Product Description

This self-study text offers a breakthrough approach for beginning learners of Japanese, as well as an indispensable reference for intermediate students. The unique study method in Japanese Step By Step teaches how to construct Japanese sentences, from the simplest to the most complex, using an easy-to-follow, step-by-step method. Also contains flow charts for verb conjugations and derivations.

Customer Reviews (52)

Build a language framework with this book.
Currently beginning my third year of living in Japan, and I can say with confidence that this book has been the excellent foundation upon which I stand in conversations with friends, teammates, coworkers, etc.While it may seem sparse in drills and whatever other fancy things other textbooks give you, this book gets straight to the point.

Consider language learning as building a house.Most textbooks, including those of English education in Japan, will construct one wall, based on one concept; say for example, present tense,and spent days, weeks, months filling that one wall with paint, furniture, and making it a complete, beautiful, cozy little section of wall...but it's not a house you can live in or use yet.It's just one part, tremendous amounts of time and energy spent on one tiny part of language without nary a glance at past or future tenses, with tunnel vision focus on vocabulary for your singular purpose...a total waste of time often prettied up with conversations of Ms. Amy Johnson and Takeshi and other garbage.While this book provides only sparse vocabulary, it builds you a framework quickly.Building the rest of the house is up to you, this book only takes you so far, but it does so in an incredibly efficient manner.From this book, I then made my Japanese language house, the decorating of which requires other books and more advanced study, but I can sleep in it soundly, thanks to Mr. Nishi's book.

Used in coordination with the sentences method of [...], you will advance at an astounding rate.The life I am enjoying now is a testament to this book and this system.

Great book for learning and review of Japanese
This is an excellent book as a supplement resource to learning Japanese. It is not intended to teach you the language if you are a beginner. Just a great book that should be read often if you have some mastery of the language beyond the beginner level. Everytime I read it, I pick something new or consolidate a previously learned topic.

Japanese
I bought this book maybe three years ago. When things are still getting good rating many years later, you know it has to be a decent buy. I've read partially through when I was just starting out in Japanese, and I'm still starting out in Japanese. I've been going on and off in it's study for the past ten years getting no where really. But this book is an incredible book. I believe it will definitely, now that I have the time to "get serious" about studying again, be a an indispensable asset. I am always looking for good introduction books to foreign language (but a master of none) the best things this book has: structure, diagrams, tables and lots of minor detail. And of course, when needed, it refers you to other chapters of the book. Note: This is GRAMMAR of Japanese. It does not teach you how to write Japanese. Not a downfall either. It wasn't meant to. A good book for that would be Kanji Power by John Millen - Tuttle Publishing.

Somewhat useful as a reference
This book isn't really suitable for use as one's primary way to learn Japanese, although it may be somewhat useful as a supplement to other forms of study.The basic format of most of the book is to give a terse description of a language feature, followed by several example sentences (given in kanji and kana, plus the author's own ugly romanization system).There are no exercises, and no longer examples.There are also long vocabulary lists given when new parts of speech are introduced, but no real attempt is made to relate them to the rest of the material or break them down into manageable chunks.There is also no real attempt to teach kanji, although they do appear in the examples; hiragana and katakana tables are given and briefly described, but the book mainly uses romanization.The book is not really structured in digestible lessons, and its terse explanations aren't always enough to really make a grammar point entirely clear.

This book does have some nice features, such as its conjugation tables and flow charts, which are certainly a clearer and more concise format than what is used in many textbooks.Its concise treatment of grammar points may also be a nice supplement to other textbooks, although I think once you get beyond the absolute fundamentals of Japanese grammar, something like A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar would be a better reference for much of the material covered in the later parts of this book (plus a good deal more).This book has some value as a reference, but I don't think that's enough to make it a good buy.

Maybe I'm not smart, but I learned nothing from this book.
I read this book through from cover to cover once, skimmed it 2 or 3 times and then tried to take NOTES the last time as I started at page one again. I understood NOTHING in this book. The way it is layed out isn't fantastic and his use of symbols V1 and V2 etc. left me constantly going back to the beginning of the book to check what the symbols meant. And I agree with one other reviewer, his use of capitalization to help you pronounce words doesn't help much.All in all, I paid for this book and feel like I know LESS Japanese than when I started, simply because he succeeded in confusing me about the structure and pronunciation of words. ... Read more

Product Description
Particles are an essential component of the Japanese language, and a facility with their use is essential for a mastery of both spoken and written forms. This new workbook will help students acquire that facility. It introduces 60 particles and their 188 basic functions in order of frequency of usage. Each function is illustrated with example sentences, and exercises are presented every few lessons to allow users to test their understanding, writing directly in the workbook and checking their work against the answers provided. A basic vocabulary is employed throughout to allow students to concentrate fully on one important goal—the mastery of Japanese particles. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Excellent book on particles.
I recieved this workbook a few hours ago, and did a cross comparison on university notes.
It's very useful, and practically explains all particle usages depending on context. This is extremely helpfull especially if you are studying for the JLPT in N5 or N4 levels.
I recommend this workbook to anyone that has a sincere interest studying Japanese, it is very useful as a reference and as a guide to discover how ideas are communicated.


