Great for learing a few extra words, but it won't teach you much more than that
927879
We purchased this a year ago to prepare our son for Chinese Dual Immersion.  Now looking back, we reazlie there are some pros and cons.

Pros:
-The repetition is great.  By the end of your first watching you'll know how to say something.
-The accents seem very good
-The brother and sister are great voice actors and sound happy

Cons:
-The voice of the Dragon King is awful, it's so low and he can't sing and is to motorized sounding rather than rhythmical.  His voice alone makes me want to just turn the DVD off.
-They need to offer more DVDs, with more vocabulary, this appears to be the only one in the series.
1239138
I bought this for my daughter last year and she scored in the 95th percentile and got into the College of her choice. As others have mentioned this isn't really a "textbook" you have to learn the stuff elsewhere. What it does is help you get familiar with the test and find out areas of weakness. My daughter used it mainly to do the practice tests. I did notice that the answer key at the back was somewhat unhelpful with explanations, I had to rack my brains to help her figure out a few problems that didn't match the answers, but I believe you can go online to get the explanations.

The DVD wasn't much use, my daughter had a quick glance at it and decided it was a waste of time. In hindsight I would have bought the cheaper one without DVD.
1381872
In general I found these discs (Level 1 to 3) good for covering basic vocabulary whilst out of Japan. However, they never really get you further than a basic understanding because at no time are you taught sentence conjunctions or how to express running thoughts. These very important points are covered by courses such as Living Language Japanese (basic-intermediate and advanced) but probably put off the beginner who wants or needs instant results. Further, there are mistakes in the application of some grammar points which may become a burden if you decide to continue your studies to a higher level. Treat this course as a good way to get started, but then progress to something like the Living Language courses which provide a better understanding of the language - but don't be suprised when you find some point of grammer you spent so much time mastering in the 'In-your-car' series turns out to be over-simplified or just plain awkward in real speech and needs to be unlearned.

Do know this, any attempt you make to learn some Japanese will be greatly appreciated by the Japanese. If your goal is just to learn a few key phrases before going to Japan then this course is no worse than any other 'quick-course' on the market.
679561
It's not bad, but I expected it to be a little more progressive. I bought it to use as a refresher course for conversational Mandarin that I had learned while working abroad years ago. I think that it is really for pure beginners.
1684981
It is helpful but only another tool along the way - prefer more audio lessons - cd's are stories but no instruction
1304584
If you're learning Japanese, this could serve as good supplementary material to just have someone to repeat after everyday, and let you get a good feel on the language
1617030
I quite like how this displays all the correct pronunciation and ways to say the words, however I think this list does get bland after a while of repeating the same things, not to mention it's ordered in a slightly confusing way. The list is organized so I can't quite find a word I want to with out some struggle, however after a bit you get the memorization down and you can find them with a glance. I would say this is a very useful tool for people just starting to learn this language.
1747008
great from Wimpy kid lovers - also to teach parts of speech
394637
Dr. Pimsleur (what, no first name?) has taken the most basic principle of language retention and turned it into an art form and...guess what, it works! For those of us who do not have a gift of learning languages, the most common stumbling block is trying to absorb too much too soon. We try to learn alphabets, days, times, numbers, and by the time we get to verb conjugations we're on the verge of mental block. Having a live teacher is the best remedy; repeating phrases over and over with Pimsleur may be the next best thing.

Almost any language program would work just as well (even better with a textbook) if one would just focus on one phrase or sentence at a time, and let it take root before going on to the next topic. Pimsleur's stunt crew rewinds a short conversation over and over until you're hearing it come out of your mouth the way they're drilling it into your head. Face it, people, this is how dogs, cats and infants learn commands, and if it's good enough for them it's good enough for you. You may want to compare other language CD's to this one but you'll be surprised how quick you'll keep gravitating back to Pimsleur.

This is DEFINITELY NOT worth the retail price, but if you can get a used one at a bargain basement price you're losing out by not taking advantage. It's a great shortcut that can help you avoid burnout before you even get on track.
3427710
I got this to so with my father as an exercise for his memory.

 True, the print is large enough to read & the puzzles are fairly short - however, they contain a fair amount of words not in common usage for American-English. I do alot of crosswords, but some of these have me unusually stumped. The clues are also fairly inscrutable, as well.  The puzzles aren't impossible to do - more like awkward due to the mix of very uncommon words with overly simplified clues.

