tokyo Local so far so we'll see how it goes.

For all of the Tokyo Local podcasts, even the old ones, go here:

http://www.tokyolocal.jp/blog/archives.html

Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. Sadly, the RSS appears to be borked.

Both A Piece of Laughing and Replica Blue seem to be missing, now.

Anybody have any recent recommendations? I've just been digging through iTunes to see what pops up but haven't really found anything special yet, tend to just grab a couple episodes and then move on to something else.

In particular, more radio dramas would be interesting -- as I listen to most of this at work, I've found they're the easiest to listen to while my hands are busy.

Thanks to this thread, I've found a few decent ones. My big problem with Japanese podcasts is they seem to play annoying music in the background all the time. Either that, or they alter their voices. Sometimes both of these things happen at the same time. I just want to listen to their voices!

When I did have a Japanese girl over, I let her listen to one of the podcasts I had on my MP3 (Tokyo Local, at the time). She asked me why I was listening to people discussing bras. I obviously couldn't understand the Japanese, so that was weird.

I enjoy Hideo Kojima's (of MGS fame) podcast. Not sure if it was already mentioned.

ninetimes Wrote:Both A Piece of Laughing and Replica Blue seem to be missing, now.

Anybody have any recent recommendations? I've just been digging through iTunes to see what pops up but haven't really found anything special yet, tend to just grab a couple episodes and then move on to something else.

In particular, more radio dramas would be interesting -- as I listen to most of this at work, I've found they're the easiest to listen to while my hands are busy.

To find audio drama it's probably best to just search ボイスドラマ plus whatever genre you prefer. This website is also a good place to start http://prende-audio.com/

At the moment my favourite is　ラジトラQ http://raditraq.seesaa.net/ It's about a radio personality, his assistant and his friend, a freelance journalist, who look for stories to report on. It's a kind of comedy and they come across some very bizarre stories.

pudding cat Wrote:At the moment my favourite is　ラジトラQ http://raditraq.seesaa.net/ It's about a radio personality, his assistant and his friend, a freelance journalist, who look for stories to report on. It's a kind of comedy and they come across some very bizarre stories.

That one seems like it would be cool if it wasn't too hard for me. I don't suppose they post a transcript somewhere?

wccrawford Wrote:

pudding cat Wrote:At the moment my favourite is　ラジトラQ http://raditraq.seesaa.net/ It's about a radio personality, his assistant and his friend, a freelance journalist, who look for stories to report on. It's a kind of comedy and they come across some very bizarre stories.

That one seems like it would be cool if it wasn't too hard for me. I don't suppose they post a transcript somewhere?

The only drama I've come across with a transcript is this one http://nwstudio.org/gunblaze/ I haven't listened to it yet but it's a sci-fi mecha one I think.

pudding cat Wrote:

wccrawford Wrote:

pudding cat Wrote:At the moment my favourite is　ラジトラQ http://raditraq.seesaa.net/ It's about a radio personality, his assistant and his friend, a freelance journalist, who look for stories to report on. It's a kind of comedy and they come across some very bizarre stories.

That one seems like it would be cool if it wasn't too hard for me. I don't suppose they post a transcript somewhere?

The only drama I've come across with a transcript is this one http://nwstudio.org/gunblaze/ I haven't listened to it yet but it's a sci-fi mecha one I think.

And I think we have a winner. Thank you SO much for that. I haven't listened yet, and I don't see mecha or scifi in the summary on the site, but it does have demons, magic, and military. I'm still hoping for scifi and mecha, but I'm happy enough as it is. And there's novels on there, too.

My good deed for the day is done! Hooray! I hope it's good

ninetimes Wrote:Both A Piece of Laughing and Replica Blue seem to be missing, now.

The group that made Replica Blue are now here http://www.rbvermilion.com/
Replica Blue is no longer free but you can find it under 過去作品販売
The lastest drama they made is available for free though.

TheVinster Wrote:When I did have a Japanese girl over, I let her listen to one of the podcasts I had on my MP3 (Tokyo Local, at the time). She asked me why I was listening to people discussing bras. I obviously couldn't understand the Japanese, so that was weird.

Aha, brilliant. Yeah, Tokyo Local is fantastic, but you might get some funny looks if anybody overhears and actually understands. I love it just because of how thoroughly amused they are all the time, and how varied the topics are.

And, pudding cat, thank you! Bunch of stuff to go through now.

