Product Description

Japanese From Zero! is an innovative and integrated approach to learning Japanese developed by professional Japanese interpreter George Trombley and co-writer Yukari Takenaka. The lessons and techniques used in this series have been taught successfully for over eight years in classrooms throughout the world. Using up-to-date and easy-to-grasp grammar, Japanese From Zero! is the perfect course for current students of Japanese as well as absolute beginners.

In Book 3 of the Japanese From Zero! series, readers are taught new grammar concepts, over 1000 new words and expressions, and also learn the first 80 Kanji.

Features of Book 3:
* Integrated Workbook with Answer Key
* Over 1000 New Words and Expressions
* Learn to Read and Write 80 Kanji
* Easy-to-Understand Example Dialogues
* Culture Points about Japan
* Bilingual Glossaries with Kana and Romaji
...and much more!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #98652 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

About the Author
Author George Trombley is a professional Japanese interpreter who over the past 16 years has interpreted at corporations such as Microsoft, IBM, NTT DoCoMo, and Lucent Technologies in countries throughout North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Customer Reviews

Book 3 - the story continues...
This follows the same clear and varied format as Books 1 and 2, but of course this time gradually introduces a few Kanji. This is done in a straightforward no-nonsense way.

Subject matter is again relevant and interesting.

Where the book is let down is the suddent introduction of words or uesage of words that have not yet appeared in the text. One phrase, for example, is casually thrown in some 8 chapters too early. In addition there are spelling mistakes in both English and more critically (considering the nature of the book) in Japanese too.

So a good product marred by some very clumsy editing, but still with the same effective style of presentation shared by the earlier books in the series.

Another minor criticism is some of the choice of vocabulary. I find it odd that "North Pole" and "Equator" were needed at this stage! However, it could be argue they were just contextual to the stories being presented.

It also makes use of the informal style in places that, in fairness, wasn't really covered so well in Book 2. This may require a serious revisit by readers.

I am giving it 4 stars but it only just scrapes the 4th one.

Incidentally I can recommend their website, although it's pay-by-month. If you can afford to pay for just a single month you will get valuable exposure to native Japanese speakers. I found that a very good resource to accompany this series.
Books 4 and 5 appear to be on hold, but do appear in electronic form on the site.