Today, we bring you another blog post from Motoko, JapanesePod101.com lesson creator, host and Office Party Planner! Motoko will be sharing more bilingual posts on our blog, so check back often and leave a comment!

Hi everyone, Motoko here!

In the beginning of summer this year, the Innovative Language staff went on a day trip. Today I’d like to talk about that. We chose peach-picking for fun, and soba-making so that everyone could try a traditional Japanese food! We made soba in a wonderful nihon-kaoku, a traditional type of Japanese house.

Do you know what soba is? Soba is a famous type of noodle in Japan that is a greyish-brown color. It gets this color from a special type of flour called sobako that is used to make it. You dip the boiled soba into a dip called tsuyu made from fish broth, and eat it. Adding onions and wasabi to the tsuyu give it a more grown-up flavor. Soba comes in two types: cold zarusoba, and warm kakesoba, but this time we had zarusoba.

Soba is made from sobako and flour. First, you mix the two types of flour into a large bowl called a hachi. You can use chopsticks, but it seems like it’s more common to use your hands. Next, you add water. Then comes the hard part – you have to then knead the soba dough a lot. The teacher made it look easy, but it requires a lot of strength since the dough is not that soft. Apparently, the action of kneading the dough is an important step to making delicious soba. Once you’re done kneading, you flatten the dough with a rolling pin. Then, you place the soba on a wooden board called a komaita, and cut it with a special knife called a bocho. If you cut it thinly, you get great soba. If you cut it thickly, you get soba that looks like udon. (Which still tastes good…it just might be a little hard.)

Everyone worked hard at making soba, getting themselves covered with flour in the process. After making it, we boiled it and ate it ourselves. Because the noodles are raw, they take only a minute and a half to cook. Soon after boiling them, you do what’s called shimeru in Japanese. Shimeru refers to rinsing the noodles with cold water so that they don’t get too soft. When you do this, it gives the noodles a nice chewy texture. This isn’t done with Italian pasta!

Then we got on the bus to go peach-picking. Is it common to go fruit-picking in your country? In Japan, there are a lot of opportunities for fruit-picking that change with the seasons. Cherry-picking, peach-picking, grape-picking, and pear-picking are some of the well-known ones. You go to the field to pick and eat a lot – depending on the place, there may be a limit to how much you can eat. The place we went had an all-you-can-eat deal that lasted for 40 minutes. For 40 minutes, you can pick and eat as much as you want. Apparently, the good peaches are at the ends of the branches, so everyone tried hard to get the highest ones.

The person who ate the most was a family member of one our Innovative Language staff. They ate seven peaches in 40 minutes! As for me, I ate three. The peaches I chose were big, so even after just three, I was really full!

Readers, you should definitely try your hand at making Japanese food – not just eating it. I had never made soba before, and I’m Japanese! It’s sure to be a memorable experience.

Hello Listener,

Learning a word a day is effortless, free, and takes less than a minute!

So it’s no wonder the Word of The Day at InnovativeLanguage.com is one of our users’ most loved free features. And when our users started mailing in with feedback, we just couldn’t leave it alone.

The biggest issue? iOS incompatibility. The original Word of the Day Flash Widget didn’t work with the iPhone or the iPad.

After much tinkering, the new Word of the Day Widget is here.

Access the Word of the Day widget on any browser, from any smartphone, or computer. Want to save a word or sample sentences for your own use? Just copy and paste it directly from the widget!

Add the widget to your blog or website!

Choose from 38 languages and customize the widget as you see fit! The Word of the Day widget comes in two sizes, small (160 x 190px) and large (540 x 450px) and 8 different designs. Once you’ve chosen the language, size, and design, grab the embed code and add it to your site!

If you have questions or feedback for us, send us an email here.

Click Here to Visit the New Word of the Day Widget!

Today, we bring you another blog post from Motoko, JapanesePod101.com lesson creator, host and Office Party Planner! Motoko will be sharing more bilingual posts on our blog, so check back often and leave a comment!

Hi all, Motoko here.

