Best way to get 24h/24 Japanese audio input?

meolox Member

Registered: 2007-08-31 Posts: 386

erlog wrote:
meolox wrote:
Piece of advice don't make it obvious by your name you're gaijin or they might be a little quiet
Do you have tips on this? I'm having trouble hiding myself.

Just don't speak, don't set your location and try and don't have a name that screams gaijin "omgjapansosupakawaiidesune" names like that come to mind.

Calchas New member

From: California Registered: 2007-10-12 Posts: 5

Codexus wrote:
ファブリス wrote:
Any suggestions for a good iPod alternative?
The Archos players used to be the best mp3 players but I haven't really followed the evolution these past few years... I'm probably going to buy one soon.

The whole iPod thing highly irritates me. They weren't the first mp3 players, when they were first released they were clearly inferior to the competition products (things are not so clear now), they have always been awfully plagued with DRM and yet the Apple marketing machine has managed to turn them into one of the most successful product of these past few years. I just don't get it.

Apple's IPOD took advantage of the Music industry being in , what I call, "sleep mode".
The record companies where all still selling CDs when the world was moving to MP3s. They spent too much time chasing the dimes they where losing due to people sharing files instead of seeing the bigger picture of the millions they could make by simply putting their catalogs online.

Jobs saw an op to give easy access to MP3s by combining an easy to use player AND an easy to use online store with a nice sized mainstream music catalog. Thier software interface made getting your music onto your player VERY easy ( back in the day it took time and various programs to rip CDs and make or download MP3s). Its what the people wanted and needed, now everyone else (record compaines, Microsoft) is playing catch up.

Last edited by Calchas (2007 December 24, 1:40 pm)

erlog Member

From: Japan Registered: 2007-01-25 Posts: 633

meolox wrote:
erlog wrote:
meolox wrote:
Piece of advice don't make it obvious by your name you're gaijin or they might be a little quiet
Do you have tips on this? I'm having trouble hiding myself.
Just don't speak, don't set your location and try and don't have a name that screams gaijin "omgjapansosupakawaiidesune" names like that come to mind.

done that, they still notice me.

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meolox Member

Registered: 2007-08-31 Posts: 386

erlog wrote:
meolox wrote:
erlog wrote:

Do you have tips on this? I'm having trouble hiding myself.
Just don't speak, don't set your location and try and don't have a name that screams gaijin "omgjapansosupakawaiidesune" names like that come to mind.
done that, they still notice me.

Oh well, how do they catch on, do they ask if you're gaijin?

Serge Member

From: Tokyo Registered: 2006-04-04 Posts: 275

zazen666 wrote:
Would you mind sharing some of the podcasts you have subscribed to?

There is absolutely no system, it's a fruit of randomly browsing the library in iTunes. I have to say that the end result does the job to simulate the radio quite nicely. :-)

Just a few examples of the stuff that I actually do listen to from time to time:

日本経済新聞＜ダイジェスト版＞ for serious stuff
伊藤洋一のビジネストレンド - less serious, from the same publisher
週刊日経トレンディ - even less serious

ヤマヒロのアナPod Cafe - I want my Japanese sound like this guy's when I grow up (but maybe less Kansai :-) )

JUNK 爆笑問題カーボーイ - recommended by AJATT, haven't properly listened to them yet

中国語熱烈放送局 for random talk about the Chinese language through Japanese eyes

★セクシー心理学～声だけで人間の心をつかむ技術～★ - even more random; the girl makes me laugh, though...

etc... I also have some stuff that I've never bothered listening to. I also have some bookmarks on voiceblog.jp that I should spend some time checking out... Life's too short.

aircawn Member

From: Australia Registered: 2006-07-18 Posts: 166

My iPod alternative is an iRiver T10. The software to transfer files back and forth doesn't completely suck, it uses AA batteries and on-board flash memory for storage. This means decent playback time before you need to change batteries.

