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Rating: 
Summary: Perfect balance between academic knowledge & practical skill
Review: (By Edward Trimnell, author of "Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One" (ISBN:1591133343))Self-teaching texts often veer to one extreme or the other. Some simply present the learner with lists of words and phrases, which leave the student unable to form her own sentences. Others overwhelm the student in academic theory--an approach which makes language study seem a like a 50-mile forced march through the desert. The Living Language "Ultimate" series strikes an appropriate balance between the academic knowledge that you will need to make long-term progress in the language, and the snippets of conversation that you need to get started. In completing this course, author Hiroko Storm has followed the established Living Language formula. If you are new (or relatively new) to the Japanese language, then this course is a good place to start.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, but romaji sucks
Review:
Contrary to what has been stated there are exercises (and solutions) at the end of each chapter, and if you keep in mind that this is not an exercise book they are in the right ratio.
This book has been very carefully structured, the CDs are excellent, the examples and exercises are well chosen and bank on material previously covered, the grammar is clear and to the point.
I personally don't understand how some found this book difficult. I respect their opinion, but Japanese is not just another European language.
In fact, if anything, the only problem with this book is the abuse of romaji. I can understand how the authors wanted to provide a gentle introduction for novices, but this is too much. Romaji is bad for you. I have a very visual memory and romaji means that I have to learn the same language twice. I think the book would greatly benefit from an alternative furigana edition. It would be the perfect book, and this fact is very frustrating.
I mean, let's face it. People who can't be asked or don't have the curiosity to learn kana before starting (or look up a table for the first unit or two) invariably don't make it past unit two anyway. Even more appalling is the fact that even the "advanced" volume still sticks to romaji! Who on earth is going to buy that?
If you buy this, make sure you download a kana table and learn it, buy a furigana drill book and a kanji book. If you're serious you'll be ok.
Rating: 
Summary: This could have been so amazing!
Review: Breaks the heart. A friend of mine purchased this set and was so psyched about it, and with good reason. It makes some wonderful promises, and it is poised to deliver. It's an exciting compendium of educational bliss, the apple of the eye of anyone who is excited to learn the Japanese language. However, there is a giant, stinky, malevolent worm in the apple, and there is a sliver--no, a plank--in the eye. As a few other reviews have mentioned, this system makes absolutely exclusive use of romanji, which is rendering the Japanese language in Roman characters (Latin, English, whatever--this alphabet that I'm typing with right now). While the Roman characters are great for English and every European language, bloody useful, they absolutely suck for Japanese. If you never want to be fluent with the language, fine, romanji is useful for you. But if you're seeking fluency, for the love of God, look elsewhere. It'll screw up your pronunciation and effectively cause you to have to re-learn the language if you ever want to actually READ it, not to mention write it. What a shame. I'm pretty sure that this would be about the best text/audio combo in existence if it had just gone the extra mile. Come on, Hiroko Storm. Please, do a kana version! What a brilliant tool this could have been! Try Japanese for Busy People (KANA edition) with the audio CDs instead. Use Pimsleur CDs. And use Remembering the Hiragana to learn the hiragana and keep it. Save romanji for the tourists. Fluency demands competency. I know this sounds harsh, but trust me; it's just because I'm vastly, hurtfully disappointed. Not only that, but I'm going to have to explain Japanese to my friend all over again when he finally admits that romanji is going to ruin him. What a bummer.
Rating:
Summary: Some good, some bad
Review: I admit I once belonged to the anti-romaji crowd. After all, the Japanese don't use romaji, why should we? It's just a crutch, right? Wrong! It is a tool. There is one very good reason for starting with romanized Japanese. To quote Anthony Alfonso ("Japanese Language Patterns," Sophia University, Tokyo, 1974)"A writing system is, basically, only one of the techniques used to record a language, a spoken language...in general, when knowledge of the spoken language precedes knowledge of the writing system, both the language and the writing system are learned faster and better. It is a mistake to teach complex Japanese patterns wrapped up in an equally complex writing system." I learned the above the hard way. Then after two years of struggling with the writing system and grammar, I picked up this course. No it won't make you fluent. But it does give a clear and understandable explanation of grammar, and it does present a concise introduction to the writing system. The book is very readable and quite enjoyable, but it does require some effort. Don't think that you'll be a Japanese language expert after getting through this course, but you will be well-equipped to move on to more advanced Japanese.
Rating:
Summary: Some good, some bad
Review: I like that this set includes CDs that are entirely in Japanese. They have some very realistic conversations, uninterrupted by English, that are great for listening to just to get the feel of the language. What I didn't like was that the CDs that did include English often offered translations that I considered to be rather inaccurate. My biggest complaint was that one of the CDs was entirely in Italian--quite a shock, I tell you, when you load it into the car CD player. Fortunately, it was one of the CDs with English translation that I didn't like anyway. Annoying nonetheless. This set offers some good Japanese conversation for those that are studying Japanese in a class setting, but I would use it as a supplement and not depend on it to learn the language.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent course, but bring along your ambition and effort!
Review: If you don't mind me writing a review after completing only the first ten of the course's forty chapters, I have to say that this is the book that turned me from a dabbler in Japanese into an actual student. Each chapter systematically covers various aspects of the language (vocabulary, sentence construction, nouns, verbs, connectors, etc.) in an orderly fashion. Even after the first 2-3 chapters you probably will be able to write a short story in Japanese, albeit with strict parameters that lessen as you move further into the book. Nonewithstanding what's in the book, the key becomes what is in the student? Prepare to do the dirty work of making up your own homework assignments and really putting a lot of effort into the task at hand, including re-reading each chapter countless times. I found that by making summary notes on the most important concepts of each chapter, and by typing up English-to-Japanese (and vice-versa) vocabulary homework lessons, then xeroxing and working on them every few days, that I was retaining what I read much better. You basically become the teacher and the student...except when playing the CDs, which do a great, concise job of covering what is in each chapter.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This book is great. I finally found a book that makes it easy to learn Japanese. The audio CDs are great. I now can be sure that i am pronouncing the words correctly because the CDs allow me to hear how it should be. It does a good job of teaching grammar too.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This book pretends to teach you to "speak, read and write japanese fluently" but does not even use kanas or kanjis in most of the text. To avoid if you want to learn to read and write fluently !
Rating:
Summary: Well made
Review: This kit is well made. Lessons are very useful and yet
demand a lot of dictionary look-ups. Conversations
are fast and require constant rewind.
Two thumbs up.
In case you need a dictionary, here is a good one with accent markings. Sanseido's Romaji English-Japanese Japanese-English dictionary. ISBN 4-385-10683-5 3200+Tax Yen
Rating:
Summary: A very good way to learn a lot of Japanese...
Review: When I bought this item, I didn't think it would work well because of the fact the manual is about 500 pages long. I didn't think that it was possible to teach two years of college level Japanese with a 500 page book. Well, I was wrong. It is amazing how much you can learn in a day! On my first day I learned all of the greetings that the manual teaches you. It is a simple concept, "you read the manual as the cd speaks the words. If you want to perfect your techneque, just listen to the native speakers say a word, and you repeat them. This "language kit" explains even the confusing parts of Japanese in detail. It also gives very interesting cultural highlights on Japan,"I love these"! If you want to learn how to read, write, speak and understand Japanese then I highly recomened this language kit. It Works!!!
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