The military likes to rank its graduates, and I was ranked in the middle of my class, average. I lived in Japan the first year of the occupation, part of the time immersed with a family who spoke no English.Īfter all that, although I am fluent (which only means that words flow easily) but by no means a native speaker, Japanese is not a slam-dunk. Total time: almost two years, six or seven hours a day, with native Japanese teachers. I learned Japanese in the Military Intelligence Language Schools during World War II after qualifying for the program in an intensive cram-course at Stanford. Let me offer my credentials for having an opinion about learning Japanese and the efficiency of Rosetta Stone in that effort. Over time, they build up a vocabulary and can pronounce and understand the words.īut to learn to conjugate verbs and some adjectives, parts of speech that are not used in English, word order, and to practice conversation, my students need me.

They then repeat, give the English translation, and then I let them look at the screen. With my students, I hide the screen while they hear and then say a word, phrase, or sentence. It can be useful if used with the help of a teacher. I found it helpful as a refresher before a recent trip to give a talk in Hiroshima. I found Rosetta Stone’s native speakers can get your ear attuned to hearing the language the way it is spoken, in word clusters. I have found no other program that allows that, although there may be some. You can easily toggle back and forth between spoken and written in Romaji (Roman letters) and Kanji and Kana (Japanese characters and syllables). However, Rosetta Stone is very good if you already know Japanese, as a refresher course. Would I recommend Rosetta Stone for learning (or trying to learn) Japanese? No. By Brent Van Arsdell Why You Won’t Learn Much

Rosetta stone full version japanese