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Rating: 
Summary: Well Worth The Price To Get Started Speaking
Review: Consists of 8 lessons 30 minutes each for 4 hours instruction. I spent 30+ hours listening and repeating each lesson multiple times in my car while commuting. I highly recommend this product as well worth the money. What it teaches, it teaches well. But, only 4 hours of lessons has its limits. The selection of phrases I am sure is good but still, limited due to the fact that it is only 4 CDs. I live on a tropical island and meet Japanese tourists every day, these lessons have been great but I still can't carry on a significant conversation. These CDs, which were easier and had me speaking better than a ... eight week class at the community college, gave me the ability to attempt a conversation with a Japanese speaker. I have just ordered the Pimsleur Japanese One 15 CD set ... . Wish me luck. My recommendation is, if you need to get comfortable speaking a few Japanese phrases like "My name is", "I'm an American", and "I only understand and speak Japanese a little", so that you are ready to go up to a Japanese person and say "Hi", order this product. If you are serious about and want to learn conversational Japanese, skip this product and go for the much more expensive Pimsler Japanese One.
Rating: 
Summary: one of the worst I've tried
Review: I bought this looking for a quick bit of listening practice, and because it came on CD rather than cassette like most other courses. I took 1 year of Japanese in college several years back, but have not practiced since and was always very weak at aural comprehension, so I wanted a bit of a review before an upcoming trip. Well this course was review alright, of about the first 2 days of a real Japanese course. After sampling about 20 minutes worth of this course I skipped to the final lesson. They were still working on dialog from the very first lesson! At the end of this course you'll have mastered saying "I understand a little japanese.", "My japanese is not very good.", and "Do you speak english?". Dont waste your time. If you're actually looking to learn anything I'd recommend Noboru Inamoto's Colloquial Japanese, (though regretably there are no cassettes for this book, and it uses romanized writing exclusively), or for an course with audio, Living Language Ultimate Japanese. Be sure and get "Ultimate" rather than the other Living Language offerings which arent as good.
Rating:
Summary: A great approach to beginning Japanese
Review: I found these tapes very helpful in preparing for a trip to Japan. They were a good supplement to basic lessons since listening and repeating is the way we all learn language. I also liked the practice in being able to understand Japanese enough to formulate an answer. The tape gives you the opportunity to speak Japanese in response to conversation, yet still repeating the correct words and intonation. The price was great too. The only drawback was the somewhat limited selection of phrases used. I learned them well but got tired of asking and responding to "do you want to eat something ?" This is worth doing if you dont have a lot of time and need some survival Japanese.
Rating: 
Summary: Very useful!
Review: I'm a language teacher and I've sampled several of the Pimsleur basic courses. I've concluded that they're great IF: 1. You're a beginner in the language. If you already know the basics, the leisurely pace and frequent repetition will drive you up the wall. But for a novice, that's just what you need. 2. There aren't any subtle phonetic distinctions in the language itself that need to be explained in writing beforehand. For example, in the Cantonese tape, the word for "you" sounded like "lay" when the female speaker said it and "nay" when the male spoke. This needed to be explained. Fortunately, the Japanese pronunciation is clear and simple throughout. 3. You want a tape that you can listen to while driving or walking. These are perfect for that. So far, I've found the Japanese tape to be the pick of the litter, followed by Swiss German, Haitian Creole, and Western Armenian. I couldn't stand more than a few minutes of German and Spanish, which I already know, but for someone else, they might be just the ticket. Again, if you want a good place to start with Japanese, Pimsleur makes it a walk in the park.
Rating:
Summary: Top Quality Teach Yourself Japanese, no reading involved.
Review: Learning languages was never this fun... you will be amazed at how much you retain... I bought this title ("Japanese : Pimsleur Basic") and was surprised at how much you can learn in such a short time (8 30 min. lessons on 4 Audio CDs)... I would recommend this to all who would like to begin their study of the japanese language... Before I bought this book, I could not speak nor understand spoken japanese, but now I have more than a general understanding, and a sufficient vocabulary to get "stumble" around... Pimsleur method is very easy to learn from, hear & repeat... After my experience with this title, I am going to try some of the more complex Pimsleur Japanese selections... Best Wishes...
