Japanese for Busy People I: Kana Version

by Association for Japanese-Language Teaching (AJALT)

Japanese for Busy People is the most popular Japanese language textbook series in the world. With over 20 components including texts, workbooks, CDs, videos and teacher’s manuals, it is also one of the most comprehensive. Now, a decade after its first revision, the entire series is being redesigned, updated and consolidated to meet the needs of 21st-century students and businesspeople who want to learn natural, spoken Japanese as effectively as possible in a limited amount of time.

The book features not only a sleek, new design but also a unit structure that groups thematically linked lessons together, making it easier than ever to learn Japanese. Moreover, it now comes with a CD containing audio for the dialogues and listening exercises from the text. The exercises in the book have also been thoroughly revised to incorporate more comprehension and production tasks. Many of these exercises are illustrated, making for a stimulating learning experience, and the purpose of each one is clearly stated.

This first of three volumes introduces "survival Japanese"—the absolute minimum amount of Japanese needed to live in Japan. Thus, the vocabulary and grammatical items it introduces are limited to about a third of what is typically introduced in a first-year course. In addition, the book features notes on Japanese culture intended to expand the learner’s understanding of Japan, its customs and people.

Japanese for Busy People I is available in two romanized and kana. The Romanized Version uses romanized Japanese throughout, with kana in the Opening Dialogues of each lesson.
The Kana Version—exposing students to hiragana and katakana from the very beginning—uses only kana. The content of the two books is otherwise exactly the same.

The companion volume, Japanese for Busy People 1 : The Workbook for the Revised 3rd Edition contains a variety of illustrated exercises for mastering the basic sentence patterns presented in the main text.

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

296 pages, Paperback

First published November 11, 2011

About the author

Japanese-language titled versions:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

Reviews

[࣪ ִֶָ☾.⋆˚࿔ ִֶָ. Althea ᥫ᭡. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Buying this textbook will generally be based on your reason and environment for learning Japanese. Are you planning on going to Japan and not interact too much with the locals? Are you self-learning and want to make as much progress as possible? Are you taking classes? Do you want to take the JLPT? etc.

First of all, there are two versions of this textbook, the kana and the romanised version. If you are going to buy this book, just get the Kana version. It’s so pointless buying the romanised version. In the long term, knowing how to read hiragana and katakana is all you’ll be needing. Why they didn’t just put it into one book, I don’t know.

If you’re learning Japanese on your own and want to make quick progress, this textbook is not for you. This also goes for anyone looking to take any of the JLPT exams. This doesn’t even get you anywhere near N5 level. There is no introduction to Kanji at all and mainly focuses on polite form. If you’re learning by yourself, the only reason you’d buy this book is if you’re going to Japan for a business trip and you want to be polite by knowing the most basic things. You’ll still struggle holding a conversation though, even after completing this textbook.

The only reason I’d see someone buying this book is if you’re in a Japanese class and this is the textbook they’re using. This is the case for me. For my beginner class we used this book as the base. On top of that, the teacher made us make our own sentences with her own exercises and we practice a lot of speaking, listening an reading with other materials. Getting this textbook just helps reiterate things completed in class.

However, the exercises are boring and repetitive. Again, if you’re not in a class it may feel like you understand but you’ll find doing the same thing over and over again is just helping you memorise certain sentence patterns. If you try to make your own complex sentences, you’ll find that yourself stuck. Hence why it’s better to only get this if you’re in a class with a teacher to help correct.

Now that we’ve finished this book, we’re moving on to Genki. Although I haven’t properly started it yet, I know it introduces Kanji earlier on. Maybe after learning Hiragana and Katakana, familiarising yourself with very basic sentence structures, it would be a good idea to look into the Genki textbooks to start.

