iStart Japanese Review

Looking for another way to fill up pockets of time that I have free, my iPhone is always handy.  The time spent on the toilet is usually time spent with Angry Birds.  I wanted something quick and easy, and the iPhone is full of that.  I found a beginning Japanese program called iStart Japanese by Mirai.  It was a fairly cheap program that provided yet another beginning Japanese course.  At some point, I'll need to figure out what programs to use that wont be too advanced and wont require much of a time committment  I thought since I am still a beginner I could benefit from a course like this.

They have a free version (3 lessons) out that I tried, and I saw that each lesson can be completed while on the toilet.  Exit the app and then I could go back to doing what keeps me away from learning Japanese.  I made the jump to the full version of iStart Japanese by Mirai.   The quick review?  If you completed Michel Thomas, dont waste your time with this app.  It is essentially the same exact thing.  It was on sale at the time so I thought, why not.  But really dont waste your time.

It is an audio course as well, and I guess you have the audio on, and it would be nearly word for word Michel Thomas Japanese.  While on the toilet I dont like audio coming out of my iPhone, so I had the audio part off.  Plus when I tried the audio in the free version, I found that the audio moves too slow.  More time wasted, I could read much faster, and in 5 minutes was done with each lecutre.  You could say it reinforced the things I learned using the Michel Thomas course, but really, it was just a way to kill time, and for 5 minutes at most, many times I finished a lecture in 2 or 3.

The course has quizzes, which are really easy.  The course has a writing section which I paid no attention to because I have no intention of trying to write this language.  It does have a vocabulary section, but a very limited one at that. I already learned a lot of vocab from Rosetta and Michel Thomas, so this iStart Japanese had 2 or 3 words that neither course I had done before had.  And the format is essentially like the Michel Thomas course.  Repeat after me, and how would you say such and such in Japanese.  It does teach you particles, but the presentation in audio Lecture with Michel Thomas was alot better.

I guess if you had a choice between this app and the Michel Thomas, the only way this app wins, is the huge price difference.  But even then, having completed both courses now, I feel like with Michel Thomas, one could get alot more out of the course and a solid solid understanding of how to form a sentence, which a massive plus.