Personally, I bought it for the fact it supports OGG but I'm weird.

ruisu Member

From: New York Registered: 2007-09-04 Posts: 53 Website

meolox wrote:
erlog wrote:
meolox wrote:
Just don't speak, don't set your location and try and don't have a name that screams gaijin "omgjapansosupakawaiidesune" names like that come to mind.
done that, they still notice me.
Oh well, how do they catch on, do they ask if you're gaijin?

Haha, I made the mistake of not hiding myself. They were questioning me in Japanese, and I said I was just listening but didn't understand them, and then again in broken Japanese. They didn't seem to mind. Then I think they started making fun of me.

That was a while ago, on a side note, are you guys able to connect? I am getting an error telling me "You need a new version of Skype to use Skypecasts" even though I have the latest version.

Last edited by ruisu (2007 December 24, 9:43 pm)

taijuando Member

From: nyc Registered: 2006-01-07 Posts: 170

I'm new to all of this....I'm thinking of getting an iPod or other MP3 and a new computer because mine crashes whenever I do something crazy like try to download a song....anyway how do I "rip" a DVD....I bought 電車男　　or "Train Man" and I would like to just listen to the audio on my way to work, etc.....and are there advantages to doing this on a PC or a Mac

Last edited by taijuando (2007 December 24, 10:35 pm)

CharleyGarrett Member

From: Cusseta Georgia USA Registered: 2006-05-25 Posts: 303

Transtic wrote:
By the way, has somebody tried out Lingq?

I have. I found the site quite slow, but it did have audio files, with the transcript. It has a feature that lets you make vocabularly lists from the transcripts, but it's not quite right for languages that don't use the "space" character to delineate words, like Japanese, so that's just broken. I'm still using it a little bit on the side. Right now, I'm listening to Soseki's "I'm a cat".

Last edited by CharleyGarrett (2007 December 24, 11:36 pm)

radical_tyro Member

Registered: 2005-11-19 Posts: 272

ruisu wrote:
meolox wrote:
erlog wrote:

done that, they still notice me.
Oh well, how do they catch on, do they ask if you're gaijin?
Haha, I made the mistake of not hiding myself. They were questioning me in Japanese, and I said I was just listening but didn't understand them, and then again in broken Japanese. They didn't seem to mind. Then I think they started making fun of me.

That was a while ago, on a side note, are you guys able to connect? I am getting an error telling me "You need a new version of Skype to use Skypecasts" even though I have the latest version.

Yeah I can connect just fine, but I'm on os x. I set my name to some fake japanese name and joined a few skypecasts to see what the deal is. Up on entering sometimes they'd say hi to which I wouldn't respond, and then sometimes they would tell me to say something, but I wouldn't. I guess that's not good manners, but they besides that they didn't seem to mind me hanging around. I just had it on mute; I don't see any button to hide myself or go into "just listening" mode... ?_?

ファブリス Administrator

From: Belgium Registered: 2006-06-14 Posts: 4021 Website

Thanks for all the good pointers. I think we need a podcast sticky topic I'll be looking into it further once I buy the player.

I might go for the iPod if I can find it in something else than white. The reason I asked for alternative suggestions is because of DRM concerns and problems with the iTunes software but if it's intermittent USB annoyance I guess I'll live. I'm surprised by the short battery life though, but I suppose that's for the version with the screen (well, looks like it's the "classic" version).

Do you find the iPod screen really useful?

I'm just going to listen to random talks in mp3 or wmv format.

Does your American/European iPod display the asian characters properly or do you have to romanize the filenames?

I had a Sony minidisc player a while ago, there was a simple LCD display with the title which for the purpose of selecting one of the mp3s is really sufficient.

Back to alternatives, if I buy something else than an iPod, does anyone know of a handy program that downloads podcasts and synchronize them via USB ?

billyclyde Member

Registered: 2007-05-21 Posts: 192

I set my iPod to Japanese, so everything is in Japanese, including the names.

DRM should only matter if it's stuff you've paid for-- podcasts are free.

Also, I quite like walking around listening to D-addicts shows without watching. You can convert the video files with Handbreak.