Today I’d like to tell you about the baseball game the Innovative Language team went to at the end of September. But before I do, which sports are popular in your country? And do you know which sports are popular in Japan?

The answer is: soccer and baseball.

Soccer came to Japan because it was popular in Europe. Baseball, on the other hand, can be written in kanji (野球), and that’s because it was introduced to Japan much earlier than soccer was. In fact, it came to Japan in 1872. It is said that it started when an American man taught some Japanese college students how to play baseball.

Of course, playing baseball is quite popular, but also people young and old love watching it. Stadium tickets come in two types; one is “reserved seating” where you can choose where you’d like to sit ahead of time. Another is “non-reserved seating”, where you can choose where to sit on game day. The second kind is cheaper. Spectators drink beer, eat snacks, and watch the game. Throughout the game, staff (mostly ladies) carry beer tanks through the crowd, so you can easily get more beer without leaving your seat!

The game was held at Meiji Jingu stadium, which is close to Shibuya. The seating areas are divided among the two teams. In this stadium, the seats on the first-base side were for Yakult Swallows supporters, and the seats on the third-base side were for the opponent’s (Chunichi Dragons), supporters. So, if you’re cheering for the Swallows, you need to have a seat on the first-base side.

Speaking of cheering for the teams, we found some unique supporters’ gear to help us do just that. Some people had pairs of miniature plastic megaphones and made loud noises by beating them together. Other people had little umbrellas and danced with the cheering groups. Each baseball team has their own mascot. Tsubakuro is the mascot of the Yakult Swallows – “swallow” is tsubame in Japanese. Actually, the first baseball team ever to have a mascot was from Japan. Did you know that?

(Sep, 2012)

Today, we bring you another blog post from Motoko, JapanesePod101.com lesson creator, host and Office Party Planner! Motoko will be sharing more bilingual posts on our blog, so check back often and leave a comment!

Hi everyone, Motoko here!

Today I’d like to tell you about another listener meetup we had.

The other day, we had two JapanesePod101.com listeners come to visit us. One was from Canada, and the other was from France. It was the second meetup for me, but I still felt nervous beforehand!

Andre from Canada, and Becher from France paid us a visit.

They met each other through their Japanese studies, and this was their first trip together – they were staying in Japan for two weeks. They told us that right before they came to the office, they had been shopping around in Akihabara, and also mentioned that they had visited Kobe, Kyoto, Osaka, and had even climbed Mt. Fuji! I’ve never climbed Mt. Fuji, by the way. I was surprised to learn that they had gotten around to it before me!

They were both very friendly, and seemed excited about coming to Japan as well as visiting the Innovative Language office. Our office is not that big, and we have a small recording booth in the corner of the room. They seemed surprised at how compact it all was.

They also mentioned how hot Japan still was even though it was September. September is the first month of fall, but it’s still quite hot in Tokyo. There were even some days where the temperature reached 30 degrees – it might be an effect of global warming.

Andre said that he would make sure that his next trip was in winter. Not a bad idea!

The Innovative Language staff will be waiting for you the next time you come to Japan!（Sep, 2012）

Another Fall has come and gone and just like that, another iPhone model has hit the market, along with iOS updates for all. If you’ve updated your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to iOS 6 already and tried looking for your favorite InnovativeLanguage.com podcast, you may be scratching your head wondering if we’ve packed our bags and closed up shop.

We haven’t.

In fact, we continue to release new lessons every single week in over 25 languages!

Here are some tips on where to find us and listen on-the-go!*

Using the Podcast App
To find these apps using iOS 6, you’ll need to download Apple’s Podcast app. (Here’s a quick link to the free download.) Once you have the Podcast app installed, you’ll be able to find us under Education or by searching for us. With one tap of a finger, you can download our latest lessons and subscribe to our feed. Once you’re subscribed, these podcast feeds will be added to your library in the Podcast App.

The app itself is made with podcast users in mind. Jump forward and backwards by 10 and 30 second intervals (great for when you want to jump right to the grammar or go back to review the vocabulary) and share your favorite lessons through Twitter, Message and email. The recent update of the Podcast app also allows you to keep your podcast library up-to-date across devices using iCloud.

