Review of Japanese for Everyone by Jeff Hanes

Anyway my neophyte impression of "Japanese for Everyone" is that it seems to be quite user-friendly for self study. The grammatical explanations are clear and the exercises helpful in drilling them into your head. The rate of introduction for new grammar and vocabulary also seems pretty good; not overwhelming, but it keeps you on your toes. However, this is based only on the first two lessons (out of 27). I will try to give an update when I have completed the course (probably about six months or so).

Someone else will have to evaluate *how well* it teaches Japanese, since I won't know until I get further into the course and try to communicate with an actual Japanese speaker.

One minor nit. While I consider it a positive thing to use kana from the start, the course does not offer any help for learning them; it just shows the table and says "learn these as quickly as possible". It would be nice to have a little more help learning these. I got James Heisig's "Remembering the Hiragana". For me, the memory pictures help *a lot*; I have had very little trouble remembering which symbol goes with which sound since I went through that book.

☆ See all reviews by Jeff Hanes.