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Review of Japanese Complete: I used it for two months. I caution people to use a Privacy card [0] when subscribing to this service. There was no clear way to c

Review of Japanese Complete: I used it for two months. I caution people to use a Privacy card [0] when subscribing to this service. There was no clear way to cancel or pause my subscription (maybe I didn't look hard enough.) Two months in I wanted to pause due to COVID-19 but simply closed the card instead. I have no way to unsubscribe to the e-mails that keep coming in. The author should be careful here -- people will report and blacklist your domains. It is not easy from visiting the main site that Japanese Complete is in beta. The site has promise but it's not worth $50.00 / mo right now. I strongly recommend: 1. Fleshing out all the missing lessons; there just aren't enough yet. 2. Add audio to all the lessons. I can't tell you how frustrated I was to lose audio after merely a few lessons. 3. Audio should play upon selecting lesson paragraphs. I want to practice along with (or re-listen to) text without scrubbing some audio player somewhere. At the very least least make the audio player a popup window. 4. The signup / login flow needs serious improvements, as discussed elsewhere in this thread. Good luck. You have unique ideas not seen in typical texts: the animal stories, Iroha poem, Kanji frequency analysis, etc. but the system is too rough for the current asking price.

krimeo 6y ago
$50/month to use a website for learning Japanese especially when you are English speaker sounds like a ripoff. From my own experience, it's way more effective to have good old physical class with a native teacher (who also speaks good english and is a good teacher!). Yes it's hard to find a good teacher but it's worth it. Close the computer, turn off your phone, go to class and you can learn and if you go for group class $50/month will do it.
- lunchables 6y ago
  Agreed, just go buy Genki 1 and 2, sign up for wanikani for kanji ($10/mo). Then spend the remainder of that $50 the months after that on hellotalk or italki sessions with a native speakers. You can find highly rated japanese speakers (including professional teachers) for $10-$25 an hour and it's one on one training. That's what I would do if I wasn't taking in person classes.
- akg_67 6y ago
  Where do you get classes for $50/month. I have several friends who are going to Japanese language school in Japan and cheapest is $500/month. Even on iTalk, $50 might only get you 2-3 classes
  - bsder 6y ago
    The community colleges in California were only about $500 per class even if you had a graduate degree, last I checked.
- abnercoimbre 6y ago
  Fair enough, and I live in Seattle so chances of finding Japanese teachers are high. > $50/month to use a website for learning Japanese especially when you are English speaker sounds like a ripoff. In hindsight I'm inclined to agree. Someone here suggested to drop it down to $20/month or less. Even then, once the lessons are fleshed out and the interactive features are complete, charging a subscription will be seen as rent-seeking. Better to charge a lifetime membership at, say, $150 and do mass advertising with a free trial.
  - rootsudo 6y ago
    Learning Japanese pre-covid was basically free, UW holds weekly meetings in the food court for Japanese Conversation (日本語会話）where Japanese students go and language exchange for English. They're always fun and was my first stopping point to eliminate the freeze. I'd check them out! There's also the random poster around international district, but italki has been great for finding conversation at 10-15/hr. There's also the Japanese Center around the same part of downtown, but I always missed their signup period. Learning Japanese in Seattle is a cinch!
    - abnercoimbre 6y ago
      Excited to hear this! Thanks!
wirthjason 6y ago
$50 a month?!?! There’s a lot of ways to use that money. Perhaps a used textbook (Genki is popular) and then Netflix + a VPN. US Netflix accounts work in Japan with native / local content. I wish there was a good way to get JP TV stateside. Had a SlingBox but it didn’t work out so well.
abnercoimbre 6y ago
[0] https://privacy.com https://privacy.com

krimeo 6y ago

$50/month to use a website for learning Japanese especially when you are English speaker sounds like a ripoff. From my own experience, it's way more effective to have good old physical class with a native teacher (who also speaks good english and is a good teacher!). Yes it's hard to find a good teacher but it's worth it. Close the computer, turn off your phone, go to class and you can learn and if you go for group class $50/month will do it.

lunchables 6y ago
Agreed, just go buy Genki 1 and 2, sign up for wanikani for kanji ($10/mo). Then spend the remainder of that $50 the months after that on hellotalk or italki sessions with a native speakers. You can find highly rated japanese speakers (including professional teachers) for $10-$25 an hour and it's one on one training. That's what I would do if I wasn't taking in person classes.
akg_67 6y ago
Where do you get classes for $50/month. I have several friends who are going to Japanese language school in Japan and cheapest is $500/month. Even on iTalk, $50 might only get you 2-3 classes
- bsder 6y ago
  The community colleges in California were only about $500 per class even if you had a graduate degree, last I checked.
abnercoimbre 6y ago
Fair enough, and I live in Seattle so chances of finding Japanese teachers are high. > $50/month to use a website for learning Japanese especially when you are English speaker sounds like a ripoff. In hindsight I'm inclined to agree. Someone here suggested to drop it down to $20/month or less. Even then, once the lessons are fleshed out and the interactive features are complete, charging a subscription will be seen as rent-seeking. Better to charge a lifetime membership at, say, $150 and do mass advertising with a free trial.
- rootsudo 6y ago
  Learning Japanese pre-covid was basically free, UW holds weekly meetings in the food court for Japanese Conversation (日本語会話）where Japanese students go and language exchange for English. They're always fun and was my first stopping point to eliminate the freeze. I'd check them out! There's also the random poster around international district, but italki has been great for finding conversation at 10-15/hr. There's also the Japanese Center around the same part of downtown, but I always missed their signup period. Learning Japanese in Seattle is a cinch!
  - abnercoimbre 6y ago
    Excited to hear this! Thanks!

wirthjason 6y ago

$50 a month?!?! There’s a lot of ways to use that money. Perhaps a used textbook (Genki is popular) and then Netflix + a VPN. US Netflix accounts work in Japan with native / local content. I wish there was a good way to get JP TV stateside. Had a SlingBox but it didn’t work out so well.

abnercoimbre 6y ago

[0] https://privacy.com https://privacy.com