I recently bought an Ipod and installed Itunes. Man, that thing has hundreds of podcasts! Free of course. Just type something in japanese in the itunes store (I usually type something like 福岡、東京、大阪) and download it to your ipod or just listen.

Uah T_T
I need some instant motivation towards listening from someone.. My lack in listening is just so brutal and cruel. I tried "tokyo local" for they non-noisy voices and when they start talking in the very beginning it is still slow, but during the progress of the podcast they turn into really fast chatters! My vocabulary knowledge is about core6k and I went through Tae Kim for grammar also (Genki 1 & 2 also done). What to do??

Tori-kun Wrote:Uah T_T
I need some instant motivation towards listening from someone.. My lack in listening is just so brutal and cruel. I tried "tokyo local" for they non-noisy voices and when they start talking in the very beginning it is still slow, but during the progress of the podcast they turn into really fast chatters! My vocabulary knowledge is about core6k and I went through Tae Kim for grammar also (Genki 1 & 2 also done). What to do??

Have you been listening to audio during your free time, with something like an iPod? If not, this should really help you out. All the listening experience you'll gain (since it's constantly there to fall back on) should really help. Also, one of the most helpful things may be to listen to one particular podcast over and over again until you feel comfortable. Once you're comfortable with that, go onto the next and repeat. Maybe starting out with smaller clips is also a good idea. The Last Wave Podcast project ( http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=7005 ) might be a good choice - there are all different speeds of speaking on those podcasts. Actively transcribing them (whether it's already been transcribed by a member or not) can also be a good motivational factor to get you through the whole clip while understanding 100%.

Also, you have 生きた日本語 book/dvd set, right? That, right there, is probably one of the best resources possible. When I was taking a Japanese conversation class, I was able to understand my teacher 80-100% of the time, and she didn't water down her use of words to make it easier to understand. She worked her magic (because with my level at the time, magic was necessary ) by throwing in gesture after gesture, and slightly exaggerating her facial expressions. So even if there were some words I couldn't quite pinpoint, I was able to realize which word it was based on her gestures and expressions. Basically, she incorporated methods that Sign Language uses in order to thrive as a language. The only way you're going to get something that simulates this is to listen to a conversation that comes with video.

Most of all, have fun When taking a break from active listening practice, use an MP3 player to engage in easy, passive listening practice.

@Nuriko: No, I haven't got 生きた日本語 - yet I just downloaded the MP3 podcast onto my iPod and listened to it - no joke - the whole day. I was lying in greece at the pool and had it running, constantly, repeating and repeating. The pity was, I was just understanding nothing, or, virtually nothing. The first time I listened I picked up a few words and then more and more until a certain point, where I wouldn't move onwards and the picked up words would produce a sea (or better: porridge) of words in my head confusing and frustrating me..
I'm rather interested in psychology and Japanese culture, but listening to something that interests me but is hellishly difficult to comprehend due terminological words, advanced phrases, expressions and grammar is rather a waste of time.

@CarolinaCG: You wrote somewhere, "Tokyo Local" helped you increasing your vocab. Both, you and Nuriko, what did you vocab (you did core6k, right?) deck look like? Did you use the audio for the "expression" also or only the audio for the "sentences"? I couldn't find the former, so I just used the latter - once. I actually ran through core6k in a way I would gather lots of vocabulary; perhaps my brain needs more time to decode stuff, because once I read the transcript (if the grammar isn't too difficult and most words/compounds used are known), I can understand it pretty well and get the hang of the content.

My core6k cards look like:
Q - Expression|Sentence
A - Reading|Meaning|Sentence with Reading and Audio

I'm just using rachel's comfortable core6k deck having JLPT tags and it says just JLPT1 vocabulary are left, although I think, there are a few more JLPT2 and JLPT1 vocabulary that are not included in that deck - yet? What other lists did you use?

I don't even know what that core6k is. I actually started listening to tokyo local in november and at first I understood nothing. I got used to it and started understanding a lot of what was being said. But, of course there's probablu a lot of stuff I dont understand. I study vocab from jlpt lists and from the news and recently from nihongo somatome 2 kyuu dokkai book (yes, the reading book, not the vocab one).

At first I didn't believe in it, but then I started listening to japanese every waking hour and I'm pretty happy with what I can understand now. You just have to listen, ayou don' t even need to be paying attention (I didn't pay attention to what was being said). It's hard to explain. Just do it.


In november my listening skills were definetely the worst of my skills, now I'd say they're one of the best (though I think they are all on similar levels)