,»,Ì--ûK' ,ª*Ö--~,Å,·,ËI
ŠF,³,ñAŠæ'£,Á,Ä,­,¾,³,¢IFj

Very good workbook that taught me a lot about particles.
I am learning a lot from his workbook. I really like the workbook style. After every couple pages or so, there are 10-20 sentences in which you fill in the correct particle. I had already read almost all of Naoko Chino's book "How to Tell the Difference Between Japanese Particles," but I am still learning a lot from this workbook. I would even go further and say that I have learned more from Kamiya's workbook than from Chino's book. The particles in this workbook are presented/grouped in a way that makes them logical and helps you make sense of the rules behind their use. Also, you have so many opportunities to practice using the particles so it really helps you to learn them.

One advantage of this book over the Chino book is that with this book, the usage of particles that you learned in previous lessons are used in future problems so it helps you not forget what you learned in prior lessons. This book is really well done.

I would recommend it. I am a high beginner or low intermediate. I think that stage is the perfect time to use this book or the Chino book I mentioned. All the example and problem/practice sentences in this book are given in English and romaji and kana/kanji.

There are a couple of typos in this book but none of them seem to be in the answer key. Instead, they are minor misspellings of words. For example, in one place, 'takusan' (a lot) is written as 'takusen.' Chino's book has much worse mistakes because some of them are in the answer key.

Overall, I think you can learn a lot from both books, but if you plan to buy only one, I strongly recommend Kamiya's book (this one) over Chino's book (which I have also reviewed if you would like to read that review by me, too). But I don't think it is a bad idea to work through both books.

good but not so good
this book gave good examples and explains pretty weel. but the way of doing exercises is wrong. for example wa and ga are used in some specific ocassions but both mean the same thing. one is to introduce the other is to continue with a topic. the book uses as exercise problems sentences. but forwa and ga you need a paragraph to know when you properly should use them.

Great reference book
A good exercise book for beginner/intermediate level. However, some of the sentences are not very accurate (according to my Japanese wife). But all in all, a good book to have together with other reference books.

This is essential for anyone studying Japanese!
This is the workbook we use in my Japanese class.This has been the best one we have used (we have tried four others! ).No where else is all this info so organized and well-presented! ... Read more

Product Description
Learn spoken Japanese quickly and efficiently.
Through twenty carefully thought-out lessons and two review chapters, Speak Japanese Today will teach you simple, correct Japanese most useful for everyday situations. Each lesson familiarizes you with new words and phrases in such a way that you will easily be able to remember and use them. And since the lessons concentrate on the spoken language, grammar points are clear, concise, and kept to a minimum. Students, travelers, businessmen, or anyone wanting to speak Japanese in a hurry will find this a rewarding book. Practical and reliable, Speak Japanese Today will start you conversing with confidence immediately. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Domo Arigato! ... Read more

Product Description
This Conversational program contains 8 hours of interactive audio-only instruction, effective language learning with real-life spoken practice sessions.

The Pimsleur Method provides the most effective language-learning program ever developed. The Pimsleur Method gives you quick command of Japanese structure without tedious drills. Learning to speak Japanese can actually be enjoyable and rewarding.

The key reason most people struggle with new languages is that they aren't given proper instruction, only bits and pieces of a language. Other language programs sell only these pieces -- dictionaries; grammar books and instructions; lists of hundreds or thousands words and definitions; audios containing useless drills. They leave it to you to assemble these pieces as you try to speak. Pimsleur enables you to spend your time learning to speak the language rather than just studying its parts.

When you were learning English, could you speak before you knew how to conjugate verbs? Of course you could. That learning process is what Pimsleur replicates. Pimsleur presents the whole language as one integrated piece so you can succeed.

With Pimsleur you get:

• Grammar and vocabulary taught together in everyday conversation,
• Interactive audio-only instruction that teaches spoken language organically,
• The flexibility to learn anytime, anywhere,
• 30-minute lessons designed to optimize the amount of language you can learn in one sitting.

Millions of people have used Pimsleur to gain real conversational skills in new languages quickly and easily, wherever and whenever -- without textbooks, written exercises, or drills.

Conversational Japanese includes the 10 lessons from Pimsleur's Basic Japanese plus an additional 6 lessons.

The 16 lessons in Conversational Japanese are the same first 16 lessons in the Pimsleur Comprehensive Japanese Level 1. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Easy to use, convenient in the car
I've played with a number of language systems, including Rosetta Stone (fun, but wildly expensive). Happily, I can report that the Pimsleur Japanese system (Conversational) "clicked" with the way my brain learns. There's something quite rewarding about being able to understand full sentences, and even brief conversation, by the end of the very first lesson, which I listened to while driving down the highway on a vacation. Each progressive session gives the user yet more empowerment and confidence that they could actually USE what's been learned if plopped down in Japan right this minute.

I did feel the need to repeat each session since near the end, my brain was going into overload. However, when I resumed with the next session the following day, I was dead-on, whipping off correct responses to questions without hesitation.

This may be one of the smartest purchases I've made in a long, long time (coming from someone not prone to gushing).

Note: YES, the discount for purchasing additional Pimsleur Japanese programs IS included in the Amazon version, to answer previous posters' questions. It's printed right on the box, and is honored by the manufacturer.

Great learning tool!
This series is a very usueful tool as you progress in learning Japanese.Highly recommended.

christmas present
Purchased this product for a christmas present for our daughter.She has tried different books and such trying to learn Japanese.Within the first hour of listening she has already mastered a few sentacnes.I would highly recomend this product to anyone who is interested in learning it.

