4 comments about Japanese for Busy People I: Romanized Version includes CD (Japanese for Busy People).

1. This is the best book to learn Japanese. It is very helpful...If you want to learn Japanese, you should buy this book.. Thanks amazon for offer it.



2. Not for the casual tourist who will vacation in Japan. Using this book, you will not learn the necessary phrases for a short trip to Japan. If you want to learn common phrases, do not buy this book. It was designed for serious students of the language.
   
   On that note, it is unbelievable that a text book of this caliber would be Romanized. If you are a serious student, then take this review seriously: learn hiragana immediately. Do not buy this book; buy the kana version of this book, and begin studying hiragana while you are waiting for it to arrive in the mail. If your college forces you to buy the Romanized version (like mine did), do future students a favor by requesting that they switch over to the kana version.
   
   Although my review of this book sounds harsh, do not be mislead. I like the Japanese for Busy People text book series, and, like all serious students of the Japanese language, despise Romanized books. Buy the kana version.



3. I am using the book in conjunction with a class at a local college. The book is proving to be very useful. I received the book in good condition and I am very pleased with it.



4. This book meets all the requirements of a solid work except for one: content. It is clearly targeted at business people, so the title should be "Japanese for business people". While this is not a problem, the style that comes with it, is. It is cold because it presents business in a very impersonal way.
   Grammar is perfectly well explained, there need not be more because there is almost no grammar. Having known nothing about the language before buying this book, the easiness of the structure of the language - there is almost no morphology - is quite shocking. It is definitely one of three easiest languages I ever learned. The book would greatly benefit from a content that is less targeted at middle management and sales people.

5 comments about Japanese Step by Step : An Innovative Approach to Speaking and Reading Japanese.

1. This book is overall a great book and covers all of the areas that you will ever need in learning Japanese grammar. I am very happy with it, but it may not be for some people, because it has an odd way of presenting the material.
   
   The verbs are given in a long list of five to six pages. In fact, there are many lists of random vocab (no nouns), and you will find most of these at the beginning, so if you do indeed wish to read the book to learn Japanese "step by step" you will have to wade through lots of vocab before you get the real grammar. Otherwise, You will have to find a way to review it and organize the learning process yourself, because this book presents it in such a way that it would be silly to go in order.
   
   There are plenty of examples that illustrate every concept, along with kanji. However, this is another quirk. The use of kanji is not consistent. Kanji only appears in the examples (and the section on kanji) and is relatively non-existent other wise. There are many tables and lists of words that have no kanji at all. This is frustrating, because I find the kanji very helpful when remembering the word, and I have to look most of it up myself.
   
   The portions that are written in romaji use an odd style to inform you of the tones. Capital letters and underlining are supposed to show you how you should increase the pitch, and this will easily through you in to accenting the capital letters instead of raising the pitch which is not terribly important in the first place.
   
   All that said, this is the best book I've found that touches on all of the points you will need to know. I recommend it for those who have studied Japanese before, but are still looking for a concrete method to go by. Beginners should probably read something else first and late intermediate will probably not find this book necessary unless as a reference.
   
   4/5



2. Well, I think that if you are a computer engenier you will learn Japanese in no time with such a book.
   I was completely lost with the do-re lullabies in order to get the proper tone when I say bridge or chopsticks in Japanese, and then I find awful to encourage people to use kanji, when the book itself has most of the examples in romaji.
   I think the author should anyway have to show the stroke order, but that is superfluos for Ibm professionals, perhaps.
   An interesting experience, anyway



3. This book was also a pretty good add to my collection. Although I found some parts of the book to be rather dry and somewhat boring, I feel that this it would prove to be a rather excellent tool for beginners.



4. This is the best book for learning Japanese on your own, that I have bought. It is as good or better than most textbooks that I have read.
   There are lots of examples and vocab as well as grammer. Only complaint is that the book uses different size letters to teach you the correct pitch for each word, but it is nothing you can't get used to.



5. This was the first book I bought when I decided to study japanese and I will never regret it. In fact, when I look through some other books on the same subject I almost think that I would never have continued studying if I had not bought this book.
   
   This book starts of with presenting the structure behind simple japanese sentences so that you can say "That building is high" or "I like apples" after the first 1-2 chapters (say 30 minutes of reading).
   
   Come chapter 4, time, place, adverbs and other things are covered and although it is impossible to learn how all the particles are used in different situations the first time you read about them you will always have some of their usages explained as a valuable reference.
   
   Once you progress through chapter 4 you will have a solid foundation on which to build upon. The author then covers bits and pieces that appear again and again in common japanese speech and can really help you improve your japanese through almost no work at all.
   
