You may be interested in reading some of the comments that we have received about these lessons. Please feel free to add your own remarks by using the box at the bottom of the page.
Please note that there are additional comments at the bottom of the How to Read Japanese page.
Hi Roger,
My husband and I are planning a multi-week trip to Japan in 2016. Neither of us have been there before, nor do we speak any Japanese. I am in search of the best way to learn enough Japanese to interact appropriately with people during our trip.
That said, would you recommend your audio course as a good way to accomplish this? If not, any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you and regards,
~Gayle
Hi Gayle,
Yes, I think our lessons would be a good place for you to begin. I myself began by using other standard Japanese textbooks, the Berlitz lessons, the Pimsleur lessons and the Learn in Your Car lessons, as I describe on this site. When I got to Japan, I was disappointed with the results that I got from those other lessons, and perhaps that is inevitable regardless of what method you use. However, I think our lessons have certain advantages over those others, which I describe on Advantages page on this site.
If you have more than a year to study, I believe you should be able to get about half way through our lessons, assuming that you repeat each one about 5 times, and then repeat all of the ones that you have previously covered, starting from Lesson 1, before moving on to the next one. Possibly you can cover even more ground than that. That will give you a good foundation in the language. You will probably want to buy the ‘Japanese for Everyone’ textbook, if you want to try to learn how to read and write in Japanese.
I know that each new lesson will seem very difficult when you first start to use it. However, you will be surprised to see how much easier they become as you continue to review them, and the sense of mastery that you should begin to feel by about the 5th repetition is something wonderful.
Good luck! I hope that you enjoy Japan as much as I do.
Hi Roger,
First of all thank you. Yours is indeed an excellent resource, and to offer it freely bespeaks your love of the Japanese language and commitment to academia. I needed to pick up some basic phrases before I go to Japan this December to visit my daughter who is teaching English there, and your program should be an immense help. I already speak, read, and write the Korean language with some fluency, so I am at least familiar with the grammar structure of Japanese, which is essentially the same as Korean.
My biggest frustrations with the Japanese language programs that I have researched, ordered, and practiced thus far, is that they lack coherent categorical structure, assume that students are interested in learning Japanese script, and place too much emphasis on grammar. It is of little use, for example, to know how to ask where something IS, if one cannot understand the answer. Such a lesson should include answers that give the basics of direction, “it’s to the right/left, over there against the far wall, on the second floor just down the hall from the elevator, there’s one in the building across the street” etc., because in the case of ‘toidewa doko desuka?’ it might prove difficult for one to hold it until lesson “umpteen” gives the clue necessary to understanding directions. Furthermore, categorizing information also helps us retain it – oh how the brain loves to group related information, including opposites.
After several decades of learning Korean to the point of fluency, I am no stranger to the various methods of language learning and their deficiencies, so I fully understood your introduction and explanation. You mentioned the frustration of an English brain listening to lessons entirely in Japanese and concluded that that is not an effective method. I agree, though I think constant input of the target language from numerous sources is of key importance. And I’m sure you would agree that if the goal of learning a foreign language is to become fluent, that language must no longer be foreign to us. I propose that this we accomplish by creating a native speaker inside us – as I’m sure you have already done, word by word, phrase by phrase, concept by concept.
In my study of Korean I became frustrated early on by what I viewed as an overemphasis on grammar, and I lament the hours I tortured myself memorizing and rehearsing grammar. I hadn’t learned my native tongue that way. It occurred to me that there is an order to learning and growing, a kind of sit-crawl-walk-run, as it were, and this natural progression, I thought, must apply to language as well. We learn to talk first, naturally grasping the basic grammatical constructs without a second thought. We then learn to read, and at about the same time we begin to learn to write, conforming to grammatical rules. Then ultimately we use the twisted mathematics of grammar to dissect the living language and frustrate students.
Anyway, I am always somewhat puzzled at the insistence on essentially reversing the learning order when it comes to most foreign language learning programs. The ESL program at our local community college is a good example of this folly. I often meet with Korean students in the program who express their frustration at a lack of progress when it comes to learning English. I feel pity for them as I look over their lessons memorizing parts of speech and dissecting sentence structure – who thinks about those things in a conversation? And does inspirational writing flow from this framework? I think not. It seems to me it is the ones who talk the most who are the best at reading, writing, and communication. Oh well, thanks for letting me vent.
Once again, I say thanks for your hard work. Put all the files in a single .zip and charge for download – I will gladly pay for them.
Yours truly,
George Posten
Hi George,
Thank you for your fascinating comments about the best way to learn a foreign language. I didn’t realize that Korean grammar and Japanese grammar are so similar.
