Archive for August, 2006

JapanesePod101.com in Newsweek!

Friday, August 25th, 2006

Newsweek Cover

JapanesePod101.com was featured in a Newsweek article by Technology Correspondent Brad Stone about learning languages through podcasts. Brad-san and his wife Jennifer Granick, Executive Director at the Center for Internet and Society, came to JapanesePod101.com “headquarters” earlier this month, and we walked - actually ran - them through a usual day at JapanesePod101.com. Meeting Brad-san and Jennifer-san, two extremely down to earth people for all they have accomplished, has been one of the highlights of the entire project. They made our day by sharing stories of using Japanese they learned from our podcasts and how the resulting experiences added to their trip. Brad-san and Jennifer-san, hontō ni arigatō gozaimasu!

For anyone wondering what an average day at JapanesePod101.com is like, Brad-san captured it and put it into writing. When I was reading the article, it was as if I was reading about any given day at the office. For those of you who can’t make it to Tokyo, you can now read about what goes on at the office.

In addition, we talked in detail about on-demand training and the role of podcasts as a language learning tool. Brad’s article talks about our revelevant and fresh content, which is made possible by being located in Tokyo, Japan and being immersed in Japanese culture and society. Compare this with a Japanese teacher located overseas, who can, at best, keep up through second-hand information. This advantage allows us to keep in touch with culture and events that influence the language, and share experience and knowledge gained first-hand. We also had the chance to talk about how we started JapanesePod101.com and about our friends at ChinesePod.com.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you - the listeners! Thank you for all of your support and everything you do for JapanesePod101.com! You truly are the source of our energy. Hontō ni arigatō gozaimasu! In case you missed the link above, the article can be found here.

Important Announcement - Server Upgrade

Friday, August 18th, 2006

Update: We have postponed the server upgrade until further notice. We hope to re-schedule it as soon as possible and will post a new maintenance window when it becomes available.

In an effort to improve the performance, speed, and reliability of our site and to support our growing community of listeners, we will be upgrading our server environment this weekend. A maintenance window has been scheduled for Sunday, August 27th between 12am and 12pm EST. During this time, the JapanesePod101.com site will be available intermittently. We will do our best to minimize any disruptions or downtime.

Please accept our apologies in advance for this inconvenience. Thank you for all your support.

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.

Eran
JapanesePod101.com
support@japanesepod101.com

Calling all Brazilian Listeners!

Friday, August 18th, 2006

Mina-san,

Are you from Brazil? Do you listen to JapanesePod101.com? If so, we need your help. Our good friend Filipe-san from the Brazilian newspaper, “O Estado de S.Paulo” is writing a piece on learning languages with podcasts. He would like to interview some Brazilian listeners for his article.

Please email us at contatcus@japanesepod101.com if you would like to participate. We’ll forward your information on to Filipe-san.

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.
JapanesePod101.com