The pinnacle of language tutoring

The Paul Noble language books work like magic. It’s very interactive and makes it feel like you are being tutored face to face. I can’t say I’ll remember everything that Paul Noble has taught me in this book, but I will certainly remember most of it and I may come back to it and listen again if I want to brush up my basic Japanese. Moving on to the next book now - ‘Next Steps in Japanese with Paul Noble’!

Highly recommend his books if you’re looking to learn a new language.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

Perfect way to get yourself started!

This course was great! It took me about a week and I really feel like it was an incredible introduction. Although you don’t learn a lot of vocabulary, you do learn how to do a lot with the stuff you’re taught! You learn how to conjugate verbs into the past, present (and technically the future although you’ll see what i mean by this in the course), as well as a few other verb forms which will be very useful. Honestly though, while the vocabulary was definitely travel oriented, i didn’t mind at all. There is also a review section at the end which i’m looking forward to doing every now and again to make sure this information is locked in before I listen to the second course!

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

Simple and essential

It was fun challenging my memory with this set up. Arigato gozaimas Paul Noble san (hope the order was correct)

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

Brilliant

This course makes some bold claims at start, the same claims we have all heard and tend to not be true. I’m am pleased to report that this course delivers. We all learn differently and at a different pace. So this may not be as successful for everyone, but as someone who would not describe themselves as a fast learner, I was surprised to find how easily I retained what I leaned during.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Absolutely love this course!

I listen to this in the car and find Paul's techniques really help me to remember things.

I am already doing a distance learning course in Japanese and this audio book does a good job of helping me. I have already pre ordered the next steps in Japanese by Paul Noble. Well worth buying in my opinion.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

This course has suceeded where others have failed.

I have tried several language courses, but the one I normally like (behind the wheel series) was not that great for Japanese because the native speaker spoke too fast (actually too slow and then too fast, never the right speed).

I was starting to get really negative about the prospect of ever learning Japanese. I have succeeded in other languages such as Spanish and even Russian, and so I was beginning to think it was just me. And losing confidence and feeling like you are not making any progress is of course is a very bad thing for learning languages. Because usually at that point you don't continue (and why would you?).

And then I did another search on audible and this came up. I thought I'd give it a try because I can always get a refund... and I was not disappointed. I am happy to pay the asking price. I definitely won't be asking for a refund, it's totally worth it!

Note that I'm only half way through the course, but I'm so pleased with my progress so far, I thought I'd write this review now to show how happy I am with it.

I found myself answering correctly about 90-95% of the time (which I think is surprising in itself). I often got things 100% correct. But I can't say that I never made any mistakes. It was good to have many reminders about the existing words. So there is lots of revision in this course.

I don't think I'll need to listen to it more than once. So it is a foundation course and it gets you to construct sentences with your new verbs and nouns right from the very beginning. I think the repetition alone helped me to learn the particles (which I would always inevitably forget).

I found Paul Noble's grammar explanations and explanations about sentence order to be extremely helpful. So it was not just a list of words repeated like some other courses are.

It doesn't have as much vocabulary as behind the wheel japanese, but what it does cover it covers well.

It's way better than Michel Thomas (which seems to me to be very awkward because the learners don't know what they are doing, they're completely lost, thrown in the deep end so to speak...at least with the Russian version they are).

I think it is better than Pimsleur too. Because there are more explanations about what is going on with the grammar (but it is very easy to follow what Paul is saying).

I came into this course with some basic knowledge already, but you could equally do it from nothing. I was actually able to listen to the course at about 1.15 to 1.20 speed, which knocked a complete hour off the total time. So it became an 11 hour course.

I look forward to "next steps Japanese", also with Paul Noble. I have already purchased it!

I'm so happy that I will be doing a youtube review of this course after I've finished it (or maybe I'll review both courses in a few weeks' time). So you'll be able to see that on my youtube channel "learn a language with leslie".

I want to say a special thanks to Paul Noble not just for teaching Japanese effectively and simply, but for literally improving my attitude towards learning Japanese, boosting my confidence, giving me some much needed optimism with this language (Japanese). Perhaps Japanese isn't as hard to learn as they say it is after all? That's certainly the impression I get half way through the course. I was under the impression that Paul Noble made the Japanese course before the other languages but it does not appear to be so.

Needless to say, I'm impressed!

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

A great start to learning Japanese

What this book does well is teach you some basics that you could a silly expand upon. It doesn’t overwhelm and it goes at a great pace with lots of repetition to allow for learning. I have bought the second part to the course and I’m looking forward to continue learning.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Indispensable for beginners. 10 / 10!!

I'm truly amazed on how much I can remember after listening and practicing with this book.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Great starting point for learning!!!

I love this. It gave me a good starting point for learning the words and structures without having to sit down and learn it. I have been listening and following as I go back and forth from work. The ability to try and say the words and have it confirmed afterwards was really good. It also made me so much more confident in saying sentences “fluently” which was such a big deal. My confidence to learn has been boosted so much that I will keep on going and work on the minutiae of the letters and words. Time to buy the Advanced audiobook. :)

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

Japanese is easier with Paul Noble.

If you have struggled with Pimsleur japanese 1 Paul Noble is for you. very easy to get into.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!