Fun Japanese Podcasts and YouTube Channels for Enhanced Listening Practice
Are you seeking listening comprehension materials to bolster your Japanese language skills? If so, explore our handpicked selection of resources from Podcasts and YouTube. Immerse yourself in captivating content designed to enhance your comprehension and fluency in Japanese!
Podcast
Podcast platforms are treasure troves of immersive listening practice, offering a wealth of content spanning various topics and genres. While there may not be as many listening practice materials tailored specifically for beginner learners, fear not! I'm here to share some valuable links that I've gathered from fellow learners and language enthusiasts.
けんさんおかえり
Some people recommended to me this podcast. Ken-san speaks slowly and takes enough pauses between words so it's not so difficult to understand what he is talking about.
EASY JAPANESE PODCAST
People who already passed N3 like this podcast. The podcasters do not speak clearly and slowly like Japanese grammar teachers so I would say this is "REAL" Japanese. Licensed teachers are usually taught not to say filler words like "あー(Ummm)", "ってか（I mean)", "ちょっ(Oh wait)", and so on but this channel's podcasters say filler words quite often. However, I'm a native speaker but sometimes it's difficult for me to understand what the speaker said. But It's good because you can train your ears!
Slow Japanese by Mochifika
In accordance with its name, you can expect slow-paced talks from their channel.
Japanese with Shun
His channel is easy to understand for textbook learners. He speaks slowly for beginners.
If you like to listen to slow-paced channels, please note that the intonation is different when reading and speaking. Also, I think your friends and colleagues will never say "〜ですから" in the conversations. Of course, some people say that but you will hear "〜ですので" more in daily life.
YouTube
If you are tired of academic videos, it's about time to take a break with easy videos. Dive into the world of Japanese vlogs, where creators share snippets of their daily lives, conversations, and cultural experiences in an informal setting.
あかね的日本語教室
Akane sensei's channel has rapidly growth. Her videos make it easier to understand how grammar and vocabulary are used in daily conversations.
Daily Japanese with Naoko
She speaks a bit slowly so it's easy to listen to what she talks about.
Miku Real Japanese
Her channel has plenty of videos. She also has a podcast channel and people around me really love to listen that.
Mr Yabatan
He is a funny Norwegian comedian who speaks fluent Japanese. His videos have subtitles and are very easy to understand because he tends to use beginner~intermediate level words.
His friend Dogen has lots of Japanese accent explanation videos which not many teachers have.
Kevin's English Room / 掛山ケビ志郎
They basically teach American English and culture but their short videos are also helpful for Japanese learners. If you are studying N3, I think their videos are a bit challenging or difficult.
セサミストリート
Sesame Street videos are easy to understand because of the puppets' actions.
If you want to practice speaking in Japanese with other techies, join our green coding meetups! We run international morning coding events in the Shonan area which is about 20 minutes by train from Yokohama.
Our mission is to disseminate the concept of green coding to Japan. We basically just bring our laptops to the cafe and work on our own projects though we want to try social coding and helping open source projects in the future. We are vegan/vegetarian-friendly so it's also a great place to meet like-minded friends! If it sounds like you, hit the link above and we will see you soon!