In this section, I'm going to describe the step-by-step process that I use to study JapanesePod101 audio lessons. I've found that this is the most interesting and effective method for me personally. Of course, you can take whatever approach you like (you might not even want to use JapanesePod101), but I hope that this proves useful to those of you who are looking for a productive way to integrate these lessons into your life.

This audio lesson tutorial will make use of JapanesePod101's customizable RSS Feeds. At the time of this writing, the only way to use these feeds is to have a Premium or Premium+ Membership, so, yeah… it costs money to do this. I'm sorry, cheapo friends.

Here I am on my JapanesePod101 Dashboard:

To go to My Feeds (i.e. customizable RSS feeds), I go to Study Tools --> My Feed:

This will bring up a page that includes a list of all the different levels and seasons of JapanesPod101:

There are a ton of levels, seasons, and lesson types on JapanesePod101. I have to zoom out my browser in order to fit them all on one screen. Here they are side by side:

Downloading Customized RSS feeds is a 3-step process. We have to (1) select the lesson type (i.e. Level & Season), (2) select the file type (e.g. “dialogue only," “main audio track," “PDF," etc.) and (3) write a name for the feed:

Looking at that huge list of available lessons, you might be feeling a bit overwhelmed about where to begin.

At least for the beginner stages, lessons follow a pretty steady progression. Once you get to intermediate level, you might want to spice up your studies with lessons series focusing on things like “Particles," “Yojijukugo," “Onomatopoeia," “JLPT Prep," etc.

If you're having trouble deciding which lessons you want to download first, it can help to look through them a bit in your browser. To do this, I go to Browse Lessons --> Audio Lessons.

This will take me to the lesson interface, and on the left side of the page, there is a list of the different levels:

If you're new to JapanesePod101, you might want to warm up with some of the Introduction lessons. Those aren't strictly language lessons, however, so they're not really the focus of our customized RSS feeds, which will be the core lesson series.

For the core lesson series, here is our targeted progression. If this is your first encounter with Japanese, it's probably best to just start at the very beginning and work your way through one lesson at a time:

You might also want to sprinkle in some bonus courses when you feel like spicing things up:

So how do you choose the correct level? Honestly, it's probably going to take some trial and error. Personally, I always like to underestimate my ability when it comes to audio lessons, because listening to lessons that are too difficult can be kind of discouraging and/or exhausting. If you think that you're Intermediate Level, maybe you should take Beginner or Lower Intermediate lessons at first. If you think you're Beginner Level, maybe you should take some Absolute Beginner lessons first. It's more time-effective to study something that is somewhat familiar so that you can drill it into your brain and become more comfortable with it than it is to listen to something overly difficult that you have a super hard time understanding. That's just how I approach these, though. In the end, it's your call.

Let's say that after I browse through the content a bit on the site, I decide that I'm going to start with Lower Intermediate lessons, because the Beginner Lessons look way too easy, and the Upper Intermediate Lessons look quite challenging. The first thing I do is go to the My Feed page:

First is Step #1, which is selecting the lesson and season:

I'm going to check the box for Lower Intermediate Season 1:

Now I can move on to Step #2, which is selecting the file type. Specifically, there are 3 file types that I want: (1) Main Audio Tracks, (2) Dialogue Tracks, and (3) Lesson Notes PDFs. However, I want to download these separately, so I will need to do this one at a time. Let's start with the Main Audio Tracks:

Now I can move on to Step #3, where I will give the custom feed a name. Rather than be creative, I'm going to call it exactly what it is:

As I type this unique name, a custom feed link will be automatically generated. I can then click on that link, which will open up iTunes, my most hated computer program in the world. If and when iTunes opens, it will tell me to enter my JapanesePod101 login credentials in order to access this podcast:

After failing to login 600 times, then realizing that I'm using the wrong password, I manage to authenticate this business, and the lessons start downloading:

Let's alter the setting of this podcast for a minute, though. I want the lessons to be sorted and played from Oldest to Newest:

Next, I select one episode, then I type “Ctrl + A" to select all episodes:

Then I right-click and select “Download Podcast Episode:"

The episodes will start downloading one at a time, indicating by the little circle to the left of them:

Sweet! While those are downloading, I'm going to go back and download the Dialogue Tracks and the Lesson PDFs.

