Berlitz Japanese

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money...
Review: I never listened to the tape that came with this guide, but I didn't find the book too usefull... The phrases included were really not helpful in finding your way around japan, since they did not include any colloqial language at all. Overall, I think I beginners Japanese textbook would have helped me out more..

Rating:
Summary: don't bother with a CD
Review: While the phrasebook itself is rather useful and well-organised(although while I was living in Japan I found Lonely Planet immensely more suitable), the phrases they use on CD are generally useless.

Rather than creating a phrasebook customised for each country, Berlitz decided to make a generic audio-supplement for each language it publishes a phrasebook for, with the same phrases whether it's French, Portuguese or Japanese (they even re-used all English recording from other language CDs ). As a result, you will spend a large amount of time learning how to resolve various hotel and restaurant problems (highly unlikely in Japan), or how to say "keep the change" to a taxi driver (insulting and embarassing him in a process), but none -- on how to check in a ryokan, or what to say while visiting a hot spring.

I would definitely recommend the phrasebook by itself, but give this particular CD version a pass