Pros
The wizard is cute, the pronounciation is sometimes helpful, the basic concept for learning is great, it's like Japanese Romaji flashcards on your screen. If it worked well, this would be a fantastic application!!!
Cons
I have never written a negative review before, and having had an email correspondence with the company, it looks like a one-man show who I'd like to support.
But the implementation misses the mark. Even after you purchase the product you do not get full functionality and there are problems with pronunciation.
First, it says "periodo" at the end of each word, making it hard to properly pronounce. Secondly, it spells out, rather than pronouncing short words, like "cha"...it says "C"..."H"..."A"...
Most importantly, when you add your own words to its limited vocabulary, you cannot group them. So the first ten words you enter are fine for studying...but if you enter 10 a day, at the 10th day you must review ALL 100 words to review the 10 you just entered. This makes using it for studying purposes almost impossible as you continue to enter words.
I thought the conversations may be helpful, but they were pulled directly off of the about.com site for learning Japanese. You don't need this software to study these phrases, and having been pulled out of a conversation, they're often not meaningful phrases without context. I.E. Instead of "what do you do for work" you get "Mr.___ are you a high school student." Many of the sentences have no context to follow!
I love this concept, and if you could add your own words or phrases and sort, it'd probably be worth the money, even with the confusing pronunciations on the short words. But it's not a product you should buy at this time. Even as a visual learner, you'll quickly become disenchanted, even by the cute little wizard.
~Michael
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Pros
The on screen character is cute.
Cons
No pronunciations, Japanese phonetics are much different than English.
No review, it's just passive learning, not interactive in anyway.
If your serious about learning Japanese, give this one a pass
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