   I strongly recommend reading about these bits and pieces and then watching a japanese film. You will notice that these expressions appear again and again with different verbs in different situations. And as you hear them, you will remember what they meant and understanding will no longer be a problem.
   
   I hope this review was somewhat coherent. I like this book and I have tried to explain why.

5 comments about Basic Japanese: Learn to Speak and Understand Japanese with Pimsleur Language Programs (Simon & Schuster's).

1. I went to Japan for 2 weeks this summer and the Pimsleur audio CDs were a life saver. I only got through 8 of the lessons before going, but they gave me the confidence to use between 10 and 20 phrases with ease while traveling in Japan. Most Japanese understand and even speak very functional English. Starting with at least one sentence in Japanese will encourage them to try much harder to work with you in English. Speaking a little Japanese is a must because, in Japan, the Kanji makes a Westerner essentially illiterate.



2. The Pimsleur Japanese Course is top notch. This course enables a person to learn a new language without having to memorize alot of information that is soon forgotten. Thirty minutes a day is all it takes. From the first CD I was able to pick up Japanese very quickly. I would highly recommend this product to anyone wanting to learn a foreign language.



3. I bought this for my 11-year-old who is obsessed with learning Japanese - and for that matter, becoming Japanese! He practices every day. The new lessons repeat items from previous lessons which helps to remember. My older son received a different book for Christmas from a friend studying linguistics. My son has listened to them both and said this book is better for the beginning student. I intend to stick with the Pimsleur Programs based on this positive experience.



4. I got the discs yesterday and listened to the first one last night. I can't believe how much I've already learned. I've always learned better with visuals so I was skeptical about learning with CDs and no book to follow but it hasn't been a problem. I can't wait to start disc 2 tonight. I've been practicing today what I learned from disc 1 and am thrilled that I remember it all. This program is both easy and fun and I highly recommend it to anyone that wants to give Japanese a try but doesn't want to invest too much money just yet. I'll be buying the next set in the series for sure!



5. The only reason I am giving this item 3 stars is because it does not come with a booklet manual that one can follow along. I have started listening to the cd's; it is like doing it blindly. It might useful for the non visual learner. Bit for me I am more of a visual learner.

5 comments about Japanese for Busy People I: Kana Version includes CD (Japanese for Busy People Series).

1. These books are actually very handy learning tools. What frustrates me is how many version there are!! I got the romaji verison of volume I a few years back, but I grew frustrated with all the English characters in it. After all, the only way to practice kana is by reading it. So I recently decided to order volume I in the Kana version, but it's not even remotely the same book. How often to they change this book, like every year? It's completely different material!! It's confusing to know which workbook goes with which volume and so on and so forth. I wish this company would be more clear about all the different verison available and what goes with each volume, b/c the exercises in them are really helpful.



2. I've heard so many good reviews about this book, that I finally bought it. I've learned more with this book about making sentences, than I have with all my other books. My other books start off with "This is a pen. That over there is a pen." Yeah ok, how useful is that really?
   
   This book tells about Mr. Smith, the lawyer from ABC Foods, and his adventures in Japan. A couple of useful items are Mr. Smith's schedule, and giving directions to a driver. Both of which are great lessons I wish I had known when talking to Japanese friends months ago!! Other relevant subjects are shopping, going out to dinner or a movie. Ordering food, tickets or getting your size clothing is not mentioned. Hopefully that will be covered in future books.
   
   This book is well thought out, and gives the definitions of words when they first occur. English translations are only at the beginning of the next lesson. After that, they expect you to remember the words and be able to read Japanese. My only complaints about the book, is I wish they would start introducing kanji in each chapter, and give you more room to write.



3. If you're looking for a good book to learn Japanese language, you probably have too many choices flooding your mind and have no idea which one is for you, because every one of them seems good. So, why this one?
   
   This book is very well organized. It contains 11 units to cover the most practical topics surviving in Japan, such as meeting people, shopping, gettig around, dinning out, visiting a japanese home, responding inquiries at office, and socializing, etc. Each unit is consist of a culture note, a specific grammar syntax and usage, and a couple of lessons. Each lesson starts with a short dialogue to illustrate the common conversation of the unit's topic. It also provides a detail explanation on the sentence usage and the new vocabulary introduced in the dialogue. Few exercises are followed to help readers to get familiarized and practice what they have just learned. An audio CD is also accompanied with this book to demonstrate the conversation addressed in each dialogues. At the end of the book, it comes with the Appendixes, which provides a summary of all the particles, sentence patterns, adjectives, etc. in a list with examples and reference to the book's units & lessons. In addition, it has a mini-dictionary with english to japanese and japanese to english. This book also makes use of a lot of pictures to illustrate dialogues and exercises. It really helps the reader to have a more relax and interesting learning journey. After finishing this book, you should be able to have the following skills: (i) basic usage of nouns, verbs, adjectives, (b) basic conversation for essential everyday siturations, and (c) reading and writing hiragana & katakana.
   
