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Rating: 
Summary: Thumbs up from a former Interpreter/Translator
Review: (By Edward Trimnell, author of "Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One," ISBN:1591133343)As a former Japanese-language interpreter, I can personally attest to the value of these materials. I purchased these audio recordings shortly after their initial release in the early 1990s, and I continue to benefit from them today. A wide range of vocabulary is included in this Vocabulearn series. Some of the idioms and more complex expressions on the level 2 and 3 recordings are particularly valuable. You can benefit from all three difficulty levels even if you already have some proficiency in Japanese. Although the level 1 course is supposed to be basic, it contains many words and expressions that some graduates of Japanese 101 will probably not know.
Rating:
Summary: Thumbs up from a former Interpreter/Translator
Review: (By Edward Trimnell, author of "Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One," ISBN:1591133343) As a former Japanese-language interpreter, I can personally attest to the value of these materials. I purchased these audio recordings shortly after their initial release in the early 1990s, and I continue to benefit from them today. A wide range of vocabulary is included in this Vocabulearn series. Some of the idioms and more complex expressions on the level 2 and 3 recordings are particularly valuable. You can benefit from all three difficulty levels even if you already have some proficiency in Japanese. Although the level 1 course is supposed to be basic, it contains many words and expressions that some graduates of Japanese 101 will probably not know.
Rating:
Summary: Thumbs up from a former Interpreter/Translator
Review: (By Edward Trimnell, author of "Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One," ISBN:1591133343) As a former Japanese-language interpreter, I can personally attest to the value of these materials. I purchased these audio recordings shortly after their initial release in the early 1990s, and I continue to benefit from them today. A wide range of vocabulary is included in this Vocabulearn series. Some of the idioms and more complex expressions on the level 2 and 3 recordings are particularly valuable. You can benefit from all three difficulty levels even if you already have some proficiency in Japanese. Although the level 1 course is supposed to be basic, it contains many words and expressions that some graduates of Japanese 101 will probably not know.
Rating: 
Summary: Like Sprinkles on a Cupcake...
Review: I think this set of courses is a really great addition to a language students *arsenal*-- I agree with some of the other reviewers who feel some of the features are kinda hype-ish... (the random presentation of words for instance)
That said-- one of the largest criticisms against the pimsleur series is that while you have mastered some difficult grammatical concepts--- the base vocabulary you are left with is still rather small. This course can build up that core of words.
This course gives students the ability to study vocabulary on the go-- in the car.. walking down the street... whatever... at times when its not convienient to use flash cards. Those familiar with the "Barry Farber" method will likely find these a nice time saver.
--I have even come up with my own way to enhance the value of these tapes-- For those who have Minidisc recorders it is really easy. I just take a disc, start the course, and let it record the whole session. Then I go through, and add breaks in the course after each word pair, making each word pair its own track.
This makes reviewing any one particular word much easier... but I also like being able to set my player to random and then the word pairs come in an unpredicatable pattern ( i noticed I was remembering certain words because I knew that they came at the beginning of the list... not the end...)
I would never reccomend this as the end all be all to fluency... and think the length of the tracks is a little long, but overall I think that these tapes can be a very valuble boost for any language student.
Rating:
Summary: Learning Japanese
Review: Just starting to learn Japanese for bussines reasons I found the format very easy and enjoyable to follow . Unlike most languages speaking Japanese is essential to writing Japanese and these tapes help to develope an ear for the sylables.
Rating:
Summary: Pleased
Review: This is for the person who is serious about learning Japanese. Alot of products out there for learning Japanese only seem to teach phrases like "Where can I find the Bus?" or "Where is the nearest Hotel?". I was looking to learn everday Japanese, beyond those basic phrases. If you need or want to learn a mass of words, this is the way to go. They also include plenty of everday phrases. There are 6 tapes in this set. The man and woman on the tape speak very clearly. There is also 3 small booklets that include all the words spoken on the tapes. I would not suggest this if you don't have actual time to really listen and pay attention to it. It does take time to learn but it's worth it. I think this series fulfills exactly what it promises. And if you stick to it and learn everything on these tapes, you will definitly learn a sizable amount of Japanese and expand your conversations.
Rating:
Summary: Pleased
Review: This is for the person who is serious about learning Japanese. Alot of products out there for learning Japanese only seem to teach phrases like "Where can I find the Bus?" or "Where is the nearest Hotel?". I was looking to learn everday Japanese, beyond those basic phrases. If you need or want to learn a mass of words, this is the way to go. They also include plenty of everday phrases. There are 6 tapes in this set. The man and woman on the tape speak very clearly. There is also 3 small booklets that include all the words spoken on the tapes. I would not suggest this if you don't have actual time to really listen and pay attention to it. It does take time to learn but it's worth it. I think this series fulfills exactly what it promises. And if you stick to it and learn everything on these tapes, you will definitly learn a sizable amount of Japanese and expand your conversations.
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