Oxford Take Off in Japanese: Complete Language Learning Pack (Take Off In...)

I'm currently 9 Units into the 14 on this home course, and most deffinately swear by it. The audio and book weave together nicely and you can progress freely at your own pace, though I'd recommend doing something each day, even if it's just scan-reading what you've previously covered.

To nit-pick, I have noticed one or two slight errors, for example near Unit 6 there's a case of an incorrect answer, but as long as you're constantly vigelant it shouldn't throw you off.

A great language course which is even better side-by-side with Remembering the Kana: Hiragana and Katakana.

I'm making a forked attack on Japanese, using this and Pimsleur. So far, I'm very pleased.

This is a largely audio-based course. It basically consists of dialogues and listening comprehension exercises, backed up by nice, clear explanations of the key language points. It's very cunningly constructed, so that you've covered a lot of material before you're even halfway through the very innocent-looking coursebook. The fast pace is why I'm still using Pimsleur to re-enforce and practise what I'm learning. (Initially I tried using just Pimsleur, and I found myself floundering in a mess of very long, similar sounding words. This course has 'broken up' the language for me; it feels more like speaking a language and less like rattling off an arbitrary string of syllables.)

The dialogues themselves are well done. The seem natural and conversational, and a wide range of situations are used, which helps to contextualise the language you're learning. Most importantly they maintain your interest, and the reoccuring characters/themes add a sense of narrative which a weaker course would be without.

There is only a taste of written Japanese in the course. This is fine by me because I find it a lot more difficult to learn a new writing system without a decent grasp of the basic spoken langauge. However, if you think you'd benefit from a more integrated approach, there are probably better options out there for you.

If you're serious about learning Japanese then there are better book/audio combinations available.

I picked this up as it looked like an easy introduction to Japanese with everything written in Romaji (Japanese written in English) with both reading,writing and listening activities.

But that's really all it is, an introduction. The first 10 units are fine and it's relavtively easy to pick up. It doesn't overwhelm you with vocabulary to remember but instead introduces up to a dozen a page along with (brief) explanations on grammatical rules.

Towards the end you will become frustrated with it as you'll find yourself wanting to know more than the book is telling you especially in terms of sentence structure and the use of particles.

Lastly there is very little regarding the Japanese writing system, just one or two pages per unit (maybe 30pgs total!) which would be fine for the casual learner but would leave you at a distinct disadvantage in terms of reading and writing. If you're serious about the language then these are things you should be learning from the very beginning, especially Hiragana.

The audio is relatively good though, with pronunciation exercises and dialogs to listen to, along with additional practice of things learned from the book.

I've finished this book and have moved on to 'Japanese for Busy People' which, with hindsight, is what I should have started with instead. I'd recommend the same for anyone serious.

Also; hire a tutor as well to get conversational practice unless you have Japanese friends.

i bought this set a few months ago and and within a few days i'd already learnt how to talk about the weather introduce myself and even order food in a kissaten (japanese coffee shop). i have now got upto the time and am finding that i need to listen to it a little more but i think after a few days ill have this bit cracked aswell.i even think i can start to piece my own sentances together although they are basic. it also goes into the japanese culture which makes for a nice break from all the language. unfortunatly as others have said it does not go into writing or reading japanese in much depth so i have ordered japanese from zero for that. when that arrives i will review that one aswell so people can get an idea what thats like and i hope it will be a good partner for learning to read and write

This book is simply brilliant! I went from absolute no japanese ability (im also rubbish at languages in general!) to a good basic standard. The book has almost zero focus on the writing and reading side of things, but unless you specifically want to learn this, it makes things a lot more easier to learn! Everything is written in romanji (japanese words spelt in english). Plus everything is also written in english in japan too! So if you want to learn to speak japanese, get this!