   Well, although there's a romanji version of this "Japanese for Busy People I (Revised 3rd Edition)", I would still recommend the readers to get this "Kana" version to learn the real Japanese in a Japanese character forms. If you do not know about the Japanese sound system, hiragana and katakana. You can pick up the "Japanese for Busy People I: Kana Workbook", which is an excellent book for starters. After that, go for this "Japanese for Busy People I: Kana Version". Indeed, this is the best!
   
   (Reviewed by Otto Yuen, 17-May-2007)



4. How to learn Japanese: First, get a book and master the Hiragana and Katakana syllabary. This is a must and it shouldn't take you more than a month to do that. Japanese for Busy People has a Kana workbook and that works very well with this first volume since it includes vocabulary from chapters 1 through 10. That way, by the time you immerse yourself with this book, you can start focusing more on sentence patterns. Once you've familiarized yourself with the Kana syllabary, work through the activities in this book. It will give you a solid foundation on two things - mastery of the kana (since everything is written in kana), and basic sentence patterns. If you still have the time, get a kanji book and start working on the first few hundred kanji. I highly recommend Basic Kanji Book. This way, you can correlate the kana spellings of the new vocabulary words with the actual kanji. However, your focus should be more on the correct kana spelling. I always get confused with the long vowel sounds.
   
   About this book: real excellent introduction to Japanese vocabulary, culture, and grammar. The exercises can be repetitive and are mostly substitution exercises. However, this is a great way to master the sentence patterns. My suggestion is to do the exercises and then to create one or two other sentences of your own based on what you just did. This way, you can further apply what you have just learned.
   
   Negative comment: I don't like how the book mixes hindu-arabic numerals with kana. I think this is very confusing especially for a beginner. Again, while the kanji can come later, mastering the kana spelling should take precedence over convenience. The book does tell you the correct spelling first but for the exercises, it asks you to use hindu-arabic numerals. For instance, instead of writing out (in kana) sanji (3 o'clock), it has 3ji.
   
   Once you're done with this book, skip volumes II & III. Move on to either the Genki series or Minna no Nihongo series, although I'm somewhat partial to the Minna no Nihongo series because it's more comprehensive albeit more expensive. It covers reading, writing, listening, and composition. At the same time, keep chipping away at the 1945 Joyo Kanji. In time, you will have mastered enough Nihongo to either pass the JLPT or order your favorite sushi.



5. When you begin learning Japanese, you'll hear the "Japanese for Busy People" book series mentioned quite a bit. It is hailed by many as the best learning tool for learning Japanese, and more specifically for JLPT.
   
   Though I have been studying Japanese for a few months, I decided to pick up this and volume II at a Barnes and Nobles a week ago.
   
   First of all, I love that this version is all kana. Kana need to be learned and used as early as possible in your Japanese learning experience. I like that they also have a Romanized version, for people who may be using "Japanese for Busy People" as their first tool. I do wish that they would include a better description of Kana and Romanji in the description though. I can see how it would be easy for someone to purchase this version online without knowing that they needed to be able to read kana.
   
   The book first introduces a series of nine characters, all of which are somehow connected to the fictional "ABC Foods" store. These characters are rather pointless however, as there really seems to be no ongoing story or any reason why the reader needs to know about these nine characters. It's just a little thing that bugged me.
   
   The twenty-five lessons span across eleven units, each unit sort of piecing together similar grammatical ideas. Each lesson contains a script of a short conversation between two people and a translation at the bottom. This is followed by a series of notes that explain certain concepts in the conversation. After this, the book delves into some vocab terms and finally it tests your knowledge by asking for you to write example sentences. Each unit is ended by taking a test, the answers to which are in the back of the book. The overall layout is good, but I was excited to hear about the "Culture notes" at the beginning of each unit. I was disappointed to see that the notes are about two paragraphs describing VERY basic information (Talks about bowing in one unit, another describes Sushi and Tenpura). If you want an idea of Japanese culture, you will need to get a book specifically aimed at that.
   
   Let me say this: If you hate taking classes and reading textbooks then this book is NOT for you. This is basically a watered downed school textbook, in fact I understand it is often used as a textbook for Japanese classes.
   
   But if you a truly committed to learning the Japanese language, then this textbook is a great way to do it. If you pull your hair out at the thought of taking a Japanese class to do it, you should probably find another method of learning :).
   
   Positives:
   -Twenty-five lessons that cover nearly all the needed grammatical information.
   
