Japanese from Zero! 1: Proven Techniques to Learn Japanese for Students and Professionals (Paperback)

~ George Trombley (Author), Yukari Takenaka (Author) "This book teaches you how to write Japanese progressively, and by Lesson 9 you will know the entire hiragana writing system..." (more)
Key Phrases: kore desu, light gray characters, sore desu, Progressive Hiragana Kanji, Sentence Building, Additional Vocabulary (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Japanese From Zero! is an innovative and integrated approach to learning Japanese developed by professional Japanese interpreter George Trombley and co-writer Yukari Takenaka. The lessons and techniques used in this series have been taught successfully for over eight years in classrooms throughout the world. Using up-to-date and easy-to-grasp grammar, Japanese From Zero! is the perfect course for current students of Japanese as well as absolute beginners.

In Book 1 of the Japanese From Zero! series, readers are taught new grammar concepts, over 800 new words and expressions, and also learn the Hiragana writing system.

Features of Book 1:
* Integrated Workbook with Answer Key
* Over 800 New Words and Expressions
* Learn to Read and Write Hiragana
* Easy-to-Understand Example Dialogues
* Culture Points about Japan
* Bilingual Glossaries with Kana and Romaji
...and much more!

About the Author

Author George Trombley is a professional Japanese interpreter who over the past 16 years has interpreted at corporations such as Microsoft, IBM, NTT DoCoMo, and Lucent Technologies in countries throughout North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: YesJapan Corporation (May 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976998122
• ISBN-13: 978-0976998129
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #26,433 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book., August 13, 2006

By	ne0nex (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This book has proven to be one of the better investments in my self-study of the Japanese language to date. The approach is informative, but friendly. The exercises will challenge you, while the lessons keep you thoroughly engaged. Their teaching method strives to get the student fluent, and not just repeating a set list of phrases that would be hard to deviate from. The book also includes an innovative approach to learning all of the Hiragana by book's end. And trust me, if you get this book, and follow it through to completion, you WILL know all of the hiragana by the time you're done. The extra bits, like the "Japan in Pictures" segment, or the "Culture Clips", and even the apendecies including "Common last names in Japan" will keep the reader interested in the study of the language, for those times when you need to take a little break from it. Even the Japanese Proverb on the front cover can be incredibly motivational for when learning the language seems to be a bit much. Very good book, would highly recommend for both people totally new to learning the language, as well as those of us who studied it a bit in the past and found ourselves falling out of it. A small number of typographical errors earns this book a four out of five.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 Stars and am still being impartial, that's how good it is., March 5, 2007

By	Boukili (France) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've bought all three books from the series " Japanese from Zero " and all i can say is that if you're serious about learning japanese, that's a really friendly and motivating approach to the language basics.

None of the boring vocabulary that may be found in some manuals like Minna no Nihongo where you learn how to say " I want to send this package to australia with 2 stamps, how much will the taxes be ? " before even knowing how to express your opinion...

In "japanese from zero", all of the grammatical points and vocabulary are nicely selected and ordered, plus the activities don't make you run away everytime you open the book... they're quite entertaining and can be quite challenging at times.

Also as opposed to Minna no nihongo, when you learn a new verb, they tell you HOW TO USE IT... i was clueless at times how and when i was supposed to use a verb over the other ( Kaeru VS Modoru in mind...)in these books, everything is clearly explained without using all these hellish grammatical terms you can find in other manuals...


All in all, what you have here is a wonderful tool for complete beginners... the road to fluency is a long one, consider this book as the meaningful first step.


( PS : Thanks to all of the YesJapan team members for all their work and their positive attitude. )

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for spoken OR written japanese., May 23, 2007

By	Darkslide (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This book series is great and the title for it is very appropriate. We all start from Zero. These books have everything you'd expect from a beginners reference for any language, but what I think sets this series apart is the presentation. It's just SO USER FRIENDLY. The info is delivered in an informative but casual way and the english isn't straight out of an english textbook. I own several japanese "how to" books and a few of them are so thick with grammar lingo that you need a dictionary to figure out the english!! What the heck is a gerund anyway? Plus the Culture Clips give really fun and insightful tidbits into everyday japanese things.

I have to disagree with one of the reviewers that said this book was only good if your focus was on written japanese. First of all it's: JAPANESE FROM ZERO. Not: LEARN TO SPEAK JAPANESE! Japanese uses different written characters. It's logical that a japanese course should want to teach you to read and write as well as speak. Secondly the Hiragana introduced in this book are taught progressively throughout the book. Thirdly, though it's obvious that the books writers want you to learn to read and write the focus is clearly on conversational Japanese. You wont be breezing through any manga or even children's books after getting through Vol. 1 but you could definitely hold an elementary conversation or impress your friends by ordering the next time you get sushi.

My only real complaint about JFZ1 is that it doesn't include a CD. I think this would be incredibly helpful in understanding the phonics of the language. Thankfully Japanese is very basic phonetically but a total beginner wouldn't know that and might want a CD. This lack is the only thing that kept me from giving the product 5 stars though so if you're interested is jumping into Japanese language learning this is probably the best you can do outside of a classroom.