Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great book, but you need the tapes, which aren't available, February 12, 2003
As a third generation Japanese-American, my parents thought it'd be good for me--in conjunction with my Monday through Friday public, American schooling-- to supplement my education with some Saturday Japanese classes as well. So every Saturday for two years, I went to Japanese school. That was almost twenty years ago, and I hardly remember a thing. Now that I'm older and appreciate the value of learning about my heritage (including the language), I was driven to purchase this book. Partly: a) as a refresher course and b) partly as new instruction.
After purchasing other books in the past, and some of those, "speak Japanese" CD's. This is the only book I've found that includes romaji, hiragana, katakana and some kanji. It's clearly laid-out, has a fantastic dictionary and reference charts in the front and back of the book. I think that persons interested in learning Japanese that have no prior instruction would find it a great resource. There is a MAJOR problem with this book being sold on ... though: throughout the book, they make mention of "listening to the tapes". Being that ... doesn't sell the tapes (in fact, no one does. I had to special order them from the publisher directly in Japan), I've been finding it very difficult to make it through the lessons. I think that ... should somehow acquire the tapes to sell in conjunction with the book, or you should hire someone who's fluent in Japanese to help you! All in all, it's a great book, and I'm looking forward to getting my tapes from the publisher in about a month.
Shame on ... for not catching this problem!
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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The quintessential study guide to the Japanese language, January 12, 2000
By A Customer
First, to sum it up... "Japanese for Everyone" is the best Japanese tutorial book that I have encountered so far. Yes, I do feel strongly about this, which is the reason I am writing this review, partly to express my many thanks to Nagara-san for his effort and also to let others interested in learning the language find the perfect study companion. That being said, let me elaborate... The book starts with the basics but it wastes no time. It immediately introduces the writing system, which I feel is an integral part of learning Japanese. Each chapter is part of a related set of stories which follow the life of a couple (their hobbies, social interactions, work, etc...) from the moment they arrive in Japan. There are 27 chapters and they are clearly laid out in a very readable format. Each has one or more dialogue/story sections followed a vocabulary section and separate "Function" sections discussing the idiosyncransies of the grammar used in the dialog passages with lots of examples. Later the dialogue is also presented in English, but you are encouraged to comprehend it without referring to it. The chapters then contain more "Function" sections with separate "Grammar notes" and exercises with smaller vocabulary sections as needed, plus a separate reading comprehension and a listening comprehension section at the end. The stories and the related material radiates a very warm and friendly atmosphere which makes learning a lot of fun. There are a lot of pictures related to the stories and the exercises but they are by no means fluffing up the book but rather they are very useful and are an integral part of the chapters as study aid. The material related to grammar is organized in an amazingly well thought out fashion and it is perfect for future reference as well. Along with the grammar some of the more common kanji are also introduced at first with furigana showing the proper way to pronounce each and later without it if it is used in the same passage, to help reinforce the learning process. The vocabulary sections will also show these frequent kanji next to their hiragana version. Here I have to make a note that the earlier chapters also have romaji (Japanese text using English characters) under the dialogue lines and next to the hiragana in the vocabulary section to help with learning hiragana and katakana. Amongst other things the end of the book contains the solution to the exercises in the chapters and a handy Japanese-English summary vocabulary section for the words used in the book with a reference to the first page where the word was introduced. The inside front cover has a nice hiragana/katakana chart and the inside of the back cover has a list of the most common "particles and other grammatical markers" In conclusion the only thing I can add to what I have already stated above, that if I could have a single book to help me learn Japanese then this book would be it. In addition to the book I would highly recommend listening to Japanese music and also recording Japanese movies you watched onto tape or MD and then listening to them before falling asleep or while you are doing other things. I found this highly effective in getting used to the way the language sounds, and I think it is the best way to immerse yourself in Japanese short of moving to Japan... ^_^ Well, enjoy the book and I hope you'll find it as useful as I have.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book.. reflects how Japanese works., January 31, 2002
Ok, first of all, you *must* learn hiragana & katakana to use this book. I recommend getting James Heisig's book on learning both. That said, this book jumps right into Japanese, and assumes you will *work* to learn the language. Each chapter, assuming you do the exercises will take several days. But they are well worth it. One great thing this book does is use realistic Japanese conversational structures. Most books use convoluted (to the japanese ear) but educational (to the learner) sentences. This book always presents a "typical" japanese construct (as well as the more educational styles). One disappointing thing with this book is that I have not been able to locate the tapes that go with it. Other than that, this is a great book to learn japanese with (tho you have to be willing to work hard!)
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