I’ve tried out the first few audio lessons. I enjoy them if I have a long car ride ahead of me. I used to drive 30 minutes to work everyday so audio lessons were great. I was mainly listening to JapanesePod101 however. Pimsleur seems very robotic and to the point where as JapaenesePod101 is more like a conversation in a podcast type setting. There are a lot of unscripted parts and laughter throughout JapanesePod101 which you definitely won’t see much of on Pimsleur. I would definitely say JapanesePod101 is more entertaining. I however never listened to them to seriously learn anything. I listened to them more for entertainment and for a bit of practice. So if you are listening them to really learn something, you may learn better with Pimsleur as they get to the point and have less chit chatting. I mainly use Textfugu for learning new stuff and occasionally read through a chapter in my Genki textbook.

I have used “My Japanese Coach” before.. I probably wouldn’t recommend it though. There are a bunch of other ones I had that were pretty good but I can’t remember their names.

When I had a DS I strictly used it for Japanese studies. After I got an iPod touch and then later a Samsung Galaxy S I never used the DS and ended up selling it. If you can get an iPod touch (they are cheap) or android phone you will have much better, higher quality learning services on hand compared to the DS (including textfugu if there is wifi near by).

My biggest problem with the DS is how the touch screen isn’t the most accurate. So I would be drilling through kana and it would tell me I got it wrong when in fact the stylus for some reason lost contact with the screen counting it as more than one stroke. I now use a stylus on my Samsung Galaxy S for drilling kana and kanji. I ended up selling the iPod as I prefer Android over Apple’s IOS. To each their own.

I was considering buying another DS the other day. Mainly for playing games in Japanese like dragon quest or Pokemon. However, for drilling and writting kana/kanji, an iPod or Android phone would be much better. PLUS both IOS and Android can get Anki apps (free on the android).

• This reply was modified 12 years, 4 months ago by  Daniel.

This song is so good! Thanks for the recommendation Chris! Been listening to them all day long but this one is so far my favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgCmFkPdufc

Andrew: It does seem like something is missing.

lol, I’m not even a regular here and I got that pun.

I’ve never been into AKB48. Honestly, I feel if you like that kind of music/idol group that Morning Musume is a better group (musically). AKB48 is a better idol group but I feel Morning Musume has better singers and music. Since I am not into idol groups and am strictly into the music, I prefer Morning Musume.

This song has some dubstep elements in it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1VVHhHv7zE&feature=related

I printed the pdf and taped it to my bathroom wall. I study it every time I use the washroom, lol. When I first started the verbs I drilled 3-4 a day really intensely. Any more than that and I would start confusing them with each other. I would say I had both verb charts 1 and 2 down in about a week using that method.

Another thing I do with any vocab I learn is to try and use it as much as I can in my daily life. When I do something I think of the verb and when I see an object I thing of its Japanese vocab.

I’m sure this post was useless to you as it’s pretty much common practice among foreign language learners.

• This reply was modified 12 years, 4 months ago by  Daniel.