Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)A lot of people try to state that they learned a lot or a little, but not what they actaully learned. I just finished this course, here's a quick rundown of the contents:
*Present tense of quite a few verbs, including those for shopping, saying where you are going and staying, eating and drinking, where things are or aren't, what you want and don't want, what you can and can't do, and who you are doing things with. You learn them in present tense, a very simple form of the future tense, and they introduce the past tense in the second to last lesson. Asking questions is emphasised in this course, you do it almost as much as you answer them.
*You learn few nouns other than those needed to use the verbs; it feels like they made a point to not include a lot of nouns. You will learn the words for your immediate family, beer/wine/sake and some other random nouns like "hat". This is the biggest drawback to the program, but it is easily overcome by a good set of vocab lists.
*Also, very few adjectives. Big, small, expensive, fast, far away are among the few. You learn how to say "too" fast/expensive. But you learn how to use them very well, so it would be easy to add more with the aid of a dictionary.
*You spend a lot of time talking about money. How much you have, how much you need, vocab for currency exchanges and shopping. You also learn the numbers 1 to 199. And, weirdly enough, you learn how to ask people for money.
*You learn how to talk about your car, including how to ask for gas and how to give and take directions.
*In the last couple lessons, you learn how to ask what words mean in English and how to say words in Japanese.
*You learn how to talk about time and tell time. How long you've been somewhere and how long you plan on staying, and you do it in days, hours, and weeks. Also, you learn the words for yesterday, today, tomorrow, and morning, night.
*"You learn how to ask why and answer "It's because..."
Overall, the vocabulary is extremely polite, I don't imagine this is the way good friends talk to each other. I have already done the second course in Russian, and they introduce more informal vocab in the second series. (I have done the first series in Russian, German, and Japanese, and the things you learn are the same each lesson in each language.)
Even if the subjects are a little touristy, you are still learning how to use verbs and particles much quicker than with other courses. Once you get the structure of the language down, it's relatively easy to add the vocab for what you want to talk about.
Overall, this is a *huge* amount of information to pack into thirty lessons. I also recommend either pausing so you have time to answer, rewinding so that you can catch something you got wrong and/or listening to the more difficult lessons twice.
I hope this is helpful, this is what I was looking for when I read the reviews, and was surprised no one had done this.
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Japanese I, Comprehensive: Learn to Speak and Understand Japanese with Pimsleur Language ProgramsJapanese is spoken by about 130 million people, 122 million of whom are in Japan. There are also speakers in the Ryukyu Islands, Korea, Taiwan, parts of the United States, and Brazil. Pimsleur's Japanese teaches a polite level of Japanese, which is appropriate for use in most situations in Japan.The Pimsleur® Method: the easiest, fastest way to learn a new language. Completely portable, easily downloadable, and lots of fun. You'll be speaking and understanding in no time flat! Japanese Phase 1, Lessons 1-30 includes 15 hours of spoken language practice and one hour of Culture Notes in thirty, 30-minute lessons. In the first 10 lessons, you'll cover the basics: saying hello, asking for or giving information or preferences, scheduling a meal or a meeting, asking for or giving basic directions, and much more. You'll be able to handle minimum courtesy requirements, understand much of what you hear, and be understood at a beginning level, but with nearnative pronunciation skills. In the next 10 lessons, you'll build on what you've learned. Expand your menu, increase your scheduling abilities from general to specific, start to deal with currency and exchanging money, refine your conversations and add over a hundred new vocabulary items. You'll understand more of what you hear, and be able to really participate with speech that is smoother and more confident. In the final 10 lessons, you'll be speaking and understanding at an intermediate level. In this phase, more and more directions are given in the target language, which moves your learning to a whole new plane. You can talk about your immediate family, go on a car trip, and ask for and understand directions. Lessons include shopping, visiting friends, going to a restaurant, plans for the evening and traveling with children. You'll be able to speak comfortably about things that happened in the past and make plans for the future. One hour of recorded Cultural Notes are included at the end of Unit 30. These Notes are designed to provide you with some insight into Japanese culture. A Culture Notes booklet is also included in PDF format.
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