   -Example sentences and tests that help the reader test their abilities to write and speak Japanese.
   
   -Glossary, index of particles, and sentence structures make it easy to find exactly what you're looking for.
   
   Negatives:
   -Reads like a textbook. Not for users who are looking to learn Japanese but hesitant to go to a classroom.
   
   -So-called "Culture notes" are really just a few paragraphs that talk about very basic info that most people probably already know.
   
   -The blank spaces they give you to write example sentences are often much to short to fit the whole sentence in. At least for me.

5 comments about Remembering the Kanji: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters (Manoa).

1. If you say this method doesn't work, you have either a) have a lazy imagination, or b) don't have the focus right now to learn a different language anyway. Using this book takes dedication, work, and not a little creativity. Kanji are as important as vocabulary in the Japanese language, so using the fastest, most efficient method to learn them is key to learning the language as a whole in a faster, more efficient manner. Use this book, improve your grades in a language class, acquire the ability to read printed Japanese, tell your friends, impress natives that you meet.



2. I find Heisig's book to be extremely helpful in memorizing the Kanji, its stroke order, but not its meaning. For example, there is a Kanji in his book listed as being "Word," when in fact it is used as "language" Japanese. Other Kanji which he defines turn out to be slightly different from their actual meaning. I believe he did this in order to make memorization easier, but I find it odd to come across a Kanji, remember that it means "X," but later find out that it also means "Y," or is some slight variation on "X."



3. It's been almost two years since I started learning Japanese and I still struggle remembering hundreds of kanji characters I've read over the period. RTK has been my companion only for the past few months, yet I can see a big difference in how I comprehend every new kanji. The method is of course based on mnemonics, which is basically what you cannot live without, when you have to memorize all these characters.
   
   The great thing about this book, is that it gradually introduces the so called "primitives" followed by kanjis themselves. With the help of these "primitives'" system you can either build up your own mnemonics or carefully follow the Heisig provided stories.
   
   Heisig however decided to only assign one English meaning to each character and usually it turns out as a bad choice. Although the intention was to simplify the learning process, it made it somewhat worse, for you'd have to memorize the kanji from the scratch, when you come upon its other meanings. That's one of the biggest flaws of this otherwise great introduction to kanji.
   
   My suggestion would be to carefully look up each Kanji, pick the most common meaning provided and if it's something completely different from Heisig's keywords (thus the mnemonics) just start making up your own stories (which is basically all you're left to do in the middle of the book).
   o
   Finally the tools that you shouldn't start your journey without:
   google for "kanji + kohii" website - a great site with user shared mnemonics - highly recommended
   SRS (Spaced Repetition System) applications namely Anki (premade Heisig deck available), Supermemo. These will make sure you never forget what you've learnt.



4. Heisig developed a unique method for learning the Kanji, or the Chinese characters as they are used in Japan. He splits the study of Chinese characters in two phases.
   
   Phase 1-Learn to write all 2000 Toyo kanji (i.e. the Ministry of Education's general use characters) from an English keyword (Book I).
   
   Phase 2-After learning to write all 2000 kanji, study how they are read and pronounced (Book II, sold separately).
   
   In Book I, Heisig organizes the kanji somewhat as they are organized in kanji dictionaries. Some kanji, often called radicals, are simple and very distinct in form and meaning. More complex kanji are assembled from the simpler radicals. You learn the kanji by concocting mnemonic stories, the more dramatic the better, and using the radicals as story elements.
   
   The method stirs controversy. Usually, kanji are taught by order of frequency, with the most often used characters being taught first. Heisig doesn't care about that order and some obscure kanji come very early in his list. Also the characters aren't conquered one at a time, but rather you learn to write all of the characters in the Toyo list before learning how to read any of them.
   
   If you do chose to follow Heisig's method, you really should get Heisig's flash cards as well. If you complete both books, there is a third book covering another 1000 characters for upper level literary proficiency.
   
   My experience is that Heisig's method will work more or less effectively depending on how good you are at remembering stories. And of course, the method will not exempt you from having to sit down and do the work! It will take you a few months.
   
   But whatever method you chose, you will benefit from living in Japan and combining your kanji study with language study. By living in Japan you will encounter the kanji every day and you will recognize kanji you have learned, a very rewarding feeling.
   
   Vincent Poirier, Tokyo



5. Learning Kanji by rote memorization the way native Japanese do is something that is only worth pursuing if you happen to start your Japanese language studies at any early age. As a fully developed adult, the way in which one should go about studying vast amounts of characters is entirely different from that of a child. Through various techniques utilizing visualization and imagination, this book presents a radically different approach that blows traditional kanji learning methods out of the water.
   
