Job Discussion Forums

[MattElz]

Can anyone recommend an -affordable- comprehensive Japanese course to prepare me for Japan somewhat?

[fat_chris]

The book "Japanese for Busy People."

[shmooj]

Personally, I hated that Chris - no offence intended.

I would recommend splashing out on Yokoso if you can get it. I got a hardback copy from Amazon.com but the materials are pretty pricey. Worth it in my opinion.

Japanese made materials tend to be totally in Japanese which can be daunting but Minna no Nihongo has a separate translated volume which is useful and crammed full of themed vocab units as extras which is good. Dunno if you can get this outside Japan.

I brought the BBC Japanese course (red book) with tapes when I first arrived here and it really helped. Don't know where you are Matt so don't know if BBC materials are available to you.

[fat_chris]

No offence taken.

[kovac]

Ive plugged this guys software before but for only 60 dollars you get a damned good package covering Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji, a dictionary and flashcard learning program ( I mastered my Katakana/Hiragana in 2 weeks after using it)

http://www.declan-software.com/japanese/

tho this doesnt teach any phrasal or situational japanese; strictly grammer, vocab, etc. Very useful nonetheless along the study road.

For ground up basics...um I found the Japanese for Busy People texts pretty useful, Ive finished book 2, and those opposed to "direct method" learning a la "mina no nihongo", JBP is a good starter if you are daunted by having to master hiragana and katakana before starting study.(I found Mina no nihongo a bad starting book and a bit dry...)

One book called "Instant Japanese" by Elizabeth Smith, I found it a bit too simple but kinda thing one could soak up over the flight over here (comes with a tape and flash cards too, very cheap n cheerful.)

The BBC course isnt too bad, I had attended a course back home which used this, but it is a bit dated and the tapescripts can be quite long and tedious, still presents Japanese in everyday situations with video accompanyment, quite a lot of repetition of subject matter.

For general handy phrases in a small book I recommend Lonely Planets Japanese phrase book (useful when the mind fails you and you need to get a suit dry cleaned, etc) and for more indepth I recommend Mangajins Japanese through comics, for language nuance and http://www.georgeandkeiko.com/ or sister site YESJapan for more interseting tidbits

Dont think there is any one "out of the box" solution for Japanese study, just a case of picking and choosing what you find suits you, but hope some of these recommendations are of some use. (personally) After a long haul Japanese can seem like an unmasterable language, but stick with it, takes some time, but most of all, enjoy your study, dont get lazy just cos you can get by with no Japanese or Japanese speak english to you all the time, try it out, get embaressed, make mistakes, make improvements, make it fun

gambare yo

[shmooj]

And if you are serious about hitting intermediate ability in Japanese get hold of Halpern's Kanji dictionary published by Kodansha. It is superb.

[avahanian]

[guest of Japan]

I like the first "Japanese for Busy People," but the second level takes things way to high way to quickly. Also, if you can, get the kana version. It's frustrating at first, but helps you in the long run.

[Munchen]

For the audio intro, the Pimsleur method is superb for starters, but one can get blown away with the higher levels. However, you wo;; want to gain some familiarity with the language basics, grammar, Hiragana and Katakana at least.
A few years ago, NHK published a four-volume course which one could hear on NHK shortwave Japanese station. They also did a good two part video TV series with accompanying texts which were available from NHK. I was able to receive it from an international TV station in the DC-Virginia metro area. Fortunately I had taped them when they were being shown. The books may be hard to obtain now but probably available once you get to Japan or maybe by contacting NHK.
Remember the Hiragana/Katakana by Heisig (sp) great for learing these and now combined into one volume. Uses system of mnemonics. Also author of Kanji books.
Above all, check your library resources. Some have excellent materials for borrowing.
Hope these suggestions help.

[Munchen]

Re Japanese for Busy People. A revision came out at least several years ago and I have seen accompanying CD/tapes in bookstores.
Although I have not checked the revised parts in the newer edition carefully, you may have audio set from the previous edition, thus, or course, there may be problems in listening to dialogues.

[Gordon]

One book I've found very helpful is Japanese Made Easy by Tuttle Publishing. It's an old book, but the language hasn't changed too much. What I like is that it teaches you a combination of grammar and vocab so that you can form simple sentences without needing a lot of prior knowledge of the language.

[TokyoLiz]

I too really liked Yokoso. If I remember right, it has cultural information to help you understand why people say things the way they do in Japaneese.

Two books I've relied heavily on are Gene Nishi's Essential Japanese and Modern Japanese (the author's names escape me now, but I remember they're the writers of the Japan Times weekly lesson).

Essential Japanese is a grammar, not a work book. It will help you learn the structures you need for everyday conversation.

Modern Japanese has dialogues in kana, followed by romaji and English translations. Each part of the dialogue is then explained in English. It's got lots of drills and short reading passages. There are tapes for it, too, but they're rather expensive here in Japan - they cost about Yen 10,000.

I don't like Japanese for Busy People, either. I found that the dialogues didn't present natural discourse. They don't teach you about register (keigo) either in the first and second book.

[canuck]

The Declan software is riddled with errors (Hirigana and Katakana). I mean riddled with errors. The kanji one is alright, but a book is much better.

If you spend some time downloading on Kazaa, you should be able to find the Pimsleur tapes converted to .mp3. Good luck!