Tae Kim of 3Yen (see his interview here) has been running free introductory Japanese lessons using Skype. The lessons have been available on the 3Yen website for download as mp3s (plus notes) but now Tae has now made these lessons available as podcasts via iTunes. On the technical side there is still a fair bit of background noise to clean up but the content is solid and for beginners the podcast is a great way to get to grips with the language. Tae Kim is a stern taskmaster - in Beginner Lesson 3 he doesn't let even slight intonational defects slide past without jumping on them and beating them into shape - something the students should be overjoyed about because the average Japanese listener would problem let the error go, thus denying the learner the chance to improve. Besides the lessons Tae has also included as a podcast a conversation with two friends under the title "So many ways to say 'say' !" in which he discusses casual forms of "言う” and gets to strut his J-speech which is very natural and idiomatic. Almost all in Japanese and perfect for intermediate listeners.
Tags learning Japanese
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