Customer Reviews

Japanese for Busy People I: Workbook

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I first used this book as part of my Japanese language course at university. I found the chapter dialogues very useful, and the grammar points are explained in a very concised way. I came to Japan after studying the first book, which gave me the very basic foundation to continue with more advanced studies. This book should be used in conjunction with other books like 'Shin Nihon go no Kiso I' to get a more thorough range of Japanese vocabulary, (although my Japanese teacher said the vocabularies used in 'Nihon go no kiso' are quite specialised in some cases, e.g. phrases like 'welding pipes' is found in the text, which is not really needed for everyday situations!). For beginners, I highly recommend this book as a starter for self-study.

As a self taught student that started out with absolutely no Japanese whatsoever, it has been a great help to me. Living in Japan, it has helped me somewhat to communicate with japanese people on everyday excursions. The book gives survival japanese ready for immediate use and broken into different situations that you may find yourself in. For a foreigner as myself, living in Japan, it is a must. Definitely needs the tapes though for pronounciation, which you will find that without, is a big hinderance.

I'm enrolled in a Japanese college class and this is the book we use. While its lessons are effective, it has a lot of organization problems. Vocabulary is just strewn across the book and it's introduced at an inconsistent pace. Some sections include a lot of vocabulary that take a substantial amount of time to memorize, and others include very little vocabulary.

It also has a few annoying quirks, such as the way it writes numbers. It'll write "5-ji" to say "5 o'clock," and while this is the way 5 o'clock would be written in Japanese, I would have prefered for it to say "go-ji" instead. That would have further helped me grasp the numbering system. Although numbers 1-10 are extremely easy to memorize, making their use of "5-ji" not too bothersome, it continues doing it with the higher numbers, like "1999-nen" to say the year 1999.

Finally, the tests are far too short. There are some painfully easy particle placement questions, and about 4 sentences to translate on each test, and that's all. I seldom do the chapter exams because they hardly help.

Now that I'm done badmouthing the book, I'll polish it up a bit and make it reach the 3-star rating I gave it.

One positive thing is it doesn't make huge difficulty jumps between lessons. Unlike certain text books I've experienced that introduce completely new and hard-to-accept concepts out of the blue, this one teaches at a steady pace, which makes it easier to grasp the material.

Second, it focuses on the right stuff. I can see myself using everything this textbook has taught me.

I would recommend this book to people who have fully-packed schedules and can only learn a little at a time (who woulda thought by the name of the title). I do often think it drags a bit, but I'm a dedicated Japanese student aiming for fluency. If you asked me which book you should use to study Japanese for the purpose of a business trip or vacation to Japan, I would tell you to look no further than this one. However, if you asked me the same question, but told me you wanted to spend the rest of your life in Japan, I'd tell you to find something else.

The problem with learning Japanese in America is that most books seem to be written only in romaji. You'll never be able to scratch the suface of Japanese if you're not taught hiragana, katakana, and kanji from the beginning. There is a kana version of this book, but it's useless too, why? Because it's written entirely in hiragana and katakana and you're a BEGINNER.

This book contains information that's pretty much useless you're going on a two-week business trip. In the fourth chapter it literally teaches you how to count to a million before you've even had time to process numbers 1-20. Then it goes into complex concepts such as counting objects. (In Japanese there are different words for counting things and people and different words for counting different types of objects.)

The book is full of random things to memorize, but the grammer points are brief. You're like a three-year-old repeating phreses that you learned from mom and dad without having any concept of what the words mean and how they fit together. If I hadn't studied Japanese a few years back, nothing in this book would have made any sense.

I know this is Japanese for "busy" people, but no busy person would be able to remember the amount of stuff crammed into each chapter MORE ISN'T ALWAYS BETTER!

Except for the textbook "Yookoso", I have yet to find a Japanese textbook that is up to standard.

Ive watched all 3 tapes (older version) at the library and they were extremely useful for clarifying grammar points. However some of the animation was cheesy and the acting was awful. I hope this new version is less cheesy.

This book is a wonderful resource for anyone wanting to have a basic understanding of the language. I would couple it with a good japanese dictionary to add a little more vocab to your studies. This is a "no-nonsense" book. If you want a "really fun" way to learn Japanese, go find another book. If you are interested in learning how to speak well, this book is for you! My only complaint is that this book (first in a series) lacks kanji. The second book in this series forces you to read in hiragana, katakana and kanji while in JBPI , you can get by with just reading roman characters.

Ii nihongo no hon desu yo! (good japanese language book I tell you!)

The problem with Japanese for Busy People is not so much the information that it contains, but what it DOESN'T contain and the way the information is presented. Though the opening section on kana was especially useful, all of the lessons essentially consist of memorizing vocabulary words vaguely related to 'foreign language' type subject such as "At the movies." Though some may prefer this methodology, I found the vocabulary and provided phrases especially lacking as far as practical implementation is concerned. All in all, though it wouldn't hurt to rent this book at a library, I don't recommend purchasing it for yourself.

The only problem I personally had with this book was grasping the particles, but there is a book ("All About Japanese Particles" by Naoko Chino) you can get that will help you out if you have the same problems. If you actually practise all of the lessons AND the examples it won't be that hard to learn up to this book's level. Some of the lessons and vocabulary may not be so interesting, but are necessary to get you started. Also having a teacher who can add to what the book offers is very helpful.

**One thing I really do recommend about this series is that if you are serious about learning Japanese then find and buy the kana version of this book and buy a booklet that teaches you how to read and write hiragana and katakana. You'll be thankful for it.

I lived in Japan for 11/2 years before I decided to get serious and learn the language. I already had a vocabulary base, but couldn't use it very well. This book taught me how to use the vocabulary I already had and improved it quite a bit. With the use of this book, I was able to pass the Level 4 Japanese Proficiency Test conducted by the Japanese government. And in only 30 to 45 minutes a week! The workbook and CD's proved very valuable as well. If you want to learn Japanese, this is the book for you

I learned a lot using the kana verson of this book. It does give a good coverage of the rules of the language. On the down side, I found it hard to keep motivated with the book and found Pimsleur much better when it came to keeping motivated.

Both Japanese For Busy People and Genki are suited to teacher + student learning, rather than learning on your own. "Genki" as far as I can tell, is more popular with language schools, but there is little to choose between the two books.

The best Japanese self study book I have used is "The Japanese Language Proficiency Test, Level 4", the level 3 version was ok, but not as good as level 4. Note level 4 is easy level 1 hard.

Advice I was given: Learning words and phrases will improve your Japanese more than anything else you can do. Use flash cards with words and phrases on, first learn and then revise. There is a
web site with all level 4 and level 3 words on it.

Learning to read and write Japanese takes a long time, so learn hiragan, katakana early on, then put some kanji flash cards in your pocket and use your hanging around time to learn kanji.