Using iTunes to Sync
If you prefer using the built-in Music app on your iPhone or iPad, you can still access your podcasts by syncing with iTunes on your computer. Just be sure to delete or not download the Podcast App and know that you won’t be able to download new lessons from your device. (Unfortunately, that’s only possible through the Podcast app.) Using the Music app, you can still tap to view our lesson dialogue and create your own playlists.

No matter how you choose to listen to our lessons, be sure to sign up for a Free Lifetime Account at any of our language sites to access 7 days of free Premium access and free tools like the Japanese Word of the Day, Core 100 Words List and more!

Click for your free account now!

*These tips are up to date as of October 10th, 2012

Today, we’re happy to announce a brand new InnovativeLanguage.com app in the iTunes App Store for the Japanese language. Put on your hiking gear because you’re about to explore the world of Japanese Vocabulary with this addicting new app!

There’s absolutely no limit to the number of vocabulary words you could and should learn in the Japanese language. The fact is, the more words you know, the better you’ll be able to speak and communicate. That’s true of any language; even your native tongue! But when are you going to find the time to learn them all? Isn’t there a shortcut?

Introducing Visual Dictionary Lite - Learn Japanese, presented by Innovative Language Learning! This new App for iPhone and iPad focuses your Japanese vocabulary learning to the words you need to know - the objects, places and people that you’ll encounter in your daily life. With Visual Dictionary Lite, you’ll be transported to a world where everything you tap and touch comes to life with native audio recordings and vibrant imagery. You’ll start at the front door of our Earth scenario and drill down to smaller areas like the beach, city and airport with a single tap. Look for the blue arrows to zoom and transport yourself to more areas and learn more words. It’s that simple.

Visual Dictionary Lite - Learn Japanese is a free app with convenient in-app upgrade to the full version. With Visual Dictionary Full, you’ll learn 550+ must-know Japanese vocabulary words through native audio clips, sample sentences and colorful illustrations. No matter what your Japanese reading level is, you can switch between kana and romanization to accommodate all Japanese language students.

Here’s what you’ll get when you download Visual Dictionary Lite - Learn Japanese today:

• Earth, City, and Supermarket scenarios and 39 related vocabulary words and over 100 sample sentences free! Unlock 23 more scenarios, 550+ words, and 1000+ sample sentences with in-app upgrade.
• 68 Food & Drink vocabulary in Category Mode and over 100 sample sentences free! Unlock the full category list and 550+ Japanese vocabulary and 1000+ sample sentences with upgrade.
• Kanji and kana for every word. Not comfortable with kana yet? Swap kana for rouma-ji on the Settings screen.
• Native Japanese audio recordings by professional voice actors
• Rich visual illustrations
• Practical sample sentences related to scenarios and words
• Your own personal Word Bank for convenient study

Now available in the iTunes App Store, download Visual Dictionary Lite - Learn Japanese today and start exploring!

Hello Listener,

Last July, the Dashboard made its first appearance. It provides a great place to start if you’re completely new to our 101 language sites and don’t know which level is right for you.

In short, the Dashboard allows you to:

• Start at a lesson appropriate for your level
• Track your learning progress with every lesson completed
• Jump to the next lesson from the Dashboard by pressing “Study Now”

And the feedback? It was incredibly positive and filled with great suggestions. Thank you for reaching out to us!

We listened and this past month, applied the suggestions to your Dashboard.

Your New Dashboard V1.1: Take control of your Language learning!

What’s New?

Want to study on your own terms? Skip the recommended lesson and customize your learning! With the new update, you can now:

• Customize the dashboard with the series you want to study
• Reorganize the dashboard courses
• Set your target course
• Jump directly to the next lesson of your series with the “Study” button

Customizing Your Dashboard

The Dashboard is now fully editable (add, remove, reorganize, set a target series) and there is no limit on how many series you can add. You’ll see the top 3 series that you’re currently working on, while the rest can be viewed by clicking on “See All.”

