Hi Tony,
I should like to follow your online Japanese course to get some feeling on the language. It's great to have the opportunity to learn some more about Japan in my own (irregular) time. Listening to your podcasts, as a not native English speaker I've one tiresome problem though: your English words come out very clear and understandable, but at such incredible high speed, that it's impossible for me to comprehend the contents of your explanation. Do you have a suggestion for me to be able to follow you better?
Best,
Dun Romin
What book do you keep referring to in these podcasts? And I have already memorized the hiragana and katakana and am fluent in reading hiragana, do I still need to use Anki?
Hi, Dun, and welcome to the site!
I agree that the pace that I speak at on the podcasts is pretty fast, and probably too fast for many non-native speakers of English. I also agree that this is a problem that I need to address. Actually, it's a problem that I've been thinking about since I first started making the podcasts.
My original plan was to create both "enhanced" podcasts (the ones with still images, like what is already available) along with either video podcasts and/or YouTube versions that included subtitles. Creating the video versions takes a lot longer than the enhanced podcasts, however, and I just haven't been able to find the time to do those. (T-T)
What I do have, though, is my scripts for each podcast, which should be usable as a transcript that will make it a lot easier to follow the podcasts. This weekend I am incredibly busy getting ready for the start of our new school year next week, so it may take me a few days to upload the transcripts, but I will definitely do so as soon as I get a chance (within the next week or so, I hope). When they are up, I'll announce that in this thread!
Thanks for reminding me of this problem!
Hi, Gaku. The book associated with the podcasts is "Genki I".
Anki is a wonderful program, and will help you with a lot more than just the hiragana and katakana. I recommend that you use it to review vocabulary, kanji, grammar, and even items from other subjects that you are trying to learn. Anki is a great tool for any subject that will require a lot of memorization, like history, biology, etc.