Note: I recently realized that it's also possible to simply right-click the podcast in the left column and select “Download all episodes." None of that “Ctrl + A" business.

To download the dialogue tracks, we're following the same exact process described above:

This time, that iTunes link above will take me to a separate feed for Dialogue Tracks.

After I click that link above, the PDF file will also get downloaded to iTunes. So, I'll have three different feeds in my iTunes library:

You can sync all of these to your device(s), and they'll appear like any other podcast. Personally, though, I don't really like looking at Lesson Notes on my phone or iPad. When I was really serious about studying Japanese, I always printed them, instead. To do this I can right-click on the lesson notes and select “Show in Windows Explorer" (or, if you have a Mac, I'm sure there's a similar option somewhere in the list):

This will take me to the messed-up location where iTunes keeps all of my media, and from there I can move them to a more accessible location and/or print them:

Finally! Once I get those lessons onto my listening device of choice, it's time to listen, listen, listen.

You can listen like a really good student, reading along in the lesson notes before, during, and after each episode and making rad flashcards in your Anki deck.

Or you can be like me and take my lazier approach, just listening to them whenever you have free time, partly for structured language exposure, which is productive, and partly to get excited about Japanese, which is motivating.

I like to use the dialogue tracks for review. It helps me to gauge how much I've learned and which lessons I need to go back and look at again. If I'm not sure what lessons to go back and look at again, I…

As far as I know, most players these days have an option to speed up podcast audio to 2X speed (or slow it down, if you'd like). I love listening to lessons at 2X speed for two different reasons:

1. It's not that difficult to understand, actually. For some reason it's not even that much more difficult than normal speed.
2. It forces me to really focus on the audio. When I'm just chilling at 1X speed, it's easy to get distracted and stop paying attention completely, but this rarely happens to me when I'm listening at double speed.

Once you've listened to the full season a few times, maybe reading through the lesson notes and making flashcards along the way, you'll probably start to feel pretty confident about the lesson content. When this happens, feel free to move up to the next season. Following the example we've been looking at so far, this would mean moving up to Lower Intermediate Season 02:

When I do this, I would probably delete Season 01 Main Audio Tracks from my devices, but I would keep the dialogue tracks, because it's a super time-effective way to review what I've learned so far. Using dialogue tracks, I could probably review around 30 lessons per hour. Pretty fast, if you ask me.

In this case, I would do everything I have described so far in Steps #1-8 for

• Lower Intermediate Season 1
• Lower Intermediate Season 2
• Lower Intermediate Season 3
• Lower Intermediate Season 4
• Lower Intermediate Season 5
• Lower Intermediate Season 6

Once I feel like I have all of the Lower Intermediate Lessons figured out without any major problems, then I can…

In this particular example, this means that I would move up to Intermediate Level:

I would complete the season(s) for that level, then I would move up to Upper Intermediate, and I'd complete each of those seasons one at a time. In other words, I would…

And at the end of it all, I will have learned a ton of Japanese.

It's a lot of fun to look at all of those seasons and levels and to visualize all the awesome learning that you're going to partake in. However, don't forget that this learning process will take a lot of time and effort. You won't be jumping up levels every week, because there is a lot of solid content in each level.

Don't rush. Just take your time and enjoy yourself. Slow and steady wins the race, baby.

Phase #3 Assignment Remove barriers to listening practice. Put audio lessons onto your phone, mp3 player, PC, Xbox, CDs—Everywhere! Study at least 1 Japanese audio lesson every day. JapanesePod101 System: ① Pick a level and season. ② Download the full audio for that level and season. ③ Download the dialogue tracks for that level and season. ④ Download (& Print) the PDFs for that level and season. ⑤ Listen to the entire season. ⑥ Listen to all of the dialogue tracks. ⑦ Listen to the entire season again at 2X speed. ⑧ Move on to the next season (but keep the dialogue tracks). ⑨ Repeat steps #1-8 for each season in your level. ⑩ Move up to the next level (but keep the dialogue tracks). ⑪ Repeat steps #1-10 for every single level.

And that's our Daily Chain Item #2—a systematic approach to studying (at least one) audio lesson(s) per day. One lesson only takes like 15-20 minutes, and if you've removed all of the barriers to listening and started forming habits, then it shouldn't be too much of a problem. So listen to your one lesson and get that Blue X on your calendar!