Struggling with Textbooks? My Journey Learning Japanese with Pimsleur for Beginners
Today’s post is different from our usual papercraft projects. This time, I want to talk about my struggles with learning Japanese and how I managed to overcome these challenges using Pimsleur.
This is not a paid review.. I’m writing this to share my struggles with learning Japanese in hopes of reaching others who may feel the same way.
TLDR :
WHO IT’S FOR
- Pimsleur is for beginners at the N5 level.
- It’s designed for those who have difficulty learning through traditional methods like textbooks, Anki, or WaniKani.
- However, it works well as a supplement to textbook learning.
Who it’s not for:
- Those at the N4 level and above.
- Anyone who doesn’t prefer learning through audio.
What is Pimsleur
For me, Pimsleur is an audio-based method for learning a language. You can access it through an PC, Android or iOS app, or via a Kindle audiobook. It offers around 5+ months of audio lessons, along with interactive reviews, rewards, and quizzes to challenge your memory.
My Struggles
I started learning Japanese around seven years ago but only got serious about it in the last four to five years. When I first began, I used the RTK Anki deck.
Learning the radicals was easy, but attempting to memorize 1,500 to 10,000 vocabulary words each day quickly burned me out. To be honest, I got bored after just a week of learning vocabulary.
After that, I switched to WaniKani, which worked for me for about 16 levels, but the volume of reviews became overwhelming, and I abandoned it after three months. Then I tried using the Genki books.
While Genki was good, I struggled to focus on it, and whatever I read seemed to slip my mind within a few days. Overall, I realized that I really struggle with traditional methods of textbook learning and memorization.
Learn Japanese via Immersion
Then I heard about learning Japanese through immersion, where you listen to beginner podcasts, watch easy N5 to N1 YouTube videos, consume beginner-friendly manga with furigana, or watch anime without subtitles.
I found that this method worked better for me, but I often ended up falling asleep while listening to beginner podcasts or Japanese YouTube videos.
I also tried listening to Japanese podcasts that were too advanced for me to understand. Although I struggled with this, I realized that while listening to beginner Japanese podcasts, I could understand some of the sentences, even if I didn’t know many of the vocabulary words.
After a while, I stopped that too because it became frustrating to listen to podcasts for hours and still not be able to speak or understand what they were saying. At this point, I had a basic understanding of Japanese from watching anime, but I didn’t have a proper system to fully grasp conversation sentences and grammar. At this point, the only way I could expand my vocabulary was through Anki decks or reading a dictionary, which I despise.
Learning Japanese with PIMSLEUR
I was almost ready to give up at this point when I came across someone mentioning Pimsleur on Reddit. I decided to give it a shot. The program begins with basics like “arigatou gozaimasu” and “nihongo ga wakarimasu ka?” which I was already familiar with.
However, each lesson introduces new grammar and vocabulary requiring you to listen and repeat each phrase several times for 30 minutes. After finishing a lesson, you’re encouraged to continue with the next one the following day.
The lessons are straightforward and easy to follow.. you simply repeat the audio while they explain the meaning of each word and when to use it. In doing so, you also learn the correct pronunciation of Japanese words intuitively.
To my amazement, I found that I was able to retain what I heard and grasp the grammar, allowing me to form proper sentences. It was an incredible experience.
It resolved all my issues with memorizing textbooks and learning new vocabulary and grammar. Of course, it only covers basic conversation at the N5 level, so for anything beyond that, I would need to engage with more podcasts, anime, and books.
However, now that I have developed basic conversation skills through Pimsleur, it has become much easier for me to understand Japanese.
Do I recommend Pimsleur? Yes, absolutely for beginners. Once you complete the Pimsleur program, I suggest supplementing it with an Anki deck or a textbook. Or, if you’re like me, dive into more Japanese media to enhance your learning further.