Serge Member

From: Tokyo Registered: 2006-04-04 Posts: 275

????? wrote:
Do you find the iPod screen really useful?

Yes: some podcasts come with the script in the comments that can be seen on the screen. Or: you can paste the script in the comments and review when needed...

The SRS iFlash decks can be exported to iPod and reviewed on the screen.

That's the only use for the screen I can see, I wouldn't dream of watching any video on it or something.

????? wrote:
Does your American/European iPod display the asian characters properly or do you have to romanize the filenames?

You're forgetting that Apple deals with non-Latin scripts marvellously... :-)

revenantkioku Member

Registered: 2007-06-12 Posts: 103

It seems a little silly, but if you turn off the option for having the backlight come on every time you work in the interface you save a loooooot of battery power. (You can still force the backlight on by setting the main menu to have a backlight option.)

ファブリス wrote:
Does your American/European iPod display the asian characters properly or do you have to romanize the filenames?

My American iPod is set in Japanese for that extra Japanese fun.

Last edited by revenantkioku (2007 December 26, 6:33 pm)

dbooster Member

From: Japan Registered: 2007-10-26 Posts: 16

Might be good to note that even if you don't set the system language to Japanese, the ipod will still display any kanji/kana in file names perfectly, as well as any lyrics or Japanese notes you happen to have attached to songs/podcasts.

DRM really isn't a huge issue unless you make it one. Many songs on the itunes store (in the itunes Japan store too) are now DRM free for the same price as DRM songs (and with a higher encode rate), and of course podcasts are completely free of any DRM.

I don't know about battery life in the latest models, but my old 2nd gen ipod nano gets about 8-10 hours or so. Since I only use it a few hours a day, I only have to charge it once a week or so. It's only 4 gig, which I suppose is rather small, but it's plenty for the Japanese songs and podcasts I have, so it works well for me. The screen is useful if you happen to type out the lyrics for songs in Japanese like I do. Itunes makes it easy to do that, so no need to ask how if you want to.

revenantkioku Member

Registered: 2007-06-12 Posts: 103

Yah, I didn't mean to imply you had to do that. Just that you can and so the thing already is prepped for those fonts and jazz.

Rakushun Member

Registered: 2007-04-27 Posts: 21

Im joining random Skypecasts under the name sabishiigaijin.

Obviously I get questions about the stupid name, but that's ok because it forces me to get accustomed to questions and answering. But after that I usually just listen.

meolox Member

Registered: 2007-08-31 Posts: 386

Oh i love the name rakushun, I was in a japanese skypecast once when a Japanese person was reading from an English book (probably the guy was a victim of learning Japanese English at School), I could not understand a word he was saying but I thanked him for trying to speak English.

ファブリス Administrator

From: Belgium Registered: 2006-06-14 Posts: 4021 Website

Yessssss! Japanese channels on Miro.

松尾のぐぐっとジョブ (Good job!)
First program I saw was about making fishpaste ( 蒲鉾【かまぼこ】 ) it's like Japanese TV, lots of on-screen Japanese captions !

週刊女子大生バトンSeason2
Girls talking about dating, fashion etc. also with some captions for the questions.

revenantkioku Member

Registered: 2007-06-12 Posts: 103

Why is it that in the Skypecast you can't tell who is currently talking? O_o
That's...a feature that most basic chat programs usually have!

vosmiura Member

From: SF Bay Area Registered: 2006-08-24 Posts: 1085

While on vacation in Japan I picked up some books (with audio) that seemed useful.

シャドーイング日本語を話そう

This book has about 500 short dialogues that start from very basic short sentences up to longer, JLPT2 level dialogues. They're all spoken in Japanese on the CD, and in the book you have the sentence + furigana, and English, Chinese and Korean translations. You're supposed to shadow read the dialogues to boost your fluency. I'm enjoying this.

英会話フレーズブック―リアルな日常表現2900

This book is intended for Japanese learning English, but it also seemed interesting for E->J. It has 2900 phrases with Japanese & English, with both J & E readings on 3 CDs. The sentences are realistic and interesting; they cover a lot of things I've never heard before. The Japanese on the CDs is spoken at rather high speed though.