Defective Pimsleur Conversational Japanese CDs
DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT-IT IS DEFECTIVE.It is a set of 8 CDs, each of which contains two language lessons.Lesson 14 on CD 7 of the set was defective; specifically, the last 2-3 minutes of the lesson would not play properly (it skipped, popped, and was generally unintelligible).Per Amazon's recommendation, I first called Pimsleur directly and spoke with a customer service rep, who would not replace the CD without charging me a $20 shipping fee--not acceptable, since the CD was defective.I then called Amazon and spoke with a customer service rep, who sent me a replacement set free of charge, but lesson 14 on CD 7 of the second set was also defective.Since this appears to be a problem with an entire run of this product, I do not recommend buying it.

worth it
The best part about these CD's is that there is no pressure- just follow along and it is amazing how much you will learn. It's not automatic but it is pretty fun. ... Read more

Product Description
Eleanor Harz Jorden and Mari Noda, authors of the widely used language textbook Japanese: The Spoken Language, now offer the first volume of the much anticipated companion to it, Japanese: The Written Language. This new series is designed to enable the learner of Japanese to establish a solid foundation for communicating with the Japanese through the written language. It is arranged so that each lesson coordinates with the lesson in Japanese: The Spoken Language of the same number.

This first volume, devoted exclusively to the katakana syllabary, which is used to represent loanwords in Japanese, provides the most comprehensive pedagogical treatment of the subject available today. Audio files and flash cards are available from the web, and a workbook is available for separate purchase.Mari Noda is associate professor of Japanese, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Exactly what I needed
I needed this book for school and it was cheaper than I would have gotten at school. It can in two day even though I used standard shipping very surprised. In very good condition. Would recommend this seller to everyone.

Speedy. Excellent Condition
I was really impressed with how quickly my order arrived, even though I only used standard shipping. Furthermore, thebook was in great condition and was exactly what I was expecting when I ordered it.

Opps! Not what I was looking for
This product only has Katakana in it! There is a product that looks the same, but has Kanji instead. BE CAREFUL! It comes with an extra practice pad, which is nice.

Do not buy this book
Having studied Japanese for five years under three native speaking teachers, I can assure you that buying this book is the biggest mistake possible if you want to learn the Japanese. It is riddled with factual errors and is an overall convoluted approach to learning the Japanese writing system. Of the five Japanese textbook series that I have used, this one stands unparalleled as the absolute worst. To list the actual mistakes contained therein would be a gargantuan task that I am not about to begin. Let me give one example, something so elementary that it should stand as representation for the whole:

In a table of the Japanese characters and their pronunciations, the author includes the following as pronunciations: ti, tu, si. These sounds do not exist in Japanese and you will never hear them. They instead are supposed to be chi, tsu, shi. This is a fact that I have not seen misrepresented anywhere else, ever. There is no explanation of the pronunciation of r-based symbols in which the r is supposed to be pronounced as subtle combination of r and l. These mistakes (of which there are more, and more again in Jorden's other textbooks) are then spread throughout the entirety of the book. This drastically alters the sound of the language and you will find yourself quite embarrassed if you go to Japan and try to speak like this.

Do yourself a favor and buy something else.

The best introduction to Katakana available
Japanese: The Written Language, an updated version of Jorden's older Reading Japanese book.It has languished in a field test edition for years, but at last the final version of the book is starting slowly to come out.

This book, as the name implies, is 123 pages (plus an associated workbook) devoted entirely to katakana, the syllabery used in Japanese primarily to represent foreign loan words.The first thing that may strike the purchaser is the length of the book in comparison to the subject covered.Many Japanese courses deal with katakana by handing out a table to their students and asking them to memorize it within a week, give a quiz, and then assume the students have mastered them after that.The result is people who have been studying Japanese for years but still cannot reliably read items written in katakana.

The subject of this book is not simply acquiring knowledge of the symbols, but developing a true *reading* knowledge of katakana.Knowing how a single symbol is pronounced (or knowing the romanized equivalent) does you no good if you cannot read words that contain the symbol.In addition to introducing the symbols, the book spends a great deal of time teaching the student to convert foreign words to Japanese, and vice versa.Armed with this knowledge, the student can read a good amount of authentic material such as menus and catalogs.(For those readers who are interested in video games, an enormous amount of material in all kinds of video games are written in katakana.)

This last point also explains why katakana are covered before hiragana.Much more authentic Japanese can be read with only katakana than with only hiragana.

Given the subject of the book, it does not directly deal with the pronunciation of Japanese.It is correlated with the book Japanese: The Spoken Language that covers the topic in more depth, and the learner is assumed to already have some knowledge of pronunciation and the spoken language.However, audio files are available on the web for every example in the book so that the sounds of the words can be heard spoken by a native speaker.The book utilizes the same style of romanization that is used in JSL -- some people may be unfamiliar with the standard type of romanization used in Japan that contains such syllables as "si" and "tu", but it should always be remembered that no romanization system can teach pronunciation on its own.Even if Hepburn romanization were used in the book (and so the syllables were written "shi" and "tsu"), that still would not enable you to pronounce the syllables correctly without hearing them spoken.(If you are interested in why the author has chosen this kind of romanization, the introduction to JSL explains it.)

My chief complaint with this book is the price; at some point in the future when JWL is completed, hopefully a single volume will be published that is more economical.For those working on a tighter budget, the field test JWL or even the older Reading Japanese are fairly good as well, and also contain hiragana and some kanji practice.But this is a highly recommended book for anyone going to Japan with no knowledge of the writing system, or for someone who is starting the long process of learning to read Japanese.

