I (Sakura) live and work in the Kansai region of Japan and have been working in the travel industry for several years. And when I am not busy with travel business I am working on this blog.
As a Japanese, I am very happy when people want to study my native language. And if I can make that process even a little easier it makes me feel good. Living in various countries, I have had the opportunity to learn Spanish, Italian and English. This experience has taught me how fun speaking a foreign language can be and has also made me very aware of the barriers to getting there. I am not a teacher but rather a passionate learner of language like you. But I want to do what I can to help you with your studies.
This site is a one-woman show. I make everything by myself, so I really appreciate your feedback and suggestions. I love hearing from my readers and I especially like the nice comments. They are what keep me going.
Thanks for visiting!
Sakura
Hello Everyone,
Watashi wa Serge desu (this almost all my Japanese level).
It is a very great job doing this website.
I am a bite lost because I am taking the Lesson 1, discovering Isabel, and of course I am also a bite frustrated because I cannot understand all the sentences as I want to. But it is not so different when I first learn English.
For my concern I just want to learn Japanese for first the pleasure and be able to listen radio and read books no needs for professional reason.
I see that the last comment was in April I hope that people are using the website and up their level.
Thanks again Sakura for your Job, I hope that one day I can speak a few with you…. but I have many to learn before.
As my nickname said : Watashi no Ketsui….. I will verify it.
Enjoy learning Japanese and many other things.
Note: Sorry I cannot write in Spanish, English, French only.
Regards,
Serge
Sorry I wrote a mistake :” see that the last comment was in April” not true. It was on April.
I am just trying to find a website alive and where I can really found people to help of course with Sakura behind us.
I don’t want to be boring, sorry.
Serge
No worries!
Thanks for your message!
Getting started in a language can be really hard and like a puzzle, but hang in there. Little by little, you will fit together more and more of the pieces and the picture will begin to emerge. Good luck with your studies!
ARTICLES DO NOT SHOW FULL ONLY, YOU CAN FIX THIS PROBLEM FOR ME. THANK YOU
Thank you for your feedback. There was an issue with a recent WordPress plugin update that was causing pages to not display properly on iOS and some Android devices. I think I have solved the issue. Let me know if there is any more trouble.
Sakura sensei,
Wow, when I first heard your voice I immediately know it was a real Japanese speaker with a great sensitivity to the importance of listening to good audio and real native speakers. I think the person who asked you about AI must have been joking?
I just found your site today and am excited to explore it. I found it by typing into the browser the following: “Learning Kanji with good audio.”
How do you like that? 🙂 🙂
ハート トム
Yeah, I don’t think I am a robot.
I’m really enjoying this website. Keep the good work!
Sensei, I think it would be interesting if you talked about different accents and even people’s behavior depending on the area in Japan. For instance, the way people talk and even behave in Tokyo and Osaka are a little different.
I have lived almost two years in Takatsuki, Osaka. Sakura sensei know the place?
You make a good point. There are definitely some big differences in accents and behavior in different regions in Japan. It comes from having a long history and isolating geography. Thanks for your suggestion.
I believe your work is truly amazing, I really enjoy the work you have created, ありがとう.本当に感謝しています…
Thanks for the nice comment. I appreciate the encouragement.
Hi Sakura,
Just wanted to say thank you very much for your website!
It is very helpful and I appreciate the work you have put into it for us 🙂
Johnny
Thanks a lot. Your comment warms my heart.
Hi sakura. Sorry about my bad english. But i think this will be a good advise. I think you shoudn’t stop at each particle(の、 を、 が、 Vru,Vta….. Noun) it make us hard to understand what you said. The way you speak is slow enough for us to understand. The chunking technique is make some mistake.
It like that:
You shoud read:
ご飯 を 食べる not ご飯 を。。。 食べる
And 私の友達 not わたしの。。。。友達
And 建てしている家 not 建てしている。。。家
You were stopped a few milisecond after some particle. It make us neglect the word before, forcus wait to the next word and dont know when the sentence end
Sorry for the late reply on this. But in speaking Japanese, native speakers tend to place the pauses after the particle. When I am dividing up the phrases for the web app I want to keep it as natural as possible. Sometimes this can be difficult and some phrases can end up being a little long. I hope this makes sense.
Hi sakura. I wonder about the voice in audio file. it is read by TTS, right?
No, it’s my own voice. Maybe because I am carefully enunciating every syllable so it may sound like that sometimes. My job has not been taken by A.I. just yet.
Sakura sensei,
Wow, when I first heard your voice I immediately know it was a real Japanese speaker with a great sensitivity to the importance of listening to good audio and real native speakers. I think the person who asked you about AI must have been joking?
I just found your site today and am excited to explore it. I found it by typing into the browser the following: “Learning Kanji with good audio.”
How do you like that? 🙂 🙂
ハート トム
Thanks for recognizing my humanity! （笑）
Truly an amazing and dedicated website. Exactly what I’m looking for at this stage of my Japanese learning. Sakura, you are wonderful!
I’m so happy you are finding my website useful. Good luck with your studies!