[Tobi ﾄﾋﾞ · Rating 4 out of 5]

don’t get me wrong 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 textbook is 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

so, to summarise, compared to other textbooks of similar levels:
- less emphasis on the importance of kanji
- vocabulary prioritises business and study related worlds and topics
- more emphasis on grammar, especially grammar you might use in a business or formal context
- lots of commentary in english describing which context you can use the different phrases in, helping you understand and remember things in a practical way.
- actually useful if you are going to japan to work and don’t plan on becoming a full professional level speaker, but want to learn some simple and useful phrases out of courtesy- and don’t have time to learn vocabulary you definitely wouldn’t be using in a work context.

but i also recommend:
- using something even as simple as duolingo aside this
- making sure you completely know this book inside and out before moving on to the next book in the series (which i also recommend) if that’s what you want to do.
- start learning basic kanji in the background, doesn’t have to be immediately or anything intensive.

[Mat Davies · Rating 2 out of 5]

The kana (Meaning hiragana and katakana/the first two scripts of Japanese) version of this book is OK. The romanised (English alphabet) book is useless just as all English alphabet resources are for learning Japanese in my opinion. The annoying aspect of this kana version of the book is that it throws grammar such as いたんです。。。and specifically, a reason for doing something in randomly which would totally confuse a learner. In my case I knew that grammar point. But that plus the very limited amount that book 1 contains makes me give it a 2 and a half stars. There is some very good vocabulary in the book which is good for an adult learner. Often meetings 会議 and other professional words do not pop up soon enough in other textbooks, but here they do. The grammar is dead basic and you will not be able to have a basic conversation beyond 5 minutes in a bar after reading it which is my litmus test for a textbook. It is also quite dry and there is a lot of waste on the pages plus meh images and few, if any, online resources. That said, I have used it to review what I have already studied in a different context and for that purpose, it is fine. As for learning Japanese, you are better off with the Genki or Minna no nihongo series.

[Nicole Livingston · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is geared toward people traveling to Japan for business, but is still good for practicing to read and write in Kana. Also the language CD is conversational (i.e. fast) paced which I like. I'm using this book in conjunction with the Mirai system. Also, I learned the Kana backwards and forwards before purchasing. If this is the first and/or only book you use to teach yourself Japanese, you are going to be a bit lost. Compared to similar books, it is priced very cheaply which is a plus. I doubt I will continue on with this series after I finish book 1. I'll likely try another series when I start learning the 漢字.

[Mrdavidpeat · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me a year, but it's a very good book. It's a bit more business language oriented than I would like, but at such a low level it's not a problem. Also, it's entirely kanji-less (some are introduced in the next text.)

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this book for two Japanese courses. Wanting to learn Japanese for work, I felt that this book provided a really good introduction to the basic phrases used most often during business travel. The phrases are appropriate for polite conversation in a workplace. There were some items in the book that weren't explained that well by themselves, such as the use of counters, so I am not sure it is the best resource for someone trying to learn Japanese without further instruction. However, after working through the lessons and accompanying exercises, I feel comfortable reading and writing the Hiragana and Katakana alphabets and having basic conversations such as asking for directions, talking about plans or the weather, and buying things.

I liked the book's characters, which were used in various scenarios to illustrate how Japanese is used in certain situations. The illustrations used to define/explain vocabulary words were easy to understand. Overall, I thought this book was a good resource for my purposes and I am looking forward to continuing with the classes using the other books in this series.

[Amit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dated phrases, unengaging repetition, and a weak later half in terms of new vocabulary force me to never recommend this book to anyone unless your classroom forces you to use it.

The book is also not enough for JLPT N5 by any measure. Why did they choose to start with Kanji on the 2nd volume is beyond me. Reading whole sentences written in kana is tiring and tedious, I would much rather incorporating basic kanji right from the get-go like in Genki, which is the path I will take during the rest of my studies.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book better than Genki.

[Brittany Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do yourself a favor and skip this book. It will slow your progress tremendously. Start with the Japanese from Zero series and then move over to Genki. And start learning kanji immediately!