Customer Reviews

Speak Japanese today: A Self-Study Program for Learning Everyday Japanese (Tuttle Language Library)

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

 

 

This book is very well organized, and gradually takes the student up the learning curve. It introduces a fairly diverse vocabulary for a beginner level student, and also explains the grammer behind the usage of words and sentences.

Nonetheless, the book poses some key challenges and limitations. Foremost, without an accompanying CD or tape, the pronounciations of the words are simply not conveyed correctly through English language phonetics. As a result, beginners are highly likely to cultivate incorrect pronounciation habits early on in their learning experience.

Second, in the latter half of the book, practice sentences are rote...different words are used in the same sentence structures. While this system promotes practice, the student gains very little from all of the example sentences.

Finally, several words are listed in the lessons. Most of them, however, are never used. Perhaps dropping some of the rote sentences and creating new sentences with these additional words would enhance value to the student.

Overall, this book is an essential addition to the library of every serious student of Japanese. It makes an excellent supplement to classroom learning or to an audio learning system.

Domo Arigato!

For a little book, this one packs a lot in. And thankfully, unlike foreign language textbooks I have suffered under, this one explains in a non-technical methodology how the language (basically) works. It is not very in-depth, mind you, but the basics are put right up front in an understandable and workable way, so the reader can make use of it. Will you be parsing sentences and conjugating verbs after reading this one? No, but you'll be able to speak Japanese to get by, and even a little beyond getting by. This is one of the best foreign language books I have come across in terms of organizing material, explaining, and making sense out of it all, and getting one to be speaking the language in a minimal amount of time without a maximal amount of theory to wade through.

The Way lies in practice, and this book provides both the material and the method of practice to allow maximum speed in learning everyday Japanese speech.

The book gets right to the point, without lengthy grammar lessons, linguistic theory, or other complicated nonsense. As the title says, this book will help you "Speak Japanese Today." You will not be able to teach Japanese, write in Japanese, or be able to communicate in an eloquent fashion, but you will know enough material well enough to handle everyday situations.

Thus, this book's optimal audience is anyone who needs a crash-course in Japanese: a student, tourist, or businessman.

To those who want an in-depth study of Japanese, this book can only serve as a somewhat inadequate introduction - but then, in-depth study is not this book's purpose at all.

This book is simple simple simple! It is UNDAUNTING..very important for anyone who wishes to at least be able to learn basic Japanese. It is easy to understand and covers important daily usage. Not enough for conversation but a must/ good foundation for starters before getting other books!

When I first got this book, I was DISGUSTED by no japanese characters - kana or kanji. But this isn't a book to read japanese, but to speak. However, it has a few flaws in that area as well. They explain pronunciation, yet, they don't explain. It says "Desu" has a weakened "u", but they never explain. Someone without outside knowledge might go around saying "De-su", when it's actually said "Dess".

Every chapter, you get new words, grammatical notes (Very easy to digest), a dialogue, more new words, and a few excercises. The second set of words you get each chapter are all similar to the words in the first set. For example, in the first chapter, there is konbanwa, or good evening. In the second set, you also get the words for good morning and good afternoon.

Final Verdict: It's a good supplement to help learn to speak. I recommend, however, if you EVER have any plans to learn written japanese, learn the kana and re-write the vocabulary you learn. Romaji is the Japanese used everywhere but Japan.

A great book for beginners. I haven't gotten very far, because I keep deciding to read it on vacations or car trips where I'll be interrupted by something and surrounded by family, unable to say things out loud.

But this book has some great stuff for learning japanese. I'd reccomend it, I think even someone from Jr High could learn from this book. (As I am, and I did.)

This book definitely came in handy when I went to Japan last April. I was fortunate to be able to stay with a Japanese family for a week, immersing myself in the culture. Fortunately, the person who invited me could speak a little English, and I've been friends with her for nearly 10 years. In that time period I picked up how the English phonetics of Japanese words should be pronounced. This book does not teach that, so even if you memorize the lessons in the book, you will probably sound like an American trying to speak Japanese. Otherwise, it's great for learning greetings and helping you amongst Japanese speaking friends!