You may be interested in reading some of the comments that we have received about these lessons. Please feel free to add your own remarks by using the box at the bottom of the page.
Please note that there are additional comments at the bottom of the How to Read Japanese page.
Hello Roger, thanks for these keen audio lesson. I’ve been using these flashcards for the past 3 years, commuting from work and school, and also when I’m in the shower lol; and I have seen an improvement in my Japanese comprehension. One advice I may give is if you can time the lessons to be around 1 hour or less (50 mins to 1 hour). I found out that went I truncated the longer lesson’s audio format to one hour or less, I could concentrate better, but after 1 hour, I began to loose focus and concentration. Is Lesson 36 the final lesson? I will be done with that in May next year, so I was just curious.
Hi Chiozo,
Thank you for the message. We are happy to hear that you have made good progress with the lessons and that you may finish Lesson 36 by next year. Yes, I think that Lesson 36 will be the final lesson for the foreseeable future because I have gotten busy writing a second “Learn to Read in Japanese” book that will cover more kanji, in addition to the 608 taught in the first book.
You are the second person to mention that some of the lessons are too long, and I agree. However, after thinking about this, I decided that it might cause problems if I were to change the lessons in a radical way at this point. I would have to re-number them and so forth, and people who returned to the site to check for updates might get confused.
Therefore, I recommend that, for longer lessons, you divide them yourself, which you may already be doing. In other words, just choose an arbitrary point midway through the lesson and decide to stop at that point and return to the beginning of the lesson until you know the first half of the lesson well. Make a note of the time (minutes and seconds) at which you divided the lesson so that you will be able to return to that point easily when you are ready to start the second half of the lesson.
Anyway, after Lesson 27, all of the remaining lessons are between 35 and 50 minutes in length.
Good luck with your Japanese studies!
Thanks. I am looking forward to the second Kanji book. I will be patient.
Hello, I just want to thank you and your wife for your helpful lessons. I’m a busy mother of two and have little time for undisrupted book-based study. But I can listen to your lessons anytime while doing the chores or travelling to work. Thanks to you, I’m making progress with my Japanese, which I’m studying as a hobby. I’ve also told my Japanese-learning friends about your site. Thanks again!
Hi Alice,
Thank you for writing. Noriko and I are happy to hear that the lessons are working for you. You do sound very busy, but I’m sure that you can make good progress by using the lessons when you are doing other activities
Ever since I finished Pimsleur Japanese I’ve been looking for a good replacement, and this is the best I’ve found. Dense lessons that require constant recall from the listener, and a huge amount of content.
ありがとうございます!
Hi Tim,
Thanks for writing. We really appreciate your support.
This site is really awesome! And it’s free too. Thank you for making such a site. I am a student in Australia, so unfortunately I have no money to donate, but what else can I do to show my appreciation?
Hi Eric,
It’s good to hear from you. If you don’t have money, don’t worry. We know what that’s like. Good luck with the lessons!
Hello Roger,
After hoping from one Japanese Course in audio format to another I finally found your lovely site, and I haven’t listened to anything else since! In fact I’ve deleted all the other lessons from my ipod and kept only your 36 lessons. The moment I started listening to your first lessons I thought to myself “That’s it! This guy gets it!”
I’ve found your methodology to be invaluable!!
After months of frustration I finally feel confident about learning the language. I’m finally advancing both in grammar and vocabulary build up!
Thank you so, so much for your splendid work.
Hi Antonio,
Thank you for writing. Noriko and I truly appreciate your support.