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Japanese for Busy People (Kana version) Vol. II Editorial Review:
How can the Japanese for Busy People series help you learn Japanese?
Japanese for Busy People is, as the title suggests, a concise course for 'busy' students who want to learn natural, spoken Japanese as effectively as possible in a limited amount of time. Three main texts-Japanese for Busy People I, Japanese for Busy People II, and Japanese for Busy People Ill-with related workbooks, cassette tapes, ODs, teacher's manuals, and videos make up this fully integrated three-level series. At each level, enough vocabulary and grammar has been provided to enable the learner to communicate in uncomplicated adult language without having to memorize excessive amounts of vocabulary and language patterns that are not immediately useful. All components of the Japanese for Busy People series have been prepared under the guidance of a working group of experienced Japanese language instructors who reviewed and tested the material in an authentic classroom environment.
Japanese for Busy People II: The Workbook is the ideal resource for any student who wishes to improve speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills in Japanese. This collection of exercises and activities has been developed to provide practice for sentence patterns presented in both the Revised Edition and Kana Version of Japanese for Busy People Il. The workbook can be used both in the classroom as a supplement for introducing or reviewing lessons, and outside the classroom for homework and review. When coordinated with the exercises and quizzes in the main textbook, this workbook should enable learners to improve their command of basic Japanese in a relatively short time.'
This fully illustrated Workbook includes:
'Structure Practice' -To understand the meaning and structure of sentence patterns.
'Receptive Practice' -To understand how a structure is used in context.
'Productive Practice' -To form spoken and written sentences based on the sentence patterns.
Japanese for Busy People II: Workbook Tapes (available separately) has been specially designed to support this workbook.
Customer Reviews:
Good, but rather dry.
I have been using the JFBP series for about three years. It's my teacher's top choice and it is definitely a thorough review of japanese grammar with a gradual, natural approach. It also features lists of adjectives, adverbs, etc. which provide easy vocabulary enrichment. The included CD has several dialogues for each lesson and the workbook has even more. Pretty much how good this series is has been said before and better by other reviewers.
That said the main "theme" of the lessons is the adventures of a very boring Canadian expat ("Mr. Smith") as he adapts to life and work in Japan. Now, I said life and work but pretty much everything is related to his worklife with a lot of business terminology which is great to know but which I found utterly boring. In fact, I felt rather sad for bland, overworked Mr. Smith and his experience made me glad that we don't have such a strong salaryman culture in the West.
Fortunately, AJALT seems to have realized this and subsequent editions have a more interesting approach. For example, the recurring feature "Rosa's blog" on the workbook for this volume features the titular Rosa whose father is Japanese but she grew up abroad and is now discovering the food, culture and peculiarities of Japanese life; and blogging about it, of course. I found her more interesting than Mr. Smith but then again, I'm studying Japanese for the love of the language and culture, not to go work in Japan.
great sequel!
This is a great sequel to the first book Japanese for Busy People: Kana Version v.1: Kana Version Vol 1 and continues in the same style.
This book is structured just like the first book:
> shorter chapters [8-10 pages]
> one dialogue per chapter
> easily-explained grammar [a "no-nonsense" approach]
> a large number of exercises that varies in type [same sort of exercises as in the first book]
> no romanization of the dialogues
So far the book is just like the first book, but in this book Kanji is introduced.
I feel I need to expand on the Kanji taught in this book: the book teaches you Kanji by using the character-compound method, meaning that you learn whole words and not individual Kanji - you will not learn every possible pronunciation of a character. The book shows you how to draw most of the characters.
This series is aimed at people wanting to learn practical Japanese relatively fast, there is simply not enough time to study each individual Kanji when you have this goal.
In the prospectus of the book it states that 5-10 kanji are introduced in each chapter, but this is not entirely true: in addition to the 5-10 new Kanji-words introduced at the end of each chapter, each chapter introduces 10-15 Kanji words in the dialogues and exercises - so you actually learn alot more Kanji words than what the authors let on.
Just like the first book this one has vocabulary aimed at professionals learning Japanese: business people, diplomats, scientists etc...i.e. people who have practical reasons for learning Japanese.
But the method used in this book suits anyone who wants to learn Japanese relatively fast and still have a very good mastery of grammar.
Above all, it suits people like myself, who like to learn gradually through many short chapters rather than few large chapters.
This book was just as I expected, so I'm very happy with it.
Book II For Busy People
Again second year of Japanese required text book for class. Good as the first in the series recommend using CD more often with this book which will help the reader through un familiar sounding phrases and greetings. Used separately the book will help a beginner practice sounding out words in the most typical everyday lifestyle from asking directions to buying stamps at the post office, to counting items in an department store.
as good as you will find
This book is the intermediate level in a really well-done series. The progression from simple conversation to more sophisticated material is so seamless that a learner will probably not even notice how much ground has been covered. This series is very much skewed toward everyday conversation, but the presentation has been done so comprehensively that transitioning into more sophisticated areas can be done very smoothly. The CDs are really high quality as well, making these books overall a fine value for the price. I do recommend getting the kana edition of book 1- students who put off kanji and kana until level two will find they have a lot on their plate.
nice 3rd edition
I studied JFBP I. this series are both usable, and new edition has a clearer sound recording and the units are so fine designed. can be studied for the japanese language profiency test.
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