Customer Reviews

Ultimate Japanese Advanced (CD Pkg) (Ultimate Advanced)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is one of the better language books I have read and used. It is quite clear and interesting, and has proven to be very helpful. The book is divided up into twenty lessons, each with a similar format. It begins with a few pages of dialogue, after which some notes on the more difficult or interesting aspects of the dialogue are explained. I quite like that. Afterwards it focuses on grammar and then introduces a few kanji. The twenty lessons are first written in romaji, and then repeated afterwards in kana and kanji, complete with furigana for each compund (except for one - I wonder if that was an error). The only negative aspect to this book is its tendancy to over-rely on business and polite grammar as opposed to normal speech. It is difficult to find books that teach Japanese the way it is actually spoken. However, this book does include some plain speech and guidelines for usage, but generally it assumes that one will wish to use the -masu form of the verbs, watakushi instead of watashi or ore for 'I', and so on. Nevertheless, I am finding it to be quite useful, and would not have bought it if it wasn't.

One last note: the system of romaji is the Hepburn system, with only some minor variations, such as using n before b instead of m (ie, shinbun instead of shimbun for newspaper).

Great dialogues and useful situations but I was expecting something a little more difficult from the advanced series. I completed the basic-advanced series and thought it was fantastic. However, the advanced series teaches many of the grammar structures already taught in the intermediate section of the first book. Not to say it isnt a nice book, but from what I had learned from the first book, I easily understood the first five lessons on the CD the first time I listened to them. I only learned about three new words or so from the first five lessons. Not to say this isnt a nice series, but if you completed the beginner-intermediate book, you may find the advanced series a bit easy.

This book isn't bad, it's just not what the title claims. Advanced? Far from it! Don't buy this if you're expecting anything above low-intermediate level Japanese.

I am in my second year of college-level Japanese, and I still rely on the conversation skills I picked up from this book. It explains Japanese grammar so that it makes sense and feels natural. The language taught is very polite, but it's the same kind you'd be learning if you took a class, and this book still covers the "plain" form more thoroughly than most instructional books. Also, every new element is clearly explained, so you aren't left wondering (even with regards to the tricky "wa" and "ga" particles). The pace of the book isn't too fast, and it has a fun rather than academic feel to it. At the end of each lesson is a few paragraphs pertaining to the culture, with connections to the dialogue and concepts intoduced during the lesson. There are quizzes at the end of each lesson to check your progress, so you know when to move on. I suggest mastering all the material in a lesson before moving on to the next, because the grammatical concepts build upon one another. All in all, the book lives up to its claim that it's "equivalent to 2 full years of college-level study"-- and I was able to complete it in less than six months. In Japanese 3 (Intermediate Japanese), we still have not learned some of the grammar and vocabulary I already know from this book, and for the ones we have learned, I was able to grasp it right away, as opposed to the majority of the class which struggled with the material. I bought lots of books and tapes before deciding to invest my time and money in university-level study, and the Living Language course is the single one I attribute to my current level of understanding the language.

The only complaints I can think of are that the kana (syllable alphabets) are introduced rather suddenly, and they expect you to master it very quickly. The kana introduced in a lesson often held me back long after I had mastered all the other material in the lesson, so I became resentful because at that point I really, really wanted to move forward. Eventually, though, all the lessons are written in hiragana (and a tiny bit of kanji), so you really have to master all that ugly hiragana before moving on. Ganbatte!

Also, my book mentions tapes that are supposed to go with it - one set to go along with the readings, and one to be used on its own without the book. My book didn't come with the tapes, which is weird because I bought it new in a bookstore. Also, some of the other reviewers, and the people here who are selling them used, didn't make any mention of the tapes, even though they are in the official description. So I would make sure that the book you're buying includes the tapes, because it would have made a wonderful addition to the lessons, and listening comprehension and correct pronunciation are very important elements of a language!

I just finished this book. If you already studied all the basics of most beginner courses and you seek for some advanced course this one is the right choice!.
The book come with 2 sets of audio cassettes first set for study in car without a book and the second set should be studied with the book. The book itself organized in very convenient form. The 20 lessons come in Romaji with English translation and grammar remark at the first part of the book. At the second part one can find the same text in kana-kanji with a list of the new words and Kanji. Additionally there is English-Jap Jap-English dictionary with references to the lesson where the work was first introduced.
For me this book was very helpful. I hope that in short future additional books for advanced Japanese learners will be published.

I agree with the previous review that this is one of the better books avaible for the Japanese language. I took Japanese for three years in college, so I was glad to find a book that started out with more than just travel basics. The thing I enjoyed the most was the fact that each dialog was duplicated in Kanji in the back of the book. The book covered a lot of grammer and I liked the layout of the book where it gives a diaolog and then reviews the grammar used in the dialog at the end of the lesson.

