Japanese for busy people....?

Question

Is that really a good textbook to buy when learning the Japanese language? For beginners, that is. I don't really know katakana yet, but I'm pretty sure I could learn. I know hiragana pretty good though. So getting the kana version would be no problem whatsoever.

I just don't have the money to spend on a textbook and be wrong about it and then have to go out and buy some more. I only have $160 to spend all together, so something in my price range would be nice.

So...Is it worth the money, or should I buy another textbook? If so, which one?

Answer 1

It's a good textbook, but only if you're taking a class. It's not written in a way that you can really figure out all of it without a teacher. Plus there is an excellent video that doesn't come with the student edition. I used it for my conversational Japanese class. I strongly reccomend that you get the kana version. This will force you to use hiragana and katakana as soon as possible, which is important. A number of leading theorists have argued that learning Jpanaese from romaji (English letters) will hurt your pronunciation ability. For example, pronouncing "ra-ri-ru-re-ro" as if the consonant were an "R" is a bad translation, as the sound is actually much closer to a U.S. "L" sound. Plus, it will force you to become readily fluent in hiragana, which will make your further journeys into Japanese easier.

Answer 2

Personally i've found this to be a good text book for the older (17/18 - any age) beginner. It has an easy to use layout introducing topics gently in a cleare and concise manner.
There is also available a kana work book which teaches both the japanese alphabets.

Theres also some handy everyday kanji in the textbook, which isnt found in the version "for young people" .

Answer 3

Genki Vol.I is a great text for beginners and its only 40 bucks or so. Also, there are usually good books available at the library.