JapanesePod101.com Blog

Mina-san,

This Sunday (10/29/06) between 4am and 6am EST we will be upgrading our membership system. During this time, the JapanesePod101.com site will not be available.

Please accept our apologies in advance for this inconvenience.

Thank you,

JapanesePod101.com

JapanesePod101.com published its first lesson less than a year ago, but despite the short length of time, we’ve come a long, long way! Our humble beginnings, although very, very nice, don’t quite do justice to our current level of production, so we have released a series of three lessons designed to introduce the listener to what they can expect from our current Survival Phrases and Beginner Lessons. Although these lessons were designed with the first-time visitor in mind, all are free to listen! Simply click here, or use the filter on the front page to browse the Introduction category.

Also, you might have noticed a few new links popping up in several places. While we’re not giving the full details here, you can probably guess what they might be. Let’s just say that you can expect to see some exciting new developments unveiled over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

JapanesePod101.com

As you probably have noticed, we recently launched a new home page for JapanesePod101.com. The new home page is geared for new users who are not familiar with our innovative, fun, and easy to use language learning system. The home page shows visitors how to get started in 3 easy steps, explains the various types of lessons and courses available, breaks down the subscription levels and pricing, and finally provides some valuable user feedback.

If you are already familiar with JapanesePod101.com and wish to skip the new home page, simply check the box next to “Skip this page on my next visit” on the top or bottom of the new home page and on your next visit to JapanesePod101.com you will be taken directly into the site.

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.

JapanesePod101.com

Are you a Mac user? Do you listen to JapanesePod101.com? If you answered ‘yes’ to both questions then you are in for a real special treat! Our young friend and talented programmer, Dimitri from Los Angeles, has just launched beta version 1.2 of his JapanesePod101.com super-duper application (see screenshot below). Using our RSS feed, his incredible application enables end users to quickly browse, search, sort, listen, and watch our daily podcasts and videocasts using one convenient tool. You can even see the romaji as you hear each lesson!

Anyone interested in beta-testing the application can get started on Dimitri’s website where they can download it, see screenshots, and read frequently asked questions.

Please direct all technical questions, issues, bugs, and feedback to Dimitri at dimitri008@mac.com (please indicate [JP101 Beta Testing] in the subject line of your email). We too at JapanesePod101.com would love to hear your feedback about the application.
On behalf of eveyone here at JapanesePod101.com, I would like to thank Dimitri for all his hard work in putting together this extraodinary application.

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.

- Eran

Mina-san,

Do you listen to JapanesePod101.com and live in or near Sydney, Australia? If so, our friend Barrett Newkirk from the “Sydney Morning Herald” can use your help! Barrett is doing some research on foreign language podcasts for a possible newspaper article and would like to speak to Australian listeners.

If you’re interested and would like to participate please email contatcus@japanesepod101.com and we’ll put you in touch with Barrett.

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.

JapanesePod101.com

Update 10/21/06: Thank you for everyone who participated in the iTunes Podcast Artwork Contest! We were absolutely blown away by the number of entries and by the creative talents of our community. I would like to congratulate the winner, Rioo-san from South Korea, whose submission can be seen below. Click here to see all the entries.

We’re looking for you, our community members, to put your creative and artistic skills to work in designing a new, original artwork for our podcast. The winning design will become the new official artwork for our podcast page on iTunes, seen by thousands of users every day.
Your artwork entry must…

• be an attractive and original image that represents JapanesePod101.com
• fit nicely with our website and brand identity
• include the text “JapanesePod101.com”
• be your own original artwork that does not contain any copyrighted material without written approval from the owner
• either be JPEG or PNG formats (original PSD or EPS required as well)
• be square and 300 x 300 pixels
• look good on iTunes pages where is is much smaller in size (e.g. search results and feature placement pages)

General contest rules…

• The contest is open to ALL members of the JapanesePod101.com community
• You are welcome to submit more than one entry if you wish
• The winning design will become the property of JapanesePod101.com, but your authorship recognition will be retained
• You must give your full permission for JapanesePod101.com to use your logo design
• The contest deadline for entries is midnight (GMT/UTC) on Thursday, October 19th, 2006
• The winner will be announced on News podcast on Saturday, October 21, 2006 as well as our on our website

Prizes…

• Winner will receive a 3-Month Premium Subscription to JapanesePod101.com, recognition on our podcast, and the opportunity to work with JapanesePod101.com on future design projects
• Runner-up will receive a 1-Month Premium Subscription to JapanesePod101.com

Where to send your entries…

Please email all entries along with your name, contact information, and a short blurb about yourself to:

contactus@japanesepod101.com

You can also direct any further contest questions to this email address.

Thanks for your participation and good luck!

The JapanesePod101.com Team