   It does require some mental flexibility on your behalf but the rewards are astonishing, should you put the proper time and effort forth necessary into this study series.
   
   Do not be afraid by the lack of readings and other aspects you may deem pertinent, as this first series is solely designed to help you commit the characters' meaning and writing to memory. You will find that once you have a character's core meaning internalized all the other elements fall into place.
   
   I highly recommend this book to those who have found themselves frustrated by traditional methods of studying the characters and also to those who wish to systematize what they already may know.
   
   As my studies progressed I found myself altering some of the imaginary/arbitrary meanings associated with radicals in order to cement them in my mind. While Heisig recommends following his system strictly, remember that he created this system from scratch. So this is not the final end all be all. You too are entitled to create your own offshoot or modify this as it suits you best. As human beings we all have different strengths and weaknesses. Once you can harness your true learning potential strengths, the sky is the limit. I was able to take the fundamental principals shown in this book and run with it.
   
   I hope you can use it in a way that will benefit you as well!

5 comments about Let's Learn Hiragana: First Book of Basic Japanese Writing (Kodansha's Children's Classics).

1. I've been looking for a good book so that I can start to teach myself how to write Japanese characters, and to my surprize this book really did the trick. I personally am not taking any other Japanese classes, nor have I had any in the past, but I love reading manga and really wanted to see if I could try to read the originals. So it became a hobby really, and this book has really aided me in my goal to read Japanese!



2. I've been struggling with hiragana for quite a while before i discovered this book on this website. I read previous reviews and almost all agreed on one fact: This book is a must-have for japanese language learners.
   
   In less than 14 days, i was able to read all the hiragana characters. Wow! I didn't know it could be so easy!!! now i'm learning the katakana characters, of course, from the SAME author.



3. While taking a Basic Japanese course I was having difficulty remembering my hiragana. The lessons are helpful and easy to complete. The crossword puzzle was a great challenge! When I finished this book I aced my written and oral tests. I even began to read Japanese magazines and books with basic hiragana. Along with my class lessons this book helped me a lot!! Now I'm doing the 'Let's learn Katakana' book. They should make a 'Let's Learn Kanji' book!!



4. Ok, believe it or not, Using this book, I mastered reading Hiragana in 3 days. Of course, I couldn't put it down, and I also bought hiragana flash cards too which helped a lot as well, but still, the books was AMAZING. if you are trying to learn Hiragana in a flash, this is a great book. I can now read hiragana just by looking at it, and I can write it too. It's a great book and I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn hiragana easily, and in a way, kinda fun too!



5. I learned the entire hiragana characters in 2 months thanks to this book!
   
   Very simple, explanative and easy to follow!
   
   I recommend!

5 comments about Japanese in Mangaland: Basic Japanese Course Using Manga.

1. This series is the best I've found after floundering off and on for years. I am a visual learner and the best way to learn for me is to read, but reading Japanese has always been presented as something difficult and fearful. Traditional courses put it off as long as possible and you are always taught "polite" language first. However, most of us who want to learn the language are used to hearing the extremely colloquial language found in our favorite anime and/or reading manga. This course, focused as it is on manga reading, does just the opposite. Polite language is not ignored, but colloquialisms that would only be taught to advanced students elsewhere are brought up right from the first.
   
   More importantly, this course hits reading head on from the first page. While it's true that they hang on to romaji throughout the first book, it is eliminated in the two that follow. As the author warns in the preface to Vol. 2, it's time to strap on a headband and get to work after you've made it through the introductory first volume.
   
   I've now finished the second volume and have begun tackling the third in preparation for the JLPT in December. The author claims that you should be ready for the level 3 after Vol. 3, and I intend to put that to the test...literally.
   
   Frankly, I would like to see this series repackaged for college use with more workbooks like that accompanying the first volume (and the answers only found in the teacher's edition!). This series is that good (even with the occasional typos and the one "hacer" they forgot to take out...remember that it was translated from Spanish) and most college course books that I've seen are that BAD. (Don't even get me started on the dense, dry style and confusing romaji in "Japanese: The Spoken Language". It's horrible, and is yet one of the more commonly used series. *sigh*)
   
   The format changes slightly after the first volume, with in depth work with those evil particles and verb conjugations. But to get to the heavy hitting work, you first must make it through the first volume.
   
   My suggestion is to buy all 3 and the workbook for volume one and give yourself the goal of passing the level 3 JLPT (there are 4 levels with 4 being the easiest and 1 the hardest). With a definite goal and a once a year testing schedule with a definite date that YOU have no control over, it's much easier to buckle down and study.
   
