In March, as I first took up the challenge of the JLPT certification exam, I hunted the Internet for sources of listening practice for Japanese. I found some good sources, some not so good, but I haven’t given up. I find that in spite of 10 months of study, my listening skills are still lagging behind badly. Things have improved, at least enough to pass the listening section of the JLPT 3 hopefully, but still at a much slower rate than I hoped for. My wife, who learned English, warned me that listening takes a long time to learn, and she is right.
My biggest problem is that when I listen to my wife or her friend, I frequently misunderstand what they said, so my answer sounds kind of non-sensical, or seems like I didn’t listen to the conversation right. So, anything to help get used to hearing Japanese conversation is a big help, and if practiced over the long-term, it will help me reduce mistakes and respond to speakers more naturally. Since I don’t live in Japan, I have to be a little more resourceful and diligent.
Podcasts seem to be a good source for this, since I can listen at work routinely and a good podcast can provide needed exposure to the language.
So, first I tried searching on Google but didn’t find much. Then, I did some playing around on iTunes under the iTunes Store, and they have a nice Podcast section. So I searched for the word “Podcast” in Japanese, which is poddokyasuto (ポッドキャスト),1 and found a lot of content. The Nippon Broadcasting (にっぽん放送) podcast has a good variety of shows, mostly comedy, but other things too, and is frequently updated. That last point is important for a podcast I think, especially if you need to practice listening in a foreign language.2
Comedy podcasts are among the hardest to follow along with because the language is very fast, and lots of wordplay. For example, the daily comedy 高田文夫のラジオビバリー昼ズオープニング is just too hard for me to follow, even though it seems very funny. So, some of the more regular, discussion podcasts are more interesting to me. As of writing, here’s the podcasts from Nippon Broadcasting I like in particular (you can select from iTunes podcast which ones you like):
- 谷村新司 – まあるい日曜日 – My personal favorite. This guy seems pretty cool actually, and has good advice. Too bad it’s only once a week.
- ますおか「裏」ちゃんねる – Another good one that I like, for guys about my age. Since it’s comedy, it’s harder to follow, but still good.
- YAGアニメラボ零〜ゼロ〜 – This is a new one, and more for younger college kids. Also, anime doesn’t interest me at all, but good dialogue and nice kids.
- 角田龍平のオールナイトニッポン – Comedy, but this guy has a nice voice, and some good stories. Seems to be updated less consistently, which is too bad.
Additionally, here are a few sources I’ve found on the World Wide Web3 that I liked, in no particular order:
- JapanesePod101.com – Intermediate and Upper Intermediate series. The dialogues are pretty good, but the best part is the off-script banter. At these levels they tend to converse a lot in Japanese, and sometimes things get pretty silly. I like this part, along with the more structured lessons that come with them. Good chemistry among the group.
- Yomiuri News Podcast – Yomiuri is a big newspaper in Japan, so this is their daily news feed. Little or no dialogue, but if you ignore the frequent advertisements, it is a good source for listening to very formal Japanese.
Of course, living in Japan is the best approach, but if you can’t do that, then at least get a variety of listening sources, comedy, news, and so on, and rotate frequently until you get accustomed to listening to each one. Variety is the spice of life, as the old saying goes, and you need a lot of exposure and variety to strengthen your listening skills. Don’t underestimate the importance listening skills when studying a language, or you may get frustrated. Best of luck on the JLPT and in learning Japanese!
Update: Added some personal recommendations on good podcasts I like from Nippon Broadcasting, since I’ve had a chance to listen to them for a while. Also, another more recent post here, covering yet more sources.
P.S. Accidentally released this post too early, after a problem with WordPress iPhone app. This has been corrected. Apologies for the confusion.
1 I can’t tell you how much trouble I had figuring out what the word for podcast was. It’s too new to appear in most dictionaries, and I was spelling it in Katakana wrong, but apparently I am not the only one. When I misspelled it in Google, I got a lot of search hits for other foreigners podcasting about Japan, so I guess lots of English-speakers mispell it the same way.
2 I highly recommend the podcast 高田文夫のラジオビバリー昼ず and the オールナイト show. The latter is no longer updated but pretty darn funny and a good example of masculine Japanese. Notice all the rolled ‘R’ sounds.
3 does anyone still say that anymore?
This blog is the reflection of my efforts to explore fatherhood, Buddhism and my love of Japanese culture. Anything useful I can pass along makes the Internet hopefully a better place.
If you have a Japanese iTunes account, there’s some good Japan-only pod content, as well as videos and clips of TV shows you can’t get elsewhere. You can’t sign up with a non-Japanese credit card, unfortunately, but you can sign up with a Japanese iTunes card, which can be bought on these World Wide Webs easily enough.
As another way to practice listening, lately I’ve been watching Japanese movies I know well without subtitles, to see how much of the content I can catch, or how detailed I can understand. I’m taking the JLPT level 2 next month, so I need listening help too!
Hi Adam,
Good luck on the JLPT 2! I hope to try that next year (still need to pass JLPT3 this year). As for listening, I have a few Japaense movies I tried watching wihtout subtitles (when I hda the time), and found that because I knew the story already, it kind of skewed my ability to listen because I could anticipate to some degree.
With the daily podcasts, it’s different content everyday, so it’s harder to anticipate, and forces you to exercise listening more. Or so I believe.
Also, I can listen at work while getting thigns done, so as the yojijukugo says: ikkyo ryōtoku (一挙両得, “best of both worlds, killing two birds with one stone”)
As for the iTunes card, that’s a great idea. I avoid using credit cards online these days, so I prefer buying gift cards with cash and then using those online (I do that with Amazon and ITunes for example), so I will pick up a Japanese iTunes card if I can. Very cool, thanks!
On footnote 3: I think its called the Intarwebz now.
Ha! I thought it was the Intertubes (alternate spelling “tubez”).