Japanese for Busy People I

First of all, this book/series is mainly aimed at two sorts of people: 1. business students learning Japanese with hopes to work in Japan or work for a company who do business with the Japanese 2. working professionals who do not have 2-3 hours to spend each day on learning Japanese and want to learn the most important bits as efficiently as possible The three books in this series cover pretty much the same things as Japanese For Everyone (JFE) and Genki I+II. It has audio-material that has to be bought separately. The vocabulary it covers emphasizes professional vocabulary such as business terms, as well as practical vocabulary for actually living and working in Japan. It is aimed at mature learners who either plan to work in Japan or do other business there. If you get the Kana versions there is no romanization at all, not even the vocabulary lists are in romanization - just Kana and English. Therefore you need to know how to read and write Hiragana and Katakana before you start with this book. But you can easily learn Kana in just a month, so don't panic ! I recommend either Japanese for Busy People: Kana Workbook Incl. 1 CD or the (usually) cheaper Guide to Learning Hiragana & Katakana (Tuttle Language Library). The exercises are varied, in each chapter are word substitution, reading comprehension, translations etc. The grammar is explained in a straight-forward manner, but it does not go into the same depth as JFE and Genki. It shows you the most important bits and moves on to the next part. What distinguishes this book from the others is that you can go through one chapter within 30 minutes and "master" it within a week. So if you can only spend 30 minutes a day studying then this series is a good option for you. The appendix of each book has tables of all verbs, adjectives etc. covered in the book - which is good for those who like to have everything in one place. There are extra workbooks that accompany the main ones if you have more time to spend, but they are not essential in my opinion. Another thing that distinguishes this series is that it is directly aimed at self-learners as there are no group-exercises: it only contains exercises that you can do individually. Also, there are no audio-exercises in the books, so not buying the audio material will not affect you when using the textbooks. This is different to JFE and Genki, which have extensive audio exercises in each chapter. This series takes a slower/more gradual approach than Japanese For Everyone, so if learning the Japanese language feels intimidating to you then this series could be a good option. For example, Kanji are not taught until the second book in the series, this is to get you confident in reading hiragana and katakana first. The other two books in the series explain both individual Kanji as well as compounds: words made up of one or more Kanji characters, and Kanji + hiragana words. Many people really like this gradual approach, but others complai

After nearly three years of struggling to learn Japanese with hardly any success, I was ready to give up. Most books are unbearably difficult to understand, or they do not give enough information to learn the language efficiently. Finally, after not learning hardly anything, I decided to try one last book, and if it didn't work, I was ready to give up. I decided to go to a local bookstore to find anything there, and the lady that worked at the front desk reccomended that I use Japanese for busy people because it had helped her. I got on the internet and did some research to find that the Japanese for Busy People series is what I wanted to use. I decided to get the Kana version because I heard it was better to learn using actual Japanese characters. When I got my new book I found it was very easy to follow. The information is introduced in a way that makes it simple to learn and doesn't overload on information at the very beginning. Now, after four months of using the first book, I am simply amazed at the progress I have made. This book really does help. I'm not sure if I would reccommend Japanese for Busy People for the absolute beginner because it might be confusing, but it is great if you already have a basic understanding of the language, and you can read the Japanese script. All in all, Japanese for Busy People Kana version is the best tool to use for learning Japanese.

This book is very good, I don't know how to say it other than that. I recomend it more than the normal version BUT you must first know ALL heragana and it helps to be in the process of learning katakana (but it is easy to learn as you go). This version differs from the normal version in that there is no translation of the heragana into phonetical sounds, as in you wont see "ohiyou gozaimasu" but only the heragana equlivent. they explain that it is proven to help learn the language if you just through out the alphabet. Not to confuse anyone, the book is in english helping you learn japanese, and in my opnion it is very good.I recomend this book to anyone

This book is a wonderful resource for anyone wanting to have a basic understanding of the language. I would couple it with a good japanese dictionary to add a little more vocab to your studies. This is a "no-nonsense" book. If you want a "really fun" way to learn Japanese, go find another book. If you are interested in learning how to speak well, this book is for you! My only complaint is that this book (first in a series) lacks kanji. The second book in this series forces you to read in hiragana, katakana and kanji while in JBPI , you can get by with just reading roman characters.Ii nihongo no hon desu yo! (good japanese language book I tell you!)

I lived in Japan for 11/2 years before I decided to get serious and learn the language. I already had a vocabulary base, but couldn't use it very well. This book taught me how to use the vocabulary I already had and improved it quite a bit. With the use of this book, I was able to pass the Level 4 Japanese Proficiency Test conducted by the Japanese government. And in only 30 to 45 minutes a week! The workbook and CD's proved very valuable as well. If you want to learn Japanese, this is the book for you