Customer Reviews

Japanese for Busy People 2 Audio (Pt.2)

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I discovered this book when it was used in a beginning Japanese language course at the local county college. I travel back and forth to Japan a lot and missed classes sometimes. I had the book with me most of the time, and almost everyone I talk to in Japan recognizes the book as a popular text for teaching Japanese to foreigners. What I like most about the book is that I didn't have any trouble keeping up with the occasional missed class, because the book is so self-explanatory. You can work through the lessons on your own and get almost as much out of it as you do from the class.

I think this book is a very useful one. I have finished the first two in the series and am moving on to the third. It teaches the basic building blocks you need to understand kanji. Kanji understanding is really necessary in order to begin to gain an understanding of Japanese. I will have to respectfully disagree with the above reviewer. I thinkit is absolutely essential to read and write kana fluently before moving from beginner level. It is a time investment but it is well worth it! As long as you are aware that this book is kana only you should be ok. I do wish they gave more casual language and a little less focus on business but I suppose that is useful for those who work in Japan. Enjoy the book ^_^*

If you used Japanese for Busy People I to start learning Japanese, you might be disappointed with this second book in the series. JFBP II has been, for me, less user-friendly. In comparison with JFBP I, this book inundates the student with vocabulary and grammar notes in each lesson. Yes, having lots of information is good. But in my opinion, this book has packaged that information in larger chunks that are more difficult for the student to digest. Lessons are oriented around events, places and situations -- Lost and Found, the Health Club, a Business trip; a festival, etc. The book might have been more helpful had it been oriented around grammar concepts. Or better yet, give me a lesson focused on just new vocabulary and then give me a lesson focused on a grammar concept -- where I can use my recently acquired vocabulary. (I am learning in a classroom environment, and it's extremely challenging to soak up all the new vocabulary AND all the new grammar in each lesson.)

This book also is big on kana and kanji and sparse on romaji (although the book, in the appendix, does awkwardly provide romaji for the lesson texts). I agree that learning to think in kana is important. But I think more prominent romaji is still needed at this level -- when beginning students are still visualizing in terms of romaji. Kana is easy enough but requires my brain to kick in some extra processing power -- which slows down my comprehension of the material. In other words, I think students still could benefit from the "training wheels" of romaji at this level. It could speed up learning of vocabulary and grammar. It just makes sense: We learn to speak English fairly well. Then we learn to read and write it. Why not learn to speak Japanese fairly well (using easy romaji) and then learn how to read and write our newly acquired Japanese using kana?

And speaking of training wheels, more illustrations of vocabulary and concepts would have been helpful -- to help students better soak up new words and grammar. Another gripe: Not all words used in this book are in the glossary. (If it's not in the glossary, it's probably in the glossary for JFBP I.)

If you are studying on your own and on no timetable, this book will do you just fine. This book covers a lot of territory. If you can soak it all up, you'll be Japanese wiz. But if you're truly a busy person (like me -- or maybe I'm just slow! ;) ) and if this is the book you have to use, be prepared to make extra time in your schedule. And do your best to master each lesson before you move on to the next one -- since each lesson requires knowledge of previous concepts. Otherwise, your house of cards will come tumbling down.