As the title says, I am looking for Japanese Podcast Recommendations. I would say my Japanese is about N4 level but I’m open to more “beginner” podcasts as well as my lack of vocabulary is my weakest link.
Also, and this is slightly embarrassing, I have never once listened to a podcast but have heard they can be useful study tools. That being said, if you can also tell me how to find whatever it is you recommend, that would be most appreciated!
I might be alone here, but I would advise against nihongo con teppei unless you’re also fluent in spanish or something. He makes a lot of jokes about spanish (like ‘onegaishimamos’) and will also give the spanish translation of japanese words. It took me a little while to figure out because I don’t really speak spanish, and no one warned me.
hmm, yeah I guess I could see this being annoying to some people but idk, I feel like it’s pretty obvious whenever he’s making a joke (fairly sure that after the first onegaishimamos he follows it up with a lot of “冗談!冗談!” and while he repeats this same joke a few times I can’t really think of any others other than saying hasta luego as part of the big list of goodbyes at the end). I speak zero Spanish so it might be that some things fly right over my head but certainly it’s never got in my way of understanding or enjoying the podcast and I’ve listened to several hundred episodes by now between beginner, intermediate and the one he does with noriko. I think you’re correct to point out as a disclaimer for anyone that thinks it would annoy them that there’s the occasional usage of Spanish here and there but I definitely don’t think you need to be fluent in Spanish to listen to teppei.
This person has a podcast feed as well, but I like his YouTube channel because the videos are a transcript of what he’s saying as he’s saying it. Good for getting some speed reading in as well.
What? That’s not even a joke that has anything to do with Spanish. Also, he says like a few words in Spanish per episode that are super obvious even for me who has studied zero Spanish, like “Hasta luego” at the end. I really can’t remember that he teaches stuff through Spanish. Even if he sometimes randomly throws some Spanish words in there (esp. when he lived in Barcelona), it’s probably less than 1% of the whole podcast. It really doesn’t get in the way. And I’ve listened to every single episode of the intermediate podcast plus his podcast for natives.
amamos is the nosotros conjugation for -ar verbs in spanish. Not sure what you think it’s supposed to be?
I could probably go through and find plenty of examples, but in the family members episode he says ‘primo’ which is the spanish word for cousin. Again, I don’t speak spanish fluently, so I think there’s more that I don’t even pick up on becuase I’m trying to figure out a japanese word he’s saying and don’t realize it’s spanish
Just went back and he also says ‘tio/tia’ which is aunt and uncle in spanish
Edit: Maybe he uses way less Spanish in the intermediate podcast. I haven’t listened to that one much. But especially for a beginner’s podcast for people who have basically no listening experience, I feel like the beginner podcast is unnecessarily confusing
But there’s not even an ‘amamos’ in there? It’s まっもす or まんもす with a long consonant. He explained in an episode it’s something kids would say as a pun. おねがいしマンモス sounds like ‘mammoth’ in Japanese. So the meaning is like ‘lots of お願いします’.
ah, I do actually remember finding that episode a little confusing but it’s been a looooong time since I listened. Since it’s episode #17 of a podcast that now has 400+ episodes, and I don’t think this is an issue in more recent podcasts, I’d maybe give some later episodes a shot to see if you like those more. I find generally with most podcasts that they take a little bit to hit their stride!
As I said, I know zero Spanish and this isn’t something that I’ve ever found an issue with teppeis podcast which I started listened to from an absolute beginner level, so I do strongly disagree with the statement that you need to be fluent in Spanish to listen - however, everyone is different in what learning style they like. Teppei has a pretty jokey style which I really like - but it does mean that he will make jokes etc like the one that’s been discussed here (although I do think he’s pretty clear when he’s joking) so if that’s not a style that works for you/that you find confusing then that’s totally valid. Doesn’t mean teppei’s podcasts are bad - they just don’t work well with how you want to learn. Luckily there are almost too many options for Japanese podcasts so there are many others out there haha!
This could prove more of an obstacle than grammar. So maybe start with easy stuff.
The reason has mainly to do with how to get through audio only media in Japanese. You’ll inevitably end up at a section that confuses you, but if you know enough words on their own, you’ll still manage to catch up to the ongoing dialogue if you just keep on listening. So, vocabulary is central to making it easier to navigate the nebulous experience of listening with nothing else to go on.
That being said, you also just have to get started somewhere and get used to it. So, while it might be frustrating in the beginning, if you’re patient you should be able to gradually improve your ability to the point where you can listen for fun. ^^ There are lots of fun Japanese audio media. My favorite is drama CDs. I hope you find something you enjoy!