Some years ago, at which point I had been studying German for many years, but was still unable to listen to the most basic German content, I stumbled upon a podcast\[1\] that *catapulted* me over the intellegibility barrier. After listening to it for a few weeks I found myself venturing into German language content that had been off-limits to me until then (most of it aimed at speakers, rather than learners, of German), and being able to understand 80-90% of it. This opened up for me a huge reservoir of German language content. From that point, it was all downhill, to the point that, in a matter of months, and without consciously trying, my understanding of spoken German improved to the point that I understand practically all of it\[2\]. Now I choose what I listen to in German purely on the basis of subject matter, not difficulty level.
This personal experience taught me that there can be such a thing as what I will dub, for lack of a better word, a “gateway podcast” for language learning.
I have tried to identify the features of this godsend that made it into my gateway podcast. They are not obvious!
For one thing, despite its name (Easy German), my gateway podcast for German was definitely more advanced than much of what I could listen to regularly at the time.
Its format is a relaxed, very informal, free-wheeling, invariably amusing chat between its two hosts, a man and a woman, both in their 30s. They are conscious of the fact that their listeners are learners of German, so occasionally they take the time to explain an unusual expression, or to comment on some aspect of the German language. They probably speak slightly slower than they would in real life. And they often devote time to some aspect of life in Germany that may be of interest to someone who has just immigrated or is planning to do so. Otherwise, as far as *content* goes, I cannot distinguish this podcast from any other chat podcast out there.
By the hosts’ own account, much time goes into editing each episode of Easy German, which explains the high quality of the finished product. In particular, one *never* hears both hosts speaking at the same time. (I used to think that this was a sign of remarkable self-discipline, but it is actually results from assiduous editing.)
I think that the fact that the podcast is a *conversation*, as opposed to a monologue, is key to its effectiveness as a “gateway podcast”, because each response by speaker A as a rich *pragmatic* context in which to interpreter the prior utterance by speaker B, and vice-versa.
After this nearly miraculous personal experience (one that I would not have believed possible before it actually happened to me), I started searching frantically for a gateway podcast for Japanese. After all, at this point, my failure with Japanese is 10X more spectacular than my former failure with German (as measured by the ratio of effort to results).
The closest I have found to the description above are the following two podcasts:
1. [Japanese with Teppei and Noriko](https://teppeinorikojapanese.com/)
2. [Easy Japanese Podcast](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC16-9M0osgdFbLKXvCwpXaw)
Both these podcasts have a format similar to the one I described above (two hosts, a man and a woman in both cases, having an informal conversation). Unfortunately, I find them both way too difficult. Even after listening to them for weeks, I make no progress. I think part of the reason for this is that these podcasts are not as painstakingly edited as the Easy German podcast is. In fact, I wonder if they are edited at all (judging by how frequently the hosts speak simultaneously).
Therefore, I am still looking for that mythical “gateway podcast” for Japanese.
I look forward to any leads you may send my way. Thank you in advance!
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\[1\] Easy German
\[2\] …with the notable exception of dialogue in movies, TV shows, etc., which is still to slangy and dialect-inflected for me to follow
2 comments
I recommend:
The Miku Real Japanese Podcast,
Let’s Learn Japanese from Small Talk
YuYuの日本語Podcast is my recommendation.
Just a thought, Japanese is my second language so I don’t have prior experience but personally when I was recently building my listening comprehension skills (since I only just read books, stories, manga, etc. for the longest time) I experienced a basically 0% ability to understand spoken Japanese (maybe a word here and there over hours of listening). After months of immersion and listening I woke up one day and I went from 0% to 15-30% overnight. No idea why but it has only accelerated since then with more exposure.
I am wondering if you were just at the break-point in your German and you just needed the smallest push to put you over the line, similar to what I’m experiencing now. It perhaps wasn’t the podcast but you had filled up your “experience bar” so to speak and leveled up. Not to say comprehensible input isn’t a big part of it–just a thought.