Japanese for Everyone: A Functional Approach to Daily Communications

by Susumu Nagara

Book Overview

Originally published in 1990, this acclaimed language-instruction text is recognized as one of the most user-friendly and effective programs available - both for classroom use and self-study. Based on... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870408534
• ISBN13: 9780870408533
• Release Date: May 1990
• Publisher: Japan Publications Trading
• Length: 383 Pages
• Weight: 1.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.1" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

Great book.. reflects how Japanese works.

Ok, first of all, you *must* learn hiragana & katakana to use this book. I recommend getting James Heisig's book on learning both. That said, this book jumps right into Japanese, and assumes you will *work* to learn the language. Each chapter, assuming you do the exercises will take several days. But they are well worth it. One great thing this book does is use realistic Japanese conversational structures. Most books use convoluted (to the japanese ear) but educational (to the learner) sentences. This book always presents a "typical" japanese construct (as well as the more educational styles).One disappointing thing with this book is that I have not been able to locate the tapes that go with it. Other than that, this is a great book to learn japanese with (tho you have to be willing to work hard!)

Wondeful Book in Every Way

I have been studying Japanese for about two years now, give or take, and have read many books on the subject in an attempt to figure out which were the best for learning. It is impossible to find one single book that will singlehandedly help you master Japanese, but this is a great starting place.The book begins with a brief explanation of pronounciation and so on, just like every book, but for there on out it is fairly unique. It dumps you into kana (the syllabic Japanese writing systems) right off the bat, and romaji (romanizations of the kana text) are displayed only for the first three lessons or so.This book eases you into kanji as well, displaying pronounciations for each as they are introduced. I think their method of slowly integrating the more complex characters into your reading is absolutely brilliant, and pulled off extremely well. The story revolves around a young businessman and his wife travelling to Japan to live and work, and this, in a way, makes the lesson dialogues easier to relate to. Unlike some books, this text does not demand rote memorization of the dialogues and lesson vocabulary; rather, you simple start to remember them as you do exercises regarding the use of new words and terms from the lesson. That is not to say you will never need to just resolve to memorize something--this is the only real way to build your vocabulary skills. But the exercises are "user-friendly" and help a great deal.In addition, the back of this book contains the audio tape scripts for the listening exercises for those of us who don't have the tapes, a rare treat indeed. Certainly, no listening comprehension is helped then, but it is better than nothing.While I do sing the praises of this text, I would recommend having a basic familiarity with the kana systems (hiragana and katakana) before beginning this book, as without this it is too easy to get roped into simply reading the romaji--of which there is very little in Japan.I return to this book to aid my learning time and time again, and I can assure you who want to learn Japanese that this purchase is well worth the money.~Kevin

Perfect

I bought this book years ago, prior to a trip to Japan. I read most of it before I went, and it was great. The lessons are great, and applied very well to my experience in Japan. I carried this book everywhere I went in Japan to use as a reference. It contains useful information on life in Japan as well as the Japanese lessons. The first words spoken to me in Japan were "Pasupoto o misete kudasai." (show me your passport), which happens to be the first sentence in the book. I don't think this is coincidence, other chapters followed suit, applying directly to my stay in Japan. I hope Susumusan writes more books, so I can continue my studies.

Awesome

Well...I had to learn japanese all by myself, and after going through other books (teach yourself japanese, japanese for busy people...) without success, I was amazed that this book expanded my command of japanese with little effort!I can't explain it but it makes japanese an easier languaje, not because it leaves you midway like other books, but because it's a joy to learn with it

The quintessential study guide to the Japanese language

First, to sum it up... "Japanese for Everyone" is the best Japanese tutorial book that I have encountered so far. Yes, I do feel strongly about this, which is the reason I am writing this review, partly to express my many thanks to Nagara-san for his effort and also to let others interested in learning the language find the perfect study companion. That being said, let me elaborate... The book starts with the basics but it wastes no time. It immediately introduces the writing system, which I feel is an integral part of learning Japanese. Each chapter is part of a related set of stories which follow the life of a couple (their hobbies, social interactions, work, etc...) from the moment they arrive in Japan. There are 27 chapters and they are clearly laid out in a very readable format. Each has one or more dialogue/story sections followed a vocabulary section and separate "Function" sections discussing the idiosyncransies of the grammar used in the dialog passages with lots of examples. Later the dialogue is also presented in English, but you are encouraged to comprehend it without referring to it. The chapters then contain more "Function" sections with separate "Grammar notes" and exercises with smaller vocabulary sections as needed, plus a separate reading comprehension and a listening comprehension section at the end. The stories and the related material radiates a very warm and friendly atmosphere which makes learning a lot of fun. There are a lot of pictures related to the stories and the exercises but they are by no means fluffing up the book but rather they are very useful and are an integral part of the chapters as study aid. The material related to grammar is organized in an amazingly well thought out fashion and it is perfect for future reference as well. Along with the grammar some of the more common kanji are also introduced at first with furigana showing the proper way to pronounce each and later without it if it is used in the same passage, to help reinforce the learning process. The vocabulary sections will also show these frequent kanji next to their hiragana version. Here I have to make a note that the earlier chapters also have romaji (Japanese text using English characters) under the dialogue lines and next to the hiragana in the vocabulary section to help with learning hiragana and katakana. Amongst other things the end of the book contains the solution to the exercises in the chapters and a handy Japanese-English summary vocabulary section for the words used in the book with a reference to the first page where the word was introduced. The inside front cover has a nice hiragana/katakana chart and the inside of the back cover has a list of the most common "particles and other grammatical markers" In conclusion the only thing I can add to what I have already stated above, that if I could have a single book to help me learn Japanese then this book would be it. In addition to the book I would