i think they are satisfactory if u wanna get by but if u want real fluency there is no replacement for a structured class and actual conversation and practical usage practice...but they DO teach you a good bit IMO
they teach the formal japanese which is still japanese but not as commonly heard...if you base your whole conversation on this you will prolly be hopelessly lost considering you don't know the casual tense which is used basically everywhere you heard japanese...in animes, on the streets, everywhere, which isn't taught in pimsleur but probably taught in a class (i onno i'm not in a class...yet hehehe) or from a friend who can speak it...
basically in case you don't what i'm trying to say...i'm saying if u want to learn...this is a good start, just be aware you are learning a tense which is not commonly used by the common japanese speaker

aznanimedude wrote:

i think they are satisfactory if u wanna get by but if u want real fluency there is no replacement for a structured class and actual conversation and practical usage practice...but they DO teach you a good bit IMO they teach the formal japanese which is still japanese but not as commonly heard...if you base your whole conversation on this you will prolly be hopelessly lost considering you don't know the casual tense which is used basically everywhere you heard japanese...in animes, on the streets, everywhere, which isn't taught in pimsleur but probably taught in a class (i onno i'm not in a class...yet hehehe) or from a friend who can speak it... basically in case you don't what i'm trying to say...i'm saying if u want to learn...this is a good start, just be aware you are learning a tense which is not commonly used by the common japanese speaker

I'm sure you are absolutely correct. I can tell from watching so many asadoras and dramas where I luckily can catch a phrase every now and then and even wakarimasu it. It's very difficult to find a Japanese class in my area - San Fernando Valley in California. I took a conversational Japanese class and that's about all I could find around here.

yeah but of course knowing at least enough to converse is better than knowing nothing at all i always say

Garp_is_dead wrote:

I thought it could interest some people on here: he are some DDlinks to download pimsleur's first volume (30 lessons, 25minutes each one). I'm using it to start learning japanese, i'm on the 4th lesson and i must say that it works for me . (one link= 10 lessons) http://www.filefactory.com/get/f.php?f=28db4a24a2927c3919390a71 http://www.filefactory.com/get/v3/f2.php?f=5dc050acc3c970c70e92d89f http://www.filefactory.com/get/v3/f2.php?f=86399bd1aca9581955a975ad

hello. newbie here, been a long-time lurker but now decided to join in.

i need help. i was able to download the first file, but as for the second and third, i could not seem to get it right. Are there other storage sites hosting these same files, aside from File Factory? Like MegaUpload or Rapidshare or something. I know it also has a .torrent file, but my PC conks out constantly when I try to deal with Torrents.

any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks very much.

if u want there's always bittorrent...look at thepiratebay or torrentz, they prolly have it (i know i got it from there :X)

My Dad bought me the set for Xmas. I guess somebody needs to pay for it. And he's a cheap-skate!

It seems very rudimentary, but I'm not ready to ignore the basics.

They gloss over some details, in the name of brevity, I guess. For instance they start by using "ga" as a topic marker, while "wa" is, I think, the standard. Then they use "wa" for something else without explanation.
_________________

Edit: I thought I learned correctly about "wa" and "ga" in a college course, but I guess that was oversimplified.
_________________