Customer Reviews

Japanese for Dummies AUDIO+CD

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I just recieved my copy of this book yesterday and I think that it's wonderful! It's difficult for me to learn on my own using a book, but like all the other Dummies books, everything was simple and I was able to understand it well.

I ordered this book mainly to get a laugh from it, not expecting to REALLY learn everything there is to know about Japanese. Well, within the first 100 pages, I got my laugh. In the section talking about eating, the author says "If you are eating at home, get it [missing condiments, table settings] yourself, or if you have children, ask them to get it for you." I got the laugh I expected from a Dummies book. Also, in the introduction, the author makes some assumptions on the reader. The author says flat out that this book is not made for the people who want to become professional translators or expect to become fluent from the book alone. It's simply to learn the basics of spoken Japanese language and use the knowledge as a stepping stone to more learning.

But other than that, there's clear explainations for verbs and their basic usage. There was no unneccesary stuff to confuse the reader with although the different forms of verbs may seem intimidating. The vocabulary used is very basic and far from complete, but it's enough to get by with. There is a mini dictionary in the back of the book and it's just that: mini. I suggest you to grab yourself a good dictionary.

This book is pretty good, but it doesn't teach anything about writing. There is not a single kana in the book so those of you desiring to learn written Japanese should not buy this book unless you want to reinforce your grammar and speaking. This book concentrates mainly on speaking putting a great deal into the pronunciation of words. Also, the audio CD included goes through the sounds of the language and includes some of the dialogues from the book. They're spoken by native Japanese speakers and sound very clear. However, it sounds more like most tapes and CDs used in school language instruction rather than smooth-flowing speech.

It's a really great book for those starting in Japanese, but it shows only one side of the language. But I guess Dummies just wanted to keep it as simple as possible. The lack of Japanese writing is a bit frustrating, but I don't regret my purchase.

I am currently teaching English in Japan so I have lots of Japanese language books sitting on the shelf in my apartment. Japanese for Dummies is the only one of those books that I've actually looked at a second time. The book gets down to the nitty gritty of Japanese and explains the language in an easy and understandable way. Sato-san even gives important cultural information that explains when and why you use certain phrases in Japanese. I've been living in Japan for over a year and it wasn't until I started reading this book that I finally felt like I was understanding the usage of the language and have been a bit more confident talking to my co-workers at enkais and the drinking parties that follow. My book is competely full of highlighter and notes (something I rarely do so it truly must be a helpful book!)
Sadly I can't attest to how good the cd is because I've never taken it out of the book jacket since I constantly hear Japanese around me but if its anything like the book then it'd be quite good.
For people that are concerned about learning to read and write Japanese ... this book might not necessarily be for you - however, I taught myself to read and write hirigana and katakana over a weekend when I first got here and I've discovered that it didn't help me in the least bit getting around Japan as that would require knowing a decent amount of kanji characters which I've been picking up very slowly.
The layout of the book is great - introuduction followed by chapters that focus on a variety of things (like going shopping, inviting a friend to do something) each with new vocabulary, useful verbs (and their basic conjugations), set phrases and a practice dialogue. The back part of the book is a mini-dictionary that is suitable for this book but you would definitely need a better one if you have a more serious interest in Japanese (I can't help you with that since I've been searching for a better Japanese/English dictionary since I've arrived in Japan!)

On the cover of this book it says "Speak Japanese - the fun and easy way!" So why am I not complaining that it didn't include the writing? Because I knew that it was for speaking the language. This isn't exactly the advanced type of book, but it teaches a lot more than most Japanese books I have read. Most other Japanese books I have read only make you memorize specific phrases and sentences. But this one tells you how to put a sentence together. It would be beyond the scope of this book to list the writing, because this is aimed at beginners. When you get well-versed in the speaking, yes another book should do for the writing. But, for its true purpose, Japanese for Dummies does an outstanding job.

