Rating: 
Summary: A respectable job within the limits of the Dummies format
Review: (By Edward Trimnell, author of "Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One"(ISBN:1591133343))This book is not a college-level textbook of Japanese, but this is not its intended purpose. Like all "Dummies" books, "Japanese for Dummies" focuses first on presentation, and then on content. However, if you are new to the Japanese language, then this may be the book to get you started. Japanese is an extremely difficult language for native English-speakers to master. Therefore, some people will prefer to begin with a text that takes a non-technical, non-threatening approach. If you work through all the material in this book, then you will gain an impressive amount of basic knowledge. You can then graduate to a more advanced Japanese language course.
Rating: 
Summary: !!! I NEED TO KNOW !!!
Review: hello,
My name is Gabe Miqbel and i just turned 17 today, i have just spent some of my b-day money on this book ($31). And come to find out there is not one thing written in japanese, well thats what i've read so far, isn't there any hiragana or katakana becuase i already know all of that but i want to beable to know of that AND everything eles like putting sentances together, reading, does this cd that somes with this book have any good things to listen to, like actual sentances that you can learn than say?? (i dont want to waste my b-day on this if this does not help me) ??????????
Rating: 
Summary: Best Japanese Language book I've bought yet...
Review: I am currently teaching English in Japan so I have lots of Japanese language books sitting on the shelf in my apartment. Japanese for Dummies is the only one of those books that I've actually looked at a second time. The book gets down to the nitty gritty of Japanese and explains the language in an easy and understandable way. Sato-san even gives important cultural information that explains when and why you use certain phrases in Japanese. I've been living in Japan for over a year and it wasn't until I started reading this book that I finally felt like I was understanding the usage of the language and have been a bit more confident talking to my co-workers at enkais and the drinking parties that follow. My book is competely full of highlighter and notes (something I rarely do so it truly must be a helpful book!)
Sadly I can't attest to how good the cd is because I've never taken it out of the book jacket since I constantly hear Japanese around me but if its anything like the book then it'd be quite good.
For people that are concerned about learning to read and write Japanese ... this book might not necessarily be for you - however, I taught myself to read and write hirigana and katakana over a weekend when I first got here and I've discovered that it didn't help me in the least bit getting around Japan as that would require knowing a decent amount of kanji characters which I've been picking up very slowly.
The layout of the book is great - introuduction followed by chapters that focus on a variety of things (like going shopping, inviting a friend to do something) each with new vocabulary, useful verbs (and their basic conjugations), set phrases and a practice dialogue. The back part of the book is a mini-dictionary that is suitable for this book but you would definitely need a better one if you have a more serious interest in Japanese (I can't help you with that since I've been searching for a better Japanese/English dictionary since I've arrived in Japan!)
Rating:
Summary: Good for Review but not for Learning
Review: I do not highly reccommend this book to learn the language from the beginning because it does not go into great detail about why the grammer is used the way it is. I bought this book at first to learn the actual language, but found it hard to learn how to put the sentences together correctly. I do not suggest you buy this book if you are a hard core learner.
On the other hand, if you know basic Japanese already than I would highly suggest that you get this book. It has a bunch of interesting details in it that tell about the style of the language you should use in different situations. It gives many phrases that you can use to make yourself sound more Japanese. I found this book very helpful when I wanted to start speaking like modern Japanese people do. It was fun to learn about the cultural facts after I learned the language from a different source and decided to look at this book once again for another rescource.
Overall, this book is a good book to have after you know the language. When I first started to communicate with other Japanese after learning the language, they said I sounded like their grandmothers, but now after using this book they say I sound more modern and up to date.
Rating:
Summary: Everything but writing
Review: I just recieved my copy of this book yesterday and I think that it's wonderful! It's difficult for me to learn on my own using a book, but like all the other Dummies books, everything was simple and I was able to understand it well. I ordered this book mainly to get a laugh from it, not expecting to REALLY learn everything there is to know about Japanese. Well, within the first 100 pages, I got my laugh. In the section talking about eating, the author says "If you are eating at home, get it [missing condiments, table settings] yourself, or if you have children, ask them to get it for you." I got the laugh I expected from a Dummies book. Also, in the introduction, the author makes some assumptions on the reader. The author says flat out that this book is not made for the people who want to become professional translators or expect to become fluent from the book alone. It's simply to learn the basics of spoken Japanese language and use the knowledge as a stepping stone to more learning. But other than that, there's clear explainations for verbs and their basic usage. There was no unneccesary stuff to confuse the reader with although the different forms of verbs may seem intimidating. The vocabulary used is very basic and far from complete, but it's enough to get by with. There is a mini dictionary in the back of the book and it's just that: mini. I suggest you to grab yourself a good dictionary. This book is pretty good, but it doesn't teach anything about writing. There is not a single kana in the book so those of you desiring to learn written Japanese should not buy this book unless you want to reinforce your grammar and speaking. This book concentrates mainly on speaking putting a great deal into the pronunciation of words. Also, the audio CD included goes through the sounds of the language and includes some of the dialogues from the book. They're spoken by native Japanese speakers and sound very clear. However, it sounds more like most tapes and CDs used in school language instruction rather than smooth-flowing speech. It's a really great book for those starting in Japanese, but it shows only one side of the language. But I guess Dummies just wanted to keep it as simple as possible. The lack of Japanese writing is a bit frustrating, but I don't regret my purchase.
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Summary: The Better Buy
Review: I remember buying this book when it first came out back in 2002, and used it in Sato Sensei's JPN111 class. The book is written in a way to be used by people,who are just learning the language for the purpose of communication with others in a hurry. Unlike the course books she writes for her classes at this college,the Dummies/Idiot's Language series are kinda like the 10 min. a day language books, or the learning a language for busy business people series. This book is meant for the very beginner student, and not for someone who is a higher level Japanse student who already knows hiragana, katakana, kanji, and conjugation. I can assure you that the Idiot's Conversational Japanese is no different than it's Dummies version. You can buy both books,but Sato Sensei's book is a better buy.
Rating:
Summary: Hi
Review: I'm currently a student of Professor Sato at SUNY university at Stony Brook and she's the greatest Sensei I've ever had! Although I haven't had a chance to study her book "Japanese for Dummies," I look forward to getting one soon!
Rating:
Summary: Hi
Review: I'm currently a student of Professor Sato at SUNY university at Stony Brook and she's the greatest Sensei I've ever had! Although I haven't had a chance to study her book "Japanese for Dummies," I look forward to getting one soon!
Rating:
Summary: Hi
Review: I'm currently a student of Professor Sato at SUNY university at Stony Brook and she's the greatest Sensei I've ever had! Although I haven't had a chance to study her book "Japanese for Dummies," I look forward to getting one soon!
Rating: 
Summary: Very confusing book
Review: Ive had the luck to be able to learn foreing languages very easily, so far I speak 5 and japanese will be my 6th. Although I am not a professor nor I pretend to sound like one, I believe I have enough experience with textbook and self-teaching methods to judge when a book is good or bad.
Japanese for Dummies seemed to be what I was looking for, a simple yet complete way to at least learn some basic japanese. Unfortunately, what I found out when I started taking REAL japanese lessons,is that the book is not at all very complete and that the explanations are rather confusing. The conversations in the CD are not at all in coordination with those in the book and it's very easy to get lost.
Also, the explanations about the grammar are rather confusing and leave you wondering about many things.
Honestly, if you want to learn japanese, I'd suggest you take some lessons with a teacher or get the book Japanese for Busy People. There are many things about the japanese language that it's much better if you have some aid from a trained professional who has native proficiency in the language.
Save yourself some money..DONT get this book!
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