JapanNewbie

Japanese Podcast Recommendations – Part 5

Posted on 09. Sep, 2010 @ 8:36 am by harvey in Books, Language, Media Views: 1,232

No Longer Human

This podcast is an audio reading of a famous piece of Japanese literature called Ningen Shikkaku, by Dazai Osamu. The text of Ningen Shikkaku is available for free on Aozora Bunko, so you can listen to the audio while reading through the text. Perfect study tool!

I recommend saving the HTML page from Aozora Bunko to your computer, and then loading that into Stanza for the iPhone or iPod Touch. This way you can have the story read to you as you read along on the go! Very handy. Some day I will put together a blog post introducing tricks you can use to make your iPhone or iPod Touch the ultimate tool for studying Japanese, and when I do, this will be in the list for sure.

If you don’t want to subscribe the podcast itself, here is a link to all the Ningen Shikkaku MP3s.

You can also get a copy of an English translation of Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human) on Amazon. If you get book, and also take advantage of the links I have introduced, you’ll have the full Japanese text, an English translation, AND the audio of the Japanese text. What more could you ask for? Well… maybe a vocabulary list… but use your dictionary. You’ll be fine!

You can read more about Osamu Dazai on Wikipedia if you’re interested.

So now you’ve got the audio, the Japanese text, and an English translation. All the tools you need!

Enjoy! If anyone has any other Japanese-language podcast recommendations, do tell!

- Harvey

Other Japanese Podcast Recommendations:
Nikkei Trendy
Manyoushu
Ueda’s working person Profile!
Oeda Mariko – Nikkei Moyamoya Talk