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Japanese for Busy People: Kana WorkbookIncl. 1 CD
In the 22 years since its publication, Japanese for Busy People has won acclaim worldwide as an effective, easy-to-understand textbook, either for classroom use or for independent study. Now, more than a decade after its first revision, the series is being redesigned, updated and consolidated to meet the needs of todays students and businesspeople who want to learn natural, spoken Japanese as effectively as possible in a limited amount of time.
The Kana Workbook teaches the reading and writing of the two most basic Japanese scripts, hiragana and katakana. These scripts are used all the time in written Japanese, and a mastery of them is essential for those who wish to study the language at any level above survival. As such, the book serves as a prerequisite to both Japanese for Busy People I: Kana Version and Japanese for Busy People II, and it is also recommended as review for those who have learned kana before but have forgotten some of the basics.
This completely revised workbook features:
Lots of practice in recognition, reading, and writing;
Fun, picture-dictionary-like illustrations that help students build their vocabularies;
A free CD that gives learners a taste of the actual sounds of Japanese;
A bonus section introducing basic kanji.
The Kana Workbook teaches the reading and writing of the two most basic Japanese scripts, hiragana and katakana. These scripts are used all the time in written Japanese, and a mastery of them is essential for those who wish to study the language at any level above survival. As such, the book serves as a prerequisite to both Japanese for Busy People I: Kana Version and Japanese for Busy People II, and it is also recommended as review for those who have learned kana before but have forgotten some of the basics.
This completely revised workbook features:
Lots of practice in recognition, reading, and writing;
Fun, picture-dictionary-like illustrations that help students build their vocabularies;
A free CD that gives learners a taste of the actual sounds of Japanese;
A bonus section introducing basic kanji.
104 pages, Paperback
First published April 13, 2007
23 people want to read
About the author
Association for Japanese-Language Teaching (AJALT)
52 books6 followersJapanese-language titled versions:
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 5, 2023
a very good workbook to accompany the main JFBP textbook.
this book contains less than the basics. it does not teach you kanji- it is entirely in kana, which i see some people dislike, but in my opinion, in an age of typing, knowing the kana and how to phonetically sound out a word is very useful because it makes it 100 times easier to type, while learning grammar slightly quicker. there is not much kanji you would need for this level anyway, you could probably hold a conversation no more than a few minutes even if you mastered everything in this book. it progresses very steadily but in a logical order, i never had any trouble with it.
that being said, this course stresses more priority on business related vocabulary, so instead of going through the notion of learning names for animals, heads, shoulders, knees and toes, and things like that like many language resources make you learn, this textbook will go straight to things like discussing when a work meeting will begin, or relevant grammar needed to help organise a group project, or whatever. so if you’re an adult going to work in japan and don’t want to waste so much time learning the parts of the language you wouldn’t use in your work life, this is probably the most useful of the textbooks out there.
this is not part of the JLPT program. it is not N5 nor N4 level etc. because has is more bussinessy-based vocabulary, it has different priorities and learning structure to JLPT, therefore it can not really be summarised by the JLPT levels. i personally found no problem with this, but i know that for some people do because they like a nice clear label for what “level” they’re at so they can work up and up in increments like a challenge. you would not be able to really accurately do that with these textbooks, you will just be improving at an unspecified level. i think after using this book you’d probably say you’re a basic language user, and that’s as specific you could get. i have never taken JLPT tests and never really payed attention to the levels on JLPT textbooks so i can’t say for sure what level this textbook approximately is, especially since it does not teach you kanji.
i would advise to work alongside a kanji book though, as the next textbook in this series, and other japanese resources, do assume you know some kanji, and require you to know how to learn them.
and for some people who might be curious, this is actually a really good book to use alongside apps like duolingo and other textbooks of all kinds. i would never not recommend this book to anyone, even if you don’t use it as your primary language learning resource
this book contains less than the basics. it does not teach you kanji- it is entirely in kana, which i see some people dislike, but in my opinion, in an age of typing, knowing the kana and how to phonetically sound out a word is very useful because it makes it 100 times easier to type, while learning grammar slightly quicker. there is not much kanji you would need for this level anyway, you could probably hold a conversation no more than a few minutes even if you mastered everything in this book. it progresses very steadily but in a logical order, i never had any trouble with it.
that being said, this course stresses more priority on business related vocabulary, so instead of going through the notion of learning names for animals, heads, shoulders, knees and toes, and things like that like many language resources make you learn, this textbook will go straight to things like discussing when a work meeting will begin, or relevant grammar needed to help organise a group project, or whatever. so if you’re an adult going to work in japan and don’t want to waste so much time learning the parts of the language you wouldn’t use in your work life, this is probably the most useful of the textbooks out there.
this is not part of the JLPT program. it is not N5 nor N4 level etc. because has is more bussinessy-based vocabulary, it has different priorities and learning structure to JLPT, therefore it can not really be summarised by the JLPT levels. i personally found no problem with this, but i know that for some people do because they like a nice clear label for what “level” they’re at so they can work up and up in increments like a challenge. you would not be able to really accurately do that with these textbooks, you will just be improving at an unspecified level. i think after using this book you’d probably say you’re a basic language user, and that’s as specific you could get. i have never taken JLPT tests and never really payed attention to the levels on JLPT textbooks so i can’t say for sure what level this textbook approximately is, especially since it does not teach you kanji.
i would advise to work alongside a kanji book though, as the next textbook in this series, and other japanese resources, do assume you know some kanji, and require you to know how to learn them.
and for some people who might be curious, this is actually a really good book to use alongside apps like duolingo and other textbooks of all kinds. i would never not recommend this book to anyone, even if you don’t use it as your primary language learning resource
Displaying 1 of 1 review