Customer Reviews

Japanese: The Written Language Volume 1 (Field Test Edition)

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As in, it hasn't gotten better with age.

It says right on the cover that this is a field test edition. So perhaps I should forgive the spelling mistakes and instances of characters being used in samples sentences before they have been introduced.

And perhaps I should forgive the lack of an index. Forget how to write a certain character? Have fun thumbing thru the entire book trying to find it again.

Or how about the fact that the characters are shown, and then the stroke charts are pages away in a separate section at the end of the chapter? What a lovely idea!

And then my absolute favorite feature. Once you finally do get to the kanji, they don't give you all, or most, or even some of the readings. You get one. And there doesn't seem to be a pattern as to whether you get the ON or Kun reading. Nor does it tell you which of the readings you are getting, much less what ON and Kun readings are. If another reading is given, the same character will be brought back later in the book to introduce the new reading.

There is also precious little discussion of radicals, and the important part they play in understanding kanji.

If you have to buy this book for a class which uses it, and the equally odious JSL companion, hold your nose and dive right in. But you may soon finding yourself in need of a proper kanji dictionary as well. If you're thinking of picking this up for self study, look elsewhere.