(sample screenshot taken from JapanesePod101.com)

Add A Series

Go to ”Browse Lessons”, find the series you want and click on it. On the main series page, just below the description, click on the “Add to Dashboard” checkbox. It will now appear in “My Courses” on your Dashboard. If you have more than three series already, you’ll be able to find it by clicking on “See All.”

(sample screenshot taken from JapanesePod101.com)

Remove A Series.

While in the “My Courses” section of your Dashboard, click on “Edit” just below the “Study” Button. To remove it, click on the red No Symbol. Once you’re done, press “Done Editing.”

(sample screenshot taken from JapanesePod101.com)

Reorganize Your Dashboard

While editing your dashboard, click on a series and drag it to your desired location. Once you’re done, press “Done Editing.”

(sample screenshot taken from JapanesePod101.com)

Set Your Target Course

Notice the green target symbol while in “Edit” mode? That is your main course which will appear in the lesson recommendation list below. To change it, simply click on the gray target symbol of a different series and you’ll see a green notification that your target has been changed. Your lesson recommendation list will also be updated.

(sample screenshot taken from JapanesePod101.com)

Quick “Study” Button
Quickly jump to the next lesson of your course! Just like the “Study Now” button in the lesson recommendation list, this will take you to the next lesson of that series.

We hope you enjoy the brand new Dashboard! We’ll of course continue to listen to our fans and tweak the Dashboard to provide the very best experience for everyone. If you have questions or feedback for us, send us an email here.

Much like many of our previous posts, we start with a big thank you, this time going to Apple. (Are we are very biased towards Apple at Innovative Language? You betcha. Their tools and platform facilitated our growth as a language learning company. This post could easily spiral into an all-out Apple fanboy extravaganza, but I will try to stay on point.)

Last month our friends at Apple added our family of language learning podcasts to the featured list on the Podcast Home Page.

Uncanny Timing – A Marketer’s Dream Come True

The timing was unreal, as it happened at the same time our community surpassed a Bunch of Big Benchmarks. Read the blog post here. (link to benchmark post here title Out From the Depths of the Innovative Language Learning Lab - Part Two )

Properly positioned, benchmarks can motivate teams and excite supporters and communities. They are something to be proud of, reflected on and celebrated. However, the recognition and driving force for these commemorations originate internally. It’s usually up to the people, or marketing teams, passing the benchmarks to spread the word.

External recognition is very different. It says and means a lot that someone thinks highly enough of your work to share with others. When we heard the news that our friends at Apple would be adding us to the Podcast Home Page we were a more than bit blown away. We’ve had many amazing acknowledgements and endorsements of our products over the years, but it was pretty surreal to see not just one of our products, but rather InnovativeLanguage.com, our language learning brand, getting the spotlight.

Take a look at our new neighbors. That is some lineup!

So how did we get up there?

Well, while I don’t know the exact formula, I do know the following things didn’t hurt our chances.

Our body of work in the Podcasting/Videocasting Arena:

- Over 7 years’ podcasting

- Over 50 Language Learning Podcasts

- 26 active (updated at least once weekly) “101″ language learning podcasts

- 4 million+ downloads a month

- Videos and HD videos, which look great on Apple TV, on each feed

While we’re not a media empire, in the podcasting arena, we do have a rather extensive Podcasting/Videocasting lineup.

Our network in the space

Over the years we’ve been fortunate to meet some pretty incredible people who have supported and helped promote our podcasts and videocasts. Their advice and support have been indispensable, and without it, it’s safe to say we would not occupy that prime piece of e-real estate.

Our community 

By learning with us and participating in the community, your support has allowed us to continually grow and bring better and better products to market. Thank you!

Team and Alumni

It’s reflection time, again! Again for the body of work you participated in, but this time for external recognition. Thank you! This achievement is not possible without you.

Peter here! Want to know how and why it all started? Read today’s blog post to find out more about our humble beginnings. Thanks for stopping by to read and leave a comment to say hello!

