Japanese Step by Step: An Innovative Approach to Speaking and Reading Japanese [Paperback]

I had been gradually absorbing japanese for a few years from such sources as anime, and old samurai films. Six months ago, I decided to take the plunge and devote some time to learning Japanese, so I picked up this book. I was immediately impressed with the organization, and lucidity of the material.
Before, I was totally mystified by the Kanji. I thought I'd never be able to understand " all of that crazy chickenscratch", as I sometimes (jokingly) put it. I tought that I could get by understanding the Kana, or maybe just the Romaji. I was totally put off by the different readings of the Kanji. Now, I understand more kanji than kana (granted, I'm still pretty much the equivalent of a slow-witted japanese kindergartener). This book erased most of my initial apprehension over the subject.
The grammatical structure is handled, in my opinion, in the proper way. For the first few chapters, the reader is presented with a somewhat simplistic view, which must be learned by rote. As the reader progresses in the book, some of the earlier schemas are expanded, and elaborated, leaving the reader with an ever increasingly profound grasp on the language. The presentation and progression is in a logical order, allowing those with a scientist's (like me) or engineer's brain quick access to the language.
This is, of course, not to say that one can attain a complete mastery of the language by reading this one book. As I alluded in the title of this review, this is merely a good first step. It never pretends to be anything more. If one studies from this book with discipline and diligence, one should not have trouble making oneself understood in japanese.

This is a great book for the study of Japanese language. However, one may want to have some basics down before reading the book. It is not quite a book for a beginner level who knows nothing about the language. And one may want to read each chapters a few times before you take the next step.

a very good book for people who already have a grasp at some japanese... i own this book... and even though i dont know a whole lot i am glad i own this. it is VERY in depth with some pages as a distionary.. and radical kanji in the back. i suggest starting off with something a lil more basic but order this anyways because this book will help you greatly.

Recommmended.