Customer Reviews

Easy Japanese

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

 

 

I will only say that after studying on my own for two years, and now completing my first year at school, it is this book I turn to for inspiration as well as condensed facts and grammatical sidelights. The key here is that Seward teaches Japanese out of pure ENJOYMENT, not a stale sense of 'I must learn it for the upcoming business meeting' which plagues all too many 'standard' beginning texts. In social situations, Seward's hilarious bunkei have provoked laughs and discussion amoung students and teachers alike - and some are surprisingly useful - "Get that stinky thing out of here quickly", for example (ever been near a Japanese kitchen when daikon is being boiled and you'll know what I mean!). This is a great textbook; a thorough introduction, a detailed review, and a funny ice breaker all in one. I own about thirty instructional texts on Japanese, and this is easily in the top five.

Jack Seward presents the Japanese language in one of the most interesting ways I have seen. Sometimes language books prove to be quite a chore to get through, even if one does have a passion for the language. However, Seward is a natural teacher, and does so in the best way: by conveying a natural desire what is being taught. This book also teaches the hiragana, katakana, and about 50 of the most useful kanji as well. Seward's examples are also very interesting - he avoids mundane example sentences such as 'Hiroshi has a cat', etc. Some of his sentences are easy to memorize due to their odd nature: 'I intend to go to your funeral and dance.' for example. However, Seward mentions that this book is only the first of many he will publish of this nature. This book was printed in 1991, about seven years ago from this review. Hopefully he has not changed his mind since then, as I eagerly await his next title.

The author clearly has a passion for the language and culture -- and he's been at it for quite some time. When you sit down to read Jack Seward's Easy Japanese, you really feel like he's sitting across the table from you, talking to you. And you should listen.

Mr. Seward will make sure you don't make a fool of yourself when you attempt to speak Japanese. There are little details -- but very important details -- he goes through before even beginning with the language.

What I've found most useful with Easy Japanese is the way he explains the why's. Japanese is full of little quirks you simply need to know about.

I was listening to how-to Japanese CD's and reading two how-to Japanese books at the same time. One of them is Easy Japanese. I took note how the other two would have me say this or say that and not explain why in the world that "u" is silent! Or why that "n" is it's own sylable. Easy Japanese does.

I haven't finished the book yet, so I can't tell you how complete it is, or what the final results are. But I can say now is that Easy Japanese belongs in your Japanese language toolbox without a doubt.

It's hard to dislike a book where one of the first sentences you learn in "Oh no! Grandmother has fallen in the septic tank again!" The problem with this book is that it teaches Japanese as it was spoken maybe 60 years ago, while the language has rapidly changed both in formal speech, and more particularly, in informal speech. An easy example is the use of "watakushi" for the 1st person singular - which is something like saying "thee" for the 2nd person singular. I showed this book to a native speaker, and they just laughed - "that's how my grandmother talks!" The book has character, but you won't learn current Japanese from it.

I can't agree that this is "easy" - the grammar explanations are puzzling and non-existent in the case of uses of verb conjugations (except for the difference between plain and polite forms). The pattern exercises are fun and interesting, and there is a fairly good range of vocabulary presented. But the student will not find this an easy book to use if a beginner to Japanese. A casual traveler to Japan would, however, find the explanations of the most common polite phrases quite interesting.

People with some background in Japanese will enjoy seeing how the language has changed since this was written- yes it is out-dated in many respects. However, I disagree with one of the other reveiwers who says that watakushi is ike "thee". "Watakushi" is still in common use- but in formal situations rather than in casual speech.

I think the main use of this book is for entertainment- when you feel you should study but can't face your regular text. However, if you are looking specificaly for such a book -I'd reccomend "Making Sense of Japanese" by Jay Rubin.

While Easy Japanese has an interesting and breezy writing style, it is not a very accessible book for beginning language students. Mr. Seward provides a number of sentences to memorize and the student is then supposed to use these sentences as a template for further communications. I tried this approach and didn't find it particularly effective. The grammatical explanations can be rather technical and require a better than average knowledge of grammatical and linguistic terms.
On the positive side, Seward's writing is lively and interesting and he does a good job explaining a number of linguistic fine points.

I have read all the reviews on this book and I see that most people were pleased with it but I wasnt. Yes, it has very funny practice sentences like "Grandma fell into the septic tank again", but do you REALLY think a sentence like that is useful???
I dont!!!! And in my opinion most of his other sentences are very obscure too. I dont see how ANY beginning student could memorize all those sentences to the point of them being automatic as Seward says to do, unless he was a genius. Also, Mr.
Seward likes to go off on tangents about various things, which, though they are entertaining have little to do with the topic at hand. By the time he gets done with his anecdote you often have forgotten what the original topic was! For intermediate or higher students this is OK but not for beginners. ALSO, he continuously gives examples of phrases for certain situations, but tells students all kinds of exceptions where they shouldnt be used in the same paragraph. This again is very confusing to beginners though it would be alright for more advanced students. Maye the title of this book should be changed to INTENSIVE JAPANESE instead of Easy Japanese..........

Easy Japanese is a book written by Jack Seward, who presents 16 easy-to-follow lessons. Unless you want to get a Kanji reference and/or some workbooks for the kana alphabet, this really is the only book you'll need to get started learning Japanese. The book is presented well, and explains things in a manner that is simple and efective. Easy Japanese is also a good, medium sized book, which is easy to use and carry/travel with. Please don't waste your money on more books. This should be one of the only books you need to learn the basics. I would highly recommend it, it also has a fair price; take it from someone who has a lot of the other Japanese-learning books.

This book was very informative and easy to understand. Learning Japanese is extremely hard but this book makes it a lot easier. It teaches everything from Hiragana to Kanji and also alot of vocabulary words. Great book!