Japanese Now: Text -- Volume 2

I'm glad that there is a chance to open a dialogue concerning good Japanese Language books. I too used these books Vol 1-4 in a Florida high school curriculum. I progressed nicely through the texts, and as a result was given the opportunity by my classroom teacher to preview suggested texts being circulated around more affluent programs. I remember them not stacking up, and in particular I remember a "Youkoso" title. One of my major gripes about other Japanese texts is the dependence upon romaji which is written in english letters. It may seem like a good idea in the beginning to get the pronunciation right for a student who may be unsure, but continued usage is an impediment to development. After a few lessons have passed, texts should assume sufficient command of the hiragana and katakana and drop romaji usage. The Japanese Now series addresses this short-coming right from the beginning by including no romaji and forcing the student to read and comprehend the language. The last reviewer felt the content was bare-bones, and there is a measure of truth to it. The Japanese Now series are written with more of an analytic structure versus the active participant role of other books like the Nakama (which I am currently using for a college class.) I continue to study my Japanese Now books. Nakama gives up too much between its pages to unrelated filler subjects like geography and flags of other countries. Unfortunately it stifles its ability to deliver a lesson rich in content. The Japanese Now series approach to grammar is another matter. Regularly, the analytic approach appears as numeric subscripts highlight each new concept in grammar and the explanation is given in detail and used in subsequent exercises at the end of the lesson. Often texts will introduce new concepts and not sufficiently address their usage and/or introduce the student to their manipulation. It is this reviewer's opinion that there may be other Japanese books elsewhere, but none of them better than the Japanese Now series. I give it 4 stars in my review since I have yet to find the perfect Japanese text.