Japanese for Beginners: Learning Conversational Japanese - Second Edition (Includes Online Audio)

It is always a dream of mine to learn different languages as a lot of people do too and this book is a valuable means for beginners to learn the invaluable Japanese language. This book provides a step-by-step basis every step of the way and you feel that you learn something every second.The audio cd is also very helpful but future buyers should be careful that it will not play on all media sources. The best way to play this is either by a Blu-ray player (make sure you click on the song lists to access the audio tracks) or with a PS3 console (Follow the same steps mentioned with the Blu-Ray player).Regardless, future buyers will definitely enjoy this product and get their money's worth if they are diligent and committed to the process of learning. I, myself, feel that I am making great progress, thanks to this book; perhaps you all will agree too.

Great for beginners

Even though there aren't a lot of Japanese characters in this book, the pronunciation of the words is explained well. I think this would be good for someone wanting to make friends with Japanese native speakers or spend a lot of time interacting with them since it explains their lifestyle as part of the communication process.

I bought this book because after looking at the description, it teaches informal Japanese, which I think will be more common for me after you get to know somebody well. You only talk polite to those you don't know well or strangers after all so I gave this book a shot.So most textbooks teach the polite Japanese because the Japanese are in fact, very polite when talking to strangers and co-workers etc since the language is very class-based depending on where you stand in society (employee talking to your boss, stranger talking to an elder, teacher talking to kids) but this book goes out of its way to teach you to speak more, casually, informal, and more common Japanese once you get acquainted with a stranger. This book has "33 chapters" which I look at as more of sections rather than chapters as each has a few pages explaining new concepts and building on what you have previously learned.This book has LOTS of content and is will very well get you understanding, listening, and speaking Japanese at a rather decent level. Reading? In my opinion, this book deserves 5 stars because it has a lot of content to teach you with plus the comic strips are funny and will keep you engaged. BUT, this book is ALL romaji. This book makes it very clear though, that it does not teach you how to read Japanese as it wants you to listen and speak first. So this is my fault for being biased towards that. The comic strips are in hiragana though with romaji on the next page and it explains the usage of certain aspects of the language.. such as ご and お and can only manage to explain well enough by showing you which words use it by showing you the Kanji (ご主人 vs お金 for example).All in all, this book is a very thorough enough book (with the exception of the script) and you will be left with the minimum amount of questions. What i recommend though, for those more advanced who are interested in improving their writing and reading is, write the dialogues in a notebook in the Japanese script, so you won't be forced to read the romaji in the book and then just listen to the audio, which is very clear. This is a must-buy for beginners and people who want to learn more about the more informal, casual Japanese.

Great book for my beginning Japanese students!

Easy to read and approach....I’m just getting started but I’ll keep you posted, so far I’m very pleased.

Working great so far. I appreciate the CD so I can really experience and practice. Gets you involved without boring you.

Very large book and there is an mp3 cd great