Product Details

• Format: NTSC
• Number of tapes: 2
• Studio: Kodansha USA
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 4770021887
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #349,100 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Japanese for Busy People I: The Video features twenty-one entertaining episodes that provide a wealth of vivid images about life in Japan. Adaptable to any teaching situation, it can be used independently-both for self-study and in the classroom-in tandem with the Japanese for Busy People course, or with any other text-based course, creating a positive learning atmosphere in any classroom.

Drama
All twenty-one installments of the drama series present real, conversational language in a story about the Carpenters, an American family who have just moved to Tokyo.

Commentary
Core grammatical points are explained in English immediately after each installment by a Japanese-language instructor.

Humor
At the end of each episode, further examples are illustrated with amusing and highly original CG animations.

Support
A 32-page booklet included with this package offers advice on using the video, a comprehensive study-plan, and a full transcript of the tapes in romanized Japanese.

This video will provide students with the practical language they need in everyday situations and will give them the confidence to use it. Japanese for Busy People I: The Video was filmed entirely on location in Japan. How Can This Video Help You Study Japanese?
Any learner who wants to be able to communicate in Japanese will find this video beneficial to their studies. This first video is highly recommended to people who have just begun Japanese, people who want to know more about life in Japan, people who do not have much time to study, and anyone who is looking for a fun and functional way to learn Japanese progressively each day.

After watching this video, you will be able to do all of the following in natural and fluent Japanese:

- lntroduce yourself-and then your family, friends, and colleagues.
- Ask simple questions, such as "What is the time?" "Where is the bathroom?" and "Does this train go to Shinjuku?"-and understand their answers.
- Go shopping at a famous department store-and buy exactly what you want at a price you are prepared to pay.
- Ask for simple directions-and get to where you have to go.
- Entertain guests at home-and feel comfortable about being a guest yourself.
- Ride a taxi-and tell the cabbie exactly how to get there.
- Phone for a pizza-and get what you want to eat delivered to your door.
- Eat out at a Japanese restaurant-and order fluently from the menu.
- And much, much more!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good start, a good foundation, October 3, 2001

By 

"max_w" (Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Japanese for Busy People I: Text (Paperback)

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.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Learning Japanese, April 17, 2002

By 

"metuamate" (Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Japanese for Busy People I: Text (Paperback)

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.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but seriously flawed, November 11, 2005

By 

Joe Green "Raidy" (CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Japanese for Busy People I: Text (Paperback)

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.