The book is not suiable to my needs.
4317330
This is a pretty good product for the money.  It does not have a ton of content and it's more geared toward vocabulary building rather than conversations, but it's okay -- hence 4 stars.  I just recently bought it for my children to help them learn the language and they love it.  It's simple, easy to use and entertaining. they are on it all the time.  It's probably not the best choice for a serious or intermediate learner, but will do for a total beginner.
3707739
This book has few of the specific learning aids students have been taught to utlize.  There are individual sections for each topic, which is helpful, but within each topic there are no subtopics, bold, underlining, or even vocabulary identification or definitions.  An ok read, but if you have issues with small print, shiney pages, or if you need the extra help that comes from the use the above aids, you are on your own.  Very informative otherwise.
1528964
This is a good book for extra practice to keep skills sharp over a break from school, but I wouldn't use it for remediation or instruction.  What I like about the math section is that it includes examples on the page to review, refresh, or, with an adult, to reteach.  It includes separate pages/exercises using different strategies such as number charts and the number line.  For adding, it shows strategies such as identifying the greater addend and counting up from it.  Problem is that the problems to do don't force/require the child to use the strategy reviewed/taught on the page.  So unless an adult is sitting with the child to reinforce the strategy, the child will fall back on the strategy they know best.  If the goal is to review and keep concepts fresh, then this is a great book for it.  The math section includes over 80 topics to practice--this is about breadth, not depth.  As a parent, I can see using it to help a child review concepts.  Then if my child has difficulty on a specific page/concept, I would go out in search of more review/reteaching on that particular concept.  So it could be used by a parent as a formative assessment at home to identify strengths and weaknesses.  There are 15 problem solving exercises interspersed throughout the math section.  Strategies for word problems are included.  The word problems are pretty basic without much critical thinking involved, but they tie in to the math skills so provide practice in a word problem context.  The language arts section is disappointing because it includes NO reading comprehension.  At least Common Core isn't stamped all over this workbook as a marketing tool, but the absence of any reading comprehension is a huge drawback.  The Language Arts section includes:  parts of speech, sentences, capitalization and punctuation, and usage.  Practice includes marking text, selecting the correct answer, rewriting with corrections, labeling.  It's a VERY traditional grammar section, which your child may actually find novel and interesting given its absence in most schools today.  The language arts section would be pretty weak as instruction but again works as review or practice (although the practice on any given topic is brief).  This workbook would be good if you just want a quick daily activity to keep skills fresh over the break.  You could do the same thing through the online service IXL, but I'm guessing it would cost more.  With IXL, you'd get a lot more student practice, but if you want a quick refresher that travels where the Internet does not go, then this workbook might be what you want.  If you're concerned about your child's progress at school, this book is not going to be the answer because it is a mile wide and an inch deep.
2235687
It was too short to be worth even 99 cents, but if it's free it can be helpful as it provides a few sentences after each vocabulary word.  Sure, some of the words are a bit useless, but if it's free I'd still recommend it.
1917755
I would recommend this product for kids, middle school age maybe, but not for anyone looking for a real thesaurus to use with their computer.  It will bring up a few interesting alternatives for any given word, but misses many of the most obvious ones.  It's not very useful.
2927230
As a curriculum and speech writer, this book is a short cut to some fine quotes to illustrate a point. If you're writing papers and want to spiff up your work, this isn't bad. It's as good as Google Search and maybe more convenient.
4803225
This booklet is a primer for those who have no knowledge of Lao. It is a clear and concise introduction into the pronunciation and writing system of this very nice Oriental language. It also contains some basic vocabulary. There are a lot of exercises that help you learn to quickly associate the alphabetic signs with the corresponding sounds. But there are no texts nor situational exercises, and this lack may make your work rather dull.

The audio recordings present the careful listener with some troubles. For instance, several sounds are pronounced differently when passing from the sound's presentation to the examples. I don't know if this variability is a true characteristic of the language or if it is just due to a bad speaking performance. If I go on learning Lao, however, I'll find it out, sooner or later! Furthermore, it is not stated which variant of Lao is taught (i.e. which geographical area the speaker comes from). As there is not an official standard for the Lao language and the Lao pronunciation may vary greatly from one part of the country to the other, this lack of information is regrettable. A further trouble is that some alphabetic signs are not numbered consistently through the booklet.

To sum up, if you are looking for a complete language course with a broad coverage of the stuff at the beginner level, this booklet is not enough for you. But if you are looking for something less, just to get a taste of the Lao sounds and melody, and learn its alphabet and a few useful words and phrases, you will find this booklet useful.