Rating: 
Summary: You don't need a stinking book!!
Review: Ah. Finally a foreign language program that marries price and value with common sense. Did you wander around learning your native language with a book and vocabulary and grammar. NO!! You spoke it and repeated it and tried new words and phrases!! Pimsleur has it right. Audio only please from now on. I'm going to try the other Pimsleur languages just for fun.
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: Very good product, very accurate
Review: I am about halfway through this traveler's edition, and have learned a great deal. I have taken a classroom course in basic Japanese, and this tape series has taught me more about the "real" way to speak Japanese. My friend in Tokyo says that my Japanese is very good, and has improved a lot. A perfect way to spend my half-hour commute (each way) to and from work every day.My only concern is what the unabridged "Japanese I: Pimsleur Comprehensive" version may be like. I hear that the Traveler's edition is the first half of the unabridged Japanese I. I would like to buy "Japanese I," but...a trade-up would be nice, or "Traveler's Edition 2." I highly recommend this set of tapes.
Rating:
Summary: Very useful!
Review: I am taking a beginners level Japanese course and I found the Pimsleur Japanese tapes a great supplement to the classroom work. I think it does a great job in providing positive feedback and confidence for a beginner. In contrast with some of the critical reviews I've read, I found the tapes to be very good. Sure, after the four tapes you're not going to be a native speaker. You will be familiar with the sentence structure and some verb use in a very painless manner. It's actually fun! I'd like to do the entire course, but the price of the complete course is high.
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: 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: Nice approach
Review: I found the tapes to be quite helpful, and have but one complaint. The Compact Japanese set seems to cover the first half of the Traveler's Edition Japanese. I assume that the Traveler's Edition subsequently covers the first half of Japanese Level 1. It would be nice if one could purchase the second half of Japanese Level 1 alone, to complement the Traveler's Edition. I bought and used the Traveler's Edition, but hesitate to buy the Japanese Level 1, when the entire first half is a duplicate of the Traveler's Edition! Does anyone else have this complaint?
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: Japanese--Pimsleur Basic (ABRIDGED)
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.
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