If you are serious about learning Japanese, stay away from this book. First, it only uses "romanji", which is rarely used by Japanese people. You can learn the basic Japanese alphabets with a few weeks daily study. What would you think of someone studying English using only Japanese letters? It doesnt make much sense. Romaji should be used to ease you in to the Japanese alphabet, not substitute it. This book encourages that bad habit. Second, it has no concept of "level appropriate" and throws out all kinds of idiosyncratic vocab. You are learning the word for "fresh shrimp" before going over elemtary vocab. I live in Japan, and I quickly discarded this book as soon as I discovered alternatives which actually help you learn Japanese and understand Japanese culture (like the book "Genki").

The biggest problem people have found with this book is that it has no Japanese characters in it. I was fortunate enough to preview the book in a bookstore before deciding to purchase it. On the first page inside the book, it says that the purpose of the book is to teach phrases and grammar and purpose and will not contain 1 Japanese symbol.

This book is definitely useful if you are wanting to learn conversational Japanese because even though it doesn't teach you how to write it, you have a start in at least understanding what is said.

I definitely recommend this book.

I do not highly reccommend this book to learn the language from the beginning because it does not go into great detail about why the grammer is used the way it is. I bought this book at first to learn the actual language, but found it hard to learn how to put the sentences together correctly. I do not suggest you buy this book if you are a hard core learner.
On the other hand, if you know basic Japanese already than I would highly suggest that you get this book. It has a bunch of interesting details in it that tell about the style of the language you should use in different situations. It gives many phrases that you can use to make yourself sound more Japanese. I found this book very helpful when I wanted to start speaking like modern Japanese people do. It was fun to learn about the cultural facts after I learned the language from a different source and decided to look at this book once again for another rescource.
Overall, this book is a good book to have after you know the language. When I first started to communicate with other Japanese after learning the language, they said I sounded like their grandmothers, but now after using this book they say I sound more modern and up to date.

Although I haven't actually finished the book yet, I can say it is very good. You do get a basic understanding of the japanese language as long as you stick with it and practice often. It is very clear and well organized. You may feel a bit goofy while speaking out loud with the CD but hey its part of the fun. The japanese to english dictionary is exactly as they say, mini, but you shouldn't really be expecting anything much bigger since this is just a starters book so its all good. I'd recommend this to anyone who is planning on traveling to japan, it'll make you feel more confident speaking to the locals.

Well, here is what I have to say about this book. Being one of those common 14-year-old anime fans that I am, I decided I really wanted to learn Nihongo (Japanese). So, yes, this is a review from a complete beginner in the Japanese language. I have not yet finished the book, but so far I understand quite a bit more about Japanese sentence structure and customs. But, my problem is that I am not a very speedy learner, and this book does not help you much with memorization of words, suffixes, etc., but instead seems to be a bit straightforward, or something like that. So I have been stuck on chapter 2 for quite a while just trying to fully absorb and understand everything about the grammar basics and such. However, overall, this book should help any beginner in some way if they really stick to it!

This is a well written and easy to understand book accompanied by an invaluable CD. It is so helpful even my 7 year of nephew is now very quickly learning the language. We are soon travelling to Japan and know that having had the benefit of this book we have a good chance of understanding the language whereas before we would have been lost in translation. Cant wait to try it out.

I remember buying this book when it first came out back in 2002, and used it in Sato Sensei's JPN111 class. The book is written in a way to be used by people,who are just learning the language for the purpose of communication with others in a hurry. Unlike the course books she writes for her classes at this college,the Dummies/Idiot's Language series are kinda like the 10 min. a day language books, or the learning a language for busy business people series. This book is meant for the very beginner student, and not for someone who is a higher level Japanse student who already knows hiragana, katakana, kanji, and conjugation. I can assure you that the Idiot's Conversational Japanese is no different than it's Dummies version. You can buy both books,but Sato Sensei's book is a better buy.