Hi Sakura,
Your website is very useful for me. I really appreciate your work for us to learn Japanese.
That’s wonderful to hear. Thanks for telling me that. I am always happy to hear nice comments like yours.
Dear Sakura,
I’d been using this site occasionally as a free user just to read a little and get some vocabulary, somehow I always ended up drawn to this site. But, today I started exploring what this site is actually about, (not reading but also SHADOWING) and I immediately paid for the membership access. I’m going to try to follow your proposed weekly study schedule starting next week and I’ll let you (and whoever else may be interested) know how it works out for me. I think this is the perfect complement for my autonomus grammar and vocabulary studies.
Thank you very much for such great effort put into this website!
¡Saludos desde Colombia!
Thanks for the nice words. Please let me know how it goes. Buena suerte!
Very nice article. I definitely appreciate this site.
Continue the good work!
Howdy just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your content
seem to be running off the screen in Firefox.
I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with web browser compatibility but I
thought I’d post to let you know. The design look great though!
Hope you get the problem solved soon. Thanks
Hi, I think your website might be having browser compatibility issues.
When I look at your website in Chrome, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer,
it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick
heads up! Other then that, great blog!
Thanks for the feedback. I’ll look into it. I just upgraded some aspects of the site. That may have something to do with it.
Internet Explorer is a very old browsing software now. It’s not been upgraded by Microsoft since 2009, so u should go using Chrome, Firefox or Opera from now on, or the new Microsoft Edge from Windows 10, witch is the new version of Internet Explorer. The web technology is changing rapidly so Internet Explorer cannot use some of the new technology anymore, and pretty soon probably will appear some web-page that will no longer even load in such an old software.
I’ve checked this site in Windows 10 Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Edge and it looks fine to me.
Thanks so much for checking out those browsers. You are so right about Explorer. I gave up trying to make this site compatible with Explorer a long time ago. It’s an almost impossible task.
Dear Sakura San, I love your website very much. My Japanese has improved as a result of your hard work in creating this brilliant and wonderful site. I find the translation/vocabulary and listening section most helpful for me. You have put in so much effort, passion and love into making this possible. I am so grateful to you. Thank God for you!
Wow! Thanks so much for your kind words.
さくら先生、このサイトを提供してくださってありがとうございました。最初はPodcastsというアプリで見つけました。こういうのがずっと前に欲しかったからとても嬉しかったです。
I’ve been following your podcast since late last year. I just signed up for Premium Access, and I particularly appreciate the reading comprehension quiz and shadowing section. I have one suggestion. If you include a direct link to the sample Premium lesson on the pages that say “for premium access members only,” I think that would be helpful. That way, people will know what’s supposed to be on those pages, and can make a better decision about whether to sign up.
That’s a good suggestion. I will look into that.
Thanks again for your suggestion! I have just implemented it and I opened up one of the previous lessons in the process. Now there are two sample lessons available to nonmembers.
サクラ様,
I just found your site and LOVE it. I am desperate to regain my fluency of 15 years ago so I can volunteer for the Rugby World Cup in Japan and Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
ありがとうございます！
ジエイソン
That’s good to hear. I was recently in the same spot with my Spanish, but using the shadowing technique has helped a lot. Good luck to you.
Dear Sakura-san, I love your site! Would you be willing to let classes/ schools sign up as a group to access this? Thank you, Elena
I would be very happy to help you and your class out. I offer very significant discounts for groups and classes. Please contact me at the following email address (info@newsinslowjapanese.com) and give me some more details about your class such as number of students and length of term, etc. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Just to let you know, it is very easy to do group signups. I have a setup designed to handle them.
OK Sakurasan,
I have just came across your blog via google search for listening practice. I have not yet listened to your sample, BUT reading your blog and your self introduction, YOU’VE GOT ME. I love the one woman lots of effort and passion in the effort. I will sign up and see what happens.
I lived and studied in Japan for 6yrs, 30plus years ago. So, here we go. I promise honest feed back.
Yoroshiku, onagaishimasu. Benkyo Shiyo……
I am so glad you found my site. I hope it can live up to your expectations.
And I would love the feedback. Please post it here or directly via email. (info@newsinslowjapanese.com)
Thanks so much!
すごい。What a great site which I arrived at via your podcast. Truly amazing – thank you for your hard work and interesting and varied approach. 今からがんばります。
Thanks for coming by!
Wow, amazing site! Thanks for your support to us Japanese learners.
So glad you discovered my site and finding it useful.
Hi Sakura!
I searched for new Japanese materials today and found this very convenient blog of yours. I am very happy to find this so I can improve my listening skills while also able to understand what is going on. It must be really 大変 to do it alone but your news are so fun to listen to! Please keep going! 🙂
I am so happy you found my site and are enjoying it. I hope your studies go well. Good luck!
happy to find your website. i learn japanese now about one year and visit every month for marathon running.i hope to be able to understand mre japanese so i can talk more when i am in japan.
You must be quite a good runner. Good luck with your studies.
