Features

• Audiobook

Reviews (51)

Essential...if you know how to use it.
This is actually a review for more than one product (Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone)
It gets the job done...
I live in Japan and have used these CDs to study basic conversation.I listen to each lesson twice while driving to and from work.After a month or two I find that I am able to communicate much better than before.I highly reccomend these CDs, though I would suggest suplementing with other study methods.

An overall good intro to spoken Japanese
I have used more the one audio coarse of the last several years in my attempts to learn Japanese. Most are what I would call parrot tapes, they give you a phrase in English then have you repeat it a couple of time in Japanese and thats all they do. While that might work for simple phrases that a tourist might need in a pinch when they can't find a English speaker it doesn't really teach you the language.
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Subjects:  1. Audio Adult: Language    2. Foreign Language Study    3. Japanese    4. Unabridged Audio - Misc.Nonfiction    5. Foreign Language Study / Japanese   

Reviews (7)

Low Quality => Low Value
Seeing the merchandise in person is not as important if you're buying a book, but it really may change your opinion on whether or not it's worth the purchase if the merchandise is flashcards.
Worth the money!
I was put off buying these cards by some of the negative reviews, but went ahead when I saw a sample card in a store. In a Japanese bookshop, they cost about 8500 yen, or $85 in US dollars. They are well worth it, as they are a good size, contain exactly the right amount of information (not too little, not too much) and are cross-referenced to other courses. You can put 100 in your pocket and review them on the train. One wonderful experience I had was in a jam-packed Narita express one night, where all of the Japanese people around me were getting into it, cheering or groaning each time I turned over a card. We had a good-sized group of 'contestants' after half an hour or so! After all, some of Heisig's kanji are not so easy - even for native speakers. I am proud to say that I now know a few kanji that some of my Japanese co-workers don't...and it drives them up the wall. The cards have the Chinese and Japanese readings and the 'real' meanings, which are, 95% of the time, the Heisig one anyway. They also have example compounds - and it is a joy to realize that you can figure these out after a while with a bit of intuition!
kanji cards
I will admit the cards are helpful, but for the price, not enough. I expected better quality and better kanji information. Yeah, buying them savse time, but making them saves money and I've found that when I write the cards myself, I learn the information better. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Blank Books / Diaries / Memory Books    2. General    3. Japanese    4. Language    5. Study Guides    6. Language self-study & phrasebooks    7. Writing skills   

Reviews (12)

This is a simple book
The biggest problem people have found with this book is that it has no Japanese characters in it. I was fortunate enough to preview the book in a bookstore before deciding to purchase it. On the first page inside the book, it says that the purpose of the book is to teach phrases and grammar and purpose and will not contain 1 Japanese symbol.
Know the purpose
On the cover of this book it says "Speak Japanese - the fun and easy way!"So why am I not complaining that it didn't include the writing?Because I knew that it was for speaking the language.This isn't exactly the advanced type of book, but it teaches a lot more than most Japanese books I have read.Most other Japanese books I have read only make you memorize specific phrases and sentences.But this one tells you how to put a sentence together.It would be beyond the scope of this book to list the writing, because this is aimed at beginners.When you get well-versed in the speaking, yes another book should do for the writing.But, for its true purpose, Japanese for Dummies does an outstanding job.

Konnichiwa!
This book is so awesome! When I was paying for it at a book store a man started speaking Japanese to me and I could understand what he was saying. We started talking and that was so awesome! The CD is so cool and I really love it! Everyone is impressed about my speaking skills and I think that's so cool!
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Subjects:  1. Audio Adult: Language    2. Conversation and phrase books    3. English    4. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    5. Foreign Language Study    6. General    7. Japanese    8. Japanese Language    9. Miscellaneous    10. Foreign Language Study / Miscellaneous    11. Language self-study & phrasebooks   

Reviews (40)

Kodansha's highly recommended
This dictionary is most excelent for intermediate students of japanese, that knows hiragana and katakana. Enjoy it!