(One last note -- this book was developed at Ohio State University primarily to fit in with the JSL series; as was stated above.In OSU's program, students begin studying this book after 6 weeks of study (roughly after lesson 3 of JSL); this is not intended as an introduction to the Japanese language.) ... Read more

Product Description
Every December across the world Japanese language students take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), the most important test for students of the language. Because this happens only once a year preparation is essential, and good practice guides are still difficult to find. This is the best way to test yourself for this year's test and see if you're ready: the actual test from 2008. This booklet includes the actual tests with correct answers for Level 1 and 2 of the 2008 Japanese Language Proficiency Test. This is the most up-to-date test booklet available, and it includes a CD for the listening comprehension questions, reading and grammar questions, answer sheets, and an answer key. ... Read more

Product Description
This deluxe course has everything you need to learn Japanese from scratch or to revive the Japanese that you learned years ago. Ultimate Japanese combines conversation and culture in an easy-to-follow, enjoyable, and effective format. It’s the perfect way to learn Japanese for school, for travel, for work, or for personal enrichment. In this book you’ll find:

• 40 lessons with lively dialogues including the most common and useful idiomatic expressions.
• English translations and explanations of Japanese grammar and usage, pronunciation, vocabulary, and culture notes.
• Quizzes and review sections to check your progress.
• A complete summary of Japanese grammar, and verb charts covering all major tenses.
• A section on letter writing for business or social occasions.
• An extensive two-way glossary.
• Up-to-date computer and Internet vocabulary, information on euros, and more! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Good for brushing up on Japanese
Its been awhile since my last Japanese class in college and I wanted to brush up on things I forgot.Book comes in a logical format, and the accompanying CDs.The book has 40 chapters that deal with typical daily life situations like going to the movies, looking for a job, at the airport etc.The one thing I dislike about this book is the heavy usage of romaji.I feel as a japanese student by the 10th or so chapter you should have mastered hiragana/katakana by then. The text book should focus more on that and adding additional kanji.Otherwise its a good reference and great for reviving Japanese.

Really Helpfull
It is a awesome book, it have the right info you need to learn Japanese.

An OK "Crash Course" in spoken Japanese.
This was the first thing I bought when I was looking to teach myself Japanese.In short, it seems like a nice book for those who are just looking to speak the language and have little concern for reading/writing.The language it presentsseems geared more toward tourists/business people.I really wanted to learn the language in every way, which includes reading and writing.So, after the first 2 lessons, I decided to look elsewhere since kana is only mentioned as a side note in this series (everything is given in romanji.)

I found that for the money, the following books were most helpful in my studies:

Beginner's Japanese with 2 Audio CDs (Hippocrene Beginner's Series)
Let's Learn Hiragana: First Book of Basic Japanese Writing (Kodansha's Children's Classics)
Let's Learn Katakana: Second Book of Basic Japanese Writing

The book is nice because it presents all the dialogs in kana (as well as romanji and in English,) and is organized in an easy-to-use fashion.Since writing hiragana and katakana are almost a subject of their own, I found the two workbooks listed above to be essential.They're cheap, and very effective.

Un método estupendo...
Dispongo de varios métodos de japonés, pero éste es el mejor, sin lugar a dudas. Las explicaciones on claras, y sobre todo es un método progresivo, que permite avanzar sin demasiados sobresaltos.

Comprehensive introduction
`Ultimate Japanese' is for beginners to this language, but not for beginners to language-learning. I don't know what high school curricula are like in other states, but armed only with an Indiana public education, this text would be difficult to navigate. The grammatical terms are consistent and not watered-down, which is great for a universal understanding of grammar, but may be challenging for the average person.

The layout of the lessons is practical - conversation first, then pronunciation, grammar, symbols, vocab/expressions, and finally exercises. I like this order because it forces you to consider the grammar before you worry yourself about exact definitions. Grammar notes are concise, 'shown' and not 'told'. Instead of relying on complex prose explanations, grammar is taught through examples (though not too many of them that they are repetitive or confusing).

Kana in this book are introduced in groups over a few chapters, then as the book progresses there is further work with symbols, including dialogues and exercises. In later chapters, kanji are introduced a handful at a time. I also like this volume's syllable tables compared to others. The biggest downside is that the main dialogues are romanized, so when it comes time to write - or even read - it will be a bit more of a challenge, but do-able, given the work with Japanese script later in the text. In contrast, 'Japanese for Busy People' presents every conversation first in kana, then romaji, then the English translation, but its exercises are all in romaji; `Ultimate' includes exercises with both kana and kanji.

There are two sets of discs - one (set A) for use with the book, and one (B) that follows the lessons of the book but can be used `on the go' without the text. Readings in set A are performed by native speakers at a relatively natural pace. I haven't heard any English on set A, and there is little on set B. I think the native-English narrator speaks some of the Japanese on set B, but it sounds fluent. Others have noted 'baby-talk' on this program's discs. I'm not far into it, but I haven't found this speech overpoweringly horrendous. I'm taking any `baby-talk' I do register as a generalized cultural affectation. It doesn't bother me.

As an American, I like that the narrator on the audio discs is also American. The audio with Gilhooly's 'Teach Yourself Japanese' is narrated with an English accent - I personally find this very distracting, but that may just be my own linguistics training kicking in to analyze her speech at every turn. Still, having an American narrator in a way involves less 'translating' for me.

