About once every two weeks I do a long drive, about 2.5 hours each way, and I would like to use this time to add to my Japanese studies. At the moment, I’m learning mostly kanji and vocabulary: WaniKani for kanji and some of the Kitsun decks for vocab (Genki, JLPT N5 and WK Reversed). I’ve started Genki, only done the first couple of chapters.
I want something that is completely stand-alone as I don’t have time to do anything more than I’m already doing when I’m not in the car. I suppose I could find time to read through a bit of text but that’s about all. I also want something completely hands-free that I can just start when I set off and listen/speak as I go. Speaking would be good - no need to be embarassed! It needs to be something I can download as the drive is mostly through a mountainous area with no phone reception.
I did see this related thread about audio resources and some of the suggestions look useful, but it’s now 3 years old and things do move on. I’ve had a look at the Shadowing book suggested there but it looks way too difficult for me. Something like Pimsleur might work but, like the poster on the other thread, I don’t want to learn formal business Japanese.
My ideal would be something that worked well with the things I am already doing, maybe reinforced as much as expanded my vocab, added gently to my grammar knowledge, and gave me some good speaking and listening practice.
2.5 hours of listening to Japanese at a level I’d learn from while driving would completely melt my brain.
I’d second Nihongo Con Teppei, and there are a bunch of other podcasts out there at varying levels which you can try like Nihongo No Tane, Haru No Nihongo, Learn Japanese With Noriko, etc, etc. Just put “nihongo” or “Japanese” into the search of any podcast app really.
If you get a Japanese Audible account audio books are also a good pick, again you can choose your level.
I’ll also second (third?) that Nihongo Con Teppei is really dang good. I frequently listen to it while out on walks and such, and it’s always a grand time.
Also, while it’s probably not ideal at the moment, you might eventually get some use out of listening to Japanese “just chatting” style vods. I know plenty of streamers have several-hour long videos on their channels of just them talking to their audience. The difficulty is quite high, though, since these are usually intended for a native audience.
It’s a matter of personal taste, so YMMV - for example, I have tried to like Nihongo Con Teppei, but after listening to perhaps a dozen episodes I have found his voice to be somewhat ‘grating’ (it reminds me in many ways of the American preschool children’s TV series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood - which could indeed be intentional, as both of them seem to employ a ‘non-threatening’, almost soothing tone of voice - which may be appropriate for a young child, but which annoys the hell out of me as an adult), which for me interferes with its usefulness.
I also don’t particularly like his approach (that, for example, relies on an overload of repetition with slight variations), and yet somewhat paradoxically perhaps that explains why other folks do find it to be effective.
But I’m wondering whether listening to Nihongo Con Teppei while driving could lead to a form of “highway hypnosis” that could lead to ‘distracted driving’ due to nodding off.
Yeah, I’m mostly joking about that, but not completely.
Thanks for the suggestions. I tried Con Teppei but couldn’t understand it at all, so clearly I need to be further on than I am for that one. Didn’t have time for Miku today, will try tomorrow, though I presume it will also be too difficult.
You could try audio lessons geared towards learners like Pimsleur or JapanesePod101, although the lower level lessons will have fair amounts of English by necessity, but they go slower, repeat a lot, and have English translations.
JPod101 used to have the first three lessons of a module free, but I couldn’t tell you if they still do.
There may be podcasts for learning you could search around for as well, since the above are mostly paid services.
Hi! It’s quite a tough thing to find when starting out - I remember everything feeling too tough But also one of the most important skills with language learning is being able to tolerate ambiguity and infer meaning if you don’t know everything said, so it all helps!
In terms of recommendations:
Pimsleur - I might have been the person in that other thread complaining about the formality but it is probably the only decent audio resource you can use from day one. And like - you will come across formal Japanese so it’s not a bad thing knowing it a bit! I probably would drop it as soon as the below are a possibility but it’s a decent enough early resource.