The best J-E Dictionary you can get!
This dictionary is the best possible dictionary you can get. I've purchased, used, and browsed about a dozen different J-E, E-J, J-E/E-J and J-J dictionaries before finding this one! This is definately the one you should start with.
Incredible
This dictionary is a must have for serious students of Japanese. I especially love the example sentences it gives, something I haven't seen in other Japanese-English English-Japanese dictionaries. I would not recommend it for the dilettante or traveler, as it's size would make transport difficult and it uses kana, not romanized Japanese; so understanding of hiragana and katakana is necessary. It does seem expensive compared to other dictionaries, but it really is worth it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Dictionaries    2. Dictionaries - General    3. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    4. Japanese    5. Reference    6. Bilingual dictionaries    7. English   

Reviews (21)

Genki is the Best book I've ever seen!
Genki is a great book. 5 stars hands down. I recommend it to anyone that wants to learn japanese, but you can get it brand new and for way less than some of the prices people are selling them used for!
Genki - Excellent Japanese text
In my experience studying Japanse study, both in college and self-directed, I've owned around a dozen different "course" texts.The Genki series is by far the best I've seen.Grammar, vocabulary, and kanji are all included in the text.The pacing is very good and I really appreciated the complete dependence on kana and kanji instead of romaji (a crutch that will only slow you down in the long run).I also recommend the workbook as a supplement although the main text does contain some good review exercises.
A great start to learning Japanese
This was textbook used by my Japanese teacher in my college classes, and is a great way to start learning Japanese. As an anime, manga, video game fan, and having a general interest in Japan, this is anice way to start out. The book starts with the most basic structures and slowly builds up to making more complete sentences.
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Subjects:  1. Foreign Language Study    2. Japanese    3. Language    4. Language Teaching & Learning (Other Than ELT)    5. Japanese language   

Features

• Audiobook

Subjects:  1. Foreign Language Study    2. Japanese    3. Language    4. Unabridged Audio - Misc.Nonfiction    5. Foreign Language Study / Japanese   

Reviews (25)

AWESOME
This book is great if you want to seriously study Japanese - and it's so cheap! This gives you all the basics and more - I definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to study Japanese. All that can be said is -- this is an awesome book.

A spectacular book
When I first thought about learning Japanese, I was worried it would be too difficult.
Disapointing, perhaps useful as a referrence after the fact.
This book will not by itself have you speaking or reading Japanese.As a reference, especially for the verbal idioms, it is quite useful, but only after the fact, I fear.There are no drills, no exercises, and vocabulary is simply listed at the beginning of each major section.Here are 100 verbs, now go learn them.Here are 100 nouns, do likewise.His insistence that Japanes "adjectives" are "words to modify a noun" just as in English, can only confuse."You mean adjectives conjugate just like verbs rather than decline like nouns?"
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Subjects:  1. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    2. Foreign Language Study    3. Japanese    4. Japanese language    5. Language    6. Self-instruction    7. Textbooks for English speakers    8. Foreign Language Study / Japanese    9. Language self-study & phrasebooks   

Reviews (26)

The Best Japanese Language-Learning Resource I've Found
I have been interested in learning the Japanese language for several years, but it hasn't been until more recently that I've gotten serious about it. This review requires a bit of background, first: When I started learning, I began with the very basic "Japanese in 10 Minutes a Day." This book, though effective in teaching key phrases (question words, colors, numbers, asking for directions, etc.) does everything that's essentially wrong with language-learning books. It doesn't explain the "how" and "why" of Japanese grammar and says almost nothing about particle words. Then, I moved on to the Living Language coursebook/dictionary/CD set. The audio CDs were the best feature of this package, but the lessons moved much too fast for me. It's a great reference work for how to construct Japanese sentences and finding essential phrases...however, it is entirely in romaji with almost no information about hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Around this time, I lost interest in Japanese somewhat and it was a few years before I even attempted it again.
Excellent book!!
I think this book is the best!!!
Eh...
It forces you to learn the Kana and simple Kanji, which is good.Nobody in Japan can read romanized Japanese and most of the English in Japan is what J-popists refer to as "Engrish."But there were not enough written exercises, for me, anyways.There are often relatively complex grammar points which are followed by a minimal number of exercises.
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Subjects:  1. English    2. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    3. Japanese    4. Japanese Language    5. Japanese as a second language    6. Language    7. Textbooks for foreigners    8. Language & Linguistics    9. Language self-study & phrasebooks   

