1 stars (very SLOW way of learning japanese) - I don't recommend this software for several reasons:
1) You're learning words by associations frame by brame, picture by picture. Think about this. A baby will spend at least 2 years of immersion before he can speak anything that makes sense. As an adult, how much comprehension will you get from this software by spending 1 hour a day?
2) The set of pictures that you're shown is flawed and unintelligent. In most cases, you can get the right answer by process of elimination. The same set of pictures that you see in this Japanese version is also shown for French and other languages. This software is systematically put together without any specific focus/customization for the Japanese language.
3) The pictures themselves are sometimes unclear. At times you really don't know what the japanese sentence is referring to in the picture. This can get very annoying and frustrating!
4) The software gives you no insight as to how to read kana and kanji, and of course none on japanese grammar.
If you want immersion, you'd be much better off watching a Japanese soap opera. This software does have some usefulness when used in conjunction with other learning methods, but for its price, it's really not worth it.
4 stars (Good if you already know some Japanese) - I love this software, because it has helped me understand a lot more Japanese than the tapes from my textbook. The language is very natural, and the fact that you can see pictures and read the sentence being spoken at the same time helps significantly. You can repeat the lessons as many times as you want to help you master the content, without the exercises becoming boring or excessive. I practice almost two hours a day, and after a week I started to notice improvements. Now when I want to say something in Japanese I don't do any translating in my head first, I can feel the Japanese words coming together. However, I already knew some Japanese before I bought this software, so for a true beginner this program might be a bit advanced. In addition, the immersion method this software follows might not be for everyone. Finally, you do need to have the discipline to study regularly, preferably one hour every day. Ganbatte kudasai!!
4 stars (Awesome but there are some problems.) - This is a great program for a few reasons. One is that you have plenty of time for listening and taking in the language before you actually speak it (great for pronunciation and comprehension--my comprehension sucks, so I was really happy with this). Two, there's no explicit grammar instruction, which makes it easier to speak the language in the beginning--you're not sitting around silently trying to think of the correct grammar structure instead of just speaking and getting your point across, regardless of grammar troubles (you'll want to work on grammar with a book or some other program when you reach high-beginner/intermediate levels). Three, it's fun. And you're learning the same way you learn your first language, association of words, phrases and visuals. The price is worth the product.
One problem is that what you learn is not immediately useful in actual conversation. My experience was that I needed to get to about level 4 of the first unit before I could actually start "talking" Japanese. If you want straight-up conversational Japanese in a few short months, I'd suggest Pimsluer, which is overpriced, but will get you to where's-the-bathroom-and-what-time-is-it land in a jiff. Another problem is that there is no actual writing practice. You place the characters in the right spot with your mouse to form correct sentences, which helps with character recognition, but not hand writing. Finally, the voice recognition is innacurate. I had a native Japanese speaker listen to my speech. In several instances, I was told by the program that I couldn't be understood, but my Japanese friend said there was no problem in understanding me.
You can make up for the lack of grammar instrcution and hand writing practice by getting a book called "Japanese for Everyone" for grammar work after you half way through the first RS cd, and picking up "Remembering the Kana" for learning to write Hiragana and Katakana in a pretty painless fashion. |