Overall this set is highly informative, with little crap to sift through to get to the real meat of the lesson. I'm borrowing it from the library now, but I plan on buying it for myself. ... Read more

Product Description
Pamela the cow loves pears. She loves stewed pears, baked pears, and pear pies with cream. She loves pears for lunch and pears on picnics and she even like to pick pears from trees. Pamela will do just about anything to get pears. But will anyone else ever get to eat a pear again? Certainly not until she has had her fill...and moved on to something else! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Cute if ya like cows and pears.
Well, I happen to live on a pear ranch and have two young daughters so I had to buy this book. They love it, and request me to read it frequently.

Curious why there was only an english/japanese version but it doesn't take anything at all away from the book. Actually makes it more interesting.

Simply delightful reading
The collaborative effort of Jackie French and Bruce Whatley, Too Many Pears! is an appealing, cartoon-style picturebook about a strong-willed and clever cow who loves pears, and will go to great lengths to get them. A young girl must find a way to curb the animal's insatiable appetite! Simply delightful reading, the whimsical color illustrations add an exuberant touch to this charming tale. ... Read more

Product Description
Learning any second language is difficult, but Japanese has to be one of the more difficult ones to master. On top of the 3 writing systems, one of which has almost 2,000 characters, you still have all the regular components of a language such as verbs, adjectives, nouns, and grammar. There are several books available now that teach you how to learn the vast Japanese writing systems. There are equally as many books that teach grammar and verb conjugation. But there are few, if any, books that teach fast ways to learn the actual verbs and adjectives.

Learning Japanese Verbs and Adjectives Using Memory Mnemonics uses a creative approach to learning words fast, and more importantly, remembering them longer. Memory mnemonics, or triggers, are used to remind your brain where it just recorded some piece of information. Most people can learn most anything fast, but they have trouble with recollection.

This book uses triggers that sound like the verb and the meaning. For example, the verb for "to disturb or corrupt" is "midas". How can you remember this and differentiate it from the hundreds of other verbs. Using a memory trigger can make it easier to learn faster and remember longer. One trigger could be to think of King Midas. He was so corrupt with greed he turned everything to gold. So you can remember midas as corrupt King Midas.

Learning Japanese Verbs and Adjectives Using Memory Mnemonics contains triggers for 350 verbs and 126 adjectives. Then as a bonus there are trigger suggestions for an additional 102 verbs, that's over 450 verbs. Using this book you can quickly learn Japanese verbs and adjectives and nearly double your communication skill in a very short time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Dame = No Good; Trigger = Maybe worth a DIME = Dame
I'm a HS Japanese teacher. There are a couple of good ideas here but for the most part, silly to stupid connections. I think the majority of these words are reaching. Not worth the price. If the book was under a $1 I'd recommend it. But the price and the information are a waste of time and money. I regret buying it now......

Ok, but not great.
I bought this book because of the great reviews.
I dont think its that greats. Its just a list of Japanese verbs and adjectives coupled with a short English phrase to help you remember it. There are fundamental mistakes in the book, where a few Japanese words are spelled wrong, which means the English phrases no longer works. These are very basic words and i dont see how its possible to make this mistake, its not a typo, the Author actually believes thats how the word is spelled/pronounced.
The end of a the book has contact details for the Author, which do not work. Dead webpages etc.

Additionally, the verbs take up most of the book, with the adjectives simply tagged on at the end (even though they are equal in number).
It just goes to show, the whole book could have simply been a list written in a few pages, for free on someones web page.

Finally, i should just add - you could just make up your own way to remember these words, the Author has no particular talent for it.

creative way to learn
This is a wonderful little book that will help you memorize verbs fast and relatively painlessly. The words are printed in a large font and arranged 3 to a page. My only gripe is that I wish it would include the kanji --- but since the layout is so spacious, Ive pencilled in kanji and "te" conjugations myself. Give yourself an edge and buy now!

verbs and adjectives learned at the speed of light!
I never write reviews, but i think i should on this one. i love this book! i was looking for a way to learn a lot of verbs and adjectives quickly and this book is perfect for that. you still need to learn the conjugations on your own, but this will save you a lot of time because you will recall them easily and they will stick with you because of the odd memory mnemonics given. it's a thousand times better than rote memorization alone. definately a book to have in your japanese learning collection. I am recommending it to all my friends who want to learn japanese. I have been studying japanese for 3 yrs and will be moving there this year and it has helped me a great deal, so i recommend it highly in helping intermediate, advanced and it will give the beginning student a running start. Ganbatte!

learn japanese verbs and adjectives using memory mnemonics
i recommend to buy this wonderful book. It helped me learn all the verbs in a few weeks.. I like the image and sentences to remember. He is a great instructor in constructivism.. As a foreign languages teacher, I recommend to buy this book. ... Read more

Product Description
This book gives an in-depth analysis of the use of the english language in modern Japan. It explores the many ramifications the Japanese-English language and culture contact situation has for not only Japanese themselves, but also others in the international community.

Data for this book has been gathered using anthropological ethnographic fieldwork, augmented by archival sources, written materials, and items from popular culture and the mass media. An interdisciplinary approach, including those of anthropological linguistics, sociolinguistics, cognitive science and symbolic anthropology, is taken in the exploration of the topics here. This book's arguments focus on four major theoretical linguistic and social issues, namely the place of the Japanese-English case in the larger context of "World Englishes"; the place of the Japanese-English case in a general theory of language and culture contact; how Japanese English informs problems of categorization, meaning construction and cognition; and what it says about the social construction of identity and sense of self, nationalism and race.

