Customer Reviews

Basic Japanese Complete Course: Cassette/Book Package (LL(R) Complete Basic Courses)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the book set I started with a year ago when I started learning Japanese. I have since looked at many basic grammar books, and I hesitate to say that this is the very best. It starts out slow and teaches the very basics of Japanese grammar very well, but once you get into topics like conjunctions, conditional phrases, etc., which I consider to still be basic grammar topics, the book starts to lack.

It starts introducing conjuctions and particles as footnotes, instead of giving them proper treatment in a lesson. It introduces some speech patterns without explaining them at all. I was getting frustrated with the lessons, until I got to the real meat of the book, Lesson 40, which calls itself a grammar review, but introduces and explains many things that were not explained at all earlier in the book.

I did learn from this book, so I will give it 3 stars, and I still use the last lesson for reference, so it's not all bad. Just expect to graduate for this book still having the need for a more in-depth coverage of the language. I recommend the Power Japanese books for a number of more advanced topics.

As for writing, as others have mentioned, it does have an introduction to hirigana and katakana, and writing charts, but never actually uses it in book examples. This book actually never claimed to be designed for learning written language; I practiced by writing vocabulary and examples from the book on my own.

The dictionary included is somewhat small, but not terribly so; I still find it very useful. The CDs are okay, but I also listened to Japanese radio stations through the Internet to practice picking out words I knew and didn't use them too much.

I purchased this book and have gone through every page. I didn't think about reviewing it, until I realized my own ability in another language. First, there is a lot of material in this package. The Cd's are worth the money, no question. The workbook though, all by itself is the best aid i've seen in hepling you to learn. I try to keep this with me at all times for standing in line etc., but usually my hands are way to full in some places. Most language texts are convuluted and distorted and actually interfere with the process. I enjoyed this very much. What more can you say about a text book?