Rocket Japanese Reviews

今のレクチャーは　私にとっていい勉強になります。できるだけ最後まで頑張りたいと思っています。ありがとうございます。

the rōmaji on the flashcards is driving me away from using Rocket for Japanese.

just maddening to have in SETTINGS as OFF

In 1/5 of a lsdon, I can set English OFF but where i WANT it off, it is stck ON as a feature ?!?

I like how the course gives you instant ability to say full sentences, and doesn't just focus on vocabulary or grammar separately. Everything is integrated. The phrases are also very relevant and useful. I also enjoy the mix of culture and language that is taught.
There are some aspects of the course that I don't find as useful, such as the 'Write It' and 'Flashcard' components, only because I don't feel they are benefiting me and I feel they are sort of tedious and a chore. I like the quizzes and the ability to practice saying the phrases in the 'Know It' section.

Very nice, i enjoyed it alot. Keep up the good work.

It is a good program/service, I think good value for money. But the voice detection I assume is non-existent. Why? For any word in the Japanese module, I can say anything and I get recorded as correct. Nami (Name) I can say "Yellow" or "Brick" or "Superman", they all register as points. So both the voice detection and points system is rather irrelevant in it's current state. But if you come for the exposure to words, practice out-loud yourself and don't need some software telling you that you are hitting the mark correctly, I think it is still worth it. It would be worth getting some quality A.I. software that really does test one's pronunciation of native speech - the one Rosetta Stone 3 had was pretty good, but their product has gone down hill since then.

Currently using the trial version to see if its something I'd buy and yes it definitely is, though for the asking price even at a discount I am surprised at how buggy the podcast clip is (when i pause or try to skip back/forward the audio completely stops) and the notes tab needs a function to enlarge as there is wasted space and the box given is too small to see the notes properly forcing me to scroll up and down constantly to see whats written not to mention the scrolling does not break properly and skips note lines. Also do wish there was an option to use this offline other than downloading the podcasts, I see no need to be in browser constantly for this unless I was conversing with others online or keeping track of points.

The voice narrator needs to be replaced, she is too monotone. Lessons should still to an extent reteach verb forms or grammar rules they have mentioned before, instead of telling the audience to refer to an obscure moment in a previous audio session. Besides that, the course is helpful.

I am a bilingual person (translator from English into French) trying to learn Japanese. I've been trying several methods books, on-line, etc., over several years. Even though this method is far more interesting and educational than Rosetta, I feel that it is lacking of grammatical points or explanations, so to be a complete learner, you need to complement it by another mean (books or apps). After saying that, I will still recommend this on-line method, since I believe it is one of the best today.
Improvements:
The testing system: it would be more educational to be testing more than 5 (Japanese 2) or 10 questions (Japanese 2), while the listen and writing, test you on over 30 questions.
Even though the voice recognition improve dramatically over the years, it is still sometimes difficult to use it, especially with long sentence in the Play role section. The system stops before I say half of the sentences. It works fine most of the time with single word.
The first audio is too long and have a lot of unnecessary moments. For example, why practicing to say a word or sentence when it is listed in the vocabulary section in which you can learn how to say it as well? Also, to be honest, Kenny's voice is a little annoying after a while.

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I'm not going to sugarcoat this, so don't look for it in any Rocket promotional material. :-)

Had a little bit of an issue when trying to buy this product. Wasn't Rocket's fault and they were very helpful in getting it resolved.

I am currently at lesson 2.4.

This is a good product for learning and practicing speech in Japanese. The exercises are very geared towards that, along with some writing.While it has been great for speech, I use a different product for grammar.

The interface is simple to figure out and use, so you don't have to waste a lot of time trying to figure out how to do courses. Japanese is hard enough as it is without trying to master a weird interface too.

This is really meant to help the student SPEAK the language, not necessarily stressing grammar too much, though it might in later lessons.

I've used a lot of tools for learning Japanese, but Rocket is the best at making you speak the language instead of just listening to lessons. That's why I purchased the whole product.

As for issues with the software, I had a few minor ones. At first, I would either have audio, or I could record my voice, but not both. To resolve this, I had to completely reinstall my browser.

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It is extremely difficult to find a good course for learning Japanese, or any non-european language in general online. Language courses are too often grammar rulebooks where you simply memorize the words. Rocket Languages, or at least the Japanese course is not at all like this. It provides a natural and intuitive learning structure that encourages you to listen and speak the language from an early stage. It is very well paced, so you come away from each lesson with a moderate understanding which you then build on throughout the course. I think this is a far better method than forcing you to know everything perfectly before moving on to the next part. When you do learn grammar, you have already used it in realistic sentences and heard it in conversations, so you have a feel of how it works. This also makes the learning process more enjoyable. Now the negatives. The 'Rocket Reinforcement activities' are great, but I find they are a bit repetitive after a while, I do wish there was more variety in the excercises. They do suggest good practices, such as using the language in books, video games, ect. but don't actually give any resources to do so yourself, something I have found other courses do much better.

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