| One of the questions we get asked at J-List a lot is, "I want to start learning Japanese, what book do you recommend?" Most textbooks are entirely dry, uninteresting, and cannot follow a student's pace, leaving students frustrated. However, a new series by The Japan Times has recently taken Japanese language for foreigners by storm, and comes highly recommended by anyone who has taken it -- Genki, An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese. The entire course has 23 lessons, guiding the student from the beginning until the student has mastered elementary grammar and can read not only hiragana and katakana but over 300 of the most commonly used kanji as well. Each lesson has: 1) a dialogue introducing vocabulary and grammar in a situation the student may find familiar; 2) a list of the vocabulary with hiragana, katakana, kanji and English meaning; 3) grammar with full explanations in English; 4) interesting usage notes; 5) several pages of practice questions designed to be fun and interesting incorporating dialogue skills, writing skills, and thinking skills; 6) additional vocabulary. Each lesson also has a complementary lesson in hiragana/katakana/kanji, with reading and writing exercises. The separate workbook has more writing exercises and kanji writing practice. This is simply the recommended textbook for anyone beginning Japanese up to 3rd level in the JLPT. THIS CD SET: This is the students CD set for those studying with the textbook (PB888) and the workbook (PB890) for part I of the Genki series (lessons 1 to 12). This is a highly recommended purchase as it is excellent listening practice necessary for training your ears for the Japanese language, as well as practicing your own Japanese speaking. There are two CDs in this set: Disk 1 (73:35) covers the dialogue and vocabulary in the textbook -- read along with the dialogue and repeat the vocabulary. Disk 2 (40:50) has exercises for the listening comprehension questions in the workbook, suitable for testing your hearing and listening abilities. These 2 CDs are housed in a clam-shell case and contain a guide as to which track pertains to which page in the textbook or the workbook. The Genki Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese Series: |
