Japanese Step by Step : An Innovative Approach to Speaking and Reading Japanese

by Gene Nishi

This self-study text offers a breakthrough approach for beginning learners of Japanese, as well as an indispensable reference for intermediate students. The unique study method in Japanese Step By Step teaches how to construct Japanese sentences, from the simplest to the most complex, using an easy-to-follow, step-by-step method. Also contains flow charts for verb conjugations and derivations.

Genres: Language, Japanese Literature, Reference, Nonfiction, Japan, Education

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 2001

Reviews

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Japanese Step by Step is decent for learning Japanese, yet still leaves much to be desired. The book does meet Gene Nishi's overall stated goal of teaching basic formal Japanese in a hastened manner, yet seems to do many things quite oddly. The book makes extensive use of example sentences that, with a dictionary, are great for clearing up any possible confusion from the lesson and reinforcing what was learnt. The chapters are well organized, although some simple elements seem quite out of place, mostly ones that should have been taught with the basics being too deep into the text. And later this comes to one of the main issues of the text, its overreliance on Romaji. While the usage of Romaji can prove useful for the new Japanese learner, it should quickly be replaced completely by furigana as it only causes problems and confusion. With various examples, such as the characters ha, wo, he, i, and u, being transcribed incorrectly due to their varying pronunciation which only confounds the reader. And while the inclusion of pitch accent in the book is commendable, this is something that could be done with furigana just the same. Lastly, the book’s ever prevalent flow-charts manage to communicate their information just fine, yet still leave the reader scratching their head as to why such simple information is not conveyed in the smaller, simpler manner that so much of the book does wonderfully. Japanese Step by Step proves an alright book for the basics of the language, with many simple yet helpful explanations and useful examples, yet syntax and priorities leaves the reader often puzzled, and should not be used for any in depth learning.

[~*x-vixen-x-of-x-your-dreams-x*~]

I just started reading this book, but to warn you it was written by a head programmer from ibm and reads like a computer instruction book. It heavily utilizes flowcharts and even though it is effective it would be better used as a tool with one or two other books. There are no real exercises, there are no reading samples to try and see if you comprehend it. He also teaches an odd system of tones. I would recommend this definatley, but again maybe used side by side with rosetta stone (i know its expensive but come on you can downloadi t from a pirate site) or a japanese workbook from amazon.com, lookup japanese grade 1

[Duc Ngo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Offers lessons on a huge breadth of grammatical points in Japanese that most beginners textbooks do not cover.
Some explanations could be a bit more robust but for a starting point, this is an excellent source.

[amy8792000 · Rating 4 out of 5]

the book is well organised. It is easy to read and get to know the information.
It is a very good reference book when you are studying Japanese.

[Meltha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent tool in learning Japanese, very well done, but I would still strongly suggest taking a class along with this as the language needs a human voice to it.

[Carmen]

pertty just a little hard to understand

[Katy German]

I love my job. I get to learn a little bit about dozens of languages, and a lot about a chosen few. Here's to learning Japanese!