Nakama 1: Japanese Communication, Culture, Context

This is a Seven Audio CD set. (Teacher's version) The study guide for Makino Hatasa Japanese 1 comes with a single audio CD. The student's version audio is available on-line at several University websites. (You have to look for them.) Make sure you have a purpose for taking Japanese, not just curiosity. It is a hard class. You will learn to read and write Japanese, (along with vocalizations). My son is doing well in this class. The learning curve is way up there.

This was a textbook that was required for my japn course in college. Overall, a little disorganized and I wish they had some better form of teaching it. I don't understand why we do not learn counting until chapter 3. Shouldn't that be taught in chapter 1? I also believe that romaji is discourages, since you won't be able to find a shred of that in the book. It's a pretty good book, but not the type of book that you'd want to get for self-learning.

Needed it for a class I'm taking. The school book store was sold out. Arrived right when I needed it.

The book came very fast with the free super saving shipping and it was new. It's a paperback book and the pages are made of a paper like newsprint (fairly cheap paper). Being around 50 bucks I didn't want to buy it but it was required and cheaper than the local bookstore.

I think Nakama is an excellent Japanese textbook for a college student like me. It has a total of 12 chapters, each featuring a main topic such as daily routine, family, health, restaurant, department store etc. Yes the book does work better in a classroom with the guidance of a teacher. It has many interesting activities to be done in a group with other classmates. When I just started learning hiragana and katakana, I really appreciate the mnemonic diagrams which are rather funny and therefore easy to remember. For example, it says that the hiragana ? looks like a "No smoking" sign and is therefore pronounced as "no". The book also has many pictures which make learning Japanese fun. Besides, it also introduces Japanese culture in the beginning of each chapter. The workbook is not as bad as described by other reviewers, at least it is great to me. I have been taking Japanese class for 3 quarters (~9 months) and finally finish studying the book and doing the workbook. I can now speak some Japanese and write a short essay with some kanji. I love Nakama and also love learning Japanese very much. I am going to take more Japanese classes definitely and I am going to buy Nakama 2!! The only bad thing about this book is its price. I bought Nakama 1 for about $80, but considering the knowlegde I gain from it, I will probably keep the book. I recommend this book to everyone interested in learning Japanese.