   It's working well for me, anyway. I've already noticed myself automatically reading the signs in pictures I took on vacation in Japan a few years ago..and not just the ones in English or kana!



2. I've been studying Japanese for 5 months. I've worked through, "Japanese for Busy People" the Romanji version. It will take about 10-12 years of daily study to be able to read Japanese if not write it..even if you go through this entire series you won't be able to pick up seinen manga and read it with out more vocabulary and kanji memorization. Even shounen with furigana will be difficult.
   However this series is a great way to introduce ones self to the Manga style of writing.
   
   One thing I have noticed is that my other dictionaries and source books on verbs list type 1 verbs as the "u" dropping variable verbs, while this book lists type one verbs (it refers to them as group 1) as the "ru" dropping invariable verbs.
   
   I'm far from being an expert on written Japanese grammar, however I was confused at first with this (I'm working my way through several books and dictionaries from cover to cover simultaneously).
   
   
   Please correct me if I'm wrong.
   Thank you,
   Michael



3. This book made me realize how hard Japanese really is. Its a great book for the interested but don't think that your going know Japanese after just reading this. Combine with the Japanese in MangaLand: Workbook 1 for effective learning. I only got this to familiarize myself of what I'm getting into when I take Japanese in the coming semester at school.



4. My daughter bought this and is learning Japanese faster than when she was getting books from the library. I am impressed. I may spring to pay for the next one.



5. Hi,
   
   I don't usually write reviews too often unless I feel the need to let someone know whether or not they're about to make a purchasing mistake.
   
   This review is mostly going to be tailored to people (like myself) who are obsessed with anime and dream that, one day, they too will be able to watch an anime without subtitles and understand everything, among other things.
   
   With that in mind, this book is by far THE best beginners' Japanese course I have ever found. I have purchased many of the popular titles you may have already heard of... (ex: Japanese for Busy People) and I was so frustrated at myself for never sticking past the first chapter... blaming myself for my lack of discipline. Now it is no longer a mystery to me--it wasn't my fault! These books are extremely dull and boring to anime fans. "Where is the train station? Thank you, Tanaka-san, for the rice. Would you like to sit down? Okay. Nice to meet you. Thank you very much! What time does your train leave? etc etc..." Not only that, but you never learn anything interesting / in style, and you are pretty much reduced to learning "Watashi and Anata" as the only way to address I and you, respectively. Jeez, what were they thinking? Doing that completely takes the fun out of Japanese learning and gives me the mistaken impression my hopes of Japanese as a cool language were simply pipe-dreams.
   
   This book takes care of all that. You will learn how to say "You bastard!!!" like you hear so often in Anime. You will see examples of beautiful anime girls asking if they can bathe with guys they like. You will so cute cartoons express themselves in silly ways. But that's not all! It is a beginner's book too, so you will learn how to say days of the week, calendar days, seasons, how to count and the different systems, etc... all the critical stuff. Even a few swear words! You will learn how to read and write Hiragana and Katakana right off the bat (you do not need to purchase anything else for this either, as it is all succinctly explained in 2 chapters, even stroke order.. etc).
   
   You also may be wondering how they teach this information. 1. Charts. 2. Explanations... and 3... Real manga examples! What better way to learn casual day to day conversation-style that's so apparent in Anime and everyday life? I can't think of a better way. I really don't want to learn Japanese from a hoity-toity course and speak like those geeks wearing lawyer outfits you see around town with their "the Queen's" Japanese. No, none of that, though you will be able to speak like that if you choose to. To illustrate, I was even saying some of the things in this book to Japanese waitresses with excited and happy results, such as: "You speak exactly like a Japanese man!!! Oh my God! Where did you learn?". Nowhere, no formal education, just many hours of anime, this course, and a sincere desire to be able to speak it fluently.
   
   There is one complaint about the book... (another reviewer was correct in pointing this out). There is no stroke order to draw / write the kanji. I do find this quite irritating, as I'd like to go along with the book and learn these simple kanji without developing bad habits. (hence the 4-star rating). Thankfully though, all hope is not lost, and it's not that big of a deal. Get Heisig's Remembering the Kanji set which will teach you 2042 Kanji and their readings, stroke order, etc etc. Book 3 of 3 has another thousand or so).
   
   In conclusion, if you love Anime / manga, and haven't purchased any other books looking for a beginner's Japanese course to do on your own, then this it. Look no further. I am extremely grateful to the author for deciding to use this radical yet effective method of teaching me Japanese.
   
   Thank you.

5 comments about Dirty Japanese: Everyday Slang from "What's Up?" to "F*ck Off!".

