Let’s use this thread to list Japanese podcasts that we enjoy to improve our listening skills. I know there were a few threads similar to this previously but I didn’t want to necro really old threads, so I decided to make a new one.
I’ll start:
ひいきびいき - general podcast, they discuss random things each time. Usually in the episodes themselves they stick to a certain theme, but each episode can be completely different from one another. そこあに - Anime themed podcast. As someone who really enjoys anime, I’ve found this podcast to be pretty good and enjoyable.
In both of these podcasts the speakers seem to be talking at native speed, so if you’re a beginner looking for something easy then these probably won’t do it for you unfortunately.
I know but they still have hundreds of episodes up which will be good practice any way. If someone manages to get through every single one, I’d assume they’d be very good at listening by that point.
I’m listening it on Spotify! He has new podcast everyday.
I’m currently at about N3 level, WaniKani level 23. My problem is that podcasts like Bilingual News and Hiiki Biiki is too advanced for me. There are parts that I don’t really understand. In this case, Nihongo Con Teppei is perfect because it’s not for beginner like JapanesePod101, but it’s also not too difficult.
A podcast based on a book. The narrator reads about one day in the life of a woman. I"d put it at intermediate and up. Sometimes I understand some episodes more than others. But even if I don’t understand it’s relaxing, with soft music. feel good themes, and the narrators voice is beautiful. For those who really want to understand everything there’s always the option to buy the book which is a nice companion piece!
よ・み・き・か・せ
An easier podcast directed at kids. (imagine a picture book being read out loud)
But it’s very well made, has good sound effects and is read slowly and clearly. Even beginners should be able to understand a good percentage. Each episode is less than 10 minutes long. I’ve found it’s perfect for shadowing practice!
The downside is there’s not a lot of episodes. (24 in all). It’s so great, I wish there was more!!
Another podcast that I recently found: “Let’s learn Japanese from small talk!”
You can find it on Apple podcast or Spotify.
I love this one because the hosts are two university students, and they would talk about things currently trending in Japan among the teenagers, or Japanese culture from the point of view of a university student.
They don’t provide transcript, but I found a website that seems to be doing a transcript for this podcast: https://jpsmalltalktranscript.neocities.org/
So far there’s only the latest episode, but hopefully he will cover the rest soon.
that’s a shame… do you know why they stopped?