Learn Japanese with Noriko (Intermediate) - Ep1: Season2 スタート！
Noriko is back. After a short break from uploading, Learn Japanese with Noriko returns with Season 2, Episode 1 — and she opens exactly the way a returning friend would: ちょっとの間、更新を休んでいました。また戻ってきてください (I took a little break from uploading — please come back). She even asks listeners to greet her with お帰りなさい、のりこさん (welcome back, Noriko). One small but interesting decision she explains: rather than continuing the running count from Season 1 as episode 366, she restarted at Season 2 Episode 1, 新しい気持ちでまた新たにスタート — to capture the feeling of a genuinely fresh start.
Most of this episode is a practical announcement block, and it is unusually useful listening practice because Noriko states six numbered points clearly and slowly, one by one: (1) she's aiming for 365 episodes again; (2) transcripts become paid — only Patreon $5 members get password access to them on her site; (3) the schedule stays at three episodes a week, Monday/Wednesday/Friday, plus the Saturday Patreon-only bonus show Extra; (4) interview episodes will now get transcripts, though making them takes 3–5 times longer, so interview weeks may break the three-a-week rhythm; (5) episodes keep going up on her YouTube channel; and (6) Season 2 adds captions on YouTube — the audio goes up first, captions follow later. She's explicit about why: with captions on, そこでトランスクリプトが読めるわけです (you can read the transcript right there) — and that part is free.
The episode then introduces a brand-new closing segment, 今日のインスピレーション (today's inspiration), where she shares short quotes she finds online. The first one is a famous line attributed to Japanese TV personality 所ジョージ (Tokoro George): 生きてる意味ないぜ、昨日より今日、今日より明日が充実してなきゃ — there's no point in being alive unless today is richer than yesterday, and tomorrow richer than today. She repeats it twice, then unpacks it: the past is over, 気にしない方がいい (better not to worry about it). She closes by promising a big guest next time — Miku-sensei of Miku Real Japanese. For learners, this episode is packed with the 〜について / 〜ていく / 〜(よ)うと思います / 〜かもしれません / 〜なきゃ patterns, all delivered in slow, clear, beginner-friendly Japanese.
📚 Grammar Breakdown
Meaning: Go on doing ~ / keep ~ing (from now into the future)
In Text: 月曜日、水曜日、金曜日でやっていきたい (I want to keep doing Monday, Wednesday, Friday), アップロードをしていきます (I'll keep uploading), 終わっていきたいと思います (I'd like to close the episode that way), このやり方でやっていきたい (I want to go ahead with this method).
Note: The 〜て-form plus いく literally means go and do ~, but with an activity it means continue doing it into the future — I'll keep at it. Noriko leans on it heavily here because this episode is all about what she intends to keep doing in Season 2. Distinguish it from 〜てくる (have been doing ~ up to now / come to do ~). Related pattern also in this episode: 〜ようになります (comes to be able to ~) — アクセスできるようになります (you'll become able to access), 読めるようになります (you'll be able to read), 聞けるようになります (you'll be able to listen) — which describes a change of state rather than a continuing action.
Meaning: I think I'll ~ / I'm thinking of ~ing / I intend to ~
In Text: キャプションをつけてみようと思います (I think I'll try adding captions), 366 エピソードにしようかなと思ったんですが (I wondered whether to make it episode 366), やってみようかな (maybe I'll give it a go).
Note: Take the volitional form (〜よう for godan verbs like つける→つけよう, 〜よう for ichidan like 見る→見よう) and add と思います to state an intention softly — much more natural and less blunt than 〜ます or 〜たいです when you're announcing a plan. Add 〜てみる first, as Noriko does (つけてみよう), and you get I'll try doing ~ and see how it goes. With かな it becomes a musing question to oneself: 〜しようかな (maybe I'll...).
Meaning: Might ~ / perhaps ~ / there's a chance that ~
In Text: つまらないかもしれないけど、聞いてください (it might be boring, but please listen), まだ半袖を着ているかもしれませんが (you may still be wearing short sleeves), 週3回の更新が難しいかもしれません (keeping three updates a week might be difficult), どこまで続くかわかりませんけど (I don't know how far I can keep it up).
Note: Attach かもしれません to the plain form of a verb, an い-adjective, or a noun/な-adjective stem (元気かもしれません). It expresses maybe — roughly a 50/50 guess — and is far softer than きっと (certainly). Noriko uses it repeatedly in this episode to soften announcements she knows listeners may not love, which makes it a key tool for polite hedging in Japanese. In casual speech it shortens to かもしれない.
Meaning: Have to ~ / must ~ / ~ or else
In Text: 昨日より今日、今日より明日が充実してなきゃ (today has to be richer than yesterday, and tomorrow richer than today) — from the quote 生きてる意味ないぜ、…充実してなきゃ (there's no point in being alive unless...).
Note: 〜なきゃ is the clipped, conversational form of 〜なければならない / 〜なければいけない. Form it by replacing the final い of 〜ない with きゃ: 充実しない → 充実しなきゃ; 行かない → 行かなきゃ; 食べない → 食べなきゃ. It is extremely common in speech and song lyrics but should stay out of formal writing. Note the structure of the quote: the condition clause comes after the main statement — 生きてる意味ないぜ、…充実してなきゃ (there's no meaning to living — [if] it doesn't get richer) — which is why the English rendering flips the order to unless.