It seems to be working. I've never tried to learn another language but this course has taught me a lot so far and I believe it's teaching me fairly well. I believe there is too much hand holding so far in the beginner course. The translation leans too far on the English side of things and that creates problems. When the English phrase is too far removed from the Japanese translation you end up having to create a middle ground phrase to translate the translation. Some of the phrases translate well to very proper English and would make more sense in my mind, even if that's now how people regularly talk in America. Sometimes a literal translation would do a better job in teaching how phrases will be constructed in Japanese vs English. There are too many instances where I have to figure out how the course is trying to teach something before I can move forward with learning it. Sometimes this takes the form of inconsistencies in the flash cards. I bought the entire Japanese language course on sale and I think that it was pricey but fair. I don't plan on buying any other language courses any time soon, but if I did I would probably buy one from another company simply out of curiosity. I would recommend the Japanese courses to a friend.