Beginning Japanese Textbook: Revised Edition: An Integrated Approach to Language and Culture (Free Online Audio)

I am using this book without a teacher and, even though it was designed for a classroom setting, have found it very helpful.-It uses very little Romaji and gradually weens off of that. When it is used in the beginning the letters are much smaller than the kana which is very important if one is planning to truly read and understand Japanese.-The dialogues seam very natural, not a "this is a pen" talking but actually conversational talking. To keep on the lesson if something has not already been learned and doesn't have to do with the session then it is said in English.-The journals are also helpful. They teach more novelistic Japanese along with the manga and conversation taught in the dialogues. In addition they make a textbook seam more like a story which makes it much easier to keep reading.My only cons aren't really important ones:-The dictionary in the back of each session doesn't cover words found only in the dialogue or journal but this can easily be remedied by something like Google Translate or another dictionary. iPhone has a nice free one called Kotoba! which helps when I don't know a word.-The art is HORRIBLE. Someone who isn't into art probably wouldn't care but my friends and I are all very into art and laugh at the art in each section. "Can I do that? Just get a picture and paste an already-used pose on top of it and make money instead of drawing everything every time?"All in all I think this is good for even the very beginners. The first things it teaches are the alphabets and the CD gives everything I sound to pair it with. If you are going to self-study don't expect to just read the book and get everything though. To self study with this you must take notes and practice everything multiple times. It was designed for a classroom setting where you would converse with teachers and peers throughout the lesson in what you have learned so to teach yourself you must do twice what you would in a classroom to make up for lost things, in my opinion. If you can do that though it's really fun. I love learning from this book.Also, if you can find friends to study with you, do it!Totally worth the price. It's fun, has good resources in the back, and is useful. Can't wait until I'm done with Beginner and buy advanced!

some of the information is incorrect/inaccurate such as telling numbers. The book does showcase great opportunities to practice reading but not speaking Japanese.

Most Americans do not speak a second language, particularly a language with different orthography. Students starting from zero should be taking a beginning Japanese class in a school, not trying to decipher kanji and kana, as well as vocabulary and grammar from this book. However, If you have had a year of classroom education that has exposed you to writing and reading in Japanese orthography, this book is excellent. Of course, there is nothing like classroom practice in speaking and writing. There is also the pressure of the classroom to keep studying. Nevertheless, this is a unique text book, and I strongly recommend it for the not very beginner beginner, as well as for anyone wishing to review the language in an interesting way.

not easy but a good intro

My Japanese has gotten really rusty since I left Japan in 2010 after teaching English there for 5 years. This is a great self-study textbook to review in a holistic style. The book blends reading/writing/listening very effectively!

Event though the book titles Begining, is not. I like the way they do the manga style and how the more you go deep into the book the romaji start to dessapear forcing you to understand and read the language. But the begining is too much. The book throw you into Hiragana and Kanji at the same time, the chapters doesn't explain much other than show you words to learn. A lot of times you try to read the Manga and is written in Hiragana, Kanji and Katakana, then when you go to the exercise everything is in Hiragana. Is too confusing having everything throw at you as a beginner with no guidance. If you buying this book, be sure to learn the whole three writings before you start with this book or you won't understand anything from Chapter 1

I thoroughly approve of starting with little to no romanization.I really wish that the authors had added furigana to the kanji - I spend more time looking things up than the exercise itself would require if they had just done this one thing.

As an instructor, this is the first time I've used this book in language teaching. I like it for students familiar with the kana writing system because it omits most romaji (transliteration), forcing the student to use the Japanese writing system without props.

This would probably be ok as a class textbook but for people self-learning it relies far too much on cross referencing with the website - translations should be readily to hand not have to be searched for. Too much time is spent learning how to use the book and website rather than actually learning the language. Much of the early book is taken up with a story about a student visiting Japan which is fine and simple enough and introduces very limited amounts of Japanese, but then it goes straight for written Japanese without introducing either the Romanji for the pronunciation or the english translation - there is no bridging unless you go to the website to find it which is very clumsy and unnecessary given the space wasted in the book itself. There is also a lot of Manga, which may be attractive to some but teaches precisely no Japanese language from what I can see.

As a textbook for me, I love it. However, I have knowledge of hiragana and katakana, so it is fine for me to work through at a steady pace; for someone who is coming to it as a completely new language, they might find it quite challenging (& perhaps off-putting?). However, overall, I think this is great, and I look forward to working at the Intermediate version.

I love that the book have cd and it does have information but that isn't the beginners level. It's internidiate in my opinion. I will use it but first I need to learn a proper beginner Japanese to use it. The good thing is that it's cheaper than some other Japanese textbooks.

A easy way to start learning Japanese, very friendly and enthusiastic approach

As the title says, the textbook is good, however, its best if you already know your hiragana, and most of your katakana, before starting it as it jumps right in without romaji for much of the book. That being said, the book follows a story where there is main non-Japanese character learning and living in Japan, so you learn much the same way you would if you were to be in a similiar situation.I like how instead of the furigana being on top of the kanji, its below, to make you look at the kanji first and try to figure out how its read before you use the furigana underneath. As you can guess, this textbook has you learning kanji from the very beginning (which is both a good and bad thing depending on your prefrence).There are activites in the book to try out, but the ones I've come across so far need a partner (which is good for multiple students (or a classroom setting), not so good if your studying alone). It doesn't have an intergrated workbook (which you need to buy seperatly, which I have but I have to recive it but when I do I will be reviewing that as well).Overall, I am pleased with this book and will be happy to use this book for the next while in my studying, and adding it to my collection of textbooks.