The Most Powerful Listening Resource For Beginners

Hey KoreKara Squad,

I was thinking about immersion materials and the kind of content that might just be able to skyrocket someone’s Japanese ability, especially early on. Bilingual podcasts might be the resource with the most bang for your buck.

💡 Tip of the week

Compelling comprehensible input is the key to acquiring a language. The problem is comprehensible input is not always compelling. It’s easy to get lost in the weeds trying to optimize immersion materials while sacrificing enjoyment. I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be that way.

You can enjoy natural conversations in Japanese early on with the help of bilingual podcasts.

What is a bilingual podcast?

Bilingual podcasts are exactly what they sound like. One person speaks one language and the other person responds in another. Picture someone asking questions in English to a guest and then that guest responding in Japanese.

These kinds of podcasts give you the best of both worlds. Keeping up with the flow of a real-life conversation in which you are constantly provided context delivers both compelling and comprehensible input.

If we think about a conversation like a tennis match – someone serves, the opponent sends it back, and they keep going back and forth in a volley. Attempting to watch two pros play tennis when you’ve never seen tennis before can be intimidating. The ball is moving so quickly that you can’t even keep track of it.

This is what it is like trying to watch two native speakers of Japanese having a conversation when you’re an early learner. It's nearly impossible to keep track of the ball.

Bilingual podcasts allow you to see every single serve, letting you keep track of the game. You might miss a few returns here and there but you can keep up with the conversation because English (or whatever language you might be using to understand) is keeping you involved.

Before you know it, you’ll be able to hop into a conversation without even seeing the serve, but until that time bilingual podcasts are your best friend.

📺 Immersion of the week 

In line with the tip of the week, I’ll recommend two pieces of content.
The first is a shameless plug for the KoreKara podcast. 😛

Here is one of my favorites. In this interview with Roto, we discussed language learning, immersion, anki, and his thoughts on reaching a native level. Let me know if bilingual podcasts help you to better follow along with the flow of conversation.

The second is a podcast called Bilingual News. It’s a podcast where one half Japanese guy talks to a fully Japanese girl. They both are fully bilingual, but one person mostly speaks English and one mostly speaks Japanese. They cover lots of interesting topics like physics, politics, and just news going on in Japan. It’s where I got inspired to make that format!

✍️ Kanji of the week

When engaging with bilingual podcasts you’re trying to keep track of both parties. Understanding your native language is a given but the challenge comes when attempting to keep up with your target language. This word seemed fitting to express the idea of understanding both sides of the conversation. The first character 両 means “both” and the second character 方 means “directions”. This one is a pretty self-explanatory compound and a rather common word.

🗣️ Q&A 

Have any of you guys felt like bilingual podcasts were a valuable stepping stone to cracking into real and engaging Japanese content?

See you next week, またね!

Eric