Beginning Japanese: Your Pathway to Dynamic Language Acquisition

by Michael L. Kluemper, Lisa Berkson, Nathan Patton

Includes Audio CD.

Beginners rejoice! Here's the first book in a new three-volume Japanese language learning series focused on U.S. high school students, starting at the beginner level and continuing through the AP Japanese exam's level of language competency. And independent learners too will find it a dynamic way to master the Japanese language!

With an engaging time-travel adventure storyline, manga-style story pages and a free web-based multimedia resource, Beginning Japanese was written by Japanese language teachers specifically to grab—and maintain—the interest of the learner. The narrative story follows the life of Kiara, an exchange student, Ben and Kenichi who get caught in a storm and end up in Tomo's time machine, through which they visit firsthand various historical and famous events, places and people. These historical and cultural experiences are made even more real for the learner through dialogues, images and CD-ROM audio and video files.

Genres: Nonfiction

384 pages, Hardcover

First published December 10, 2009

About the author

Michael L. Kluemper began his study of Japanese language in 1987 as an art education student, initially to learn more about the people who created the ceramics in which he was so interested. Kluemper was a JET Program participant from 1990-93 in Akita-ken, and has been teaching about Japanese language and culture since that time. He has been teaching both Japanese language and visual arts at Jasper High School, Jasper, IN since 1999. Serving as a board member for the National Council of Japanese Language Teachers from 2001-08, Kluemper served as president, newsletter editor, and on national task forces for the implementation of a Japanese AP course, National Board Certification for teachers, and various advocacy campaigns. He has been involved in long-term planning committees for the council as well as ACTFL (The American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages), and was a member of the first AP Japanese Test Development Committee. He is a College Board Consultant for the AP Japanese program has presented on various issues from advocacy to aligning courses to standards at conferences across the country. Kluemper teaches Japanese at the high school level at Ballard High School in Louisville, KY.

Reviews

[Skeetor · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book for a classroom but a little difficult to use for self-study. The CD was a little difficult to use as it was arranged by type of recording (dialogue, vocabulary) rather than by chapter. In order to go through the recordings for a specific chapter you had to constantly navigate through the menu to listen to all the recordings for a specific chapter. The work book follow nicely along the textbook.