Customer Reviews

Japanese, The Spoken Language: Part 2 (Yale Language Series) (Pt. 2)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This book is painfully dull. It really is painful in places. You can go chapters without seeing a single sentence you think you're ever likely to use. Indeed many of my Japanese friends have glanced at the book and repeatedly pointed at bits and said "tsukawan" (don't use). The language contained within does not in anyway resemble the spoken language as you will hear it in Japan. Also its completely in romaji of which the merits/demerits could be argued at length. Why then bother with this book? It concentrates on some of the more grammmatical aspects of Japanese, and these explanations are really first rate although very involved. They are as good as anything I have seen. By the way if you think you know a bit of Japanese and want to jump into book 2, I suggest you think again as this really isn't for beginners. The best Japanese textbook is, as far as I know not available via the big companies on the internet. These are Shin nihongo no kiso and Minna no nihongo they are published by 3A in Japan. You'll have to track them down yourselves but they are worth it.

I am a college student approaching my 4th year of Japanese study and from my experience, the people who like this book are the people who don't have to learn from it. Teachers love the ideas that E. Jorden (RIP) tried to get across when writing this book. The reality is, learning from this mess is unnecessarily difficult and other textbooks do a better job. There are numerous typo's that could easily be fixed but are not, often native Japanese people say the grammar/vocabulary used in this text is weird or not used "unless talking to an emperor in the 19th century", the romanization is good in theory but hard to grasp, easy to make mistakes with (even teachers) which therefore makes it counterproductive, the vocabulary is severely out of date (including the English), and lastly the binding of the book sucks too it falls apart after a while because this book is cheap. On the good side though, your speaking ability will improve, even though you will talk like a secretary from the 70's.

I have had to learn from several textbooks as I hop from college to college but this is by far the worst. Never have i spent more time hearing my teacher correct the book than I have actually learned from the book. The companion writing book is no better. The words and phrases are outdated. Our native Japanese teacher's assistant has had to tell us "that... doesn't mean that" or "no one says this anymore... if you do, no one in Japan will understand you."
Frankly, the book is good at one thing and that is how to not offend anyone in Japan by being too informal. Otherwise, it isn't worth the paper it is printed on. Teachers love it though and I am still not sure why.

I was in a class using this book. It was awful. The romanization was useless in teaching proper pronunciation, and also made it difficult to read. Despite having "drill sessions" in the class, my classmates struggled with pronunciation because of this textbook.
I finally chose to wait until a better class, and a better book, came along. I have been in a class where they used a different textbook, and that was far more productive because of it.
Save your money.

Please ignore any review that makes a comment on the use of romaji in this text book. If someone is even complaining about the use of romaji in this book, they are approaching the book with the wrong method. As is mentioned in other reviews, the proper method of using this text must be applied. If it is followed, your japanese will soar. The romaji, which is different from what you normally see, is not meant to be read, but only as a reference if you forget the pronounciation. The romazi, used, is by far superior than the starndard one, as it expresses nuances in pronunciation, that are missing in the standard approach, For example, when you should pronounce an the "n" sound as an m, et cetera. The key to this book is to always listen to the tapes and to repeat, repeat, repeat. I find situations, living in japan, when one of the core conversations I have memorized, just automatically comes out of my mouth, and I dont have to think. The conversations and the grammatical patterns are constructed in a way, that you can use a minimal amount of japanese, and get by, gramatically correct, and be understood. Maybe there is an over emphasis on politeness in the language, but in order to understand the grammer completely, and to be able to talk to anyone, not just your close friends, i recommend that you use this book.

If you are considering purchasing this text, you fall into one of three categories:
1) Jorden's acolytes (in which case you have already been persuaded to believe that learning Jordenese is not a wasteful and even counterproductive approach to Japanese)
2) You have completed some other first semester (or year) program and are looking for an intermediate text
3) You have signed up for a course that uses this text, though you did not use JSL Volume I in your elementary Japanese course.

For 1), there is not much to say, but I'll offer a bit of friendly advice anyway: you are crippling your ability to survive without romanji by continuing in the Jorden method. I noticed in my course this summer (we covered both volumes 1 & 2), that many of the "better" students memorized new vocabulary (for our quizzes) from cards written in romanji. Will they prove to be better readers of Japanese in the long run?

