Japanese for Busy People: Kana Version Bk. 1 (Japanese for Busy People Series): Kana Version Bk. 1

This 3rd Edition is better than ever. I must admit I was never a big fan of the 1st edition. Simply because it was too businessman orientated and boring. This one broadens the use for everyone else that wants to be introduced to the learning of the Japanese language and makes it more fun. The topics and the lessons are important, but you might need some extra assistance to understand everything. Practice makes perfect. At that price, I would strongly recommend it. ps: If you are not VERY familiar with KANA reading, go for the romanized version.

This is the book recommended by most teachers. I used it before I went to live in Japan. However the way it is set out and the language taught is too formal and rigid.

By far a better choice for the learner is the Genki series which is far better written and includes a lot of less formal expressions useful for every day conversation. FOr a more serious learner minna no nihongo is also far superior to Japanese for busy people.

Overall I would avoid this book like the plague and spend your money more wisely. If you have a lazy teacher then but this book.

This is a great book, a great series of books even! They work - the chapters are short and you get given the basics of sentence structure early to begin building. Verbs are laid out plainly and in a logical order which aids memorisation. If you can't attend lessons where they use this book the CD covers all the dialogues, short dialogues, exercises, and vocabulary for every chapter! The repetition of exercises is not boring, and can be done anywhere. Good for someone who wants to speak and/or read Japanese. I used this book to watch anime and read manga... oh and to talk Japanese of course :D

Couple this with a book to teach you hiragana and katakana and you'll be away in no time!

i do not know a lot of learning japanese books, so i cannot tell u whether this one is the best or not. however, my opinion is that it is a nice book.

Unfortunately, in my opinion it has a big flaw: often the space left for filling the answers for the exercises is not enough; more than once i had to write several hiragana in just a couple of cm.
For me that i prefer to do the exercises directly on the book with a pencil it is a big flaw.

I first came across this book as recommended by my Japanese teacher as she sometimes uses it as a compliment to the lessons I take weekly. Now, although this book does cover a lot of the important base points of the Japanese language (particles, useful vocabulary etc), I do find that it doesn't really put enough time into drilling these essential grammar points in.

For example, at the beginning of each chapter, you're given a quite nicely laid out page of points on how the proceeding chapter's main grammar points will be used and the formation of it's sentences. Sounds great but it's just one page! To me, that's just not enough. My teacher puts a great deal of (I think necessary) time each week into these points as they really are the building blocks of the language and to just skim over these key points in one page doesn't give the language the respect it demands.

Aside from this, I also find it's techniques of teaching vocabulary a little rushed as well. Now I know the title is "Japanese For BUSY PEOPLE" but there are some sections that need to have time taken over. Generally, this book just lists new vocabulary in a tiny bar at the bottom of the page each time it's used in one of the book's (I'll admit, very useful) target dialogues. Vocabulary is my weak point in Japanese and I find flash cards, repetition etc essential. Just listing words without even putting a picture next to them (in MOST cases) feels like they've written out the dialogues and then just casually mentioned the vocabulary. To me, this leaves me feeling left behind and so, the rest of the book can become slightly daunting. If I didn't have my Japanese lessons to back up the material, I think I would find this book very frustrating.

All in all, Japanese is a difficult language. That point coupled with the fact that there's so many Japanese books on Amazon that can be daunting to someone starting off has led me to be very critical of this, and any other language book. None-the-less, JFBP is, for me, the perfect compliment to a night class as it serves well as a summary and I can't stress enough how much this has helped me.

Just a quick warning though: This version is the "Kana" edition which means it's written in the language's two most basic character sets; Hiragana and Katakana. This means you'll have to be able to read these sets of characters before this book will make an ounce of sense so bear that in mind! There is a "romanized" version which writes the Japanese in it's English syllables but to really progress in Japanese, I recommend learning the Kana and then using this version. It may seem daunting but it's really quite easy especially if you use an amazing book called "Remembering the Kana: Hiragana and Katakana" by James Heisig.

The bottom line is that this really is a great book but it's lack of attention to grammar and the way it teaches vocabulary unfortunately warrants taking it down a star. Still essential though and probably the best book I can imagine when used alongside a properly tutored Japanese course.

David Fox