Last edited by vosmiura (2007 December 30, 10:26 am)

Transtic Member

Registered: 2007-07-29 Posts: 201

Have you considered using a Text To Speech engine?
I have a "japanese voice" installed, and even though it's not %100 natural, it's pretty close. Besides, I installed a Firefox add-on that calls windows TTS directly through a keyboard shortcut. tうまり I can just seat back and listen to my computer reading anything on the web for me. 8)

It would be a great idea adding a Japanese OCR and turn normal Japanese books into audiobooks. (given that you correct the text file before "TTSize" it).

Last edited by Transtic (2007 December 30, 10:49 am)

ファブリス Administrator

From: Belgium Registered: 2006-06-14 Posts: 4021 Website

Yesterday I saw and tried an IPod Nano at a superstore here in Aachen (the smaller one with 8GB at ~150 euro). WOW!!

THat looks like a great solution for me:

- you can easily go back and forth in the mp3 in case you'd want to skip some dialogue.
- I saw a 30 euro or so simple Alarm clock with iPod connection so you can wake up to iPod !
- similary there's some good iPod stations so as soon as I'm back home I would no longer have to spend 10 minutes rewiring PC/stereo cables, booting up the PC etc to listen to Japanese while doing things away from the computer, which is a big plus, but those weren't cheap. Thankfully I could just plug the audio out to my stereo. The station's added aadvantage is it recharges the iPod. I still don't know if it will come with a recharger or if it is only through USB.
- looks like you could develop some programs for it
- there's added calendar, clocks, notes etc which doesn't hurt

I also still don't know if it directly supports the MP4 such as downloaded through Miro. Any idea?

But if the movie converter can take MP4, then I guess the file size will be much smaller since the iPod resolution is limited anyway.

markl11 Member

Registered: 2007-07-24 Posts: 32

ファブリス wrote:
Yesterday I saw and tried an IPod Nano at a superstore here in Aachen (the smaller one with 8GB at ~150 euro). WOW!!

If you are going to be watching a lot of dramas from D-Addicts then you might find the iPod Touch better in the long run - the screen is much bigger.

Because I watch a ton of dramas and movie, as well as listening to music, podcast, etc, I decided that the extra cost of the iPod Touch was justified (I have seen reveiws of the Nano with reveiwers stating that they found it difficult to watch for long periods).

The only real disadvantage of the iPod Tocuh is the relatively small mem size - 16Gb max at the moment. But that's not really a big disadvantage if you hook up to your PC/iTunes every few days in order to download new stuff.

Mark

Calchas New member

From: California Registered: 2007-10-12 Posts: 5

ファブリス wrote:
I also still don't know if it directly supports the MP4 such as downloaded through Miro. Any idea?

Try using "super" http://www.erightsoft.com/S6Kg1.html
Be warned it has the worst download setup ever! You have to click on 3 "download" links before you actually get redirected to a page where you can download the program.
Silly, but what can you do?

Anyways, its a freeware program that can be used to rip sound outta video, convert sound and video file to different formats, etc. I use it to make MP3 files outta movies/video clips I find on the web from veoh or youtube. I then upload the MP3s, after editing them with wavepad another freeware program, to my ipod or use them in Anki.

When I get either a PSP3 or Iphone next year I'll use it to convert video files for use on those devices.

Last edited by Calchas (2007 December 31, 10:03 am)

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erlog wrote:

meolox wrote:

Codexus wrote:

ファブリス wrote:

meolox wrote:

erlog wrote:

meolox wrote:

erlog wrote:

meolox wrote:

erlog wrote:

zazen666 wrote:

meolox wrote:

erlog wrote:

meolox wrote:

Transtic wrote:

ruisu wrote:

meolox wrote:

erlog wrote:

????? wrote:

????? wrote:

ファブリス wrote:

ファブリス wrote:

ファブリス wrote: