sophiasapientia Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Hello, I am wondering if anyone has used the Irasshai curriculum for studying Japanese and, if so, if the textbooks and workbooks are worthwhile to get in addition to the DVD series? Are the books written mostly in English, Kana or romanji? Spurred by my 2nd grader's interest in learning Japanese, I recently decided that I'd like to study the language myself. I do have some background in Japanese language/culture. (I lived there for 9 months with my family when I was in middle school and took a year of Japanese during college. But it has been many years and I'm pretty much starting from square one. ;)) At the moment, I'm relearning my Kana, using the Human Japanese software program and listening to some podcasts. I just ordered the Irasshai DVD series for DD and myself, because we both enjoy them and I thought it would be a gentle way to slowly introduce her to the language, but I'm not sure if I should go ahead and get the other materials or not. Any insight would be greatly appreciated! TIA!:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Buckin' Longhorn Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 I'm absolutely no help, because my son and I watched the dvds only so our experience with them is VERY informal. You may want to try PMing ElegantLion, I'm almost positive she and her son are using this as a full blown curriculum. She may have some more information for you. Hope that helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 That looks really interesting. My ds wants to learn Japanese. He is just using livemocha right now, but I would like to find something for him to use for high school credit starting next year. I'll just be :bigear:. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 I'm absolutely no help, because my son and I watched the dvds only so our experience with them is VERY informal. You may want to try PMing ElegantLion, I'm almost positive she and her son are using this as a full blown curriculum. She may have some more information for you. Hope that helps! We are, were, planning on, going to use it. We started this year and life happened. We're picking it up again next year. IMO the DVDs or videos are essential. The textbook and workbook are great as well. If you go through volume 1 and 2 it's equivalent to 3 years of high school work. We only got through lesson 4 (2 days per lesson) so not far, but we were learning how to dialogue and learning to write. The videos are great for addressing the customs of Japanese culture as well. The teacher has a great sense of humor and puts the students at ease. Since we were looking at something to fulfill the modern language requirement for high school it fit the bill. If you do a search for Irasshai you will see some other books that are recommended for Japanese. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sophiasapientia Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 Thanks so much! It is very helpful to hear of others' experiences. :) I bought the DVD set because a.) the price was reasonable ($110 shipped) and b.) I don't want to have to worry about getting part way through the series and it no longer being available. I'll likely bite the bullet and get the other materials as well, as a refresher for me but even more so to see if I can adjust them for DD's use. The DVDs are a birthday present for me so I have a couple of months to figure it out. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T Baer Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 Thanks so much! It is very helpful to hear of others' experiences. :) I bought the DVD set because a.) the price was reasonable ($110 shipped) and b.) I don't want to have to worry about getting part way through the series and it no longer being available. I'll likely bite the bullet and get the other materials as well, as a refresher for me but even more so to see if I can adjust them for DD's use. The DVDs are a birthday present for me so I have a couple of months to figure it out. ;) DS is 11 years old. While I haven't been to Japan...yet, I have taken Japanese in College, Summer Program and in an after work business setting, I like the way this currculum is done. It's short and entertaining. We ususally do a lesson in a week or two and try to use the dialogues as much as possible. We have Kana flash cards and some other materials for that I either purchased or created with index cards to help him (and me!) remember the vocabulary. He likes this better than Rosetta Stone, but we were trying to do Spanish and that wasn't my heart language like Japanese is. Anyway, you can purchase the the TM, Textbook and the workbook at BookSurge http://www.booksurge.com/search.htm?keyword=irasshai We also use the video checksheet that you can get free online at http://www.gpb.org/irasshai/term Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sophiasapientia Posted March 9, 2011 Author Share Posted March 9, 2011 DS is 11 years old. While I haven't been to Japan...yet, I have taken Japanese in College, Summer Program and in an after work business setting, I like the way this currculum is done. It's short and entertaining. We ususally do a lesson in a week or two and try to use the dialogues as much as possible. We have Kana flash cards and some other materials for that I either purchased or created with index cards to help him (and me!) remember the vocabulary. He likes this better than Rosetta Stone, but we were trying to do Spanish and that wasn't my heart language like Japanese is. Anyway, you can purchase the the TM, Textbook and the workbook at BookSurge http://www.booksurge.com/search.htm?keyword=irasshai We also use the video checksheet that you can get free online at http://www.gpb.org/irasshai/term This sounds very much like what I'd like to do with my DD! Taking it slow -- perhaps a lesson every week or two -- while using kana/vocab flashcards and practicing the dialogues at home. I'm so glad to know that your DS is enjoying Irasshai and that it is working well, even at a younger than the recommended younger age. :thumbup1: Japanese is such a lovely language and I'm looking forward to sharing this experience with my kiddo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendi Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 If you decide to use the materials, I have the book, workbook 1, and teacher's guide for sale. (Never used them.) Wendi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Buckin' Longhorn Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 It looks like the videos are back online (temporarily at least). For a while they had taken them down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan in TN Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 Is this a curriculum that a motivated student could do on their own? My ds and his best friend have been wanting to learn Japanese, but I just don't have the time to work on it consistently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 Is this a curriculum that a motivated student could do on their own? My ds and his best friend have been wanting to learn Japanese, but I just don't have the time to work on it consistently. I'd like to know the answer to this too. My ds really wants to learn Japanese, but I don't. This looks really good though and I'd like to get it for next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sophiasapientia Posted March 19, 2011 Author Share Posted March 19, 2011 Thank you Wendi! I actually went ahead and purchased the materials and got them in the mail this week so I'm set. But thank you. Is this a curriculum that a motivated student could do on their own? My ds and his best friend have been wanting to learn Japanese, but I just don't have the time to work on it consistently. Dialogue seems to be an important part of the exercises in the textbook so I think having a partner (be it a friend, a parent, or a native speaker) to work with would be very helpful. With that said, Irasshai breaks the lessons down into managable parts and takes things a lot slower than some of the other Japanese curriculum out there. I do think a motivated older student could do it on their own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.