I quite like JapanesePod101, mostly due to the sheer quantity of content, and the fact that the episodes build off each other. There are a lot of great free resources out there, but many of them only have a dozen episodes or so, and although you can make up for that by listening to many different podcasts, that’s risks getting a bit jumbled.
I also quite like having a format and hosts that I’m familiar with; I mostly use it when out on walks, and it’s important for me to not get too stressed out, which sometimes happens when I switch back and forth between different podcasts.
That being said, a lot of the early episodes aren’t very good; there’s a lot of non-native audio, and also a lot of banter (and not particularly entertaining banter, either). I don’t currently have an active subscription, so I can’t check, but I believe this mostly affects Beginner, Newbie and Lower Intermediate levels.
It’s important to check as many resources as possible and stick with a few to make progress. At the moment I feel a little lost as to where to begin but I think I will continue with the kanji practice and LingoDeer every day.
I found JapanesePod101 extremely difficult to use. It has a lot of content but I truly found it overwhelming and not helpful to me. For some people it might be really useful but I just didn’t know where ot go on the website most of the time. I do like a lot of hand-holding but I felt that overall it wasn’t for me. Also the constant ads for signing up even when you already have subscribed were awful. They really detracted from my experience.
They do have a 60 day money back guarantee however which is great. I tried it for just over 30 days and got my money back (I’d signed up for a year on one of their offers).
I recommend it but only for specific series and at the basic membership level. I think the guy a lot of people dislike is Peter (I don’t like him either tbh) but he’s not in a lot of the episodes and Naomi-sensei’s lessons are really great. I’ve been going through their lower intermediate courses as a review and finding I still get a good amount out of them. I plan to continue onto the upper intermediate ones then I’ll probably drop it again after that. I’ve also noticed that they removed the ads from the episodes (at least all the ones I listened to didn’t have any) and they’ve gotten better at organizing the various series into “pathways”.
I signed up on one of their holiday offers in December. Slowly going through the very basic lessons. Finding it useful for now. I’ll listen to a lessen a few times to make sure I understand certain words and to help my own pronunciation. Not bad so far.
I tried it because I wanted a hands-free way to study while I was eating. I thought it contained some interesting cultural knowledge but I learned very little. Eventually I got a bit tired of it and switched to watching Cure Dolly’s videos while eating. I learned a lot more.
If it’s fun for you though, you should give it a shot. It’s better than nothing at the early stage.
There’s a 60 days money guarantee so we do not have much to lose. 