1. I am just beginning to learn Japanese, and decided to pick this up so I could not only learn Formal Japanese, but some of the slang as well. And just glancing through this, this is hilarious. Not sure if I would ever use it on anyone (yeah, why not...lol), but I think you may as well have a fuller appreciation of any language by learning the "high-speak" and "low-speak". At the very least, it's a good read for a laugh.



2. I would recommend this book to anyone who actually wants to go to Japan and be able to speak casually (as opposed to what is taught in college classes) to people at clubs, on the street, etc. Sometimes it's frustrating when you can't learn exactly what you *want* to say, especially if you're wanting to hit on that cute Japanese guy/chick in class and you want to impress them. Even if you're not going to use it, it is very interesting and funny to read. This is for people who already have some knowledge of the Japanese language. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who isn't familiar with Japanese sentence structure.



3. I found this book and I am a student learning Japanese. I found this book to be very humorous, especially in the order they put them in. I like the little side sections they put in such as the tan-tan-tanuki drinking song. I find this very enjoyable and I think many other people would find this book wonderful and humorous to read also unless you have no sense of humor.



4. I work for the Union Pacific Railroad as a Locomotive Engineer, this book will surely help in passing the time. Theres a Spanish one coming out here soon which will help me out in Mexico. I was just wanting to see how it was put together to help me decide if i should purchase it. This book looks like it will make for some laughs.



5. I am a student of the Japanese language so I bought a copy of "Dirty Japanese" thinking it would nicely round out my education, which is mostly from staid textbooks. Well, I showed it to a bunch of my Japanese friends, and they were laughing their a**es off at the extent to which many of the phrases in the book were either inaccurate or simply dated. I admit this book is somewhat humorous to read even if you don't speak Japanese at all, but beware, you might not be learning anything useful by reading it.

5 comments about Genki 1: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1.

1. I am teaching myself Japanese and I really like this text. This book has a good collection of vocabulary and is very easy to follow. I recommend this book to everyone. It is excellent! My Japanese friend is very impressed with what I was able to teach myself. I feel very confident in what I have learned. The student CD that accompanies is a little lacking, though. It only covers dialogue and vocab for the book (and workbook), when I really wish the CD included more from the textbook. I also recommend getting the workbook for more practice. You should know that you need the student CD to use the workbook. Genki 1 has to be the best text out there for learning Japanese!



2. This book may be good for young students who anticipate homestays (and I'm skeptical even about that, for reasons below), but if you're an adult you may find this book excruciating. I recently moved to Japan, and finally determined to take some private lessons to get a more systematic grasp on the language than I have had hitherto. My school uses this text. I can't compare it with other college-style textbooks, which may mostly suffer from the same problems, but among the issues I have with it are:
   
   @ The framing scenario is of foreign students living in homestays and interacting with their homestay families and with each other; there is also a lot of school-related vocabluary. This is largely irrelevant for an adult's experience. It is useless for business, BTW (though in my own case, I was looking more for daily life vocabulary and situations than business).
   
   @ Even within this scenario, the book doesn't teach you how to really have conversation -- all classmates address each other with polite "-masu" form verbs. In real life, this would be distant or even rude with your pals. (Moreover, on the accompanying tapes female gaijin characters like "Mary" and "Sue" address their classmates and homestay parents in that saccharine, squeaky little-girl voice that is normally used by shop staff and female announcers on infomercials, not people talking to friends or family.)
   
   @ In Japan, it is very rare for people to mirror back to you what you say, or for it to be appropriate for you to mirror back to them. This is especially true if your main interactions are with people in shops, where they will use a lot of "keigo" (honorific speech) or other specialized formulas. Simple example: A waitress will bring stuff to your table and ask "Yoroshii desu ka?" (Is that OK?), you don't answer back "Hai, yoroshii desu." Even saying goodbye is highly context dependent; e.g. when someone says "Sorry I'm being so rude as to leave before you," even if you can catch the Japanese phrase you will look like an idiot if you reply symmetrically (been there, done that). This book doesn't give you a clue about dealing with such situations, nor help you to unravel what Japanese people are saying to you when they respond to your questions or remarks. All dialogues and exercises are based on the mirroring principle (as well as indiscriminate use of "wa", the topic particle). So it's pretty useless for practical purposes -- unless you plan to use Japanese in class only.
   
   @ While it's a plus that reading & writing practice are integrated into the text, the reading selections in early chapters are devoid of imagination. After several chapters of reading stuff like "Are you OK? I am fine. It's cold here in Japan. I took some pictures, studied Japanese and took a bath. My father is nice, but very busy," and so on, you just want to scream.
   
   @ Although the publication date is 1999, at which time a dot-com boom was beginning even in Japan, this book is snail-mail all the way: you spend time learning about stamps and postcards, but there isn't anything about email, the Internet or texting. (Forget also about DVDs -- people watch videos.)
   
