Ultimate Japanese: Advanced

What I like best about this set is the realistic (albeit overly long) dialogues, practical business vocabulary and kanji reading practice. Im a beginner but decided to jump straight ahead to the advanced course because it seems (from the reviews here) that this repeats a lot of stuff from the basic any way. Also I have the Pimsleur CDS for the easier stuff and wanted to be in a more realistic "environment" where I dont understand 100% of what's being said. I listened to the "AT HOME" CDS --- which are all Japanese dialogue --- and read the English (instead of romaji) transcript simultaneously. In this way, Ive learned by pseudo osmosis. After repeated listening, one can actually understand the gist of what's being said without having to translate every single word into English. I hope this means Im thinking in Japanese now. The "ON THE GO" CDS review basic grammar, phrases and vocabulary. Overall I love it!!!

Prompt Service, attractively and securely wrapped package, outstanding merchandise. A very reliable seller!!!

The dialogues in this book don't make you practice how to greet your home-stay parents or make nice to your new school counselor or even how to get a date. The conversations, settings, and vocabulary are business and social situations with adults relating to each other. What a treat. The design of the book and the cds are quite useful I think. The other reviews discussed the book's layout. The cds are very good too. There are two sets for each chapter. In one the speakers do the dialogue at a pretty good clip and then repeat it sentence by sentence giving you time to say the words out loud. The second set focuses on expressions, grammar, and vocabulary. It's odd - the program assumes a previous background in Japanese yet some of the grammar lessons are quite basic. But as anyone who has studied Japanese knows, another explanation is another chance to 'feel' the point and review is always welcome. Penny www.WhereTheHeckIsMom.com

I just finished this book. If you already studied all the basics of most beginner courses and you seek for some advanced course this one is the right choice!.The book come with 2 sets of audio cassettes first set for study in car without a book and the second set should be studied with the book. The book itself organized in very convenient form. The 20 lessons come in Romaji with English translation and grammar remark at the first part of the book. At the second part one can find the same text in kana-kanji with a list of the new words and Kanji. Additionally there is English-Jap Jap-English dictionary with references to the lesson where the work was first introduced.For me this book was very helpful. I hope that in short future additional books for advanced Japanese learners will be published.

I agree with the previous review that this is one of the better books avaible for the Japanese language. I took Japanese for three years in college, so I was glad to find a book that started out with more than just travel basics. The thing I enjoyed the most was the fact that each dialog was duplicated in Kanji in the back of the book. The book covered a lot of grammer and I liked the layout of the book where it gives a diaolog and then reviews the grammar used in the dialog at the end of the lesson. Like the previous reviewer, I agree that the focus was almost exclusivly on business. However, I would further comment that even though the dialog was almost all about business situations, no real 'business Japanese' vocabular was introduced. I would like to see a book that taught everyday, street Japanese. In any event, this is a really great resource for anybody who has learned a little Japanese and would like to continue learning.