Lesson Progression and Quiz Questions

This is more of a statement on how Rocket Japanese may improve their product rather than a question.

I don't think Rocket Japanese does a good job of stating a "most recommended" way of progressing through the lessons.  I finished all the audio courses and moved onto the grammar courses and each of them would have had WAY more relevance if they were PAIRED with their respective audio course.  This really frustrated me because I could have been learning culture and grammar along with the audio if I would have known.

Next, the lesson 1.7 quiz had KANJI questions!?!?  No where in lessons 1.0-1.6 does it EVER mention anything about Kanji.  Are we just supposed to guess?  That's what I did... I feel the inclusion of those questions in the quiz is a large oversight and lack of quality control.  It doesn't help me learn Kanji putting random questions where they shouldn't be and guessing.

I hope others see this post and are made aware of the issue.

I tend to do the audio lesson first followed by the corresponding writing lesson, then grammar/culture lesson.

Agreed!  I do it this way, too.   It works for me.
 

Thank you both for your input.

I think that is the way that was intended but Rocket Japanese hasn't done the best job of communicating that.  I find myself going through the culture and writing lessons and seeing all the vocabulary I should have already been learning.  It's very frustrating that I should have been learning it all along.

My recommendation to Rocket Japanese is to put in their "Take the Tour" video that the intended lesson progression is the matching Audio/Culture/Writing lesson before moving onto the next set of 3. 

Rocket Japanese should also re-number them because that progression is not inferred by the numbering either.

It's irritating because I feel like I've wasted time and have been resorting to learning outside this environment for what I thought was missing (it's obviously not missing, just out of order).

It will be a whole lot easier to learn if you already have had an education at school in the language rather than starting it from scratch.

My suggestion about the Kanji and also Hiragana and Katakana is to learn it independently and get books and put pen to paper. The only way you will learn to read Kanji properly is if you can write it, understand the brush stroke and radicals and kind of decode it. Flashcards and mobile apps for Kanji are totally useless. People may recognise a few but when it comes to learning them you will only learn them through independent study aside from this.

The course here is great but it is not the be all and end all of language learning. You need to complement this online course by doing alternate study, getting school text books, watching Japanese language shows and more.

Lastly this course is strictly mainly a business/formal way of speaking Japanese. If you happen to make Japanese friends then they will expect you to speak more casually and generally will not want to converse with you if you continually use the formalities taught in this course. For a social situation it is a major inconvenience to them.

Thanks for your input Tony.  I suppose you missed the point on my post.  The point is to not complain about Kanji, but provide feedback on the ordering of the lessons. 

I understand so far what I've been learning is relatively formal, but I'm in it for the long haul purchasing all 3 Modules.  I would imagine there is casual conversation in all that content.  If not, my wife and I watch NHK Japan with our neighbor who assists us with casual conversation.

The nice thing about friends is that they are not inconvenienced by other friends.  It sounds like this system hasn't been working for you, but it has for me.

I did not miss the point. You need to take the initiative and do extra work on your own for the course to be successful. Like all things in life not everything is going to be told to you or explained to you and you have to figure things out for yourself.

There is no possible way the online course can teach you Kanji because you must write it continually and know all the brush strokes and radicals to understand it and that takes a practical element that cannot be done on a computer.

I think you have missed my point on the last paragraph. I clearly stated if you continually use the formalities. To simplify this basically means that you continue to speak to them in a formal manner despite being aware of, taught and know that you must speak more casually but refuse to do so. My point was that Kanji is less relevant than the ability to speak casually.

And if you want a good Kanji program, subscribe to WaniKani.com.  With that and Rocket Languages, you can really be a Japanese star!