This book will be of interest to linguists, anthropologists, sociologists, cognitive scientists, and all readers who are interested in language contact, sociolinguistics, English as an international language, and World Englishes. It will also appeal to those who are interested in Japan and popular culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great title for research papers in this field
I recently wrote a research paper analyzing the usage of English in Japanese manga, and found this books approach to the subject quite useful. Originally it was only something I borrowed on Inter Library Loan, but after reading a few chapters, I knew I had to have the book. The writing style is easy to read and the topics he touches upon in each chapter are focused and interesting. Since there are not listed, here are the chapter titles in the book:

1) Prologue 2) The dynamics of English words in contemporary Japanese: Japanese English and a 'beautiful human life' 3) The history of Japanese English language contact 4) The Japanese writing system and English 5) The poetics of English in Japanese pop songs and contemporary verse 6) A new voice: The use of English as a new rhetoric in modern Japanese women's language 7) Using the graphic and pictorial image to explore Japan's 'Empire of Signs' 8) Is it naisu rice or good gohan?: In Japan, it's not what you eat, but how you say it 9) Language and culture contact in the Japanese colour of nomenclature system: From neon oranges to shocking pinks 10) Sense, sensation, and symbols: English in the realm of the senses 11) Images of race and identity in Japanese and American language and culture contact 12) Japan, English, and World Englishes

As you can see, there is a wide spread of topics that the book covers in regards to English in the Japanese language, and most are quite interesting!

An Interesting Insight
Stanlaw presents us with the Japanese way of using English.In particular, he goes into detail about the use of English loanwords in Japanese for advertising, packaging, pop songs, and so forth.According to Stanlaw, these are not really loanwords, but English inspired creations.In other words, Japanese are using English for their own purposes in ways which they can appreciate rather than copying the usage of native speakers.It's a very interesting theory.The only reason for giving this four stars instead of five is that Stanlaw fails to make a distinction between English terms that are standard in Japanese and faddish terms, so quite a few of the examples that he provides are out of date and not used anymore.It would have been nice to make this distinction, and to elaborate on the processes behind both forms of usage.Other than that complaint, the ideas he presents in this book are very fascinating.I would recommend this to those who are thinking of teaching in Japan, or those who are studying Japanese overseas.You'll gain some insight into the Japanese use of language. ... Read more

Product Description
A comprehensive and easy-to-use dictionary for each item listing its romaji (phonetic English) and kanji spellings and its English equivalent. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This book is not worth purchasing.
This Japanese Financial Dictionary is not worth buying if you have access to an electronic dictionary. Although there are some specialized terms not available in ordinary Japanese-English dictionaries, they are few and farbetween. Far superior Financial Dictionaries have been produced by Japanesepublishers. ... Read more

Product Description
This dictionary represents a reference volume for English speakers. It provides the correct Japanese translation of over 10,000 terms and phrases under the headings: economics, trade and industry, finance, insurance, business, company law and employment. Each topic has the relevant Japanese words and expressions in context, helping to identify the idiograms which represent similar concepts or images in each topic. Under each headword the Japanese translation is given in full characters and as roman transcription. Further explanations for some specific words are given at the end of the topic list. Peculiar or idiomatic expressions in Japanese are given as additional phrases with insights into the psychology and etiquette of Japanese business practices. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

One of the BEST Japanese Dictionaries

Nelson came up with a simple, logical and FAST way to find Kanji and do dictionary lookups.Of course there is also a romanized by sound lookup too.

What would be really nice is if this were computerized exactly as is.

There are other good ones out there too, of course.

Original Modern Reader's Japanese Englis (Romanized Form) Review
This is a wonderful book for looking up Kanji and learning their exact meanings.This book is awesome.It looks smart too!!!

Modern Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary
I have been using this dictionary since 1965. I'm not a scholar of the Japanese language, just an occasional user. While I can't say it's easy, I almost always find what I'm looking for. I don't know how the book could be improved.

Forget the New Nelson's...
Learn Andrew Nelson's original radical priority system and spare yourself the added bulk and confusion of the New Nelson's Universal Radical Index.Dr. Nelson created an elegant and efficient lookup system that, with a little bit of practice, is without a doubt the easiest way to look up kanji while reading.There's simply no need for the extra 200-300 pages that the New Nelson's tacks on with the URI.

Do keep in mind, however, that this is primarily a dictionary for reading, and will not assist the user with English-Japanese lookup.

The original is the best...
Don't buy into those "New Nelson" editions.This is the book you want for your kanji references.Excellent resource. ... Read more

Product Description
This obentoo (lunchbox) offers an exciting, culturally based approach to the study of Japanese language. Its clear, colorful, well-structured layout has students discovering the Japanese language and culture through lively and authentic presentation. Obentoo addresses the use of hiragana, katakana, and kanji, is adaptable to a wide variety of course content, and contains a wealth of teacher support material. ... Read more

Product Description
Bjarke Frellesvig describes the development of the Japanese language from its recorded beginnings until the present day as reflected by the written sources and historical record. Beginning with a description of the oldest attested stage of the language, Old Japanese (approximately the eighth century AD), and then tracing the changes which occurred through the Early Middle Japanese (800-1200), Late Middle Japanese (1200-1600) and the Modern Japanese (1600-onwards) periods, a complete internal history of the language is examined and discussed. This account provides a comprehensive study of how the Japanese language has developed and adapted, providing a much needed resource for scholars. A History of the Japanese Language is invaluable to all those interested in the Japanese language and also students of language change generally. ... Read more

Product Description
Developed by the experts at Living Language, this book offers a highly effective combination of conversational Japanese with grammar and culture. It covers the equivalent of two years of college-level study.

