Lazy Fluency - Japanese Podcast | 英会‪話‬ Joey & Ayami

Found this podcast from the Tofugu recommendation. The topics are fun and interesting. Most importantly the back and forth between English and Japanese helps me from getting completely lost in the conversation.

I’ve been studying Japanese for about 3 months now, and I started listening to this podcast 2 weeks ago while at work. I’ve been studying kanji for about 2.5 of those months (167 kanji memorized as of 8/29/2022), but I wanted to push my learning beyond the memorization of characters. Textbooks and grammar guides are using a lot of kanji I haven’t learned yet, so I decided it was best to wait on studying with textbooks until my kanji knowledge base was a bit bigger. I was sat wondering what to do until I came across a Tofugu article recommending your podcast. I started listening, and I was hooked. I’ve now listened to about half of the episodes. On #28 I realized that I was beginning to understand some of the Japanese without using English as a contextual crutch. In the second segment Joey began talking about food, and while I didn’t comprehend to a level where I could give a 1-to-1 translation of what he was saying, I understood enough to get the gist of the conversation. When Ayami responded in English it confirmed my understanding of what Joey was saying, and it was a euphoric feeling. Language learning aside, this podcast is a great listen if you’re willing to put in the work of trying to switch languages in your head. The two hosts have some really interesting talks, and it’s an incredibly fun and helpful tool. I look forward to future episodes, as well as returning to some of the older ones as my Japanese skills continue to improve.

Toufugu lists this podcast as one of the best Japanese learning resources of 2022 and I whole heartedly agree! As a beginner, much of the conversation is beyond me, but since half of each topic is in English it helps with context and understanding the jist of the Japanese side of the conversation. Joey and Ayami are a joy to listen to!