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Reviews by Chris Kern

Japanese: The Spoken Language series

Probably the biggest defining features of her system are:

  1. Intense work on spoken Japanese in the beginning with no written Japanese whatsoever. Even kana is not done until perhaps the second semester of a college-level class.

  2. Emphasis on memorization of dialogues and substitution drills.

  3. The idea that work in the beginning should be focused on the tapes/CDs and drills with native speakers. The romaji writing is used only to remind the student of what he's already heard on the CDs -- it is not to be used for learning new material.

A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters

I found it interesting, but not very helpful in learning the kanji.


For questions, comments, or if you would like to add your review to the above list, please email Ben Bullock <benkasminbullock@gmail.com> or use the discussion group for this web site.