Customer Reviews

Japanese III, Comprehensive: Learn to Speak and Understand Japanese with Pimsleur Language Programs

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

 

 

If you want to learn how to Communicate in Spoken Japanese, NO OTHER PRODUCT will prepare you as well as Pimsleur Japanese.

I have been married to a wonderful Japanese Woman for over a year and half. We were blessed with our first son who was born September 2006. I want my son to grow up truly bilingual. Therefore I know that at home a lot of Japanese must be spoken. I finally got back off my butt and just finished Lesson 30 of Pimsleur Japanese III. While I am by no means fluent or even modestly intermediate. I am very confident with my Japanese. So confident that I will start conversations with Japanese people in Japanese. Certainly the Pimsleur approach involves a lot of repetition but that repetition burns things into your brain. I have no hesitation when it comes to ordering drinks or food, asking how someone is doing, talking about work, or inquiring about buying a product.

During a trip to Japan in 2005, I was so delighted when real situations presented themsleves where the exact phrases I learned in the Pimsleur series were needed. Those moments convinced me how good Pimsleur really is. Unlike some other audio programs I have tried, Pimsleur never throws a lot of completely new things at you. It is very gradual. And if you do it right you are never at a loss for the meaning of something from a previous lesson.

The next step in my learning is vocabulary expansion. While the Japanese Language is tough and has a large vocabulary, its Grammar is fairly easy. Pimsleur has helped me immensly. Once I learn a new word, I can immediately incorporate it into Pimsleur sentences I have learned.

Japanese is like any other language in that there are many ways to say the same thing. Language usage is about applying the components you know in a way that you are comfortable. For instance you can say 'I have not bought yet' or 'I have not bought'. In Japanese the first (have not bought yet) is 'Kahteimasen' (sorry if my Romaji is bad). The second is 'Kaheimasen'. My point is use whatever you are more comfortable with. It is incredibly unlikely that the lack of using 'yet' will make an significant difference in communicating your intent.

Pimsleur may be boring and somewhat pricy but if you are serious about it and do the lessons everyday, who will be able to speak confidently with Japanese speakers and understand what they are saying. Watashi wa Jozu ja arimasen. Demo mo sugo Watashino Nihongo wa Sukoshi Jozu ni natte iruu desu shou. When you finish Pimsleur III, you will be able to say that and it will be true.

Ganbatte!!!

Somewhere down the line I will start Pimsleur French if I can keep my brain on track with Nihongo!!!

Sayonara!

Ah, the good ol' audio language lessons. The alluring call of learning a new language while riding down the freeway every morning draws many people to buy one of these courses. My guess is few leave satisfied.

But I'm not here to discuss the effectiveness of audio courses in general, I'm here to write a review of Pimsleur's language programs, specifically Japanese III.

First, let's get down to basics. You pop in one of the CDs into your favorite music player and get to work. Generally, a lesson starts out with a short dialogue between the male and the female Japanese speakers (Yes, there are only two Japanese speakers in the whole course), followed by the voice of the English announcer explaining a few choice parts of the conversation.

And now it really begins. Pimsleur's Japanese III assumes you have already completed both I and II, so the announcer begins by asking you several questions about words and phrases that were taught in those programs. After the announcer asks you a question (Such as, how do you say 'I am called Johnson' in Japanese?) there's a brief silence in which you are supposed to say the words aloud, or at least think them, followed by one of the Japanese speakers saying the correct phrase or word. Seems simple enough, right? Throughout the 30 minute lessons, you'll also be introduced to new material, usually with Japanese speakers pronouncing the new words slowly.

And so now the most important detail of all: does it work? Well, it depends on who you ask. Are you an excited traveler heading to Japan in a few months, and want to pick up some basic grammar and vocabulary? If so, then this program will probably be right up your street.

But, are you a Japanese language student? A person who desires to become fluent in Japanese? Well, this program will be a very small step in that long journey to reaching your goal.

However, the group above will meet a multitude of challenges by using this method. First of all, although some basic grammar is taught, a whole lot is left out. What's the difference between an "i" adjective and a "na" adjective? Don't look here. What's the difference between a "masu" form of a verb and a plain form? Don't look here. Secondly, no writing system is taught. Hiragana and Katakana are essential tools for the beginning Japanese student, and as far as I'm concerned, the sooner you learn them the better. And soon enough, you will have to begin learning the Chinese characters used in Japanese, otherwise known as "Kanji". This program will teach you none of that.

Although this program will have different levels of effectiveness for different people, there is one thing that applies to everyone: the price tag. For over $200, you get 30 lessons each taking about 30 minutes. That's about 15 hours of material. In comparison, if you go down to your local community college and sign up for a Japanese class, you'll get a whole semester of material for the price you paid for this program. Not only that, you'll have enough money left over to buy the textbook and go shopping at your local B&N's.

