Linguaphone In Action Japanese 2.0

Studying Linguaphone Japanese in Action 2 CD-ROM is based around life in Japan--there is an excellent travel guide to some of Japan's most famous tourist attractions, linked together with video footage that gives a real flavour of Japanese life and is quite thorough.

Although the CD-ROM is packed with enhanced video content, the first port of call for most students will probably be the basics of the language that are imparted through the grammar guides and example dialogues. This is not a package for advanced students--the vocabulary of 5000 words, while enough for most purposes is not tailored to unusual situations and the best place to begin is with the basic phrases in Japanese that show the contexts of various words and parts of speech through sentence examples and then role-plays. The phrases are emphasised with colour-highlighting of key parts and boxes below explaining their meanings in English and to which part of grammar they belong. There is also a separate grammar section in the package which will break down the points arising from these set-piece dialogues.

As with every good language-learning software package, the Linguaphone Japanese in Action 2 comes with the facility to compare your pronunciation with that of a native speaker, and so will help with speaking and listening as well as with grammar and sentence-construction; on the downside, however, the test of pronunciation is inevitably somewhat standardised, and does not cater for the large variation of accents in Japan. That aside, this is a good package for anyone who wants to learn or improve upon their Japanese before embarking on their next trip abroad. --Toby Green

Learn How To: Speak Japanese like a native, with confidence and ease. Speak effectively using the appropriate style of speech and the correct pronunciation. Build sentences from your large vocabulary using the correct grammar. Read letters, reports, magazines and general articles. Meet people, find out about them and tell them about yourself. Find your way around, ask for directions, shop and order food and drink. Plus much more! This is all made possible because In ActionV2 is a completely interactive learning system, with an improved navigation system to access a host of features that will help you perfect your language skills. Develop listening skills by slowing down the native speaker to hear the correct pronunciation. Record and playback facilities allow you to compare your voice to the native speakers. Interactive games build your vocabulary in a fun and challenging environment. Word and Root search allows you to target your learning. Interactive video conversations set in Japan make you feel like you are having a conversation in the country itself.

In ActionV2 is the ideal system to ensure you'll be speaking your new language with confidence and ease.