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Learning JapaneseInternet/Free Certainly one of the best free online sources for Learning Japanese is at About.com . It has lessons for beginners, grammar, verb conjugations and how to use them, pronunciation guides with audio examples, idioms, cultural material and load of links to other sources. About.com employs guides, professional teachers, who provide qualified oversight of the material for each topic. It's like having your own Japanese tutor. This is an excellent resource that can supplement your chosen method, or if you can't spend any money, with a little extra hard work this site can provide most of your beginning needs in learning Japanese. Internet/Free Transparent Language offers a free vocabulary trainer to get started learning Japanese. Get your Free BYKI™ Lite download by Transparent Language Book/Audio Combo Living Language Basic Complete($25) The Living Language series, published by Random House, brings to life a well thought-out program in a compact package, by using a 'building block' approach to learn Japanese. The Basic Complete set includes a 40 lesson coursebook, which doubles as a phrasebook because it has lots of variations of the most common or useful phrases, a dictionary with plenty of idioms and expressions, and 2 90-minute cassettes or cd's. It's an excellent, more-bang-for-the-buck deal. A great no-frills way to study Japanese. Book/Audio Combo Living Language Ultimate($75) - This is a notch up from the Basic Complete set, it includes a 400+ page coursebook, 4 cd's that are coordinated with the book and an additional 4 cd's to work with away from the book. This is a great combination of the old school approach with the big coursebook for the serious student, but the extra cd's are a great addition. An ideal choice to learn Japanese. Audio Only Pimsleur Comprehensive Japanese As far as ease of use and quality of the material and method, Pimsleur is the best. You will learn to speak Japanese in a natural and comfortable way. It's the same for all Pimsleur language programs, but some require extra effort when it comes to reading. Japanese is clearly such a case. Pimsleur provides a reading booklet and cd for each level of the Comprehensive program, but their focus is clearly on speaking skills, and this is where they shine. Because Japanese uses such a radically different writing system from English, extra effort must be given to studying written Japanese, if you want to, and additional materials will be needed. The Pimsleur Comprehensive course is my favorite method and is my first choice for learning Japanese, even with that one caveat. Read my more indepth Review of Pimsleur or listen to the first lesson of Pimsleur Japanese free below! To order Pimsleur Japanese, click here to start learning Japanese in just 30 minutes a day! Rosetta Stone's immersion style method is one of the very best for learning Japanese. Their approach is one of full media - images, audio, written words etc., and intructs you expertly in every aspect of language - listening, speaking, reading and writing, and make it interesting in the process. They offer a cd-software based personal edition or a unique alternative. For a subscription fee, you can have complete online access to their Japanese software. If you can take advantage of their 500+ hours of instruction in a few months, you can get one of the best language learning products at a bargain price! Otherwise, the personal edition software will give you complete access all the time, for the full price, of course. Rosetta Stone is an excellent choice for learning Japanese. Read my review of Rosetta Stone or see for yourself how Rosetta Stone Japanese works for you and try out the free demo - Resources for Learning Japanese Here is a short list of links and resources you can use to supplement and advance your study of Japanese. Also, look for penpals, chats and forums, and other helpful resources and links on the General Resources page.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
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