Japanese Busy People #1 Kana: Amazon.ca: Association Japanese Language Teaching: Books

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Book Description

Japanese Busy People #1 Kana is a Kodansha International publication.

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Association Japanese Language Teaching is a Kodansha author.

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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

4.0 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars This is the one to get!, July 25 2005

By

Andy Wong (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Japanese Busy People #1 Kana (Paperback)

There are so many resources out there but if you are looking for one book to get you started, Japanese For Busy People 1 is it! All the grammar points will be understood after using all three books in the series. If you are not going to buy audio tapes with this book, go to www.ajalt.org, which is the official site of the Association For Japanese Language Teaching. There are lots of audio resources there for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners. After finishing Book 1, the learner will be able to introduce themselves, shop, tell the time, express preferences, etc. It also offers quizzes to test your level.

However, one negative is the lack of vocabulary. The learner has to go online and lookup news articles. Go to http://133.6.76.15/~jems/hosokyoku/bangumi.html for articles with audio and fill in the blank quizzes.

Critics say this book tells you to memorize verb forms and adjectives but the patterns will be very obvious. As long as you are willing to put in the effort, this book will teach you everything you need to know to start.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Love it!, Feb 23 2004

By

Brian Pressman (Honolulu, Hawaii United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Japanese Busy People #1 Kana (Paperback)

I just love this book. The lay out is simple and easy to follow. For best results, use a "Learn Hiragana" & "Katagana Book" and then get the JFBP Kana Version. That way one can avoid romangi (Japanese written with English letters) which only slows you down from learning real Japanese. Its best to use this book in combination with the workbook. I use the book on my own, but having someone to ask questions to is imperative.

The book does have some shortcomings. Other reviewers have pointed out that book does a poor job of explaining form constructions, instead, it directs one to memorize a list of verbs/adj/etc. I agree this is not the way to go. This deficiency is easily overcome by a class or tutor. My Sensei does a good job explaining how verb/adj/etc structures are formed... so the book's failure to do so is no big deal. If you are learning on your own... this could be a problem.

Having a teacher is a good idea in the beginning anyway as it will give you a chance to practice speaking and listening. I actually started using JFBP on my own because my class book (Japanese New College Text) is just awful.

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2.0 out of 5 stars overrated, Feb 19 2004

By

zolo (NY, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Japanese Busy People #1 Kana (Paperback)

While I am beginning to understand the rationale for how this textbook is designed, I still feel that it is too targeted to business users to be of true value to anyone not needing to do business in japan. In other words, if you are learning japanese out of personal or family interest, look elsewhere. Also as other reviewers have said it relies heavily on rote memorization which is good and/or necessary for some things (days of the week, numbers, dates, etc) but really bad for others (verb forms and conjugation).

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Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars G-A-R-B-A-G-E
I feel like I'm going crazy or something because looking at these reviews and finding that the majority of them are 5 stars or 4 stars makes me wonder if I'm coming from the same... Read more

Published on Feb 9 2004 by Zachary Turner

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to use for self-study or coursework.
First off, this textbook is used by a lot of North American Japanese language courses. It's also used here in Toronto by some of the high-school language programs. Read more

Published on Feb 9 2004 by KL