Japanese (Berlitz Essentials) [Paperback]

Berlitz Publishing (Author), Lynne Strugnell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 2831562341 | ISBN-13: 978-2831562346 | Publication Date: November 1997 | Edition: 2nd

Berlitz Essentials are comprehensive, self-teaching guides which provide beginning language students with a quick, practical, and simple approach to learning language for everyday situations. Traditional in approach, each guide includes a wide range of exercises and activities that utilize interesting dialogues and entertaining illustrations to provide a thorough introduction to the language within its cultural context.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

In January 2003, the renowned Berlitz Publishing became part of the Langenscheidt Group. The Langenscheidt Publishing Group, the premier group of map and travel companies, offers over 4,000 North American and international street maps, road maps, atlases, language-learning, bilingual dictionaries, and travel-related products covering countries, cities, and languages in every continent.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Berlitz Guides; 2nd edition (November 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 2831562341
• ISBN-13: 978-2831562346
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,178,716 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Overall very good introduction to the language, January 7, 2005

By 

Aria Murasaka "a world traveler" (http://muses-garden.blogspot.com) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Japanese (Berlitz Essentials) (Paperback)

I've just finished to go through the book. As an "advanced" beginner in Japanese, I had been trying to find a book that explains clearly the most important points of the grammar that are useful in everyday conversation, and "Essential Japanese" does a very good job of it.

It is divided into twenty units: most of them have a dialog, grammar explanations, an exhaustive vocabulary list and exercises, with a few of them used as revision units. The lessons are quite different from what I've been used to so far, in the sense that they are really focusing on what a beginner would need in real life, both in terms of grammar and vocabulary. The grammar is also explained in a very understandable way, even for people who have no previous knowledge of Japanese, or for those who are not familiar with learning foreign languages, something that is FAR from being the case in most of the other Japanese study guides out there.

Also, and maybe most importantly, it is very well conceived, so you actually get to LEARN the language, and you remember the various structures and the vocabulary presented in there fairly easily. However, it is not a "learn to speak Japanese in 5 hours" kind of book; it requires of you that you actually spend some time on it, but it is much more efficient in my opinion, and the results are quickly there, encouraging you to keep working on it.

All this praise but "only" 4 stars? Well, there's a couple of points that I personally did dislike:

-the book is written entirely in romanji; I understand why they would choose to do so, as it allows to focus on grammar and vocabulary, but since I've been used to work with kana and kanji, it did bother me some. Moreover, you have to know that in Japan, except in such things as advertisement and some magazines' covers, nothing is written in romanji. If you know you're gonna need to read some Japanese too, I suggest you buy at least one of those books out there to learn the kana on top of this one, and a list of essential kanji.

-I didn't find the revision units very useful. Except for a few more exercises, they only repeat the dialogs of the previews lessons word for word. Barely useful in my opinion.

But that shouldn't stop you from buying this book if you're a beginner, or even if you have already some knowledge. This book is, except for the romanji problem, one of the best of its genre I've ever come across, and for a very reasonable price too!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for learning to speak Japanese!, August 9, 2001

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Japanese (Berlitz Essentials) (Paperback)

A few months ago, I decided I wanted to learn how to speak Japanese. I'm also 14. After reading this book lightly, off and on for the past month or two, I can speak Japanese. Nothing fancy, but I understand some of my Animes, I can watch the Fujisankei news and understand it some, and I can speak to the sushi chefs on my weekly sushi dinner. This book will teach you to speak it, period. It's lessons are simple, clear, and apply to real life situations. Great job Berlitz!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A structured approach, July 23, 2000

By 

Paul Chance (Seaford, DE USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Japanese (Berlitz Essentials) (Paperback)

I have been studying Japanese on my own in the U. S. for closeto a year. I have no particular talent for languages, and my progresshas been slow. I have used some Transparent Language software... a phrase book, and a book on hiragana. However, the most important part of my self-designed curriculum is Stugnell's Essential Japanese. It is a fairly traditional text, providing a highly structured treatment of pronunciation, grammar, and idiomatic expressions. It takes one element at a time, provides examples and explanation, and then practice exercises. I am only about half way through the book, but I think I'll make it to the end and will then be able to get a good deal more out of the software programs, which really just offer practice, not instruction. As language textbooks go, this is about as good as I've seen. Buy this book and ganbatte!