Japanese for Busy People II: Workbook

A great supplement to the Japanese for Busy People II -- good practice for self-motivated learners of Japanese. Each lesson (there's 20) is composed of three sections, Warming Up (preparation practice), Sentence Pattern and Practice (key learning objectives with plenty of practice in sentence patterns), and Challenge (a level above to give learners a chance to test their skills). There's fill-in charts and lots of cartoons. Note that Kanji with Furigana pronunciation guides have been provided only in some sections in Lessons 11-20. There's no additional vocabulary other than what's already provided with the main text --- a positive point, in my opinion. All lessons run parallel to the main text. I bought this workbook because I don't get much practice to speak Japanese. I've found that the sentence patterns from the workbook are less complicated than those from the text and repeating them has really helped to "cement" what I'd learned. There's audio tapes sold separately, but you need them only if you prefer extra listening practice.

To pronounce Japanese well, it is important to repeatedly hear a native speaker. These tapes re-enforce the workbook lessons. JFBP is a great series that really benefits from the multiple components. e.g. 1 The book 2 The CDs for the book 3 The workbook 4 The tapes for the workbook 5 The video Each component re-enforces the other. While I really like this series, you will need to find a way to deal with two short comings. 1) They never tell you the rules for verb conjugation. They only tell you to memorize. You will need another resource for this. 2) There is a lot of vocabulary, but no drilling method provided. You will need to do some flashcard drilling to really remember these. Don't forget to review old lessons. All and all a great series. However, Pimsleur is still my favorite. Pimsleur is only audio, so is quite limited compared to JFBP, but their educational method is superb. Good luck with your studies.

Our class used this text and it's companion workbook for college level Japanese I & II classes. It's a wonderful text book and very effective when used within the context of an organized language class. I struggled with self-study for a long time, but with the help of this textbook, I had learned to read/write Hirigana, conjugate common verbs & adverbs, use basic particles properly, comprehend the spoken langage more effectively and communicate in simple, grammatically decent, sentences. This set of books is not intended for self-study. I strongly urge individuals interested in the Japanese language for both travel, business and recreational purposes take classes for the following reasons: 1) Discipline - assignments and repetition are necessary to learning a foreign language effectively. 2) Accuracy - this book 'hammers the grammar'. If your English grammer skills are lax, you're going to need professional instruction. 3) Pronunciation - CD language programs are fine for travel, but nothing beats a real-life instructor a linguistic reality check! 4) Commaraderie - Classmates are crucial in foreign language study. Who else will tolerate your learning curve? 5) MOST IMPORTANT - the language skills you'll learn in a real class with a wonderful book such as this will help you to speak and comprehend the language at a much higher level.

I started using JFBP level 2 after finishing the first book. I think this work book is better than the level 1 workbook. Instead of 2 or 3 longer exercises per chapter, this book has several smaller ones. I also like how this book tail makes the exercises to the grammar points discussed in the corresponding text book chapters. The best of which makes you construct sentences by filling in your own words around given structures Example: ______ is ______er than _______. (Bill is taller than Joe) This sounds silly... but its a great way to become familiar with new grammar structures. As others have said, this book is useless on its own. You need the text book!

This is a very good book. It provides more comprehensive practice of the language taught in Japanese for busy people II. The characters are quite amusing in places - a welcome change from the dry. corporate, lifeless stories in the sister book. This book isn`t enough on its own, as it doesn`t actually explain the grammar, it only provides tasks. However, for me some of the sentence patterns were much clearer after using this book than reading them in the sister book. I think it`s an essential purchase for self-study students.