Like the previous reviewer, I agree that the focus was almost exclusivly on business. However, I would further comment that even though the dialog was almost all about business situations, no real 'business Japanese' vocabular was introduced. I would like to see a book that taught everyday, street Japanese.

In any event, this is a really great resource for anybody who has learned a little Japanese and would like to continue learning.

Initially, I wasn't pleased with this book, but once I started using it a lot more, I increasingly grew fond of it's teaching method and the way the lessons are structured. The way it teaches the kanji is very good. It's not as advanced as it says, but I'd say it's suitable for someone who passed JLPT lvl 3.

Here's my suggestion: use the second half of the book with all Japanese. Don't waste your time with the first half (roomaji/English) except to check the English translation of the passages if you need to or review any grammar that goes over your head. If you can comprehend the CD, you probably don't need to do either of these things much.

The main problem I have with the book is it's business bias. This company (Living Language) tends to do this and for many, this isn't a problem, but for me, it'd be more interesting if the dialog mixed and matched between business and play since I go to Japan for both. I'd like to hear more informal dialog for one thing.

The dialogues in this book don't make you practice how to greet your home-stay parents or make nice to your new school counselor or even how to get a date. The conversations, settings, and vocabulary are business and social situations with adults relating to each other. What a treat.

The design of the book and the cds are quite useful I think. The other reviews discussed the book's layout. The cds are very good too. There are two sets for each chapter. In one the speakers do the dialogue at a pretty good clip and then repeat it sentence by sentence giving you time to say the words out loud. The second set focuses on expressions, grammar, and vocabulary.

It's odd - the program assumes a previous background in Japanese yet some of the grammar lessons are quite basic. But as anyone who has studied Japanese knows, another explanation is another chance to 'feel' the point and review is always welcome.

Penny
www.WhereTheHeckIsMom.com

As a graduate anthropology student, I needed a language system that could sharpen my existing Japanese language skills. Unfortunately, Living Language's somewhat confused text did not even come close, and after the delay of this underwhelming discovery, I chose another system. Noteworthy among Living Language Japanese's shortcomings are:

A strange lack of kana and kanji. Other than a brief written essay in the back of the book, the kanji characters--essential for understanding spoken homonyms--are entirely absent. No other advanced level text that I have encountered (let alone intermediate) has ignored kanji practice. While writing and conversation may seem to be two separate domains of study, the high number of homophones in Japanese make an understanding of which character is being spoken utterly essential.

Unusual spellings. The authors have chosen not to represent latinized written Japanese in the usual manner, (adding a "u" after a long "o," for example, as the Japanese themselves do) but have doubled certain vowels. This vowel doubling is confusing on the page. "Arigatoo," for example, instead of "arigatou," (which corresponds precisely to the furigana characters for this word.) I also noticed instances of "-ee" used for "-ei," with the same disjuncture between the latin alphabet, and the actual corresponding hiragana phonetic characters.

On the audio lessons, the English language narrator does not correctly pronounce important components of Japanese words. The i-adjectives, for example, are referred to as "eye" adjectives, when in fact there is no such pronunciation in Japanese. This confusion seems to originate in the character "i," used to represent this vowel, which is however always pronounced "ee" in Japanese.

These problems, among others, are rendered more dangerous by the fact that an individual who plows through this tedious book will have come to grow comfortable with non-standard systems for representing Japanese in English, and will not have a firm grasp upon why certain spellings are used to accomodate particular grammar adjustments for kanji words. Reorienting themselves back into the world of serious study will be time consuming!

In summary, Living Language Japanese appears to have attempted to create a system of study in a vacuum. This book, and the accompanying cd's, do not offer any continuity with other popular Japanese language texts or systems of study. The Japan Times textbook series, the Nakama textbook series, or the Pimsleur audio series are much more effective means for anyone who is actually interested in language proficiency.

Good luck with your language study! Ganbatte Kudasai!

Get your bookmarks ready! Without one it will take you ages to read this book. I was quite disappointed that the writer of the book did not realize that an "advanced" Japanese learner should at least be able to read the language to some extent. The romaji section at the front is completely unnecessary, but the matter is further complicated by the kanji version of the same lessons in the back. The kanji version has vocabulary listing, kanji explanations, and some questions. The romaji version has notes, grammar points, and an English translation of the dialogue. It goes without saying that you will be flipping back and forth between these different sections of the book constantly, which is a pain in the neck, and makes the book much less appealing.

I will give credit where it is due, however, in that the dialogues are tremendously written and very interesting. No more of the snoozer "Sore wa nan desu ka?" "Kore wa pen desu" dialogues. At times however, I felt some grammar points in the dialogue were not accurately explained, while simpler ones (which an advanced learner should know) like the conjugation of -i adjectives are covered. The point is: this is not an advanced book, but probably more intermediate. If you don't have many better options and don't mind using all ten of your fingers to mark your spots, then this book is an excellent choice.