Rating:
Summary: The Best
Review: Quick and simple: I used over 10 different tapes, and these were the only ones that I could learn from. The tapes go through phonetic pronunciation as well as interacting with the student forcing them to think about the words and recall them when prompted. Pimsluer is THE BEST!!!
Rating:
Summary: The Best
Review: Quick and simple: I used over 10 different tapes, and these were the only ones that I could learn from. The tapes go through phonetic pronunciation as well as interacting with the student forcing them to think about the words and recall them when prompted. Pimsluer is THE BEST!!!
Rating:
Summary: Pimsleur's Basic Japanese CD Set
Review: This CD set was a lifesaver! My husband was to take on a project in Japan and I was to accompany him. We had just found out about the trip, and didn't speak a word of Japanese. We were leaving in a little less than a month! This method assumes you know nothing, and takes it from there. You are asked to listen to a word, phrase or sentence, and to repeat it several times, each time hearing the correct pronunciation. This gives you the ability to self correct and adjust -- not to mention remember! Within minutes you are answering a question that was proposed to you in Japanese -- in Japanese! Listening to the language and repeating was incredibly valuable, because face it, you can't learn intonation from a book! The four CD's (with two 30 min. lessons on each) gradually incorporate new words into the network of words you have already learned, making the learning satisfying and enjoyable. You are asked to work with each lesson (replaying it) until you are comfortable moving on to the next, and I found that I personally needed to redo each lesson approx. 4-5 times before I felt really confident about moving on. A little tip -- after the pronunciation of a lesson has sunk in, grab an Eng./Jap. dictionary and look up some of the words you've learned. Even though the system doesn't recommend your following along in a dictionary while you are repeating, this helps you to see the words written in the romanji (English letters). You then realize how you would have unfortunately pronounced them, and gain great insight about silent letters, etc. This helped immensely when I later needed to pronounce words directly from a dictionary or pocket translator! Upon completion of lesson eight (literally on the plane) I was excited to arrive in Japan and see how I would fare. The result? I had quite a nice little basic understanding of some common words and phrases. I was complimented by some Japanese coworkers on my "authentic pronunciation!" I would say I even underestimated what I had learned, until I started hearing and trying to communicate in the language, and realized all the grammatical and cultural tips that they had so graciously thrown in without me even realizing it! I would recommend this set to anyone who wants a quick, enjoyable, satisfying, basic foundation to conversational Japanese. PS The Japanese people are wonderful, and are SO appreciative of your effort to speak their language!
Rating:
Summary: Pimsleur's Basic Japanese CD Set
Review: This CD set was a lifesaver! My husband was to take on a project in Japan and I was to accompany him. We had just found out about the trip, and didn't speak a word of Japanese. We were leaving in a little less than a month! This method assumes you know nothing, and takes it from there. You are asked to listen to a word, phrase or sentence, and to repeat it several times, each time hearing the correct pronunciation. This gives you the ability to self correct and adjust -- not to mention remember! Within minutes you are answering a question that was proposed to you in Japanese -- in Japanese! Listening to the language and repeating was incredibly valuable, because face it, you can't learn intonation from a book! The four CD's (with two 30 min. lessons on each) gradually incorporate new words into the network of words you have already learned, making the learning satisfying and enjoyable. You are asked to work with each lesson (replaying it) until you are comfortable moving on to the next, and I found that I personally needed to redo each lesson approx. 4-5 times before I felt really confident about moving on. A little tip -- after the pronunciation of a lesson has sunk in, grab an Eng./Jap. dictionary and look up some of the words you've learned. Even though the system doesn't recommend your following along in a dictionary while you are repeating, this helps you to see the words written in the romanji (English letters). You then realize how you would have unfortunately pronounced them, and gain great insight about silent letters, etc. This helped immensely when I later needed to pronounce words directly from a dictionary or pocket translator! Upon completion of lesson eight (literally on the plane) I was excited to arrive in Japan and see how I would fare. The result? I had quite a nice little basic understanding of some common words and phrases. I was complimented by some Japanese coworkers on my "authentic pronunciation!" I would say I even underestimated what I had learned, until I started hearing and trying to communicate in the language, and realized all the grammatical and cultural tips that they had so graciously thrown in without me even realizing it! I would recommend this set to anyone who wants a quick, enjoyable, satisfying, basic foundation to conversational Japanese. PS The Japanese people are wonderful, and are SO appreciative of your effort to speak their language!
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