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Ultimate Japanese or Assimil Japanese? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Calro2 Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 6741 days ago 26 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese, French | Message 1 of 20 25 February 2008 at 5:54pm | IP Logged |
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Hi everyone. I am considering learning Japanese and I don't know whether to go with the Living Language Ultimate Japanese program or the Assimil Japanese With Ease one. I know these are probably not the "most serious" resources out there for learning Japanese, but my aim is conversational ability rather than fluency. I'm kind of burnt out from intensive language learning. If any of you have experience with these programs, I'd really appreciate your advice and impressions of both courses. Thanks!
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| Thuan Triglot Senior Member GermanyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6931 days ago 133 posts - 156 votes  Speaks: Vietnamese, German*, English Studies: French, Japanese, Romanian, Swedish, Mandarin | Message 2 of 20 26 February 2008 at 4:38am | IP Logged |
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I consider Assimil Japanese to be a "serious" resource for learning Japanese. Assimil I and II brought me to a level where I was able to hold a conversation in Japanese.
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| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6143 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 3 of 20 26 February 2008 at 10:36am | IP Logged |
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I don't know about Assimil, but based on what I know from experience, I would go with the Living Language. I have just recently bought a Living Language book for French and it is wonderful. I assume it would be just as good for Japanese. Also, it was relatively inexpensive, so that's good too!
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| Calro2 Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 6741 days ago 26 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese, French | Message 4 of 20 26 February 2008 at 7:03pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for your responses. My only experience with Living Language programs was with Ultimate Portuguese and Ultimate Advanced French. I did not like Ultimate Portuguese at all. Ultimate Advanced French was okay, but included some bizarre vocabulary and had overly theatrical speakers on the CDs. That's why I wanted to get a sense of others' experiences with the Japanese programs. Quality can vary quite a bit with language programs created by the same company.
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| qwing Newbie Singapore Joined 6266 days ago 9 posts - 11 votes Studies: Latin | Message 5 of 20 15 March 2008 at 2:18am | IP Logged |
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I've listened to the audio for both programmes, so I'll just comment on that.
How much Japanese have you been exposed to? That is, do you watch anime / j drama or listen to j-pop? If you do, the Living Language series audio might be better: the Japanese is spoken at normal speed, while the assimil tapes tend to slow it down a little. But the assimil can be useful: many phrases are often contracted in normal conversation; the assimil series pronounces them distinctly, syllable by syllable. The Living Language speakers also sound much more natural to me.(Incidentally watching more fansubbed anime / j drama -- you can find many of them on the net -- does help a lot.) Having said that, I've heard that the basic / intermediate books for the Living Language series don't have kanji, employing, instead, ostensibly more beginner-friendly romanized transcripts. I don't think that's good. Since you're looking mainly for conversational fluency though, the lack of kanji might not be an issue. I'm not sure if the Assimil has kanji. Edited by qwing on 15 March 2008 at 2:22am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Penombra Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6305 days ago 34 posts - 36 votes Speaks: Tagalog*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 6 of 20 15 March 2008 at 8:01am | IP Logged |
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As mentioned by the above poster, Ultimate Japanese does not make any mention of the script, which is
undoubtedly one of the most fascinating aspects of the language (and just for the record: Neither does "Teach Yourself Japanese" by Ballhatchet and Kaiser) so I would say that you should go find the Assimil course, even though I've never had any (any) experience with Assimil. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Felixelus Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6839 days ago 237 posts - 244 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 20 15 March 2008 at 9:22am | IP Logged |
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In regards to the script, Assimil has kanji, kana AND romanji. I haven't had any experience with living language but I do own both volumes of the Assimil Japanese. I must say the Assimil course is really good! However the audio seriously lets it down. I'm very used to listening to Japanese since I watch movies, anime and listen to Japanese music and the audio in the beginning was painful for me to listen to...so I don't listen it to any more. I'm hoping it'll speed up later on.
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| Makrasiroutioun Quadrilingual Heptaglot Senior Member Canada infowars.com Joined 6107 days ago 210 posts - 236 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Armenian*, Romanian*, Latin, German, Italian Studies: Dutch, Swedish, Turkish, Japanese, Russian, Arabic (Written) | Message 8 of 20 15 March 2008 at 1:03pm | IP Logged |
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What about both? If you can afford it, go for it... it can't harm you.
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