Contents Include:
40 lessons with lively, authentic dialogues including the most common and useful expressions for everyday conversation.
English translations and explanations of Japanese grammar and usage, pronunciation, vocabulary, and cultural notes.
Quizzes and review sections to check your progress.
A complete summary of Japanese accents and particles.
A section on letter writing for business or social occasions.
Revised and updated with additional exercises, the latest in computers, the Internet, and more!

While this book stands on its own as a complete course and an invaluable reference, you'll find that it's even more effective when used with the recorded lessons. Living Language Ultimate Japanese cassette and compact-disc packages include this manual, along with the recordings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (36)

Why the wailing over the romanji?
I am half way through this program and am finding it excellent in the teaching of spoken Japanese.No it does not get into the kanji and kana very much but when you are just beginning the learning of a language with a non european alphabet most of the real linguistics experts reccomend learning the speaking first then the reading/writing as you can get bogged down trying to do both at the same time.Yes universities teach this early or at least attempt to but I have never known anyone to become fluent solely through a university program because few of them emphasize conversation and even fewer high schools do.They teach you a lot about the language but not so much in how to actually use it...pretty useless.I know this from my own experience when I took two years of German and though I learned to read it well I could not speak it even though I did well in the courses.If you will couple fsi Japanese for the drills and speaking automaticity with this great ultimate course for its updateness in vocabulary and listen to broadcasts in japanese on the internet fortraining your ear to hear it you will achieve close to fluency.THEN you can start learning the reading/writing system.There are some excellent resources for this here on amazon.Heywhat did you learn first when you were learning english, reading or speaking?

I've had better
This gives the impression of a tourist book.In any university setting you learn hiragana in chapter 1, katakana in chapter 2, verbs in chapter 3, then kanji in 4 and above.

If you're learning for a hobby, this will be fine.If you actually intend to *LEARN* japanese, look elsewhere.

Execellent Book!
I have beens studying French for about 6 years now, but never have I been able to actually learn from just reading my text book. This book is completely different. One can actually learn straight from the book and not have as much need for a teacher to explain it.
Although the book is done almost completely in romaji, it is still excellent. I beleive any serious student should use another book for learning to write while simultaneously using this book to improve their grammar, which is what I am doing. I've found using 2 different books, one for reading & writing and one for listening & speaking, is much better than trying to learn both from 1 book. The audio tapes that accompany this book are also extremely useful, especially the B Set which explain the grammar and give many useful sample sentences.

Over all, this is a great book to learn Japanese with and should be paired with a book meant for reading & writing.

Great Book
This book is great. I finally found a book that makes it easy to learn Japanese. The audio CDs are great. I now can be sure that i am pronouncing the words correctly because the CDs allow me to hear how it should be. It does a good job of teaching grammar too.

Some good, some bad
I like that this set includes CDs that are entirely in Japanese. They have some very realistic conversations, uninterrupted by English, that are great for listening to just to get the feel of the language.

What I didn't like was that the CDs that did include English often offered translations that I considered to be rather inaccurate.

My biggest complaint was that one of the CDs was entirely in Italian--quite a shock, I tell you, when you load it into the car CD player. Fortunately, it was one of the CDs with English translation that I didn't like anyway. Annoying nonetheless.

This set offers some good Japanese conversation for those that are studying Japanese in a class setting, but I would use it as a supplement and not depend on it to learn the language. ... Read more

Product Description

LEARN TO SPEAK JAPANESE

Customer Reviews (6)

Great Survey of Japanese Grammar
I have been studying Japanese for two years. I'm a very analytic sort when it comes to language. I love grammar; I have successfully learned several languages and actually teach languages.

This book is incredible. For two years I have sought a book like this; at last I have found one.

It seems that there are usually two choices in Japanese grammars written for English speakers. Either they are so oriented to modern descriptive linguistic theory--always hedging and qualifying statements--that they are difficult or, at times, impossible to follow, and, therefore, are inefficient guides for someone who just wants to know how to say something; or they merely give models for emulation with little explanation of the underlying grammatical principles.

This book is not like that. It's quite old-fashioned. In fact, I doubt a book like this would be written nowadays; its approach is just not fashionable. In a prescriptive context, it methodically and succinctly and thoroughly explains the structure of well-formed Japanese utterances.

I bought an edition from the 1960's, and it has one flaw that I can see people not liking: the Japanese is written all in Romaji. It may be that later editions have corrected that. To be fair to the author, his express purpose is to get people speaking Japanese, not reading and writing it; his view is that people can go elsewhere to begin the daunting (but not impossible) task of reading Japanese. This flaw may be addressed in later editions.

All this being said, most people would not like this as a beginning textbook. It's really suited for intermediate students who are seeking lucid explanations of grammatical issues they may have learned in a less thorough way.

If you really want to understand basic Japanese grammar, get this book!

