Many foreign students struggle with understanding spoken Japanese. This can be a problem not only during exams but also in everyday communication with teachers, employers, or potential Japanese friends. Getting used to Japanese can be helped by practice, for example, listening to Japanese songs and reading the lyrics, watching anime in the original voice with subtitles, or listening to audiobooks or podcasts.
In my opinion, for beginners, songs, books, and anime can be somewhat difficult to understand.
Therefore, today I have prepared for you a list of my favorite podcasts in Japanese at levels N5, N4, and N3.
(Almost all links lead to Spotify, but all of these podcasts can be found on other platforms as well)
Short podcasts. Easy topics, clear grammar and vocabulary for level N5~. At the end there is a list of words with English translation that were used in a podcast.
Small stories, fairy tales, talking about everyday life and traditions. Suitable for level N5~
Monologues on the topics of everyday life. There are videos of this podcast on YouTube with a transcription of the podcast and subtitles with English translation. Suitable for N4~
Reflections on life in Japan, habits, culture, etc. The pace and style of speaking is most similar to real Japanese speech, not the teacher's style. Suitable for N4~
conversations about everyday life, easy and understandable language, there are tips for speaking Japanese more naturally. Many levels of Japanese, different topics to choose from. Suitable for N5~
Podcasts can be useful not only for getting used to the everyday pace of Japanese speech but also for learning about Japanese culture and daily life. If you are planning to live in Japan and/or work in a company with Japanese people, podcasts will help you understand and integrate into the Japanese environment more quickly.