I’m sorry to be so late in responding. Somehow your message seems to have gotten lost in all of the spam that this site continually receives.
What you say about the relative importance of studying grammar vs. just trying to speak and immerse oneself in a language is certainly thought-provoking. We naturally rely on our own personal language-studying experiences when we try to decide the relative importance of different approaches. We also notice that some people seem to be able to learn languages more easily and wonder if this is a function of their native ability or of their technique. It may be impossible to know the relative importance of those different factors.
Although the idea of trying to learn a language in the way that children learn their native tongues is attractive, I believe that our adult brains learn differently and need to be provided with rules, reasons and explanations. I also think that it is the totality of what we study, including grammar and practice in speaking, that creates the “native speaker inside us,” as you say. Perhaps all the time that you spent studying Korean grammar wasn’t wasted after all!
I think that Chris Lonsdale’s TED Talk, “How to Learn Any Language in Six Months,” is worth watching. In particular, I like his Action #5: Get a Language Parent. This means that you should try to find a native speaker of Japanese who is willing to spend time interacting with you in the way that a parent interacts with a toddler who is learning to talk.
This Language Parent should be willing to work hard to try to understand what you are saying in Japanese. Rather than correcting your mistakes directly, the Parent should try to rephrase what you are saying, to demonstrate more correct usage and, in the process, use words that you know. This may be difficult for the Parent, since he or she may not know what you know, and phrases that seem elementary to the Parent may be completely mystifying to you. Therefore I suggest that, at least initially, you limit the length of these language teaching sessions to about 15 minutes, by which time both you and the Parent may be exhausted. I also suggest that you acquire a decent fund of vocabulary and grammar before asking your Language Parent to spend this sort of time with you.
こんにちはロジャー先生
Thanks for this great resource! I’ve been learning for just over 2 years and recently went through Pinsleur II & III which I have found to be really helpful. Because I have no easy exposure to Japanese speakers I have found this type of course to be the most effective for me in ‘exercising’ and really internalising Japanese grammar.
After fearing that I would not be able to continue my daily audio lessons while commuting I then found your mp3s. I am actually surprised everything is free as you must have invested a great deal of time.
もう一度、どうもありがとうございました！
Hi Ed,
Thanks so much for your message. Good luck with your studies. Please keep in touch.
Roger
Hi Roger,
Friend, I was trying very hard to get some knowledge/to learn this language, have visited so many web sites till now, and yesterday some of my friends told me about this one.
Seriously can’t thank you enough for such a great help. It is so well-crafted, and now for the first time learning Japanese seems easy. All credit goes to you Roger. You are a rock star.
This is so nice of you, you sure have invested a lot of time here imparting the knowledge just for free.
Thanks a lot!!
May god bless you, is all I have to give and say !!
Highly appreciated!
Best Regards
Saurabh S
Hi Saurabh,
It’s good to hear from you. Of course, as you know, learning Japanese will never be easy, even with these lessons, but I hope that they meet your expectations as you use them. My wife and I appreciate your encouragement.
Thank you!
Hi,
I can say without a doubt that your work is amazing, I have a folder full of japanese resources and this website has been one of the best. That is the impression I had from the first 4 lessons.
I’ve decided many times what resources I would use, but in the end I really never started using them because of the price or the number of books was absurd for a beginner level or I couldn’t find the pdf files. I’ve considered Genki, Minna no Nihongo, japanese from zero,etc but I’m happy I took more time and actually got to a decision I’m happy with.
People say that Japanese for everyone is hard to go through, but I’m going to try it (actually I was very surprised when I started to listen to your audio lessons and recognized JFE scripts xD). Also I would be very thankful if someone who has already gone through this book along with your audio lessons gave their opinion.
If you and your wife ever plan on doing more japanese learning materials or just keep the existing ones updated I would be happy to help.
ほんとうにありがとうございます。
Hi Sofia,
Thank you for writing. We really appreciate your support and encouragement.
One thing I forgot to ask, what do you recommend: going through the lesson in JFE after listening to the respective audio lesson, or vice-versa?
ありがとうございました
Good question. In my opinion, even though probably no one would describe these Japanese audio flashcard lessons as easy, they are much easier than the book. Therefore, I recommend that you start with the audio lessons. They will give you plenty of material to learn, and they will gradually teach you a lot of grammar and vocabulary.
In addition, you will want to practice reading, spending as much time on this activity as you can. After you’ve studied an audio lesson, the corresponding chapter in the book will be perfect for reading practice, since you will already be somewhat familiar with the sentences, and reading a chapter will reinforce the grammar and vocabulary taught in the audio lessons.