Features

• Audiobook

Reviews (4)

Sugoi!
This program is great!I use it all the time during my morning commute.Makes the long drives that much more bearable, and I can already see the difference in my Japanese!
A easy way to learn
In general I found this program useful.You do not need to read any thing.This program is desiged to be listened.You can listen it as many time as you can.
Easy to understand
I love this program!! It is so easy and fun to use that I will be purchasing this program in other languages. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Audio - Language    2. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    3. Foreign Language Study    4. General    5. Japanese    6. Japanese Language    7. Language    8. Foreign Language Study / Japanese    9. Language self-study & phrasebooks   

Reviews (22)

Essential Kanji for student and business
Entering Kanji takes time, book proposes study of two years to become familiar all characters presented. After two years student can then start to familiaze more japanese characters and their usage in real world.
Great reference
This book is awsome for looking up Kanji and learning several contexts for them. It is very easy to find the Kanji you are looking for as there are several ways to look them up including stroke counts and romaji (no kana unfortunately) indexing. The layout is very simple and clean and the information is separated very neatly.
Would've given ten stars
Of all the books on Japanese I've bought this has to be the best purchase so far. It's a 3-IN-ONE! I bought this book because I was getting to the end of my first Kanji book (Let's Learn Kanji by Joyce Mitamura, another AWESOME purchase, btw...) and needed something to take me to the next level. While this book isn't as educational as Lets Learn More Kanji, no other book I've come across is as useful or provided more bang for your buck. This book can teach you stroke order, On and Kun readings and pronunciations. You can use it to test your knowledge of kanji, particles and radicals and you can also use it as a kanji dictionary. I've found it most useful as a kanji dictionary which you can use by looking up either theradical, any reading of the character or the stroke count. There are 1,945 Joyo Kanji (the Kanji that have been designated "for everyday use" by their educational ministry) since this book has 2,000 kanji it probably has every character you'll ever need in it. It's only 325 pages long and pretty compact so it travels well and can easily fit in any bag without feeling like you're carrying around mount Fuji unlike some dictionaries I've come across. If I have any complaints it's that there are usually only 2 examples per character. It would've been nice if there were more Jukugo (compound words with 2 or more kanji characters, but haveing said that the examples are usually very good ones and the words used seem to be pretty common so you're not scratching your head trying to figure out the example. All in all a great book for those looking for a all inclusive reference book.
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Subjects:  1. Chinese characters    2. General    3. Japanese    4. Japanese language    5. Language    6. Reference    7. Study and teaching    8. Bilingual dictionaries    9. Foreign Language Study / Japanese   

Reviews (24)

Why does this book even exist?
The standard version of "Japanese for Busy People 1" has kana and romanization. This book just has the romanization removed. By adding "kana version" to the title they make sound as if the other version doesn't have kana. I say if you don't like the romanization then just don't use it. How is a beginner supposed to use this book? Especially a busy beginner.

Not effective
Grammatical structure in this book is not addressed properly. Asking students to memorize numerous verb conjugations is difficult and tedious. It would be far more effective to have students learn the rule for verb conjugation. That way they can apply it to any verb. This book takes this approach to most other grammatical technicalities, making it difficult for a student to learn Japanese effectively.

