30 Days of Pimsleur Japanese

Yesterday, I finished the first 30 lessons of Pimsleur Japanese I, 3ed. I was looking forward to this milestone because I wanted to know just how effective the Pimsleur's language learning system was. I was curious to know so I decided to study one audio file per day as recommended and then, I will document my insights when I reach the 30-day milestone.

I can't really say categorically that Pimsleur's system worked perfectly. I actually ruined the experiment even before I began. For a few months before I decided to strictly follow the "one lesson per day" rule, I was already listening to the audio lessons at a rate of 2 lessons per day during a 40-minute commute to law school. This means I actually know some of the words when I went through the first 30 days of lessons on a regular basis.

To compensate for my previous mistake, I decided to observe my comprehension speed. I wanted to know the ideal number of repetitions needed to enable me to follow a typical rapidly sounding conversation between two Japanese speakers. And I found out that one hour or three repetitions spent per lesson increased my comprehension speed to the point that I can really recognize each word.

For the next 30 days, I plan to go through the second set of lessons (31-60) included in the 90-day package. This time I will be incorporating reading materials from my downloads and measure my progress against a list of words I need to learn. I haven't decided yet on the proper scheduling of the other materials, but definitely, I will schedule the audio lessons during my commute to law school.