Japanesepod101.com
| Other names | JPod, JapanesePod |
|---|---|
| Genre | Educational; language course; cultural instruction, lifestyle, lgbt |
| Running time | 10–20 minutes (average) |
| Country of origin | Japan |
| Language(s) | English; Japanese |
| Starring | Peter Galante Naomi Kambe Natsuko Kawamoto Sakura Suzuki Yuichi Suzuki Jessi Nuss Kat Crosbie Motoko Obata Risa and many other personalities |
| Created by | Peter Galante, Eran Dekel |
| Recording studio | Tokyo |
| Original release | December 2005 – present |
| Audio format | MP3 |
| Opening theme | Marky Star |
| Website | https://www.japanesepod101.com |
JapanesePod101.com is a language course podcast and accompanying website that offers lessons in Japanese.[1] The service was founded in 2005.
Overview[edit | edit source]
Created by Peter Galante in 2005, JapanesePod101.com provides audio and video lessons with accompanying text expansion exercises and other extensive tutoring aids available to paid subscribers or "premium subscribers". It is a product of Innovative Language Learning and is produced in Tokyo, Japan.
Company[edit | edit source]
JapanesePod101.com's parent company Innovative Language Learning LLC is based in New York, though day-to-day operations and recordings occur in their Tokyo offices. As of December 2016, Innovative Language Learning operates sites and creates content for 34 languages.
Content[edit | edit source]
Lessons on JapanesePod101.com come in both audio and video variants, and range in difficulty from absolute beginner to advanced. Paid subscribers also gain access to lesson materials, such as transcriptions, vocabulary lists, and lesson notes.
The learning center hosts a number of other features for paid subscribers such as dictionaries, a flash card system, and curated lesson collections. In 2014 the company began offering new subscription tiers for personalized tutoring and 1-on-1 Japanese lessons over Skype.
By 2006, the website averaged more than 8,000 downloads of its content per day according to The Japan Times,[2] and has been noted in Newsweek.[3] By September 2015, the company's lessons have been delivered 500,000,000 times across its various languages.[4]
In addition to the lessons and learning resources, the website also has a blog, which hosted a series of articles about Japanese characters by writer Eve Kushner. The series concluded in April 2010.[5]
Controversy[edit | edit source]
The service has garnered some controversy due to their aggressive marketing tactics and vaguely worded "Free Lifetime Account." In actuality, the Free Lifetime Account only gives access to the entire site (the equivalent of a "Premium" subscription) for seven days, at which point access is limited to the first three lessons of each series and the most recently published lessons.[6]
Users have also reported confusion over the pricing, unexpectedly paying for a 24-Month subscription when intending to pay month-to-month. This confusion is due to the subscription cost decreasing as the number of months bought at a time increases. The actual cost of subscriptions as of December 2016 is as follows.
| Subscription Duration | Basic (Total) | Premium (Total) | Premium PLUS (Total) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-Month | $8.00 | $25.00 | $47.00 |
| 3-Months | $7.00 ($21.00) | $22.00 ($66.00) | $41.67 ($125.00) |
| 6-Months | $6.00 ($36.00) | $20.00 ($120.00) | $36.67 ($220.00) |
| 12-Months | $5.00 ($60.00) | $15.00 ($180.00) | $26.33 ($316.00) |
| 24-Months | $4.00 ($96.00) | $10.00 ($240.00) | $22.88 ($549.00) |
Several users have expressed anger over a $1 deal presented as a one-time charge that automatically opts-in to a recurring monthly charge.[7]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Frenette, Brad. "Around the world in 80 megabytes: Ipod as tour guide: The popularity of travel podcasts", National Post, 2006-05-13, p. WP14.
- ↑ Marx, W. David (2006-02-28). "To learn the Japanese language, get pod-agogical". The Japan Times.
- ↑ Stone, Brad (2006-08-24). "Learning a Language on Your iPod: How new podcasts like 'JapanesePod101' are changing the way people learn a foreign language". Newsweek.
- ↑ "About Us - Our Story". Innovative Language. 2016-12-04. Retrieved 2016-12-04.
- ↑ Cox, Patrick (2009-07-30). "Haruki Murakami's fans, confessions of a kanji-holic, and kwassa kwassa". PRI's The World.
- ↑ "JapanesePod101 Frequently Asked Questions". JapanesePod101.com. 2016-12-04. Retrieved 2016-12-04.
- ↑ ""JapanesePod101 Beware!"".
External links[edit | edit source]
- Official website
- [JapanesePod101.com blog]
- [Erklaren Inc.]
- [Innovative Language Learning, LLC]
