Basic Connections: Making Your Japanese Flow (Power Japanese Series) (Kodansha's Children's Classics)

After you've spent a few months studying Japanese, you will begin to realize why a book like this is necessary. Saying short simple sentences in Japanese (e.g., "I want to go to that coffeshop" "the cake is good at that coffeeshop", "I want to go with you") is relatively easy. But saying anything more complex (e.g. "I want to go with you to that coffeeshop because the cake there is delicious") is HARD. And making relatively complex sentences sound natural takes a long time.

So the concept behind this book is brilliant. Lower intermediate students NEED this kind of instruction. This book, though, while well written and certainly useful, didn't really live up to my expectations. Why?

Because this is a slim little volume, too short to really deliver on the substantial promises it makes. Many of the explanations felt rushed to me. There are just one or two examples for each explanation, where four or five would be far more useful. And the exercises are too few and not always very well conceived.

So it's a great concept and a good book, but it could definitely be improved. Mostly it needs to fatten up. A future edition, with twice as many examples and exercises would be heartily appreciated.

I bought this book in order to prepare myself to take the JLPT4 exam. And, well, I was in for a shock. The title is nothing if not misleading. The grammar covered DOES NOT focus on what you would expect to be basic material. Of the hundred odd "connections" that the author has chosen, only a handful are JLPT4, and the other half are split between JLPT3 and JLPT2. Other cons are that the language of the author is of a very wordy and academic nature, so the explanations seem more complex than clear or concise! And, contrary to the premise that much of this book is aimed at beginners, in the majority of cases the author clearly expects readers to already have a grasp of intermediate grammar, thus leaving far too many things improperly explained, skimmed over, or even lacking in any explanation at all.

However, this is not to say that this book is a waste of good paper. If you are of an intermediate-higher level (read: higher JLPT3 and above) it can come in quite useful, because it at least alerted me to a lot of aspects many other grammar books did not even touch on, even though it failed to explain many of these in detail. And if you're a beginner, consider it for future reference, but don't be in any hurry to buy it.

The field of language books and Japanese language in particular, is as enormous as can be. It's important to know where to start, and how to accumulate information in order to make a steady move forward while learning any language. This book, though trying to give you as much general information about the language as possible, is not for beginners. If you want some real basic Japanese, try any Kodansha book or any other college students book that will give you the right start. Although not for beginners as I said, it's a very handy book for the more experienced Japanese learner, and will give you bunds of information that'll make your language familiarity better. Again, a book not to start from, but a great supplementary didactic tool for the advanced user.

This is a great book for beginning/intermediate Japanese students. It describes the usage of particles, select verb phrases, and common sentence patterns very thoroughly, especially where appropriate context is required. Instead of just saying "A kara, B" means "because of A, B", this book delves into the complexities of kara implying direct cause and effect, even blame.

As for the use of romanji, it's annoying and ill-suited to a book that is not for absolute beginners. However, in a way it's also better than furigana because it's easier to practice reading kanji. I find that I've developed the annoyingly lazy habit of just reading furigana even if I know the kanji.

All in all, a great supplemental text!!

This is a very good book for beginners, but you still have to sit down and practice the basics with it... it's very good.