Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Japanese Conversation (3CDs + Guide) (TY: Conversation)

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Teach yourself conversation CD's are fantastic. This is the second set of them I have gotten, the first being for chinese, and both have worked very well for me at learning their respective languages. Excellent quality, I have tried a lot of stuff out and I find these tapes to be some of the most effective things for beginners.

In the course of 15 years I have bought many books, tapes and CD programs (Rosetta Stone) on Japanese conversation. I must say that this 3-CD audio set is THE BEST one I have ever used. Audio CD's are the way to go because it's ideal to use while driving. You're a captive audience anyway. I didn't want to be hooked to a computer to learn Japanese (Rosetta Stone). Rather than some narrator going through words and telling you what they are and expecting you to be a parrot, Helen Gilhooley's CD's EXPLAINS the situation and helps you UNDERSTAND what you are saying in that particular situation. What's especially interesting is that Helen speaks with a British accent (when explaining). There are regular Japanese speakers all throughout the course so you will hear the correct pronunciation and intonation. But I must say that Helen's British accent actually helps you remember the words/sentences better. I don't know why, but it does. And when I went to Japan this past May I put much of it to practical use. The section on "Directions", "Getting Around in the City" and "Ordering in a Restaurant" were especially helpful. I could also understand the locals in many situations. This is a very PRACTICAL course. I must've replayed and replayed the course a gazillion times, and I found myself understanding more than I ever did before. I highly recommend it.

The lessons on the first 2 discs in this set are presented in a slow, and easy-to-follow manner. It is simple enough so that you shouldn't be confused, and there is text to go along with it. Most of the words, and grammar markers are explained well enough to where you can learn to build simple sentences. All of the text is in Romaji. This is a good thing, and a bad thing. It simplifies the learning experience. I would have preferred that they had included, at least, Hiragana of it as well. I had, fortunately, learned the kana elsewhere, and so was able to write my own to go along with it. The 3rd disc is meant to test your listening skills. Aside from the "survival phrases" on the very first track, there is no text in the booklet to follow along with on this part of the course at all. The Japanese is spoken a bit faster on this disc, and some of the information is difficult to decipher without the text to accompany it. There were certain words, and phrases that I could not understand, no matter how many times I listened to them. Being that there was no text to go along with it, it would have been very helpful to have someone around to ask. Though you will not walk away from this course with any level of fluency, there is just enough information so that you should be able to understand very basic things in Japanese. As reading the Romaji text alone has the potential to produce very badly spoken Japanese, having audio of native speakers is helpful with proper pronunciation of the words. Although this seems more so to be a sampler than a well-rounded course, I would recommend this program to any complete beginner as a good place to start learning to speak the language.

Erin Michiko Hamler for Nidus Productions

POSTED: 12:27 p.m. PST, January 13, 2012
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Speaking of things lacking in the booklet, I thought that I might add that there are recorded conversations where both [the name of a world-famous fast food] sandwich, and [also the brand name of an equally famous cola-flavored] soft drink are referenced, but there is no mention anywhere (neither recorded, nor printed) of either [of the associated, globally well-known corporations] within the provided study materials. I wasn't sure if it was legal to do that. If you are selling a product that references trademarked items, aren't you supposed to provide written information regarding them if they are being used (e.g. "[Such-and-such]® is a trademark name owned by the [Such-and-such]® Corporation")? I was just wondering.

POSTED: -:-- a.m. PST, January 20, 2012

EDITED: -:-- a.m. PST, January 20, 2012

(Note: Names of trademarked products, and corporations have been removed.)