Hello everyone,
I have seen a lot of posts on Pimsleur and its effectiveness at the lower levels of study but I want to know how far does it go?
I recently failed the N2 exam by 4 points because my listening score was too low and wanted to know if it goes above N3 to the more advanced and intermediate areas of Japanese.
I don’t have Pimsleur so I could be wrong, but my understanding is that it does not cover higher levels.
Source: Honest Pimsleur Japanese Review (2021) - Team Japanese
If your focus is on listening, JapanesePod101 does have higher level content. For N2, that should be the Level 4 path, though you may want to do the Level 3 path as review. Try it out and if you like it, do not pay full price, always use discount codes.
Otherwise you could just go on YouTube and look for Japanese learning podcasts and vlogs for N3-N1 (I wrote it like that because advanced level podcasts are sometimes labeled as a range rather than a specific JLPT level depending on the content creator)
Thank you for this reply, do you know where to find discount codes for JapanesePod101? I always assumed that was also only for lower levels but could give it a go.
Years ago someone copied and edited the Pimsleur program to leave just the Japanese conversations. I think out of 90 hours of tape they got ~15 minutes of conversation. If you’re curious, you might check your local library for the CDs (in the audiobook section).
VIP65 is the one I used last time and I’ve heard it still works.
Of course use the free trial first to make sure it’s what you’re looking for.
You can also find a lot of N2 practice listening on YouTube. Honestly, I found these listening practices beneficial, not only to my exam but in general.
The American Life podcast (current club running in the listening thread) is good listening practice.