Customer Reviews

Japanese I (Comprehensive)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found these tapes to be an adequate introduction to the Japanese language, but still felt as though something was missing at the end of the 30 lessons. Upon completion of the course, I had a nice collection of travel oriented phrases, but not much else that could be used in everyday small talk. There is one very important phrase everyone should learn no matter which foreign language they study ("where is the toilet?"). The accompanying booklet is very nearly useless. I would recommend buying a small phrase book (Rough Guide to Japanese is nice) to go with this course. My MAIN complaint with this set is the price gouging practices of the Pimsleur company. You can buy the Traveler's Edition (15 lessons) for about $60, and it is really just the first half of the full 30 cassette Japanese Level One. Why doesn't Pimsleur offer the second half of Level One for another $60 instead of charging you about $240 for the full set? I think we all know the answer to that! Pricing aside, I think the Pimsleur method is probably the most effective audio method for foreign language learning available. I've used several of the other courses out there (Barron's, Hugo, Berlitz, Living Language, Teach Yourself), and like the Pimsleur lessons the best. If you want a nice book with which to study Japanese on your own, I would recommend "Japanese for Busy People"

I've gone through the entire basic course (30 lessons) and don't share the other reviewers' enthusiasm. I felt like I was learning a lot in the beginning, but after a while, I realized that I knew a small collection of travel-related words and phrases, but wasn't making very much progress in learning the language. I get the impression that each language course in their series is created with the same basic boilerplate of content with only a minimum of localization. The lack of grammatical explanations virtually no supporting text began to be a tremendous impediment to my progress. Amazon offers a significant savings over the SyberVision edition . You should also realize that the 4-tape set of intermediate lessons do not represent a continuation from the beginning 4-tape set. They pick up at the end of the first 15-tape collection. This is not particularly clear on the packaging or in their online advertising.

It was really heartening to know that I could learn a language without a teacher at my advanced age. Supplemental books are helpful, however. At this level I would suggest "Japanese in 10 Minutes" (hardly true, but it does have stickers you can put on the objects in your house to teach you the names of common objects) and "1000 First Words in Japanese." You are learning on a very basic level here on the first set of lessons---lots of repetition. The important thing: never miss a single day, even if it's only a few minutes. Also: as the lessons progress they get harder, and it gets impossible to listen and do tasks at the same time. You need to sit in a chair and concentrate. Don't be afraid to repeat the lessons. In a year's time you will be speaking elementary Japanese from ground zero.

We had company coming for 3 weeks from Japan. My fiance's daughter is Japanese and cannot speak any english. It was amazing how useful the course was. Much to my surprise, Japanese is easy. It is a logical language.

I've never tried learning a language via audio tapes before. Currently I'm in lesson 7 of this Japanese series, and I like it a lot. It's absolutely great for anyone with a long commute. The lessons are carefully crafted and the information dovetails nicely, so that you aren't expected to know what you haven't been taught. Before this, I tried "Japanese at a Glance" by the Barron folks, and comparatively speaking it was awful. All in all, an excellent effort by the Pimsleur people.

I found this tape course excellent. Basically it's easy to use because you can listen in your car and don't need a textbook. I have just ordered level 2 and 3 after completing level 1.

Enjoyable & at a manageable pace. This course is conversation only -does not teach how to read or write Japanese. -
It is great for listening to while travelling to & from work, whilst doing housework etc. I have purchased the next 2 levels & am pleased with my progress. I never thought that i would be able to speak one single word of Japanese.

Pimsleur does and excellent job of organizing this tape set in a way that I can remember just about everything I learned. No learn-test-forget like classic schooling. Its pretty expensive but worth it.