Pimsleur Japanese for learning japanese, anyone used it ?

[GenKiDan]

This is a tip for anyone wanting to learn japanese, consider yourself what you think of it though. Seems nice too me. At least so far.

But I myself am currently on lesson 10, and therefore I am wondering if anyone else have used it. Cause I can't hear what is being said in lesson 10 I am a bit stuck atm.

I intend to upload it for anyone who would like to try and hear what it is being said who don't have it.

And here we go: (give it some time since YT says it's still processing.)


P.s. youtube seems to be using a looong time processing, I'll have to check back later to see if they actually gotten around to it.

Edit: Oki doki, back and the video works. It sounds like their saying in the very beginning: "sugino kai wa kudasai" ....what on earth is being said ? I can't make it out.

[~dreamer~]

in kanji: 次の会話を聞いてください。
in kana: つぎのかいわをきいてください。
in romaji: tsugi no kaiwa wo kiite kudasai.
Listen to the following conversation。

if you want, i can transcribe the whole thing for you. might take some time, though.

[GenKiDan]

@~dreamer~ ; Almost forgot to answer this now, thanks for the clarification.

Oh don't worry about transcribing the whole thing, it's only those brief phrases thats left untranslated that escaped me everything else is neatly explained so np. But thanks very much for offering. Domou arigatou.

Oh one last thing, I've found other transcriptions online, and they just say "o" instead of wo, I now their pronounced the same way though it's just how can you tell which one is correct to use, is there a way ?

[~dreamer~]

the object particle is always written as を, but people romanize it as either "o" or "wo" depending on the romanization system used.
(you might also find ちゃ romanized as either "cha" or "tya", じ as either "ji" or "zi", etc - the romanization rules are all over the place!)

[GenKiDan]

Really I wasn't aware the romanization rules where so messed up, pitty too hear, well best to learn the kanas and get some immersion to just get it the best way possible then.

Btw how did you learn japanese for yourself ?

[~dreamer~]

still learning, my Japanese is still pretty bad (read: crap)

started with hiragana and katakana, which are the alphabet of the Japanese language.
then started learning basic grammar, vocabulary and simple kanji
i also took some beginner courses, which helped me somewhat, though i wouldn't say it's a requirement if you have the will to learn on your own.

definitely check out Tae Kim's guide for Japanese grammar - arguably the best reference for grammar, and his explanations actually make sense

[jeffreymgibson]

I've used Pimsleur Japanese. I did the first 30 lessons and got through the first 15 lessons of level 2. Pimsleur is great for learning the correct way to pronounce things. The only thing, Pimsleur doesn't explain grammar at all so after I finished level one, I could say a lot of words and phrases, but I still didn't understand when to use wa, ga, ni, de, and the other particles. I could say all the phrases I learned, but I couldn't really construct my own sentences.

Then I ran across the Michel Thomas Japanese Foundation audio course and it teaches the grammar alongside with the vocabulary and it's very easy to understand. It totally demystified particles. I finally understood when to use was as opposed to ga or ni as opposed to de. The Japanese foundation course is fairly short and I would recommend getting it in sometime soon.

I use TA Kims site as well, but I feel he should use more examples. Also I find his material a little on the dry side and I have to really force myself to study it.

There's also other audio courses like Drive Time Japanese and others and tons of books. I've been using A Guide To Reading And Writing Japanese to learn Kanji. It has them in order by grade level. I know about 250 of them so far but after about 200 of them, they are getting harder for me to memorize.

Good Luck, I know for me it's been a lot of work and I'm not fluent yet. I don't even know if I'm close.

[katleen_farine]

For a great trick to learn the Kanji, try this book: James Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji" (you can buy it on amazon)
and after, this website: (Reviewing the Kanji) http://kanji.koohii.com/

[jeffreymgibson]

Yep, I bought it for a dollar on Amazon. I also have a little Remembering the kana book that I got for cheap.