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Wouldn't it be great to speak a foreign language? Japanese is an excellent choice! Not only is Japan the third-largest economy in the world, its culture is ancient and beautiful, and learning the basics of speaking Japanese is surprisingly simple!

Mirai Japanese uses a straightforward and effective instruction method to help you to understand how to speak Japanese in the shortest time possible. Try our language learning materials - podcasts and iPhone apps - now!

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We really care about what you, our valued users, think…

Posted in: Uncategorized, iTunes App Store by admin on July 12, 2010

Unfair iTunes App Store Reviews
…so when we receive a 1-star review on the iTunes App Store (which are rare – thankfully), or any feedback for that matter, we take it to heart and evaluate how we can improve our apps.

However, sometimes we feel that some negative reviews are just plain unfair. Take this review we received today (on US iTunes App Store):

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Do not buy this ★
by Yuusuzumi – iStart Japanese! (Lite Version) – Mirai Japanese (Mirai Language Systems) – Version 2.0 – Jul 12, 2010
“This app may seem like it will teach you Japanese, but don’t be fooled. The pronunciations by the so called native Japanese speaker are incorrect and unnatural sounding. Learning to read Japanese through romaji (ロマじ) is a terrible way to start out, I agree. There are better apps out there for free that teach you to read hiragana and katakana along with better vocabulary than this. I recommend Human Japanese or Kotoba!, which is a very nice Japanese dictionary.”
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We find this review unfair because:
1. The Japanese speaker in the app is a native Japanese citizen, born in Japan, and lives in Japan.
2. The content of the app has been checked and re-checked by several Japanese proofreaders and language experts.
3. Our system introduces kana in the app – but before the kana are learned, what other way of introducing Japanese words are there other than via “romaji”?
4. The reviewer wrote about “iStart Japanese! (Lite), which is free, so we feel that the title of the review “Do not buy this” is obviously inappropriate.

What’s more, the reviewer mis-spelled “romaji” in Japanese kana in the review (should be ローマジ, not ロマじ as he/she spelled it), the vocabulary and correct kana spelling for which is even in our Prolog lesson (of both the Lite and Full versions) – so we feel that he/she hasn’t really used our app in the way that it is intended.

Please help us improve our ratings and reviews by posting fair comments on iTunes – they really make a difference to us. If you feel that our app is lacking in any way, we would love to hear from you. You can post on the MiraiPenguin page on Facebook, in the comments on our website (www.miraijapanese.com), or email us directly at:

team@miraijapanese.com

Thank you!
Your iStart Japanese! Team

 

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