Not good at all!!
Just like the review below I didn't liked this book. Though the first lessons weren't too bad as they are easy to understand and helpfull to get you started in Japanese. But while getting further in the book it really gets bad ( actually it moves from a 3 star rating to abelow 1 star , which explains the 2 stars that I gave).
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Subjects:  1. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    2. Japanese    3. Language    4. Language & Linguistics    5. Language self-study & phrasebooks   

Reviews (22)

Kids fun book.
I began to learn Japanese over 2 years ago.
A Great Book for the Beginning Japanese Student
This book is for children. If you are just learning Japanese where do you think your skill level is at? Its at the level of a Japanese child learning Hiragana. A lot of Japanese children's books are written in Hiragana so this is where you start.
Cute and innovative, but could use a CD
I bought this book for my anime-nut six-year-old, who wants to learn Japanese.The book uses an innovative, step-by-step system and cute drawings and examples that zero in on exactly what a kid would want to learn first (although I think it would be a good book for adults, too.)I only wish it came with a companion CD included.There's a limit to how well you can learn unfamiliar pronunciations from drawings of a cartoon monkey. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. English speakers    2. Foreign Language Study    3. Japanese    4. Japanese language    5. Language    6. Study and teaching (Early chil    7. Study and teaching (Early childhood)   

Subjects:  1. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    2. Foreign Language Study    3. Japanese    4. Japanese Language    5. Language    6. Foreign Language Study / Japanese    7. Language teaching & learning material & coursework   

Reviews (25)

Good but a little dry
I learned a lot using the kana verson of this book. It does give a good coverage of the rules of the language. On the down side, I found it hard to keep motivated with the book and found Pimsleur much better when it came to keeping motivated.
Japanese for Busy People
This is the book my Japanese teacher will use next quarter. I found it harder to use than Breeze into Japanese which she also recommended, but won't be using.

Requested by sensei
I bought the book as requested by my sensei to be used in class. I bought the CD set to accompany the lessons as I traveled in my car. The book works well for classroom practice and discussion for both grammer and reading kana and romanji. There is still a lot of out-of-the-book practice for the kana in the classroom, but to learn the grammer and vocab, this book is set at a good pace. Self-study is difficult without the CD set or without classroom discussion but the book is set up to be a good thorough review after a classroom discussion for proficiency. Overall, good book for class. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. English    2. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    3. Japanese    4. Japanese language    5. Language    6. Textbooks for foreign speakers    7. Language & Linguistics    8. Language teaching & learning material & coursework   

Reviews (5)

A fantastic reference book
Everytime I am confused about an element of Japanese grammar I consult this reference book and I always walk away satisfied with all my questions answered. The translations are fantastic, the example sentences are chosen to clearly demonstrate the grammar point, and different usages are explained. What I like most is that this book takes varying English translations of the grammar point and shows how they are conceptually connected, so that you only have to remember the one grammar point rather than memorizing a bunch of seemingly different English translations.
Essential Reference.
First of all, you need both this book and the beginner's guide (Also available).The index in the back of this volume references both books and occasionally you will look up a grammar phrase and find it's in the blue beginner's volume. get it
This is a great book as the Basic japanese grammar. it's well organized like an encyclopedia. having this book and the one before will cover most often used japanese grammars. one of the best grammar out there. very concise and useful for those who are serious about being fluent in japanese. no other book have i come across that is as easy to use and understand as this book. this book is like the bible of japanese grammar. Also get the Basic japanese grammar. it will give you a very strong foundation which is a must for those who love the japanese language. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Grammar & vocabulary    2. Japanese   

Reviews (3)

Hai, Soo desu.
I recently finished the intensive intermediate course at Harvard--another summer of boot camp--and this was the text for the first 2/3 of the course. I think that it is a very good text, and along with the lab manual and CDs, the Nakama system is extremely effective. There is also a great website, "Friends of Nakama," which should be very helpful to anyone using these texts. There you'll find lots of good quizzes for vocabulary and kanji.
Nakama is your best friend
Nakama is a great tool for students who are begining their Japanese Languages study. Nakama 2 is the continuation of Nakama 1, and continues the emphasis on situational Japanese. The grammar targets are useful and informative. Learning "nakereba naranai" (have to) form IS a different concept from "-ba" (if) form. Thankfully, the text presents a practical approach to structure and not an overly "rules" based approach.

