Absolute Pimsleur’s Japanese I is an excellent resource for learning Japanese, but it is not the only one and should not be treated as the be all and end all of your learning experience. I know this site focuses heavily on it, but don't let that fool you.Remember, you should be pursuing other avenues for learning Japanese besides Pimsleur's. It's a solid oral and audio comprehension (learning to understand the Japanese you hear), but it's more a suppliment than an all-in-one tool for learning the language. You should be focusing on the reading and writing aspects of the language and learning some basic grammar and vocabulary as you go along as well. Yes, the tapes introduce new vocabulary and build on it each lesson, but I don't think it's enough on its own.
If you have no other means of learning the language outside Pimsleur's, I recommend checking out the various Vocabulary posts I've been making for simple, progressive vocabulary lessons. Also, you would benefit from doing regular writing and reading. Re-reading the various Absolute Pimsleur's Japanese I Transcripts I've been writing up would be a free and easy option, as it has no romanji to mess up your learning to read the kana. While repetitive reading and writing of the same kana, word, words or sentences may seem tedious, it actually works and you will begin recognizing regular words, particles and sentence structures this way that simply listening to tapes won't allow.
Depending on how things go, I may start adding grammar, particles, conjugations and other topics to my posts. For now, the focus remains on the Pimsleur transcripts and simple vocabulary. You can check out my Japanese Resources post if you are interested in some first hand opinion on the various Japanese books I've used and recommend.
Finally, I just want to reiterate that you cannot rely on a single resource when attempting to learn a language as complex as Japanese. Aids, like Pimsleur's, are just that, aids. They help flesh out more in-depth courses or other aspects of the language not covered by them. Don't get me wrong, Pimsleur's is damn good, but it can only take you so far and that's all I'm trying to stress to you in this post.
Remember, keep at it and don't get discouraged. Progress, especially early on, takes time, but with a little effort, you'll start to see the benefits of your hard work.
1 comment:
Thanks Kirby. Your site has been really helpful.
All I have been doing is using Pimsleur tapes, plus your transcripts put into my PC flashcard program called Anki. Other than that, I was learning the Katakana this week.
You're right, I will start to include other stuff. But I want to make sure it has audio. Because I don't have a Japanese speaker to practice with, I don't want to screw up the sounds of words I read. So the vocab and grammar sentences I want to learn should have some audio accompaniment. Do you have a recommendation of where to find material like that?
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