Hi Sakura さん。
本当に心からありがとうございます。
メッセージありがとうございます。
これからも勉強頑張ってくださいね！
Thank you for all the hard work! I’m really glad that I got to know about your site. This has been a great addition to my study tools as I’m aiming to master kanji this year. Once again, thank you very much!!!
It can be done. I have seen people do it before. It will be a really good base for your vocabulary. Good luck!
Hello Sakura!
I am writing to say thank you for putting up this blog! I was amazed to learn that only one person is behind this! I also live in the Kansai region. Hope to hear more news from your site! どうもありがとうございます^^
Thanks! It makes me feel a little bit proud to hear that. 🙂
I love your site. It is helping me very much. It is really fun and also your articles are interesting. Thank you for all your time and effort. michelle
You’re welcome.
Thank you for creating this site. This is the kind of practice I’ve been looking for. I think ondoku style practice is very helpful but it’s hard to find resources that practical and or interesting. Please keep up the great work!
I think ondoku or shadowing is one of the best ways to practice a foreign language when you are on your own. Good luck with your studies!
Your various resources are absolutely perfect for an intermediate and rusty student of Japanese, such as myself. Really, this is the kind of resource that makes the internet worth having. Thank you so much, I can’t wait to get back into the the thick of studying Japanese again!
Glad to be of help!
Thank you very much for your site. It helps me a lot.
Merci beaucoup !
Thank you! This is my first “merci.” I feel honored.
Hi, I just wanted to appreciate all the effort you’ve put into this! I’ve read the news with Rikai-kun many times before, but I remember often being left with all kinds of questions at the end of articles because of poor translation. The thoroughness in your translations and recordings makes the prospect of reading the news so much better!
I have been in the same spot studying Spanish, Italian or English. Sometimes, I really need a translation of the whole phrase. Especially because Japanese is so different from European languages structurally.
Brilliant site Sakura!
Please keep it going – there’s so little like this for Japanese learners.
Thanks for this
Thanks so much!
I just read your article on the toothbrush. Thank you for posting such a useful way to learn. It is great you have hiragana and English available to check meaning of grammar and vocabulary!
Thanks! I appreciate the nice comment.
I am a first year student of Japanese, living in America, and your news readings are exactly what I needed to help me learn the language. Please keep posting. I really enjoy the Basic Listening posts. Thanks again!
Thanks! That reminds me that i need to make more basic posts.
先生、Thank you for such a wonderful web site. I have studying Japanese language and culture since 2012. Your website is a big help for my Japanese language learning. I use the Genki (2nd edition) books with the Teacher’s guide and supplementary materials. I have a 先生 that teaches me 着付け、書道、て日本語. I wear a kimono on a regular basis and have learned to put it on by myself. ありがとうございます。…… Dani Richard
That’s impressive. Putting on a kimono is very difficult. Good luck with your studies!
Dear Sakura,
thanks a lot for your help with this site, I listen to the news while commuting.
I relocated i Japan 2 years ago and this is really a great help and a unique site, thanks for keeping it up.
I will support it with donation.
Since I like so much this I am sure you could like a suggestion: I follow the news through the podcasts on iPhone. There is a way to add the text of the news you are reading or the link to the same news page in your website directly in the podcast using the “summary” function. Maybe you can try it?
Keep up the good work
頑張ってください
Luca
Thanks for your suggestion. As a matter of fact I just carried out an experiment during the holiday with this. I was just trying to figure out which version of the text to put there. I was considering the regular text with Kanji for the slow and the romaji version for the fast. What is your opinion?
I just added text to my most recent iTunes posts. What do you think?
さくら先生
お返事が遅れましたごめん、仕事で忙しすぎるですから。
I saw new podcast that’s for sure great!
About the kanji, I would suggest both. If space is limited, I would suggest kanji for fast version as more advanced users read that and don’t use romaji.
Other ideas? Great job Sakura Sensei.
I like the idea of using both. I think there is plenty of room for it. I will slowly go back and start adding transcripts to my back issues.
Thanks!
Thank you so much Sakura! You help me a lot in practising listening! Thank you so much for your hard work! Keep going on! Cheers from Hong Kong ^_^
Glad I could be of help. Keep up the hard work! 🙂
Hola Sakura, qué alegría encontrar tu página. Este es el sitio que estaba buscando hace mucho tiempo. He estado estudiando japonés y mi falencia es la escucha y el habla. Pero creo que con la ayuda de tus noticias y el vocabulario, voy a despegar y de ahora en adelante serán mis fortalezas. Animo y continúa agregando noticias.
Hola Elkin, Muchas gracias por tu mensaje.
Me da mucho gusto de recibir un mensaje como tuyo.
Yo entiendo que es dificil aprender japonés porque era difícil aprender español para mi también.
Pues, estoy aprendiendlo todavía 🙂
Espero que este sito te da animo de estudiar japonés!
Muchas gracias de nuevo!
Sakura
Thank you very much from a spanish follower. I also work in the travel industry and have been studying Japanese for some years, though I make little progress. I hope it will now be easier thanks to your help.
¡Muchas gracias!
Muchas Gracias por tu mensaje!
Espero que el sito te ayude para estudiar japones 🙂