After Nakama I, a bit disappointing...
I used both Nakama I and Nakama II for the first four semesters of university Japanese classes, and Nakama I was brilliant--the early introductions to hiragana and katakana, the mnemonic devices, the themed vocabulary lists.I felt that it gave us a great start, but Nakama II went downhill.Read more

Subjects:  1. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    2. Foreign Language Study    3. General    4. Japanese    5. Language    6. Language & Linguistics    7. Language teaching & learning material & coursework    8. Modern languages (ie other than English)   

Reviews (26)

A dangerous book
It is more than 1 year since the last review for this book was written here, but reading through all the reviews there seems almost only to be positive comments about this book (the few negative comments there are, are rather unimportant things). BUT this book, used wrongly, may very well teach you Japanese that has never been heard from a native speaker's mouth.
I'm lucky to have bought it
Personally, I feel that these two books (basic/intermediate) goes together in order to have a complete reference.If it's separated, it's like splitting elementary school's vocabulary and highschool's vocabulary into two dictionary.Which dictionary should you buy if you want to check for words that seemed to be in between these two levels. For example, words like "honor".
A vital piece of reference for your Japanese library!
I bought this book and its follow-up title "A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar," and I must say that it's one of the best investments I've ever made in my effort to learn Japanese.Not only does the book cover all the basic grammatical points in great detail, but it provides several examples for each one.Moreover, it also provides several examples of sentences that are grammatically INCORRECT, and explains WHY they're wrong.
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Subjects:  1. Grammar & vocabulary    2. Japanese    3. Language & Linguistics   

Reviews (9)

Excellent japanese reader
The vocabulary list and the english translation make these japanese stories easy to read and also makes it possible to verify your understanding of the japanese texts. The soundfiles that can be downloaded from the internet make this a great listening exercise.

simply brilliant
I love this book. Where else can you expand your vocabulary, learn and retain new kanji, and develop your reading skills, all while reading a truly kick-ass story? And believe me, the stories are great. You've got "Dreams", a sometimes macabre, sometimes funny exercise in surrealism. There's "In a Grove", a page-turner of a murder mystery. My favorite is "Rashomon", which surprised me with its black humor.
I absolutely adore this book
This book went beyond my expectations. First of all, let me say that you will never get frustrated while reading this. All the information you need is right there, including definitions of the words, furigana, and the english translation. It is also nice that they place the english on the right side of the book while the japanese is on the left, which makes it easier not to cheat while reading but still keeps the english conveniently close. The words' definitions are on the bottom of the page, which makes them easy to find so you don't have to go looking up words in a dictionary or in the back.
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Subjects:  1. Fiction - General    2. Foreign Language Study    3. Japanese    4. Language    5. Short Stories (Anthologies)    6. Untranslated Fiction - General    7. Japan    8. Reading skills   

Editorial Review

How does one learn kanji, the characters of written Japanese? The traditional approach is rote memorization. Japanese children write each kanji hundreds of times at their desks, and eventually they are acquired. Michael Rowley offers a different way, a mnemonic-association approach that provides a hook on which to hang the meaning and retrieve it easily when the kanji comes into view. The concept is simple: each character is represented under the word or concept it stands for (such as Read more

Reviews (36)

At Last, A Fun Way to Memorize and Enjoy the Kanji
If you really want to get a handle on Japanese reading and writing, you're going to want to tackle at least the 1,945 Joyo Kanji (with the 1,006 essential characters and the other 939 general use characters). That might take awhile...While starting off with a book like "Guide to Reading & Writing Japanese: Third Edition" by Kenneth Henshall and getting a kanji dictionary is a good starting point, they probably won't help you actually retain the kanji very much or make visual connections.