Best Ways to Learn Japanese Online

Truth to be said, the course prices might seem rather steep when you initially see them but see, these prices are for a lifetime access, not per month or year. This means that once you've acquired the program, you are free to advance at your own satisfactory pace without worrying about how much you've succeeded in a month for the money you've paid and how long you will have to continue paying until you master the language (which can be years for a busy person to whom Japanese is not an immediate necessity). Besides, you will have a week-long trial to check out quite a number of lessons in each level to see if the Rocket Language system works for you. Moreover, if you choose to buy not one but two or all three levels, you will have a good discount any time throughout your trial time, and, according to the CEO message found on the price list page, if you buy the course and still find it not good for you, you can, in fact, get a refund during whole 60 days! That's quite a lot of time to make up your mind.

Rocket Language had had some issues with their users in the past regarding various aspects but what adds to their collective karma is that the owners listened to the customers' outcry and did their best to fix most of the problems. One of those was a not too convenient design. When you come into your account now, everything is as comprehensive as possible: on the side control panel, you'll see your purchased levels, each of which drops down to a menu with categories and then lessons. The Tools menu drops down to show links to your progress, the forum, notes, vocabulary, and advanced learning. Simple as that. Also, the progress is tracked below in a never-hidden menu so that you could just glance at it anytime: Today's Points, your place on the Leaderboard, and Current Streak, a number of days you've been studying in consequence. The only thing we find a bit inconvenient for some users is that the control panel is not fixed, it disappears as scroll the lessons down, therefore, to switch to another lesson or level, you'll need to scroll all the way up. However, there is a Return to the top button at the bottom.

All in all, we find Rocket Japanese to be the best way to learn Japanese online if you are serious about it and you often have to learn on the go. The Survival Kit will help you if you find yourself in Japan unexpectedly but all the other aspects of the program, from the number of lessons to the price, are created more for those who plan to dive into the Japanese language and culture deep and for a long time.

Rosetta Stone has been developing constantly throughout all their active years and it does show results. One of the things in their online Japanese classes that no one actually argues against is that all the audio in the lessons is actually recorded by true native speakers, crystal clear and appealing. Let's admit it, with a language as difficult as Japanese and with it being not the most demanded on the market, many companies make do with audio recorded by advanced-level foreigners, which may be awesome but won't be the same as the native speaker's speech. So in this aspect, learning Japanese with Rosetta Stone is a good choice. Going for a bit of nagging, though, many users noticed that the Japanese speech in this course is deliberately slower and more pronounced than the way people in Japan speak so you might need a bit of getting used to the speaking speed after the course. However, we believe it is not a big issue in today's world when you can watch some Japanese show or anime to train, and good slow pronunciation might actually help with understanding.

Adding to the great level of recorded audio, there is also the Rosetta Stone's TruACCENT™ technology that will help you develop your own pronunciation. It does fall for the same category as the recorded speech, as in you'll be speaking rather slowly, but it helps a great deal. And when you are done with your first lessons and are ready to try speaking out loud, Rosetta Stone offers you native speakers as tutors; you can speak with a real person who will correct your mistakes and encourage you to go on.

Rosetta's courses are offered as a downloadable desktop course, as a CD disk, and as online lessons. All three of them are quite good but online subscription offers the best possibilities for the price. It is the only option you can use on-the-go thanks to the Rosetta Stone app and downloadable audio, and it also includes a phrasebook, some books for you to read in the language you learn, and the aforementioned speech recognition and live tutoring sessions. It is flexible and convenient. All in all, Rosetta Stone might very well be your best way to learn Japanese online.

