Series 'Japanese: The Spoken Language'

Books in the 'Japanese: The Spoken Language' series

• Japanese : the spoken language : interactive CD-ROM program
• Japanese: The Spoken Language part II
• Japanese: The Spoken Language part III
• Japanese: The Spoken Language, Part 3
• Japanese: The Spoken Language, Part I
• Japanese: The Spoken Language, Part I: A Question and Answer Supplement
• User's Guide to Japanese : the spoken language : interactive CD-ROM program
• User's Guide to Japanese : the spoken language : interactive CD-ROM program

Reviews of the 'Japanese: The Spoken Language' series

Review by Charles E. Tuttle catalogue

The "Jorden philosophy" emphasizes the careful study of the fundamentals. Part 1 spans basic topics such as greetings, shopping, time, phone calls, and visits. Part 2 covers topics such as inns, offices, renting a house, department stores, and friends.

Review by Chris Kern

Probably the biggest defining features of her system are:

1. Intense work on spoken Japanese in the beginning with no written Japanese whatsoever. Even kana is not done until perhaps the second semester of a college-level class.

2. Emphasis on memorization of dialogues and substitution drills.

3. The idea that work in the beginning should be focused on the tapes/CDs and drills with native speakers. The romaji writing is used only to remind the student of what he's already heard on the CDs -- it is not to be used for learning new material.

Review by Brian Baker

JSL is a controversial set of textbooks. At OSU, the university where co-author Mari Noda teaches, the students are split; some moan at its idiosyncrasies, some love the book and/or the program built around it, and some don't have any opinion except that Japanese is hard. Having gone through OSU' ... read more

Review by Brian D. Franke

I'd say you can't do better than "Japanese: The Spoken Language"(3 volumes) by Eleanor Harz Jorden and Mari Noda. These books are what I used, and to me they really get to the core of understanding Japanese grammar. As a bonus, there is also a set of listening tapes that goes with the books, and a videotape as well. My advice - DON'T NEGLECT THE TAPES! They are your only hope for ever understanding what is said to you without spending considerable time in Japan.

Review by Josh Reyer

Recently, a family emergency necessitated returning to the States for a few weeks. My brother-in-law took three years of Japanese back in the mid-90s at Cornell, using the same text I was using at the same time - Japanese: The Spoken Language, by Eleanor Harz Jorden and Mari Noda. He is an ... read more