Postby Belton » July 8th, 2008 10:07 pm
I hadn't heard of them until your post.
I checked out their websites ( I found 2 ) and listened to their samples.
rocketlingo is the better designed site by the way.
It sounds competent enough. It's a pleasant, casual non threatening non classroom style. ( sound familiar? with a NZ accent instead of a NY accent. ) except ... it has a scripted jokeyness to it in parts. it's not spontaneous sounding.
I did like the built in prompts to practice the phrases. I did like the previous lesson review bit at the start of the sample lesson.
to nit pick, I'm not overly impressed by the strong reliance on romaji for transcripts and vocab games.
non native speakers are not the best models for a language. inspirational yes but they sound wrong compared to a native speaker usually. It doesn't seem as if they have a wide range of voice actors.
to be sceptical. Anything that claims to be a shortcut or fast or speak Japanese in 8 weeks should be taken with a pinch of salt. After 8 weeks I'd be amazed if you could conduct business or hold dinner conversation in Japanese.
Most courses are going to be somewhat similar and teach the same things. There is no magic system out there. What there is are inspiring teachers and well presented material. And hard working students.
For my money Jpod is the best value. 228 hours of material (according to my folder in iTunes) and climbing. for free. Even if you discount the banter parts that’s still a lot of material; 200 CDs give or take.
Forums and community help? free.
Want written backup? subscribe and they give you access to the entire back catalogue on the cheapest subscription.
I've yet to find anywhere that matches this. If anything it's overwhelming and a bit hard to find specific topics sometimes because of the amount of material.
So I'm not sure how packaged courses like Rocket can compete in this environment.
I wouldn't be tempted to pay $99 (or $299 it's hard to tell how long their discounts really run for)
