Customer Reviews

Learn Japanese Now!

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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Add this one to the long list of gimiky "learn Japanese in zero seconds a day while you sleep" software programs. When I started studying Japanese I bought this and just about every other program I could find. Not only did it cost me money but it set me back months in my learning progress. This software is USELESS, unless you want to be a robot that spits out odd phrases and can't understand what people say back to you.

The biggest joke is that the packaging advertises a revoluntionary way to remember Kana(phoenetic writing system). You want to know what it is?.....When you click on a Kana character, it shows you a chart of all the kana. Holy smokes! A chart! The same chart you can get from anywhere, for free!

Bottom line..Waist of money. Amazon carries tons of great language tools but this is not one of them. Buy Japanese for busy people, not this.

This is not a comprehensive program. If this is the only tool you use to learn a Japanese, you will never get very far because all it does is teach you to memorize phrases. There are no daily lesson plans, no step-by-step approach - just a list of phrases to memorize, and then different ways to test your memory.

BUT, this is a great program to use in *addition* to a more comprehensive course. If you take Japanese at school (or at home, using a better program such as Rosetta Stone) this program could help fill in the gaps in your main course of study. The thing that is really helpful about this, is that it includes video clips of native speakers carrying on everyday conversations. There are also lots of handy "travel phrases" that may not be taught in other programs.

JapaneseNow is a great way to supplement another course, but it does not stand alone.

Except for the 'chart' that is under 'reference' there is NO Kana nor Kanji used.
One can click the chart for each letter and it gives 2 sample words (that you can click on and hear) with both Kana and Romanji - but that is All for the Kana and no Kanji at all.

All words and phrases within the program is all in Romanji - yet it says to look at each word and see if you can recognize the letters - of course I recognize all the letters! NONE of them are in Kana/Kanji

There is a video, which says you can either watch it as you read along with it or just watch it without the sentences underneath - YET you HAVE to Maximize the screen which Eliminates the sentences to be able to hear anything.
You can either click on each word and hear it or Maximize the Screen and see Only the video and listen. And this isn't REALLY a Video either - no surprise by now - it is a Picture that you get to look at while you hear the sentences spoken. One Picture per 'video'.

This program makes things sound like much more than what it is even when you are using it and it is obvious that it is nothing like what it claims. Very minimal with a whole lot of silly hipe. (I have the same chart in another cheap program too) fortunately I bought it used for less than $5.

I really love this software because it's helping me to learn conversational Japanese. This is a very good software for someone who wants to learn Japanese. I practice everyday and it's a lot of fun! My accent is getting better everyday and I really love this software! It takes a lot of practice to learn a new language. So if you want to learn Japanese try it today!

Sayonara!