Saturday, January 06, 2007

Learning Japanese, podcast style

One goal I have is to learn Japanese...both the spoken and the written.

In all honesty, the best chance I would have would to be to take a formal class at the local community college. Considering the amount of anime, manga and JPop that we buy and the numbers of Japanese soaps I watch...it would really enhance my understanding...and exercise those aging gray-cells.

I've resisted picking up a software language package...or the lessons on CD/tape. I've looked at some lesson books in the bookstore, but have resisted these for now. Lavie got me a set of Katakana and Kanji flash cards that I look at occasionally, but serious usage is really a way off.

Yesterday, I stumbled across the web-site Tae Kim's Japanese guide to Japanese grammar It looks very well structured. Also linked on that site: Charles Kelly's Online Japanese Language Study Materials

But my most exciting find was a post over on Lifehacker: Learn a language with podcasts

I followed the bread-crumb trail and ended up finding these two Japanese language learning sites that have free podcasts:

http://japancast.net/ and

Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com

There are a ton of podcasts to subscribe to. I don't know which one I will pick as I don't think I can get them all crammed in there on top of my existing tech and security podcasts....

So there you go. If you are a one-day to be Japanese learner, or a seasoned pro looking for refreshers...these might be worth looking into (or listening in on!).

--Claus

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