Superb Reference, But Fairly Dated
I bought this book primarily as a comapanion to A Japanese Reader: Graded Lessons for Mastering the Written Language (Tuttle Language Library), which was designed to accompany the Martin book. Only Lessons 18-30 of the Miller book are meant to be used alongside Martin, but they are tied somewhat closely. Though I have some solid experience with Japanese, I did find that there were a few forms in Miller that would trip me up a bit, and it was also assumed you would already have gotten the vocabulary from Martin (though it was somewhat rare for me not to know the words, as the vocabulary was mostly very basic), so I thought it would be worth having.

The book (Martin's) covers an enormous amount of ground very quickly. I don't think I could recommend it as a first book on Japanese, unless you were willing to spend quite a lot of time hammering in the knowledge from each page yourself. The book was chiefly intended for people who were already actually living in Japanese, and needed a roadmap to the language. Both the vocabulary and the grammar can be quite old, including terms that really aren't used so much any more, or aren't used in the same ways (this may have changed since; my copy is a used 2nd edition, revised in 1956). Still, most of what you see in this book still applies today.

The book does a very excellent job of explaining difficult and complex concepts as simply as possible, where many other texts struggle ineffectively to convey them. It also describes Japanese pronunciation much more accurately than I have ever seen elsewhere. I would recommend this for any student of Japanese who has had some experience with the language; however, due to its out-datedness and very, very brisk pace, I don't think I'd recommend it for new students of the language.

The book is both exhaustive and concise, which makes it a superb reference or grammar-refreshment book. Perhaps the best recommendation I can give it, is that it taught me more about Japanese in one book than I've previously gotten through several successions of college textbooks.

One of the Best Self-Teachers Available
I concur with the other users of this site in my opinion of this book.You really can learn colloquial Japanese from this book.It is a bit dated - it was, I believe, originally written for American GI's and missionaries who found themselves in Japan after World War II and needed a good self teaching book which could be used on the ground, preferably with a native speaker to go through the material with you or at least to provide pointers on pronunciation.However, this doesn't mean that what you're learning is too basic.Virtually every feature of the spoken language is at least touched on, and best of all, there are a lot of illustrative sentences for every item covered.The whole book is split into only ten lessons, and each lesson seems to last forever, but when you actually start working with the book it is much easier than it initially appears.

There is another book by Martin out that includes copies of the dialogues from this book in written Japanese, if you really feel a need for that.While of course it is a nice idea to be able to work with the writing system immediately when learning a new language, with Japanese I don't really really believe that this is a good idea.All told, Japanese is probably the most difficult language in the world to learn to read and write correctly, more so than Chinese, so I would suggest to the would-be learner that she work with this book for a while and then start on the written language with other learning materials.

An excellent method to learn the nitty-gritty/structure.
Of all the courses I have purchased, I keep returning to this one.It isthorough in its pedagogy, and provides enough practice material to reallydrive the grammar into your head.

I would like to see tapes for thisbook.It would really enhance its overall coursework.

One of the best books for learning conversational Japanese!
This book is probably the single best book I have found for teaching yourself real conversational Japanese along with enough grammar neccessary to understand it and use it! It gets a nine because it could be better only with kana and kanji. If you want to learn Japanese, you will save much time with this book ... Read more

Product Description
Aims to help expand vocabulary and improve reading comprehension by modifying the reader's existing lexicon. The Power Japanese series presents a selection of guides to difficult or confusing aspects of the Japanese language. The student can find a quick reference to particles, a guide to the myriad levels of politeness, books of idioms, vocabulary builders, emotive expressions and turns of speech - all with natural examples. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Most Powerful Book in Power Japanese Series?
I think Instant Vocabulary Through Prefixes and Suffixes (Power Japanese) might be the most powerful book in the Power Japanese series. I highly recommend it to language learners.

WHAT IS IN IT?
-------------------
The book contains fifty-two characters divided into 17 prefixes and 35 suffixes. In the entries the author explains the English equivalents for the character, talks about how it is used in practice, and then provides numerous examples of it in sentences.

For byou (Amazon won't let me put in the character) the author glosses it as "disease, illness." Then, he explains the range of its meanings. Importantly, he mentions that it overlaps with shou (not included in this book), but that shou has a more scientific ring. This is good stuff!

Five example sentences follow, and he ends with 4 examples of how a word is combined with byou to form a compound. The examples are great, and during my time in Japan I remember clearly when there was a big scandal involving onsen operators discriminating against people suffering from Hansen-byou (Hansen's disease). The first example sentence is about this word. It definitely proved useful.

SUMMARY
------------------
Just as with English, mastering a relatively small number of prefixes and suffixes gives you incredible power to create words and intuit the meaning of words with which you are unfamiliar. I don't think it is the best in the series (that honor goes to Rubin's "Making Sense of Japanese"), but this is definitely worth purchasing.

See my Listmania List ("The Power Japanese Series") for more books in the series.

A Great Introduction to Japanese Affixes
This book covers 63 basic affixes that are commonly used in Japanese. Explanations and examples are plentiful and the book is well organized. If you learn the entries in this book you could literally double your vocabulary. The back of the book gives a good analogy: gItfs as though you only knew the word esimple,f and then one day acquired esimplify,f esimplification,f esimplicity,f esimplistic,f and esimpleton.fh I feel this book is a must have for any intermediate student of the Japanese Language.

Excellent reference book
This book provides information that is powerfully helpful in learning Japanese.A must reference book for anyone serious about learning Japanese. Very well organized with Kanji, Hiragana and Romaji.A veryhelpful tool ... Read more