Learn in Your Car Japanese: Level 1 (Japanese Edition) [Audio CD]

Henry N. Raymond (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1591251982 | ISBN-13: 978-1591251989 | Publication Date: October 2002

Three 60-minute CDs plus a full text listening guide. Level 1: Introduction to key words, numbers, phrases, sentence structure, and basic grammar.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Look ma, no textbooks! The Learn in Your Car series treats you like a child--in the best possible way--starting with one-word phrases ("please," "good-by"), counting exercises, and simple nouns ("bus," "train") designed to imitate a child's learning process. First you hear the words in English, then they are repeated slowly in clear, unaccented pronunciations. The method is extremely effective for those who don't know a thing, or for those who want to brush up by testing themselves when the English words are spoken. The tapes emphasize the building blocks of communicating in a foreign country rather than rote phrases that only apply on the tape and not in real-life exchanges. Level 1 painlessly covers basic verb forms, essential prepositions, near future and past tenses, as well as shopping, hotel reservations, and other travel-related situations. The series includes French, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, and Spanish in three levels that can be purchased individually or in boxed sets. Each level contains two 90-minute cassettes (or CDs) and an accompanying booklet (not for use behind the wheel) with helpful explanations and scripts for the lessons. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Your audio program is the best I've tried. I just returned from France and had a wonderful time conversing in French even though I had only three weeks with your tapes before I left. Thanks for putting out such a superlative product at a reasonable price."

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Penton Overseas (October 2002)
• Language: Japanese
• ISBN-10: 1591251982
• ISBN-13: 978-1591251989
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,774,341 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best I've found to date., October 6, 1999

By 

canoekayak "ski bum wannabe" (NH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Japanese: Level 1: Learn In Your Car (Audio Cassette)

If your goal is to communicate verbally while traveling and you prefer to learn from interaction and practice rather than studying a book, this is an excellent resource. This gave me enough skills to get around Japan and greatly added to the enjoyment of my trip. If you have the impression that 'everyone' speaks English in Japan, then don't leave Tokyo. My simple interactions opened a lot of doors and made folks happy to deal with me rather than ignoring the tourist. It also made folks more comfortable to try a little English, after they heard my efforts at Japanese. Between the two it worked out great.

The tapes covered all the standard phrases dealing with travel and they can take you a long way. 'Denshya no eki, a doko des ka?' or 'Where is the train station?' got me out of a lot of trouble, everytime I got lost doing walking tours in the countryside.

I've also used the German tapes and have just ordered the French. I've bought many a language book and so far these are my favourite.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great idea / product, but has a flaw, September 5, 2003

By 

Brian Lee (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Japanese: Level 1: Learn In Your Car (Audio Cassette)

I would give this 5 star rating if it weren't the lack of grammar features in the beginning.

My commuting to and from work takes almost two hours a day. That's the reason why I bought this product (I have both CD and cassette tape versions as each of my two cars have CD player and tape player only). I have tried two other products for learning Japanese before, but they were absolutely useless as I had to have a book in front of me while listening. This product allows you to listen to the tape or CD in the car while driving. Every word or phrase is pronounced in English first, then in Japanese twice in pure Japanese accent - with pauses in between so you can practice pronouncing it, too. It is a simple method, but it works amazingly well. Remember the most efficient way of learning a language (at least in the entry level) is by speaking and listening, not reading from a book.

It also comes with a small book that describes meaning and pronunciation of every word / phrase used in the audio feature. One can easily review it after or before listening to the tape / CD.

So what is the flaw? This does not give you grammar review in the beginning (only have completed first CD so can't tell you for the rest) so it can be confusing for some listeners at first. Japanese and English do not have the same arrangement or order when it comes to lining up subject, verb and objective. I wish this is discussed more in the beginning.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Missing some required grammer., October 17, 2005

By 

Anthony S. Clarke "Asparian" (Austin, TX - Kumamoto, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Learn in Your Car Japanese: Level 1 (Japanese Edition) (Audio CD)

In general I found these discs (Level 1 to 3) good for covering basic vocabulary whilst out of Japan. However, they never really get you further than a basic understanding because at no time are you taught sentence conjunctions or how to express running thoughts. These very important points are covered by courses such as Living Language Japanese (basic-intermediate and advanced) but probably put off the beginner who wants or needs instant results. Further, there are mistakes in the application of some grammar points which may become a burden if you decide to continue your studies to a higher level. Treat this course as a good way to get started, but then progress to something like the Living Language courses which provide a better understanding of the language - but don't be suprised when you find some point of grammer you spent so much time mastering in the 'In-your-car' series turns out to be over-simplified or just plain awkward in real speech and needs to be unlearned.
Do know this, any attempt you make to learn some Japanese will be greatly appreciated by the Japanese. If your goal is just to learn a few key phrases before going to Japan then this course is no worse than any other 'quick-course' on the market.