Eikaiwa Time Trial Is 10 Minutes on Weekdays. Pick Up the Sentences You Were Late On the Next Day

Someone speaks to you in English, and you understand the meaning, but your reply comes a beat late. Once you start worrying about that beat, the next words become even harder to get out. 'Eikaiwa Time Trial' is a programme made precisely to shorten that beat. It uses only junior-high-level words and expressions.

Rather than memorising difficult phrasing, you build up, just 10 minutes on weekdays, the practice of getting words you already know out of your mouth within a time limit. The instructor has been Steve Soresi ever since the programme began in 2012.

From fiscal 2026 the broadcast moved to NHK-FM, airing Monday to Friday from 23:50 to 24:00. That is a hard time to stay up for, so it suits a style that does not insist on listening in real time and instead works through catch-up streaming and the textbook.

The Programme Has Just Two Parts: SPR and Dialogue Karaoke

The first half is SPR training. SPR stands for the Japanese words for 'instant,' 'outburst' and 'power': when a Japanese sentence is read aloud, you restate it in English within the time limit. It is designed on the assumption that you will not finish in time. In fact, the sentences you were late on become that day's practice material.

What is tested is not how much you know, but how quickly you can assemble sentence patterns you already know. With that clear focus, you can concentrate on practising getting out the expressions you have, rather than adding more vocabulary lists first.

The second half is Dialogue Karaoke. It is role practice where you speak your part aloud in response to the other speaker's lines. The weekly flow is set: from Monday to Thursday you build up expressions little by little, and on Friday you review with Dialogue Karaoke using that week's conversation.

In the second half of the month there is also a week for testing your SPR, and Week 4 is, as a rule, a repeat of Week 3. In other words, even if you miss a week, the programme itself leaves room to catch up later in the month. You do not need to do double the amount to make up for falling behind.

Use the Textbook for Marking, Not for Previewing

You only need to open the textbook for a little while before and after the broadcast. Before the broadcast, just skim through the Japanese sentences on that day's page. If you read the English first and try to memorise it, it stops being SPR practice in assembling within a time limit.

During the broadcast, speak aloud without looking at the textbook, and open the page only after it ends. Because you do not spend time previewing, the 10-minute broadcast itself becomes your practice time.

After the broadcast, there is just one thing to do. Put a small mark on the sentences you could not say in time and the sentences where you stumbled. Please do not try to review every sentence.

Only the marked sentences are that day's harvest. A day with zero marks is a day things went smoothly; a day with five or six marks is a day when you gained that much more material to pick up. The number of marks is not a judgement of how well you did; it is a guide for deciding the order in which to pick them up the next day.

Pick Up the Sentences You Were Late On First Thing the Next Day

Before the next day's broadcast begins, try saying just 1–2 of yesterday's marked sentences aloud, from the top. If you can say one here, that sentence has graduated. If you still get stuck, trace the mark again and carry it over to the next day. You do not need to repeat the same sentence dozens of times on the spot.

Saying it aloud once more after sleeping and waking, when you have half-forgotten it, helps it grow into a sentence that comes out in a real conversation. Deciding on a small place to finish is the most important part of this way of picking things up.

Even if you miss a broadcast, there is no need to panic. On NHK's catch-up service 'Rajiru★Rajiru,' you can listen at any time for 1 week after the broadcast. There is also a repeat broadcast from 0:45 the next day. Even if there are days you cannot listen on a weekday, listening to 2–3 days' worth together at the weekend works fine.

Conversely, for an episode where the 1-week catch-up window has passed and it has disappeared, let it go decisively. The next week's broadcast starts with new sentences, so your practice still connects even if you do not fill in the missed episode. On the day after a break, it is enough to return by picking up 1 sentence from yesterday.

If the reason you stumble in Dialogue Karaoke is that you cannot catch the other speaker's lines, adding a little listening practice is another option. Besides listening repeatedly to the programme audio on catch-up, for practice that cuts learning audio into small pieces and listens closely, there is also 'Rehear,' a listening practice app made by the team behind this magazine.

The speed at which the sentence you want to say comes out of your mouth is pulled along by the speed at which you can catch what you hear. As your ear's foundation builds, the sentences you are late on in SPR will gradually decrease, too. You can decide whether to use it when you feel the place you stumble is on the listening side.

How to Divide It Up with Radio Eikaiwa

Some of you may be torn between this and NHK's 'Radio Eikaiwa.' Roughly speaking, Radio Eikaiwa is a course for building up expressions and how sentences work, while Time Trial is a course for drawing out, within a time limit, what you have built up. For the detailed routine, see the article on the Radio Eikaiwa textbook.

You do not have to do both every day. If your current trouble is 'I want to say it but it will not come out,' start with just the 10 minutes of Time Trial. Conversely, if you feel 'I do not even have the forms I could say in my head,' there is also the order of starting with Radio Eikaiwa and adding this as a place to draw out what you have built up.

The textbook is a monthly magazine from NHK Publishing, released on the 14th of each month, list price ¥710 (incl. tax). If you are starting, the issue that is out this month is fine. Even from the middle of the month, you can follow along if you open the page that matches that week's broadcast.

There is also a digital edition, so if you are concerned about space for paper copies, that is an option, too. There is also a way to buy the audio separately (download edition ¥770), but at first the catch-up streaming is enough. Once the programme fits into your life, that is the time to think about it.

10 minutes on weekdays, mark it if you were late, and pick up just 1 sentence first thing the next day. That is all you need to do. Even if there are days you cannot do it, you can continue if you have a decided place to return to. If you could not return, you only need to make it small again.