For 2), you really should steer clear of this text. Jorden's romanization is not standard (hers does NOT derive from phonetic English). If you dive into Jorden Volume II, be prepared to face Mt. "Huzi", "sirimasen", "tukurimasu", "titi", and a complete lack of "kanzi", hiragana and katakana. This will be a regressive move on your part, assuming that you been studying Japanese up to now.

For 3), I recommend that you find another course. Try searching on the internet. There may be a Japanese organization in your area that offers courses. I realize that if you need college credits, this may not seem the best route, but if you would like to progress rather than regress and would like to maximize the use of your time by avoiding spending many hours reading in Jordenese, a fictional language used by no people anywhere, then you really ought to find another way to continue your study of Japanese.

Don't use this book. Jordan's system is counterproductive to the Japanese learner, and everyone I've known to be really successful in Japanese swear off this system. Try the "Genki" series instead.

I got this series of books for my college Japanese courses. Taught by native Japanese speakers, who visit Japan often. While they point out the outdated elements of the book (certain vocabulary), the book is excellent for people who really want to get the hang of Japanese grammar and politeness. Formality is extremely important and while everyone uses the more casual forms - which are taught in this book - the Core Conversations (which you are urged to memorize) are helpful and will guide you through native Japanese traditions, so that even if you don't look like one, you can act like a native Japanese and they won't have to make special accommodations for you as a foreigner. This book is tough on drills and it is necessary you read everything and memorize everything, even what they mark as "supplementary vocabulary".

Japanese is a tough language and it takes tough love (of the language) and a true test of your abilities to chug through this book. This book would work well for self-study but only if you are truly dedicated to working through it and have the discipline to memorize it all.

The CCs may have some outdated structures, but many are intended just to express GRAMMAR and infuse VOCABULARY, not necessarily for day-to-day use.

You learn casual forms, and the grammar explanations are the best you will get from any textbook, and the same goes for the explanations of polite behavior and language. Difficult, yes. Tedious, yes. Important, definitely. Watch some j-dramas and download some music and you'll notice that you really aren't learning an ancient variation of a language.

I've found this book to be extremely helpful to learn the spoken part of the Japanese language, but only because I've been using it as a textbook in college. The book provides good explanations and everything in the book is taught in a very logical order, but you do need to use it with the supplemental audio tapes in order to really learn. Another important thing is that you should be trying to learn the written part of Japanese using other resources (such as the "Japanese, The Written Language" book) since this book is all printed in romanization and doesn't use any Japanese characters.

The layout of each unit is the same. Each book of the series has 12 Lessons, and each lesson is divided in two parts that include core conversations, vocabulary breakdowns, and practice drills. To really master each lesson you need to memorize the 'core conversations', which are short conversations that can easily occur between two people in Japan. After the core conversations in each part there is a breakdown of all the new vocabulary used (assuming you've learned all the vocabulary from all the previous lessons, including book 1) and the translations to English. The books then includes drills for you to practice answering and speaking Japanese out loud. The audio tapes are very important for this part. At the end of each lesson, there's an eavesdropping section, a utilization section, and a check-up section. These are the three sections you'll use to determine if you really mastered the lesson.

In eavesdropping you'll listen to conversations in Japanese and answer a few questions about what was said. In the utilization section you'll be asked to say certain things in Japanese given a specific circumstance. The check-up section is the one that helps you see if you've really learned the material in-depth and can talk about the Japanese language in general, and not just do the drills.

This book series is the one being used as textbooks for the Japanese classes at MIT, and usually lessons are taught at a rate of one part per week (i.e. one full lesson in two weeks) and, to ensure students are learning, the classes are very interactive and students speak only Japanese in three out of 4 weekly classes.

If you're studying Japanese on you're own I suggest you only use this book in a similar way, making yourself practice constantly and memorize the core conversations and vocabulary. It's the only way you'll really learn things the right way. And definitely buy a kana/kanji book so you can also learn the Japanese writing system while learning to speak it.

This is the book I needed for my third year of Japanese. I like the way it is set up and how it encourages practical language use. It may be a little difficult for someone who wants to learn outside of a classroom.