The Rocket Japanese Course

When I chose to learn Japanese words I had to find a solid course because its been a while since I was in the "learning mode." My cousin (who is fluent in Japanese) told me the Japanese language was difficult to learn, and that reinforced my opinion I had to use the best course on the market.

I analyzed every Japanese language program I could find available online. After doing my research, the choice was clear, I would use the Rocket Japanese course offered by the Rocket Language company.

The Rocket Japanese Website

Rocket has a great reputation and in fact offers seven different langauge courses including Chinese, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese as well as a full blown course on the American Sign language.

The Japanese course was written by Sayaka Matsuura, who is a native Japanese speaker.

The first module contains 31 sessions designed to have you speaking basic Japanese words after your first session.

Initially, the course teaches conversational Japanese, which means you'll be able to converse with other Japanese speakers. when you're done you'll feel comfortable ordering in restaurants, asking for directions, giving greetings etc.

The package also includes the transcripts of the audios and I found that feature particularly helpful in following along. Each audio is roughly 25 minutes which means the full module comes in at 14 hours of content.

The methods used within this content allow you to absorb and speak Japanese words quickly. The use of audio tracks made the presentation of the material entertaining.

The program also includes software which makes learning very easy, and more importantly, fun. The first piece of software is called MegaVocab™.

This is a vocabulary recognition tool and I found this very helpful in the beginning. You basically run through a series of words and you learn the words through repetition, and through an association with a picture.

This really reminded me of the flashcards we all used when we were kids, except now I was working with high tech flashcards on my computer.

The software has 1000 words and pictures built into it, but it also allows you to add more words and pictures of your choosing as your skills improve.

screenshot of the actual software

I found this software to be a lot of fun to use. It's one thing to learn the vocabulary, but to understand it when spoken is really what is important.

In my opinion this is where other programs were weak and where Rocket Japanese excels.

Another very important aspect of the Rocket Japanese™ program was that it's not just an introductory course. The course is designed with the assumption you have no background in the Japanese language when starting.

But it continues to an advanced level, which meant I wouldn't have to go out and buy a more advanced course as I progressed with the language. To me, this added extreme value to the course.

Possibly the most impressive part of this course is the members only forum where you can ask questions and communicate with other students and the Rocket Language online instructors. To me, this forum made the cost of this course a real bargain.

If you happen to get stuck on something, you find lots of help in the forum. And this was included for free!

It was difficult to even find a home study course of this quality for the Japanese language, but to find one at the price of one hundred dollars was a real shocker for me. In fact as I continued to use the material, I became even more impressed with the price.

The course I decided on was the downloadable version, but they also have it available on CD's which can be shipped to your home. I chose the downloaded version because it was cheaper and I listened to the program on my computer, burn my own CD's for listening to in the car, and I load audio into my ipod.

To top it all off, the folks at Rocket offer the course with a 60 day, no questions asked, money back guarantee.

When I consider the quality of the course work, the software, the forum, the guarantee, and the bargain price, I can only give the Rocket Japanese™ program my highest rating of 5 stars.

If you want to learn Japanese, I can't think of a better way than by using Rocket Japanese offered through the Rocket Language company.

I wish you much success with your decision to learn Japanese.

Our Rating 5/5