Cheap Rosetta Stone Japanese Explorer (Software) (Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Macintosh, Windows Me) Price
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Each graduated lesson works like this: First, you learn a new word by seeing a picture of, say, a man. You then read the Japanese word for "man" (at different points, both in Roman letters and in Japanese script) and hear it spoken. After learning a whole set of words this way, you move into self-quizzing mode, where you see just a picture of a man and you have to choose the right word, either from spoken or written cues. This emphasis on listening comprehension is fantastic and is one of the components that sets the software apart, but there are also reading and writing exercises.
So how do they cover grammar? Japanese has a complicated system of counters attached to numbers. Eventually, for instance, you'll see hitotsu under a picture of one man and futatsu under a picture of two men. Later you'll see hippiki under one fish and nihiki under two fish. If you are a grammar guru, you might be able to figure out that humans are counted with hitotsu-futatsu, and small animals are counted with hippiki-nihiki. However, the beauty is you don't have to be a grammar guru at all because the software doesn't expect you to state rules like that; it expects you only to associate a picture of two fish with nihiki instead of futatsu. Eventually, you get into longer phrases that cover verbs, adjectives, and prepositional phrases. It's amazingly effortless, especially so for children as young as 6.
Caveats: The CD-ROM includes both Mac OS and Windows versions. Your installation will include the first-level lessons of a couple dozen other languages for free, too, so you have to know that the Japanese word for "Japanese" is Nihongo in order to select it from the list. Also, remember that software is no replacement for Japanese-speaking people, so take what you learn and use it in the world! --Erik Macki
| PLATFORM: | Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Macintosh, Windows Me |
| CATEGORY: | Software |
| MANUFACTURER: | Fairfield Language Technologies |
| TYPE: | Mac Macintosh Machintosh Apple, Computer software (programs), Education (Educational), Reference, Foreign Languages (Language), Asian, Learn learning, Kids (Children) |
| MEDIA: | CD-ROM |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
| UPC: | 794678001185 |
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Customer Reviews of Rosetta Stone Japanese Explorer
Visual Vocabulary I picked up this product after hearing great things about Rosetta Stone's software. Apparently they meant Rosetta Stone Japanese Personal Edition. (...)
What to expect with this software is pictures, no explanations. This is fine and dandy if you have someone to clarify with. For example understanding that a dog is pronounce inu is one thing, but formulating the sentence of "Who's dog is that?" is another. That entire sentence is an idea, which is very difficult to get into a picture.
The lesson plans are not made like any class I have ever had. They seem to be a random collection of words with now focus on anything specific. Some related words are together, like car and plane, but that's as close as you get. One section seemed to revolve around "families" but it's hard to say with the cluster organization.
The only good thing about this software is that it supports Romania, kana and Kanji. The Romania support is there for people who don't really want to learn Japanese; they just want to speak it. The kana and kanji support is intended to fully saturate you in the language. This way you can learn pronunciation spelling though katakana/hiragana. Then once you know the pronunciation you can identify that sound with the Kanji for that object/thing/idea.
All in all this software is for vocabulary only, and I think the developers are fully aware of it.
Great Starter!
I found this to be a great first step in the learning process. This Program encourages you to think.....
Think for yourself with Rosettat stone...but this is for beginners!
...err... that's not quite right
This may be a very good product, and (as a professional language teacher) I like what the editorial review has to say about their methodology... HOWEVER, as a speaker of Japanese (I read these reviews while looking for some more advanced stuff), I was a little bothered by the fact that the first example in the editorial review was... well... bad...
Japanese DOES use a system of counters... but you do not generally say "hitotsu... futatsu" for "one person... two people", you say "hitori... futari..." ("ippiki... nihiki..." for small animals is correct, and you can use it for children for a laugh)
It's not a major gaff... and for a beginner, it's great just to make youself understood, but it would be kind of like a non-native English speaker pointing at some one and saying "It is my English teacher".
The software may be great, but I'd be a little bit wary of buying this, since what the editorial reviewer seems most confident and happy with is... err... wrong...
But that may be an error on the part of the reviewer too... It's very easy to overgenalize applications of rules and whatnot... I've otherwise heard good things about the Rosetta Stone stuff.