Linguaphone In Action Japanese 2.0

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Learning the language before you go travelling is a sensible option--even if you do find that many people at your destination speak impeccable English.

Studying Linguaphone Japanese in Action 2 CD-ROM is based around life in Japan--there is an excellent travel guide to some of Japan's most famous tourist attractions, linked together with video footage that gives a real flavour of Japanese life and is quite thorough.

Although the CD-ROM is packed with enhanced video content, the first port of call for most students will probably be the basics of the language that are imparted through the grammar guides and example dialogues. This is not a package for advanced students--the vocabulary of 5000 words, while enough for most purposes is not tailored to unusual situations and the best place to begin is with the basic phrases in Japanese that show the contexts of various words and parts of speech through sentence examples and then role-plays. The phrases are emphasised with colour-highlighting of key parts and boxes below explaining their meanings in English and to which part of grammar they belong. There is also a separate grammar section in the package which will break down the points arising from these set-piece dialogues.

As with every good language-learning software package, the Linguaphone Japanese in Action 2 comes with the facility to compare your pronunciation with that of a native speaker, and so will help with speaking and listening as well as with grammar and sentence-construction; on the downside, however, the test of pronunciation is inevitably somewhat standardised, and does not cater for the large variation of accents in Japan. That aside, this is a good package for anyone who wants to learn or improve upon their Japanese before embarking on their next trip abroad. --Toby Green

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Manufacturer's Description
Developed for Linguaphone, the world's leading publisher of self-study language courses, In ActionV2 is the latest edition of this best-selling computer based language learning system. From the very start, you will discover a new and compelling way to learn a language in which learning authentic Japanese comes naturally. Thanks to enhanced video content, you can now travel to Japan and take part in conversations with native Japanese speakers, watch videos and read articles from genuine Japanese publications. In fact, using In ActionV2 is the nearest you can get to being in Japan.

Learn How To: Speak Japanese like a native, with confidence and ease. Speak effectively using the appropriate style of speech and the correct pronunciation. Build sentences from your large vocabulary using the correct grammar. Read letters, reports, magazines and general articles. Meet people, find out about them and tell them about yourself. Find your way around, ask for directions, shop and order food and drink. Plus much more! This is all made possible because In ActionV2 is a completely interactive learning system, with an improved navigation system to access a host of features that will help you perfect your language skills. Develop listening skills by slowing down the native speaker to hear the correct pronunciation. Record and playback facilities allow you to compare your voice to the native speakers. Interactive games build your vocabulary in a fun and challenging environment. Word and Root search allows you to target your learning. Interactive video conversations set in Japan make you feel like you are having a conversation in the country itself.

In ActionV2 is the ideal system to ensure you'll be speaking your new language with confidence and ease.

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2004-03-23 rating:
No fun learning styles here!
I have only had this product a couple of days but don't feel very encoraged by it, mainly becasue there is no element of 'fun' in its teaching technique and I find having some fun is very helpful when learning.

I am interested in learning spoken Japanese rather than written Japanese or 'phonetic english' Japanese, but this program puts a lot of empahsis on learning to write Japenese in phonetic English (though it does have a big speaking section). ALL of the games offered to inspire learning consist entirely of typing 'phonetic english' Japanese into your PC - crosswords, filling in the missing word in a sentance, re-arranging words in a sentance etc - which does not provide much variety and if you are poor at spelling like me, is really quite discoraging.

The variety of games (silly but fun and you do learn fast) in the rival 'Talk Now' package I found much better for learning vocabulary and names of useful everyday stuff (though not advanced enough to give more than half a dozen real sentances).

I would have liked to have seen a good vocabulary database included in the Linguaphone package as I wanted to learn more names of everyday objects (it promises 5000 words I think), but you cannot seem to access them to learn new words without working through the main program. I cannot so far find an obvious way to just practice say, numbers or food names, without having to work on whole sentances or conversations.

I will continue to look for a more user friendly language program as this, to me at least, makes everything seem harder and duller than it needs to be, but someone who likes to learn in a different style to me or who has more interest in written language as well as spoken may have a more positive view of this package than I have so far.


review by: date: 2003-11-24 rating:
Very helpful for starting ot learn Japanese
I found this title to be a very informative and helpful guide to learning the beginnings of the japanese language. It performed above and beyond what was expected for the the price paid and has inspired me to further my studies in the language. It is also very useful as a reference tool.

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