I started learning Japanese with audio lessons, read a few beginner books, and was looking all over the place for the next step; this book is it. I actually skimmed through it at the bookstore and thought about buying it, decided not to, and ended up buying it online a few months later.

Not only is it a good review of the basics I've already learned, but it's a consistent building of new vocabulary along with excellent examples and various forms of speech (polite, neutral, etc). I finally feel like I'm moving forward in my progress again as opposed to reading the same things over and over.

My only CON is that there is no dictionary in the back of the book. I think it would be really convenient to be able to look up the new romaji words I'm learning and which chapters they're used in, but instead I have to hunt for them.

Anyway, thank you for this book!

well this book is perhaps the best japanese learning books i own but i wouldn't call this a stand alone book if you get this book you should also get "japanese step by step" by gene nishi or "japanese grammar" second edition by carol and nobuo akiyama or both if possible.

I use this series as a reference for my Japanese lesson. Couple of my students bought their own. Must have item if you are learning Japanese.

If, like me, you like your language instruction focused on examples rather than explanations, this is the book for you. 142 sentence patterns are briefly explained and then shown in action. This gives you a FEEL for how they operate, rather than just useless abstract knowledge. Personally, I found the book extremely useful.

In fact, I grabbed my microphone and recorded the examples from the more difficult patterns as MP3 files. I play them back to myself on my iPod whenever I have a free moment. It's a very useful way to get these things to stick.

Two little nits:

1-Like all of Kamiya-sensei's book, this one is more useful than it is fun. It's good for you, but dry...hardly a barrel of laughs.

2-The book should make it clearer that this is far from an exhaustive catalog of japanese sentence patterns. These are the most common, but there are many more. The 142 patterns introduced here will get you well into Intermediate Territory if you master them, but nowhere near AdvancedLand.

The basic expressions appear in English and represent ideas or patterns to be expressed in Japanese. They are arranged from easiest tý most difficult. Each has a Japanese translation, highlighting the pattern to be learned then pattern is explained with example sentences. A big leap for novice birds to get wings for advanced flyings. Enthusiastically recommended. Hotondo kanzen ni (almost perfect).