This was a textbook for a class in Japanese that I took. It was a good textbook, I did well in the class and had a good time. Unfortunately, it was a long time ago and I don't remember much of it. Konnichiwa. Shitsurei shimasu. I can't blame the book for my lack of practice. ( )

http://pixxiefishbooks.blogspot.com/2...

When I first started wanting to learn Japanese over a year ago, Randal lent me his old text, Japanese for Busy People (Book 1), that he'd used when he'd started Japanese lessons many years before. So I was quite pleased when the Japanese course that I took at Algonquin turned out to use the same text as well!

Book 1 is really well-organized. It has short, concise lessons that introduce a few grammar points and some vocabulary, then many exercises to get you using, learning and really remembering what you have learnt. Book 2 is slightly more unwieldy, but still good. It has more grammar and vocab in each lesson, and I find the order in which it is all introduced - thematically (eg., At Work, At the Health Club, etc.) rather than by grammar topic - to not always be intuitive. Plus, I bought the kana version, which is good for practicing my hiragana and katakana practice, of course, but makes reading slow! That will improve with practice, I know.

I also picked up, somewhere along the way, the Kana Workbook for the Japanese for Busy People series. It was VERY useful for practicing katakana and hiragana and really getting them to stick in my head. Now if only they produced a book to teach me, equally simply and painlessly, the 1,945 kanji designated necessary by the Japanese government. ( )

The text book I use to teach.
most of the entry level books use alphabets instead of KANA and you simply won't learn from that. if you just want to say that you learn then go head use that kind. bu if you want to be good at it, Kana is the way to go.

There are marks on the inside through the first 10 chapters or so.