Podcasts: as folk have said, nihongo con teppi is amazing at the beginner level. The easiest podcast I have come across is “Japanese with shun” - he sticks to genki 1 most of the time and even has some episodes for early chapters. Don’t worry too much if you listen to an episode and it seems too hard! I remember I used to have to listen to teppi episodes on repeat and it would take until about the 4th listen to feel okay with it. If you can push through it then it will get better
known material: another option if podcasts aren’t working is to pick the audio from something you know really well, so you are really just getting used to hearing spoken Japanese rather than stressing about what it means. If there is a show you’ve watched a million times then that could be a good option, or a book you have read a lot in your native language. I did this early on with the first Harry Potter (it was before the author had come out as a massive transphobe so I no longer have the warm and fuzzy feelings about it I did at the time ) - I read the book so much as a kid that it still felt fairly comfortable to listen to - at the start it was pretty much just “blablablabla “character name” blah blah “one word I recognise” blah blah” - but over time I’d start being like “oh hey, I can recognise what scene this is!” and eventually the whole thing became understandable.
With 2.5 hours a day, you’ll build up listening skills really quick once putting time into it I think! Best of luck!
Not sure I’ve got that much brain left to melt but thanks for your concern I might not do a full 5 hours but the drive is mostly easy and boring so it would be good to get some use out of the time.
Thanks, those suggestions all sound good and I will look into them
Yes, I looked and it was you! I know exactly what you mean - I’ve tried Pimsleur of a couple of other languages. They do have the advantage of being completely self-contained though and working through a few might get me to the point where I can do some of the other things that might be better. The NCT I tried though was useless as I really could hardly understand a word, didn’t have the faintest idea what was being talked about and couldn’t even guess. You can get the Pimsleurs, and the Japanese In Your Car that someone else suggested, fairly cheaply on Audible intro offer so I will give that a try.
I have Audible, which is why I tried Pimsleur and Michel Thomas using my free monthly. There are several decent included podcasts etc like JP101 and several others. They are similar in that they teach you what you need to know, and (works best if you can reply out loud during the prompted silences) after they tell you, they use SRS-type spacing to revive that knowledge and force you to use it in different ways.
I also subscribed to YouTube, so I can listen to whatever I want without ads or needing the screen on. You are probably familiar with multiple sources on there.
One of my favorite things to listen to while driving is Genki’s OTO-Navi app. I can set it to repeat a single lesson, or a single chapter, or play straight through answers of the entire book and workbook! That’s pretty awesome, because I can drill whatever I think I need work on at the time. And it’s surprisingly rare that I can’t guess what answers they are trying to get from me because I can’t see the book!
Because I have given myself “1 year to learn Chinese”… And I have found that the 4 levels of Japanese Pimsleur have helped to “free my tongue” and get me speaking Japanese relatively easily and thinking in Japanese more… I splurged and bought a 1-year All-Access Pimsleur subscription (for less than$200; it’s on sale now)… I didn’t find out until I was in, that I could add two other users (friends and family) into that same subscription. (So now my friends love me even more…they have yet another language-learning app they can feel guilty about never finding the time to use)
I recommend Japanese music!
Make a playlist on spotify and download it so you can use it offline.
I know I know, a lot of people say that listening to Music isn’t studying but I think it actually is. You get used to the sounds and can pick out a word here or there. Of course it depends a lot on what kind of music you are listening to.
For beginners in listening I recommend Takuro Yoshida. His songs are like little stories and pretty easy to pick out a few words.
But also one of the most important skills with language learning is being able to tolerate ambiguity and infer meaning if you don’t know everything said, so it all helps!
) - I read the book so much as a kid that it still felt fairly comfortable to listen to - at the start it was pretty much just “blablablabla “character name” blah blah “one word I recognise” blah blah” - but over time I’d start being like “oh hey, I can recognise what scene this is!” and eventually the whole thing became understandable.
I might not do a full 5 hours but the drive is mostly easy and boring so it would be good to get some use out of the time.
