Pimsleur Japanese Level 2 CD: Learn to Speak and Understand Japanese with Pimsleur Language Programs

I see several questions and "comments" about the pimsleur Japanese course here, some of which aren't true, and I'm just going to clarify some things right here, and put somethings to sleep. 1. I'm having trouble watching some tv shows and understanding them... This just takes time. I had the same experience in the beginning and thought it would get better as I learned more, and it did. Very much so. I now watch without subtitles and understand about 80% of what's being said. One thing to note though, when they are speaking on TV, they are speaking so casually, that they are leaving out a lot of the gramatical functions in their sentences, so the meaning of the sentence may be unclear even if you understand all the words. Pimsleur doesn't fail you on this though, it gives your brain all the information it needs, its just a matter of time of getting used to hearing the WAY the language is spoken, and your brain begins to make the connections on its own to fill in the blanks. 2. Are the speakers native? All the speakers pimsleur EVER uses for ANY of their programs are native speakers. It would be absurd and impossible to try to naturally aquire any language speaking ability through a non-native speaker. Period. In addition, I personally received several comments from several native Japanese speakers saying they were honestly surprised at how native my accent and pronunciation were. The comment by the person who said that the speakers on the Japanese course were not native, "especially the female", is simply not true. I assume this is just a marketing tactic employed by a competitor posing as a customer. I do not work for pimsluer, I am just a very satisfied customer and would reccomend this program to anyone over any other. If you want to study a language get something else. If you want to learn a language, get pimsleur.

Having finished Japanese I, and just a few hours ago finished Japanese II, I feel that the course was well worth the price. Pimsleur is still the best audio learning technique out there, and the course reinforces that fact. It well serves its purpose. Together you get 900 total minutes, 15 total hours of audio. That's quite a bit of content to listen to, and you do learn quite a bit from it.All you do is listen to the lessons, concentrate on them, and repeat it if you have trouble with something (Can't remember a word, grammar pattern, etc.). Yup, it's as simple as it sounds.I (As many others seem to) study other material in addition to Japanese II. I don't know if one could survive in Japan solely on Pimsleur lessons, but the quality of Pimsleur Lessons is still unsurpassed. I would highly recommend that you do other studies in addition to the Pimsleur Lessons, if time allows.Pimsleur is THE BEST audio language learning course out there, period. And with Pimsleur Japanese II, you get what you pay for, simple as that.

not just string together (sometimes coherent) words into quasi-sentences.I am currently using this product to learn Japanese while living in Tokyo. I have and continue to study in more traditional language classes, but there emphasis is more on understanding speech, and on writing. You may learn (and remember) a lot of grammar and vocabulary from these classes, but for me, it is not at instant recall. You always have to pause, for just a second or two, to think of this word, or how to conjugate that verb, which ruins the continuity of your speech and your conversation.Pimsleur's method is highly effective at completely internalizing the basic structure of a language. You learn to say things and understand things at the speed of NORMAL SPEECH. In a traditional academic classroom, this is far from the case. Although I knew almost all the words and grammar presented in the Pimsleur course, I found that listening to the CDs was still immensely helpful just for internalization and "speedifying" purposes. Pimsleur is an excellent complement to serious study of a language. It would also be excellent for travellers who want to actually interact and converse with Japanese in interesting (albeit extremely limited) ways.

I find this set of tapes to be an excellent way to learn Japanese, and an even better method of refreshing what you learned some time ago. Of course, if you are just starting out, you should start with Japanese I. Even better...you can buy a short introductory course, to see whether the system works for you. The price of the short court includes a discount in that amount against the price of the full course (or at least it did, when I first bought one years ago). I listen to the tapes in my car, and find the system very effective. I have also used Pimsleur tape courses in Russian and French, and found them to be equally good.

This is the best audio method I have been exposed to. It is interactive, very progressive and pedagogical. It requires no book and is perfect for commute. Set II contains 16 CDs that consist of a total of 30 lessons running 1/2 hour each. I covered the entire set II during my commute to work in a six-month period. I am now about to purchase the third and last set of this Japanese Pimsleur language program. This really is a great course! I highly recommend it.