Japanesepod101.com(http://www.Japanesepod101.com) is one of the best, most comprehensive language learning sites across the web, hands down. Multimedia rarely looks so good as it does on this site.

New members receive a 7 day free trial when they sign up, during which time they’ll have full access to all of the audio, video and iPhone-application friendly language lessons that Japanesepod101 has to offer – and there are thousands of them! You can also view gift baskets to decide if you want to order one as well. Although we do not offer a trial on these, we do recommend them for maximum enjoyment while you use your language trial. After the seven day trial expires, members can upgrade to basic or premium subscription plans that will extend the access.

Even if members choose not to upgrade to a subscription plan, there are many free lessons on the site that are available to anyone. Each lesson is incredibly detailed, and deconstructs real-world examples (spoken by native speakers). During the deconstruction (usually done by both a native Japanese speaker and an English speaker), all language elements are covered, including pronunciation, grammar construction – even those really subtle cultural differences between the East and West are discussed.

All in all, the lessons are designed to work naturally and easily. Case in point: as I’ve been writing this very article, one of the lessons has been playing in the background. I’m absolutely stunned to find that I can now say “Would you like to have a barbecue”, “Do you have any kids?” and “Do you have any free time this Sunday?” flawlessly – especially since the lesson was only background noise during writing. Multiply those results ten-fold if I had actually been focusing…