As for their swim analogy -
- they basically throw you into a pool and hope you learn to swim before you drown. The people will read aloud six phrases, each with a corresponding picture, then shuffle them and ask you to pick the picture that goes with the phrase they just said. The phrases get very long very quickly, and it's basically an exercise in picking out keywords (Ex: they say three sentences about eggs. You see a picture of eggs with prices. You pick that one, regardless of what the three sentences mean).
There are glitches - for example, one set says that the man is eating, twice, when in one picture he is clearly drinking. Therefore, first of all, it's wrong, and second of all, you don't know which picture to pick for which instance.
Also; these exercises are technically not timed. However, they managed to make them timed anyway, because the woman who says "UHHUH" or "UGH" after every wrong or right answer is so loud and obnoxious, you have to choose the answer before the two people finish speaking to save your poor iPad from being hurled into the nearest wall. I have yet to find an option to turn it off.
But enough complaining. It's an interesting concept =) I doubt I'll ever buy the full app, and it certainly won't teach you anything close to Japanese by itself, but at least you'll learn how to pick out keywords from conversations that are fast and way over your head.
There are glitches - for example, one set says that the man is eating, twice, when in one picture he is clearly drinking. Therefore, first of all, it's wrong, and second of all, you don't know which picture to pick for which instance.
Also; these exercises are technically not timed. However, they managed to make them timed anyway, because the woman who says "UHHUH" or "UGH" after every wrong or right answer is so loud and obnoxious, you have to choose the answer before the two people finish speaking to save your poor iPad from being hurled into the nearest wall. I have yet to find an option to turn it off.
But enough complaining. It's an interesting concept =) I doubt I'll ever buy the full app, and it certainly won't teach you anything close to Japanese by itself, but at least you'll learn how to pick out keywords from conversations that are fast and way over your head.
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