A Bunch of Big Benchmarks

200 Million Lessons Delivered, 150K YouTube Subscribers, and 50K Facebook Fans

Last month we hit all of these benchmarks.

These are 3 remarkable feats that everyone with a connection to our company and product should take a minute to reflect on and be extremely proud of.

But what does all of this mean?

Well,

• For the PR people, a press release!
• For the marketing team, a sale.
• For the tech team, something about server load balance,
• and for the financial guys, how is growth holding up?

For me, it is a chance to reflect.

The daily grind is grueling and our workload is no lighter because of these milestones, but these occasions give us a chance to climb out of the trenches and see how far we’ve come.

200 Million Now, but…it all started with one lesson

It’s kind of crazy. There were three things that fell into place to make the first lesson happen.

1. Aki Yoshikawa funding the show;

2. The first co-host, Natsuko, agreeing to do the show;

3. An acquaintance introducing me to a rehearsal studio, where we would record the shows.

1. I was a PhD student at a Japanese university working part-time at Aki’s translation company. Translation was her main business, but I noticed that she would sometimes entertain small pet projects. So I relentlessly pitched ideas to her every chance I had.  After about a year of this, one idea I had proposed appeared in a newspaper. That’s when she agreed to the next idea I pitched: Japanese language learning through podcasts.

2. Natsuko worked at the translation company. Her English is awesome, and she is very knowledgable. I knew she would be perfect! But…I had serious concerns about whether or not she would be worried about the exposure she would get by appearing in something so public. Some people really value their privacy! And if she said, “No,” the show was a no go! So, you could imagine I was very nervous before asking her. I had practiced my pitch, and came up with ways to rebut every concern she had. When the time came to ask her, she said, “Sure.” I was shocked! Reflecting back upon it, I think the fact that podcasting was still unknown helped my cause! In fact, I spoke to her recently and she had no idea her voice would go on to be heard by millions of people around the world!

3. Proper sound quality was achieved after an acquaintance at the company introduced us to a recording studio located near the office! We originally tried recording the lessons in an office room, but the quality was awful. He learned what were were trying to do, and he took us to the rehearsal studio where he would practice his shamisen (Japanese instrument) during his lunch hour. The place was close to the office, and the rooms were soundproof. The first lesson was recorded at the studio in the morning. Then it was edited back at a desk in a corner of Aki’s translation company in the afternoon, and sent out to the world by the end of the night!

You can listen to it below. Yes, that’s me and Natsuko!

The First Website

The lesson went out through an RSS feed on our first website, JapanesePod101.com. I still remember launching the first website. Flipping through the how-to-build-a-website book, I somehow managed to get it operational. However, JapanesePod101.com was a static website, so there was no way to leave a comment. Which means, there was no way for me to know if people were even listening to the lessons. I had to log into the website as an admin and look at “bandwidth used” statistics to see if lessons were actually being downloaded! The first day, there was one. Or at least I thought I had one, until I figured out it was actually me that downloaded it. But from there, a few lessons in the first week in December 2005 to 200 million this month!

I was quickly, and thankfully, relieved of CTO duties when long-time friend, and fellow Innovative Language Learning Co-Founder, Eran Dekel joined our team 2 weeks later.

Appreciation for Those Who Got Us There

First to our community, we thank you! You’ve supported us in our journey from a Japanese language learning company to a leading digital language learning company. We can only say thank you for your support, patience, and understanding. It wasn’t always a smooth ride, but we have done and will continue to do our best to continue to provide innovative language learning products.

To our current team and all of our alumni, thank you! Please take a moment to reflect on the body of work we have created together. From the breakthroughs to the blowups, we value everything you have and continue to contribute to the community products and company. It has been a remarkable ride and we can only hope you are as proud as we are. We congratulate you, and please take a moment to congratulate one another.

Still A Lot of Work to Do

In early July, we launched 6 new language websites: Bulgarian, Finnish, Filipino, Norwegian, Turkish and Vietnamese. That’s a total of 27 language websites and products in 36 languages. (We also just quietly launched Korean, Cantonese and English Premium Plus products).