In short: Good for the quick traveler or as a supplement for a Japanese language student, but the price is probably going to have you looking elsewhere.

Well, I'm halfway through Japanese III, and I am a little disappointed. I thought I would at least be able to do simple stuff like order a train ticket, order in a restaurant, or understand a fast food clerk, but overall, I wasn't able to do those things. [EDIT: After living in Japan for a year I`ve learned that the reason I couldn`t do those things is because employees will always speak to customers using extremely polite Japanese which in itself is almost a completely different language: different verb conjugations and sometimes different words]

I was able to have a 5-10 minute conversation in Japanese to a person who spoke no English, able to ask for very simple directions, and understand numbers. More than anything, it gave me enough Japanese to continue learning, and ask people to help me continue learning.

I gave this program 4 stars for one reason, What little Japanese I learned, I was able to use almost correct pronunciation, and I was able to understand quite well. I think thats the most important thing, and after using this, I plan to pick up some extra verbs and adjectives from a book.

And one thing to keep in mind: No matter how bad your japanese is, Japanese people will exclaim "Jozu" meaning you are good. They are just being nice, it's a cultural thing.

This was a gift for my son. He already purchased Japanese I & II and is very happy with the program.

This is the logical continuation to the two previous series. Always logical in its approach. The only language learning system that can work while driving.

To start with, I recommend this product. I can't write worth anything but I have a decent ear so this series fits me perfectly - everything is by ear. I find it especially useful with my hectic schedule because I can use my otherwise wasted comuting time in the car. In the blurb about the course it says that the lessons should be listened through in one go without interuption but I have found that it doesn't matter much if I stop (my comute is only 15 minutes) and continue on the way back. The reason I don't give this series 5 stars is that even though I'm well on my way through the last part of the cource, I'm still at loss as soon as a native speaker open his/her mouth. It seems the vocabulary is too limited to get me over the threshold where I can start to pick up the languge on my own.

First of all, learning by audio is a GREAT way to learn. This series of audio lessons (I, II & III) if you stick with it, will teach you the very basics.

Now for the bad news, learning by audio alone will completely ruin your pronunciation. Distinguishing the difference between L's, R's and T's is difficult, not to mention the voiceless sounds, and Pimsleur refuses to release any type of dialog because they feel it is contrary to their "proven method." In spite of this, I decided to create my own dialog which contained the practice sentences in romaji and hiragana, and additionally a list of new words in English as they were introduced. I made these notes available on my website to share with others because I believed it would help assist people through the audio.

Fast forward a few years later, and I receive an e-mail from a lawyer representing Pimsleur threatening to shut down my website and take me to court over it. These notes were in no way made to be stand-alone material, and were pretty useless without the audio lessons to accompany them. However, Pimslser still felt as though people would opt NOT to buy the audio lessons and instead use my notes. I disagreed, tried to explain, they wouldn't back off. I debated filing a DMCA counter notification and letting them take me to court over it, but decided it wasn't worth the hassle. Instead, I decided to leave this review so others will know.

Again, Pimsleur is a really good program, but you need to research the actual words being said so that the pronunciation is clear, something Pimsleur will never help you with. I also feel the program is extremely over-priced. I should also mention that I "started" with Pimsleur, and have since been reading books, and even now after about 4 years and a bi-lingual wife who is a Japan native, I still can't hold a decent conversation, I still consider myself very much a beginner (not even intermediate). Learning Japanese is a LIFE-LONG commitment, and I have a long way to go, but Pimsleur was a great start. I'm not trying to discourage you, just being realistic.

More importantly, be aware, Pimsleur is a company that won't hesitate to sue its own customers, and due to my recent experience with them, I will never purchase any of their products again. Ganbatte. Time to ebay.

Pimsleur III is perhaps the most overrated Japanese language program I've ever used, and I've used at least a dozen in the forty years during which I've studied Japanese. I keep buying these products as a way of brushing up after not being in Japan for a few years, or having a native speaker to practice with. I bought the cassette version of the course, and was delighted to receive a boxed set with 30 lessons, as it seemed far more substantial than any other set I've ever used. To my regret, what I got was the same sort of banal conversations one hears in beginner Japanese courses. You hear brief conversations, such as "Can I exchange travelers' checks at this bank" (and this from one the final lessons!), and the same simplistic answers, spoken in clear as day announcers' voices. Nothing realistic or natural at all, just tourist Japanese for beginners. During the half hour or so for each cassette to play out, you advance incrementally at snail's pace because there is so much repetition of each sentence. I'm sure that people who are in the earliest stages of language study will find this product useful, but for anyone at a true intermediate or advanced level theis is a laughably inadequate program and a colossal waste of money. Perhaps I'm upset because it's advertised as level III, the highest available in the Pimsleur Japanese series, and I was looking for an advanced program. This one might better be called Pimsleur Beginners' Japanese Level III.