Japanese Online Lessons using SKYPE

Listening to audiobooks can be a good way to practice listening skills for business persons

November 16, 2019

Do you know about “Audio Book” and “Audible”? “Audible” is the name of audio books operated by Amazon. The audio books are “listening books” read by narrators and voice actors, and you can enjoy reading while traveling in a train/car, doing housework, and out for a run.

About a year ago, one of my friends told me about Audible, but I questioned the value of the service at that time because there were few business books.

But recently one of Japanese teachers in our school introduced me Audible again.

This time I tried it because I found a book that I just wanted. Now I am into Audible service and not skeptical about the audio books service anymore.

So, in this edition, I summarized the benefits of Audible.

Advantage 1: Adjustable playback speed

You can adjust the narration speed of your Audible audiobooks from 0.5x to 3.5x.

You can listen the narration slowly at first, then increase the speed when you get used to it. In this way, it will be perfect to practice listening Japanese.

Advantage 2: You can choose business books as listening theme

If you choose a business book, you can get useful business information at the same time as you practice listening, so it is like throwing one stone to kill two birds.

Advantage 3: You can read the book review

Pod Cast is similar to Audible, but the quality of its content varies depending on the distributor.

On the other hand, Audible shows reviews from people reading the same book, so you can tell in advance whether you want to read the book.

Advantage 4: Possible to save reading time

It is difficult to read books while walking, but you can listen Audible while you are moving from the station to the office, walking, or driving.

I often read books when moving to other place, so it usually takes a few days to read a business book.

But this time, I was able to finish reading (listening) one book in a day through Audible. By the way, I listened at double speed.

Of course, there are also disadvantages, whic is a monthly fee.

In the past, if you pay a monthly fee, you can listen books unlimited, but now you can listen only one book for monthly fee. If you want to listen the second one, you have to buy the book at a discounted price.

For example, the book I read this time called “Multi-Power” is 1,540 yen for a normal book, but 418 yen for a Kindle.

The monthly fee for Audible is 1,500 yen, so the Kindle is cheaper.

However, this is unavoidable because recording and producing audio book properly need a long process.

(All figures are as of November 07, 2019)

For busy business persons, time is money, so I think Audible is worthy even with high prices.

Now, you can pick your first free book to give this service a try.

https://www.amazon.co.jp/b/ref=adbl_JP_as_0068?ie=UTF8&node=5816607051&tag=japanonlinesc-22

After your Audible 30-days trial expires, it costs 1,500 yen per month, but you can cancel the service before the expiration.

Listening practice is more fun when you listen the theme what you are interested in. I hope this will help your Japanese learning.