Is there more to do?

Of course, but thanks to your hard work and hunger to learn and apply, we’ve grown into a global language company. We started as a Japanese language learning company, and have evolved into a leading digital language learning company.There is a story behind every benchmark. I plan to continue sharing ours with you.

Listen to the very first lesson here.

Peter here again. Today I want to share with you something I’ve been meaning to write about for a long time. It’s an honest look into why we do what we do here at InnovativeLanguage.com. Thanks for stopping by to read!

Financial Freedom through Teaching Bulgarian

On July 2nd 2012, our team launched a Bulgarian language learning website: BulgarianPod101.com! We worked just as hard, just as long and put in just as much passion on this language site as we did all of our previous websites!

Do we expect a financial windfall now that Bulgarian is live?

The Harsh Business Reality

No. In fact, early indications are that this language will not return our investment for a long, long time. If ever. Growth projections are currently angled at about 1 degree.

The plot thickens. We didn’t just launch 1 niche language on July 2. Our team actually launched 6 new language learning websites. And much like Bulgarian, we worked very hard to bring a good product to market.

But will we turn a profit on these languages?

Good question! We’re not sure quite yet. Each language is unique and the market is always changing, but some are definitely more profitable than others.

 The Danger for Some Languages is that the Economics Don’t Make Sense

I remember speaking with a business mentor. He is beyond successful and one of the savviest business people I have personal contact with.

We went over our bottom-line numbers language by language. He looked at them, and then drew a line through all of the unprofitable languages and circled the profitable languages.

“Abandon these,” he said, pointing to the crossed-out languages.

“Focus on these,” he said, pointing to the circled languages.

Needless to say, there weren’t many circled languages. And the sad part about the situation for many niche languages, is that he was right. It’s not profitable or practical to take on these languages. It’s a better business decision to invest in the bigger, more profitable languages.

Without investment, innovation in language learning material slows. Other, more profitable, languages get more investment. More competition leads to better and more widespread tools, and the number of students increases.

In the end, we didn’t take my friend’s sound business advice, but instead produced content for several unprofitable languages and continue to do so.

So Why On Earth Invest in Small Niche Languages that May Never Be Profitable?

That was a question to which I had to give a lot of consideration. I think the best way to explain it is to explain our thought process, which is kind of like a recipe.

Thought Process Recipe:

1 part passion

1 part competitiveness

1 part emotion

1 part familiarity

1 part business sense

and a dash of arrogance…er…I mean hope.

Add lots of sleep deprivation and do not expose to investors!

A Closer Look At the Parts

1 Part Passion

It’s cliche, but we really do like languages. Almost everyone here at the company speaks two languages, with the average being 2.5. We work with people around the world, and have made many connections and friendships.

1 Part Competitiveness

We’re pretty competitive at our core. If someone is doing it, we often challenge ourselves to put forth a competitive product. Said another way, if someone’s doing it, we’re trying it too. And we want to be the best of breed in the language learning field.

1 Part Emotion

Several of our languages were chosen because of personal connections or relationships. We have created language learning content because team members or fans have made compelling cases for it. We have juggled the order in which a language was created because of a team member.

1 Part Familiarity

Creating awesome content is what we do well. And sometimes it just easier if your team is structured in a way that sticks to what you’re good at.

1 Part Business Sense

In order to be a legitimate language learning company, you need to cover a lot of languages. The big ones will be profitable, but you’ll need some smaller, less profitable and unprofitable languages in your portfolio.

A dash of arrogance…er…I mean hope!

When my business friend told us to abandon some languages, a part of me definitely felt like we could prove him wrong. We didn’t. But…my competitive nature is one of the driving forces behind why we move so fast and cover so much ground.

There has been a lot of good that has come from this, but also a fair share of hiccups. With every new product and website we release, we learn more about ourselves and what’s important to us. On the dark days where we feel like we’re wasting our time, we refer back to the numerous emails from fans thanking us for paying attention to their often neglected language. That helps to rekindle our motivation to drive forward.