Japanese in 10 Minutes a Day

Wanting to learn japanese I gathered up about ten books, programs and tape studies. After breezing through each I discovered this book was the best first step. Japanese is a very different language from the European languages, so it takes a lot of effort to really come to grips with the sentance structure (which is nearly backwards from English) and pronounciations (more vowels then English). By knuckling down and trying about 30 minutes a day of hardcore memorization i was able to power through a good deal of the book and gather a decent beginner vocab. Fun enough, the title is 'Japanese in 10 minutes a day' but it doesn't apply to anything in the book...there are no 10 minute regiments. You will just have to work through at your pace. The dialogue and vocab is laid out very well so you start with words that can identify things, and things to identify (colors, objects, destinations, food, buildings, etc). Then it branches out into verbs and adjectives. It has a very simple layout that makes the language as easy as possible for beginners. When done you should have about 1000 words under your command and a basic, usable understanding of Japanese sentace structure. The heavier technique of Japanese Language doesn't come through the book- verb conjugation and explainations of the particle words that are so tricky. But this book ramps you up to begin studies in other books and programs that aren't as well laid out, or simple to follow.

I had 1 month before heading to Japan and this book was great in learning the basics. The content is clear, simple, and easy to follow. The cut-out cheat sheets came in handy while in Japan and I wasn't afraid to interact with my broken Japanese. It covers context for a wide range of everyday situations such as transportation, dining, housing, siteseeing, etc.

I needed to learn basic Japanese fast, and by scheduling a lesson a day about a month before my trip to Japan, I was able to complete each lesson in the book (although admittedly, to say it only took 10 minutes a day is a bit of a stretch).The best things about the book are the friendly font and that instructions are written in an engaging, non-academic tone. Often, the lessons substitute one Japanese word for a common English word until you become accustomed to that particular word, even in the middle of a sentence. For instance, "Doko is the bathroom?" ("Where is the bathroom?")There are really handy yellow stickers that you can put on objects in your house and the like to help you remember things, and you can cut out ready-made index cards, which were quite portable and helped me en route to Japan.What's missing from this book are more Hiragana/Katakana/Kanji written clues. Although that might be too much to ask for from a beginning textbook like this, the essentials could be presented so that one could recognize basic signs in the midst of being lost in the Tokyo subway system.Don't buy this, however, thinking you'll be fluent. It's meant to be, and is, a survival tool for travelers.

I have now completed four books in this series and in this one Japanese book, have learned more than I have learned in several computer programs. These books are great, they start out with very simple words such as "Where" or "Who". Then by the end of the book the reader should have the ability to translate complicated sentences. Going through the whole book took me about a month and a half, and I was able to travel to Japan, get to my hotel, book a reservation, eat out at a restaurant, ask for directions, utilize the subway and train system, and much more. I was thouroughly impressed by this book. Unlike most learning material I purchased, this book doesn't make you memorize necessary sentences, but teaches you basic words, and grammar, so you can build sentences. I was even suprised how they mixed in some culture which makes each book unique. I recommend this book to absolutely anyone, erspecially those with no previous Japanese experience.

I have used many different products to try to learn Japanese. From cassets to internet programs, this book was the most fun, quick, exciting, and understandable method I've seen! I'd recomend this product to anyone who wants to learn Japanese for any reason. Other methods easily got frustrating, but this book kept my attention and intrest from cover to cover. I especially like the sticky labels. They make it easy to learn words for everyday objects in Japanese--effortlessly. Overall, I'd say this book is a great way to learn Nihongo! (Japanese)