Series 'Japanese Now'

Books in the 'Japanese Now' series

• Japanese Now Volume 1
• Japanese Now Volume 2
• Japanese Now Volume 3
• Japanese Now Volume 4
• Japanese Now Volume 4 Teacher's manual

Reviews of the 'Japanese Now' series

Review by Joel Sullivan

The textbooks I use, [Japanese Now] (or 'korekara no nihongo'), are a four- volume series aimed at high school students, published by the University of Hawaii Press between 1981 and 1989. Each volume is an inch-thick (or less) hardback consisting of 10 to 20 lessons. Each costs around $20-$30 ... read more

Review by Jerry Siegenthaler

These books are (were) being used by Palo Alto and Gunn High Schools in Palo Alto, California. The four volume set is excellent for beginning students from junior high through adult, but the text is mainly aimed at teenage situations and interests. The definitions and grammar explanations are ... read more

Review of Japanese Now series by Joel Sullivan

The textbooks I use, [Japanese Now] (or 'korekara no nihongo'), are a four- volume series aimed at high school students, published by the University of Hawaii Press between 1981 and 1989. Each volume is an inch-thick (or less) hardback consisting of 10 to 20 lessons. Each costs around $20-$30 new. I think the series covers a little bit less than the college texts I have seen, but would still be an excellent choice at the college level. The textbooks are ideally suited for classroom use; complete English translations are not given, but the book does give you enough info. to translate everything by yourself, with a fair amount of effort. For the independent users of these books I would reccomend purchasing a good dictionary (with example sentences), an in-depth grammar reference, and possibly a 'kanji' dictionary. I can reccomend a good dictionary and grammar refernce, but I haven't found a good 'kanji' dictionary. :)

Each lesson begins with a reading selection and a dialog. The reading selection usually pertains to Japanese culture, and serves as a good introduction to the grammatical structures commonly used in writing. The dialog ranges from very polite to very colloquial, and by the end of volume 2 or 3, you should have amassed a large vocabulary of "household-use" words and grammar. The dialog scenarios include a number of topical discussions at home as well as visits to a fish market, a restaurant, a doctor, etc.

The new vocabulary is listed with translations after each lesson. Each grammatical construction is explained in English with several examples and their translations. There are drills which focus on fluency with expressions and grammar. Each lesson (except the first few) also introduces 5 to 20 'kanji', demonstrating the correct method for writing each. There are 'furigana' to help you pronounce many of the 'kanji' in the text, but 'furigana' is inherently unclear. For example, it is impossible to distinguish a small 'tsu' from a normal 'tsu', since all 'furigana' are extremely small. This leads to a little dictionary work.

With this book, as with every 'kana'-based textbook, it is very important to learn 'hiragana' and 'katakana' well before plunging into Lesson 1. A book such as the compact edition of Hadamitzky & Spahn's [Kanji and Kana] (no need to by the Workbook, just get a Japanese children's 'kanji' practice pad) should be helpful in learning the writing. However, listen as carefully as you can to the way native Japanese people pronounce each sound, as it is quite different from how we might read the 'romaji'.

If you have a Japanese friend, you might practice reading 'kana' sentences aloud to him/her, focussing on difficult sounds such as 'ra', 'tsu' vs. 'su', and especially 'nn' vs. 'n'. I have a big problem pronouncing words such as 'shin-you', which often comes out as 'shi-niou'. Hopefully, you can do something for your Japanese friend in return, such as proof-read their homework!

In summary, [Japanese Now] are the best textbooks I have seen, especially for becoming fluent with reading/writing and the colloquial language. However, they are only textbooks, and the seirous learner of Japanese should also have: (1) a good Japanese/English (and vice versa) dictionary with lots of examples (2) a reference explaining the subtelties of using the more difficult Japanese grammatical constructions (3) lots of friends who speak Japanese

☆ See all reviews by Joel Sullivan.