Beginning to learn Japanese

i listened to dr. blair’s “japanese in no time” during my five hour flight from san francisco to boston. i made it through one run of the first CD and half of the second. i realized it was getting ahead of me, so i went back and started reviewing CD 1.

the programme has an interlinking story, which appeals to my corny sense of humour. the ‘activities’ and and ‘memory quizzes’ build up to interactions within the story. upon re-listening, i’d skipped the english story-set-up after the first time.

one funny thing, which i find disturbingly infectious are the mnemonics used to make words more digestible to english ears. i knew ‘dozo’ before, but now i fear it might be permanently linked in my mind to an image of me letting Bozo the clown pass ahead of me.

good news is, these seem to be employed decreasingly as the lessons progress. by the second CD, words are introduced on their own.

i know japanese is fast, and the syllables are short, but i’d love some syllable by syllable pronunciation. it’s hard to make out words which are made of four or more syllables. i’m sure that would be tedious on repeated listening. to stop that happening, i think audio CD makers should employ more track breaks so advanced users could skip boring bits, and novice users like me could repeat crucial practice bits.

this is not the first audio CD i have listened to. i also listened to Japanese for JETs, which i borrowed from my boyfriend. Eek, for a newbie like me, i found it impenetrable. right off the bat, long sentences in convoluted conversations. goofy background noise, etc. i’ll try and go back to it when i have some more practice under my belt.

but i’m enjoying dr. blair’s CD. it has a nice rhythm to it, with changes in activities, so i don’t feel bored. also, you get satisfaction right from the start because you are speaking, and learning how to make sentences, and using phrases in different contexts.

there are some bits that are challenging at this point, (especially where you hear the japanese first and have to say the english; and during the interactions where you have to respond to someone talking to you) but i think that’s a good sign that i could improve on repeated listening, and i’ll be able to tell i am improving.

i was surprised i had not heard of this programme in the many sites i had looked at. i only found it when i went to the bookstore and it was in the used section. i guess that alot of people who are writing online might be already advanced beyond this, but i give it a thumbs up!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005 at 3:11 am and is filed under Audio & Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.