JapanesePod101.com Blog

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Did you know that the lowest-scoring section of the JLPT Exam is the listening section?

Luckily, PlaySay’s JLPT 1-4 Vcabulary and Kanji Audio Downloads, now available in the JapanesePod101.com online store, are here to save the day!

New Version 1.2 Released!

PlaySay’s convenient audio download system will simply and practically enable you to achieve oral vocabulary competency - on the go, one word at a time, one minute at a time. Supplement your JapanesePod101.com studies, and turn your iPod or favorite mp3 player into a walking, talking, dynamic, and intelligent vocabulary flashcards study tool.

Shuffle and study all individual JLPT Core Vocabulary and Kanji with audio on your iPod or other mp3 Player!

• A Combined 16,104 Studio-Quality core vocabulary mp3 audio files for your iPod or any mp3 player
  [7,992 English to Japanese; 7,992 Japanese to English from PlaySay’s Professionally Translated JLPT 1 - 4 Vocabulary Lists]
• Shuffle vocabulary, create vocab/kanji playlists (move memorized vocab/kanji to a “memorized” playlist), and more!
• Mini vocab study playlists grouped by genre!
• Study JLPT 1-4 core vocabulary by listening (Japanese in right ear, English in left ear)!
• Study JLPT 1-4 core vocabulary with all kanji by simply looking at your mp3 player screen!
• Professionally translated JLPT Core Vocabulary
• Professional studio recordings from professional native voice artists
• Instant Download Satisfaction!

With the JLPT just around the corner, consider supplementing your studies with PlaySay’s proven on-the-go system!

• Starting for as little as $12.95
• Save even more by purchasing test bundles
• Use the convenient PayPal Buy Now button for instant download to your iPod or favorite mp3 player

Available for all JLPT Levels (Click on your level below for more details and instant download)

Mina-san,

When we first started JapanesePod101.com, we only had a few lessons and a few levels, so it was very easy to figure out how to use the site. But now with over 700 lessons and many different levels and series, a lot of people have asked us “Where should I start?” While there are many ways to use the site, we definitely have a few recommendations!

We grouped the lessons in 4 categories Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Miscellaneous. Also we designated each level linear or non-linear. Then we listed descriptions of the each course and included the first and last lesson so you can better gauge which levels are perfect for you!

Check out the page here:
http://www.japanesepod101.com/help-center/the-courses/

Also, since it’s Golden Week, we’re running a special Promo to save you 33% on any Basic or Premium Subscription! Woo-hoo!

http://www.japanesepod101.com/golden-week/

We just rolled out a handy little feature that will make it possible for you to see the 5 most recent posts in this blog and our forum from the lessons page of the main site. Here’s a screen shot of the functionality. Let us know what you think.

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.

Some of you may have noticed that the “Contains” and “Ends with” search methods of the word dictionary in the Learningcenter are gone. We changed the way the dictionary works to improve performance, and to take a large step closer to providing you more accurate search results. Therefore it now returns results ordered by relevance. The order is not perfect, processing natural language with computers is difficult, but it should be much better than before

Now I will explain by example how the remaining search methods work:

The default “Is” method will now also search inside English phrases. A search for “way” for example will still find “途中 - on the way, en route, midway”. It will also find “one-way traffic”, but will not find “always”.

The “Starts with” method works on top of the “Is” method, with the same behavior. Searching “way” with “Starts with” will add “道草 - (n,vs) wayside grass, loitering on the way, (P)” to the results for example.

We are always looking for new features to add to our site, or ways to improve existing features, and in most cases ideas for new features come from the feedback you provide. So please keep the feedback coming!

After weeks of development, we’re happy to announce the launch of the much anticipated My Feed. This fully customizable RSS feed lets Premium members decide exactly what lesson content they want on their Premium feed.

Setting up My Feed is a a simple 3 step process.

1. Choose the lesson types you want (e.g. Beginner, Newbie, Audio Blog, etc.)
2. Choose the type of content you want (e.g. Main Audio, Dialog Clip, Review Clip, PDF, Video Vocab, etc.)
3. Add My Feed to iTunes or other iTunes compatible feed readers like Juice, and just watch the content you want come rolling in.

To learn more about My Feed check out the video below or if you’re a Premium member, click here to get started now.

Thank you all for your continued support and feedback! Without it we simply could not do what we do. We hope you like this new feature and as always, if you encounter any issues with this new functionality or wish to see it enhanced in some way, please post a comment here or shoot us an email.

Mina-san, I hope you enjoyed the holidays!

Since we started doing the intros at the beginning of the lessons, we got tons of questions about them. To address these, we did 2 Japanese Culture Classes and explained a few of them. We’ll definitely be doing more Culture Classes on the intros (as well as other cultural topics). But we went ahead and added a new section to the Lesson Notes. Now you can find the Japanese transcript and corresponding English translation after the Grammar Point. We hope this helps make a little sense out of the madness （笑）. I think this will be particularly helpful for the 2008 intros which all involve a mini-drama running from Monday to Friday.

Enjoy!

マーキー

Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season. With the year coming to a close we managed to squeeze in two more exciting enhancements.

Lesson Browser
The new lesson browser was developed with simplicity and convenience in mind. Broken down into “Core Lessons” and “Extra Lessons”, this new features lets you quickly find the lessons you love. The new browser offers the following functionality:

• Brief description of each lesson level for new users coming in contact with JapanesePod101.com for the first time
• A Quick Jump menu to quickly find your favorite lessons within a particular level
• Sort functionality to arrange lessons by date (newest first or oldest first)
• A global search functionality to find any lesson by searching the title or description fields.

Grammar Bank Search
With over 100 Japanese grammar constructions, the Grammar Bank, available in our Premium Learning Center, was getting a bit unwieldy. So to make finding grammar items a bit easier, we’ve added a full text search functionality. Search the Kanji, Kana, English, Samples, Formation, Notes, and Explanation fields to find the grammar you want to master.

As for future features, our content and product development teams have a ton of new and exciting enhancements for 2008. So stay tuned for more announcements.

As always, leave us a comment and let us know what you think of these new features and how we can make them better.

Don’t forget our 25% Off Holiday Sale expires in just a few days, so now is the perfect time to pick up a Basic or Premium subscription. For more information about this promotion, visit this page.

Thank you for a wonderful 2007, and a happy and healthy New Year to everyone.

A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an 80×80 pixel avatar image that’s associated with your email and follows you from blog to blog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar-enabled blogs. The comment section of the JapanesePod101.com are now gravatar-enabled.

If you don’t have a gravatar, you can easily get one for free at Gravatar.com. Just be sure to use the same email address that you use to post comments on the JapanesePod101.com blog. Please note that it might take a few minutes for your shiny new gravatar to show up on our comment system.

Mina-san,

We are pleased to announce that a new “remember me” function is now available. When you login to JapanesePod101.com you will now have the option to check a “Remember me?” box. If you do, you won’t have to login again from that same computer for up to 7 days!

To turn on the remember me functionality, simply click the checkbox next to the Login and Password fields. Then when you are finished interacting with the site - just close the browser window - do not logout (logging out erases the remember me ability).

If you accidentally clicked the remember me option, don’t worry - just be sure to fully logout of the site before leaving. The next time you visit the site, you will be asked to login again.

If you encounter any issues with this new functionality or wish to see it enhanced in some way, please post a comment or shoot us an email.

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!