You may be interested in reading some of the comments that we have received about these lessons. Please feel free to add your own remarks by using the box at the bottom of the page.
Please note that there are additional comments at the bottom of the How to Read Japanese page.
Good day Roger,
I seem to be having a very hard time downloading your lessons because most of them stop downloading halfway through, I’m referring to the japanese audio lessons(think there are 27 of them). I did manage to download like lessons 3 after a couple of attempts, but it seems that I can’t download more than about 35 mg before it stops. I tried using chrome and mozilla, but same result. Is there something I can do to get it working?
Thanks in advance
Hello James,
Thank you for telling me about this problem, and for helping me to fix it. I now realize that the audio files on this site are too large for people who have slower internet connections. Therefore I’m also making them available as FTP files that can be downloaded with Filezilla (on Windows computers) or with Cyberduck (on Mac computers). As a result, students now have two options for downloading the files.
You were kind enough to test the FTP concept for me, and you reported that you were able to download the files without difficulty by using Filezilla. Please see the Lesson Download page for more information about how to use Filezilla and Cyberduck.
Hello Roger,
I really like your site. I can see you put a tremendous amount of work into it. Thank you.
I have a few references for learners of Japanese I’d like to pass on. These reflect my personal preference for news and are therefore rather narrow in scope. In what I consider order of increasing difficulty, they are:
1. NewsInSlowJapanese.com
This site has an almost inexhaustible collection of narrated short current news articles for which you can control the speed and volume. One can read the text while listening to the narration. Each one also contains a vocabulary list of the possibly difficult words and phrases.
2. Both the Essays and Fiction volumes of “Read Real Japanese” have interesting short and medium length articles with extensive helpful notes. They also come with a CD of audio narrations. Available on Amazon.
3. The site http://news.tv-asahi.co.jp/ has many short news videos in which the reporter’s dialog is written almost verbatim below the video frame. One can study the short article to learn the necessary vocabulary and then watch and listen to the video as many times as desired.
4. The site Japanese radio program has a section titled 海外向けラジオ番組 (kaigai muke rajio bangumi) on which you can listen to a wide variety of Japanese news/human-interest reports. Audio only.
IMO, #1 is excellent for students of early intermediate or above level. #2 requires a bit more of the student, but is still quite accessible. #3 and #4 are serious real Japanese items and require significantly more from the student but a good 2nd or 3rd year student should be able to handle them if their interest is in that area.
There is also a wealth of material available (use Google) online aimed at preparation for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). Even if you have no interest in the JLPT per se, the available study aids are very useful for the general student. The level of material runs from beginner to very advanced.
I hope some of these items are of interest to your readers.
Roger Shorack
Thank you so much, Roger. These seem like excellent suggestions. I look forward to exploring them.
Hello Roger,
I just discovered your website this afternoon. I have been studying and speaking Japanese (off and on) since I was about twenty and stationed in Japan for 5 years from 1953. I plan to take the time to look more carefully at your website because in just my brief perusal I found many useful things and ideas. I look forward to spending more time on it. I noted your two stacks of books with interest – I have most of the same items. I am also going to check out the Flashcard program you use. It sounds good. I am currently using one called Stackz, which I also like.
My reason for sending this email is primarily to let you know of a wonderful Japanese popup dictionary called Perapera Kun – you can find it easily with Google. I suspect you may know of it already but since you didn’t mention it I thought I’d send this note. It doesn’t work with MS IE browser but works well with Firefox. I switched to Firefox to have easy access to Perapera. For one who is determined to use IE it is possible to do so by making use of bookmarks, but it is much more convenient with Firefox. I am running Windows 8.1 but Perapera also works with earlier MS OSs.
I like to read Japanese (newspapers, etc) online and Perapera is ideal for this. There is another popup called Rikaichan. It’s nice but, IMO Perapera is much nicer.
Thank you for putting your material in the public domain. I think I will find it useful and I would have been so overjoyed to have access to something like it when I was young and starting out.
Roger Shorack
Hi, it is great, I just started learning and I proceed quite smoothly. I have but one problem – lessons 18 and 19 cannot be opened no matter how many times I download them again. I wonder if it is just corrupted archive file uploaded or is it something with my computer. Other lessons are however totally fine to open. Thank you for fixing it. Be well.
Hi Filip,
Thank you so much for telling me about those 2 audio files. Apparently they got corrupted 2 days ago when I uploaded them after making some corrections to them. I’ve deleted the bad files and uploaded new ones. Now they seem to be OK. Please let me know if you have any more difficulties.
Dearest Roger,
Forgive me for gushing but I am SO excited to have stumbled upon your audio flashcard lessons!!!! I just arrived in Japan two days ago, and will be here until mid-March. I will start my brisk morning walks around Osaka with these lessons! I am very familiar with Pimsleur, and you nailed it with the transcripts on top of the audio. That’s what I’ve been missing. I will also try to get a tutor while I’m here, but I’m a big fan of self-paced learning. I hope to be able to report back in two months and share my progress. 🙂
Thank you and your wife for making this website and these lessons. You are both amazingly generous and wonderful people to have shared such a resource with the rest of the world.
Dear Rosa,
It’s good to hear from you. Thank you so much for your encouragement.
Osaka is a great town. I hope you have a wonderful time there and that the lessons meet your expectations.
Please keep in touch.