So what distinguishes Pimsleur from all the other audio courses for Japanese learning? First and foremost, you won't find many systems with a peculiar phonetics learning like the one Pimsleur offers. It's not a completely new approach in and of itself but only a handful of systems do actually apply it to learning languages as an adult. That is when you learn Japanese with Pimsleur, the voice in the program will teach you longer words starting from the last syllable. This is the way most kids learn their native language and it does, in fact, bring exceptional results with adults as well. Such a system is also highly effective when you, a native English (or another European language) speaker try to learn to speak Japanese, a language not only complicated by itself but in addition posing extra difficulty to us since its phonetical structure is completely foreign.

Another thing that Pimsleur incorporates in its Japanese learning course and other language courses is a somewhat modified SRS, Spaced Repetition System. It was actually created by Paul Pimsleur himself. In his version of the system, the words and phrases are repeated after quite strict time periods which get longer after each time. At first, you will hear them really often, like after 10 seconds, then the gaps will grow more and more until, finally, the word is secured in your permanent memory.

We'd like to stress that Pimsleur will teach you to speak and understand spoken Japanese, the skills essential for any and all travelers to Japan but mostly irrelevant to those who strive to learn Japanese because they are fans of Japanese comics—manga—or want to study this language thoroughly. Pimsleur will not teach you to write or read in Japanese, the PDFs that come with the course are scarce and insufficient to learn Japanese in all its aspects. But what we can assure you is that your pronunciation and listening/speaking skills will benefit enormously from a course like Pimsleur.

First of all, this is a popular site where many teachers gather for work, so you will have a selection of options with people proficient in Japanese, you can try each of them to find yours. This also makes it easier to find the teacher who will be ready to work at a time comfortable for you. You will get a feedback on a regular basis, and will even have a possibility to receive a CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) certificate corresponding to your level. CoLanguage also offers the possibility to work for them, you can teach the languages you already know, including your native. This way, you will earn as well as spend. A win-win.

When it comes to learning and teaching, a personal approach is a good thing. At CoLanguage, there are teachers of various origin, age, genders, experience, and characters. At the time this review was written, we're afraid to say there is no native Japanese speaker among the language teachers, but maybe there will be one when you check them—with the "Become a Teacher" option visible right there on the site, there are chances someone will appear sooner rather than later. And even if there is none still, do consider those non-native teachers who are still proven professionals and you might very well find them compatible with you in spirit. After all, this way you will not only learn the Japanese language and culture but will have a peek at how it is perceived in a different country.

The rates per hour are set by the teachers themselves. CoLanguage also offers their tutors and students an option of a trial lesson. That's when you check out a teacher for free once before you decide if you want to study with them. Whether the teacher is okay with this is up to them, and many tutors do offer a trial. No harm in trying out, right?

LinguaLift is one of the best Japanese language courses in part owing to the implementation of the Space Repetition System. You will probably find this system in many game-based language courses. What does it mean? Basically, the SRS is a system that returns the words you struggle with to your tests time and time again until you learn them. Say, you're doing a test in the Vocabulary section and you get one word wrong. The system will show you the right answer and the test will continue as nothing happened (because it's okay to make mistakes!) but after some time the trouble word will pop out again when you least expect it. If you do it right this time, the interval for it to appear once more will become longer and vice versa—do it wrong again and it will be repeated shortly. As you learn and your vocabulary expands, you'll see the word in your test more and more rarely but get it wrong again after several months of correct answers and the interval shrinks again. This system is quite old, said to be dating as far as 1932 (attributed to the Psychology of Study work by C. A. Mace). It has developed with years and today is used in many language programs.

Many websites today have blogs, it doesn't surprise anyone anymore. Hell, every IT company is practically obligated to have one. But LinguaLift Blog is just something else entirely. Sometimes, it's like a stand-up performance. You'll find many things there, from apps and tips for certain languages (LinguaLift mainly focuses on Japanese and Russian now) to articles like "Gifts for language lovers" and tests on how much of a language nerd you are, all written with jokes scattered here and there. It's really entertaining and entertaining to follow.

We highly recommend LinguaLift online Japanese classes to teens, young adults, and generally to everyone who loves a good laugh.