   @ Japanese verb conjugation has a wonderful regularity, in that almost every verb has a set of stems that are based variously on -A-, -I-, -U-, -E- and -O- (e.g., negative, polite, dictionary, causative and "let's" forms, respectively). This tracks the order of Japanese vowels in the kana writing systems, so it's easy to remember. However, "Genki"'s presentation of verbs obliterates this useful pattern (see, e.g. conjugation chart @ 344 of Vol. I).
   
   @ The book lacks any review chapters, appendices, exercises or quizzes to help you consolidate what you've learned in a chunk of preceding chapters. Schools don't necessarily take the initiative to review the material every now and then, so you may need to request special quizzes to force yourself to review stuff you studied weeks earlier. My teachers were amenable when asked, though my lessons are one-on-one, and this might be more difficult to do if the book is used in a class situation (you might ask about that before you sign up). If you're using the book to study on your own, you're on your own with this too.
   
   Like most students of Japanese, I've stocked up on a shelfload of other books of varying usefulness. (Two of the best, Rita Lampkin's "Japanese: Verbs and Essentials of Grammar" and Jay Rubin's "Making Sense of Japanese", unfortunately are exclusively in Roman characters, or nearly so.) You will definitely need to to the same (or at least half a shelfload) if you use this book. But not getting bored by the boook will be a bigger challenge if you're older than 22. One possible tip might be to look for a book that has at least one gaijin co-author. This one is written entirely by Japanese authors; it could have benefitted from the perspective of a formerly-puzzled foreigner.



3. I learned Japanese as a second language from the Genki books, and now I use them to teach students of my own. This is by far the best Introductory Japanese book out there!



4. This book is very good, but there are not many to choose from. This was 3 quraters of classes.
   
   Overall a good book!



5. This book is great for people who want to learn by themselves our with a teacher. It has real life situations and easy to learn. I recommend buying the textbook for more practice and the CD.

5 comments about Essential Kanji: 2,000 Basic Japanese Characters Systematically Arranged For Learning And Reference.

1. I bought this book hoping that it would provide me with a means of learning kanji. I was quite disappointed when it arrived. This book is nothing more than a reference. It shows you a kanji, gives you a short and concise English meaning for it, gives you the readings (in romaji, rather than hiragana and katakana), gives you 2 compounds that use the kanji, and it gives you the stroke order. That's basically it. There's no commentary on the kanji telling you how to remember them, the history of it, or ANYTHING. The compounds that it gives you for each kanji don't even give you context for how the word should be used. All of the information in this book is freely available at numerous web sites across the internet, or in most kanji dictionaries. This book has basically just sat on my shelf collecting dust since I purchased it.
   
   If you are truly interested in learning Kanji, I would recommend that you start with the excellent book "Remembering the Kanji volume 1" by James Heisig. It's an amazing book that teaches you how to remember the kanji quite effortlessly. I learned how to write all of the joyo kanji from memory in just 3 months using that book.
   
   This book on the other hand, just seems rather... pointless.



2. This book has the principal 2000 kanji with their meaning, hiragana writting and a great thing: the correct order to write kanji (correct order of each line).



3. I've tried several kanji learning books and this one is not a bad one. I think the only cool part was that it also has the Mandarin reading and traditional characters. Unfortunately that's where the goodness ends. For each word only two compounds are given, which I think isn't enough. And it doesn't always point out which words have awkward readings. I think it's a nice course though but I'd say it'd would be a lot better to Get The Kodansha Kanji Learners Dictionary (Japanese for Busy People) because it just goes so much more into detail and lists a lot more compounds and does everything this book does and more, except for mandarin reading and the explanation of character, but i think this book doesn't do a good job in the explanation of the characters either.



4. The book was in excellent condition. I had purchased it for my son who is teaching English in Japan currently. He'll be home for vacation in August. He had asked me to purchase it for him so he can become more proficient in Japanese Kanji.



5. There is no reason to buy this book. It is not a kanji dictionary, so it will be of limited use for that purpose. It also has very limited use as a self-instruction text, because the order the kanji are presented in is illogical for foreign learners (so many times you end up learning a complicated kanji, only to find that simple parts of that kanji turn up as their own kanji *later in the book*), and there are no mnemonics of any kind. Many compound words are presented, but there is no information on how to actually use them, so you cannot use it to learn new vocabulary unless you already know the words. The stroke order diagrams are mildly helpful, but you can find animated ones online for free (WWWJDIC will have a diagram for probably every single kanji in the book). Basically, the book amounts to one big kanji list. Henshall's Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters, Heisig's Remembering the Kanji, etc. are much better than this.