Customer Reviews

Drive-In Japanese

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

This tape is absolutely horrible. It's so bad that at first it was funny, then it became quite discouraging. It nearly convinced me that I would never learn one word of Japanese. It is difficult to understand even the English on the tape. The instructor will say a long phrase, barely give you time to repeat it once (if you can), and move on to the next phrase. Rather telling: before they even finish the first lesson, the instructor starts teaching you to "bluff": "What do you think this person might be saying? 'How are you,' 'I'm fine' etc." Absolutely ridiculous. Buyer beware. I do recommend the Pimsleur tapes. If I hadn't found those, after this tape, I really may have given up.

I don't know where to begin, to describe this tape/book. It really is pretty bad.

The Japanese male on the tape will at times explain a few things in English (the main narrator is an American female voice), and his English is so bad, I though he had a speech defect... I replayed a phrase half a dozen times before I could understand a phrase that sounded like "Dah woooh oda wouuuwh" which turned out to be "The role of the word". I have yet to understand other parts of his English text. His Japanese isn't anywhere near as mangled, but there are phrases that I cannot understand, and have to rely on the other, Japanese female teacher, to pick up.

The comment about the "important language skill" (of faking understanding by saying such as "hm, aha, really, you don't say") is quite funny. I think it reflect some unique Japanese attitudes. I have found that some Japanese regard it as either embarrassing for themselves to admit that they don't understand you -- or possibly embarrassing for you.

I'm surprised by the poor reviews: I'm actually here to buy a new copy because I lost one of tapes. The lessons are amusing and taught me a lot. I used them before my last trip to Japan, and my in-laws were very impressed with how much I had learned.

Lessons include meeting people, eating and drinking (which I found particularly helpful), setting meeting times and places, shopping, household words, transportation and directions, describing family and friends, and a little bit on using the past tense.

It gave me an excellent grounding for my last trip, and I look forward to using it before my upcoming trip.

Oh, and neither my 5 year old daughter nor I have had any trouble understanding what was said on the tape. Yes, the Japanese speaker does speak English with a slight accent, but he is perfectly intelligible. Besides, if you are going to visit Japan, I think it is valuable to train your ear to understand English spoken with that accent.

I highly recommend this product.