Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't think, just buy. You won't regret it., 12 Sep 2001
Ok, when you first buy Ultimate Japanese, you wonder what you've let yourself in for, it seems to throw you right in at the deep end... Or so you think.Then as the lesson progresses, it breaks down the complicated dialogue, and in the most basic way, you start learning. Then you realise, this is probably the best language book/cassette combo ever written... Contrary to popular belief, Japanese is not the most difficult language in the world to learn. There is no future tense, there are no male and female verbs and adverbs, as langauages such as French and German feature. I've got a GCSE Grade D in German, but I'm not struggling at all with Japanese, it really is quite a logical language. The book also features many cultural references about Japan, so not only do you learn the language, but you learn the customs too. For your money you get to read, write and speak Japanese fluently...
|
|
|
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Very Best in Japanese teaching., 26 May 2001
By A Customer
I bought this language set about two months before I went to Japan on holiday. By the time I arrived there I was already confident enough to ask for things in shops and converse reasonably proficently with the Japanese people.The handbook was very good. It was laid out clearly and was full of helpful pointers. It taught me not only the right words to use but how to use them. Grammar is veyr important when trying to be understood. It also gives useful phrases. All of this together makes for a very helpful book to own. It is possible to find cheaper books but they won't be in as much depth or of such a high quality as Ultimate Japanese. The tapes were extremely useful as I could listen to them in the car and on my walkman. The tapes greatly assisted my learing because I could hear exactly how to pronounce the words, something that it is difficult to get from a book. Overall this is fantastic way to learn Japanese. The only down side is the price however if you want the very best in Japanese teaching you are going to have to pay for it. If the price is a huge barrier for you then the handbook is available seperatly but I would advise you ,if you are serious about learning a new language, to buy the whole set. It is the very best as I am sure you will see if you buy it. This really is the Ultimate way to learn Japanese!
|
|
|
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Comprehensive & interesting, 29 Jun 2002
This is a very comprehensive course, covering grammar, vocabulary, culture, hiragana, katakana and even kanji. The lessons are easy to follow and the dialogues are actually interesting to read and useful. Each chapter has a dialogue (including a proper translation), a section on grammar, a section on kana & kanji (initially to teach you the japanese characters, later on they become the dialogue written in Japanese script), a vocabulary, a short note on Japanese culture, an exercise and the answers to the exercise.
The 8 CD's that come with this pack are split into two categories: The first four accompany the book and contain spoken versions of the dialogue, the words mentioned in the pronounciation sections (first few chapters) and the vocabulary. The second set of four CDs are fairly similar but also have the grammar sections spoken and a couple of extra words here and there. These are useful when you have no access to the book (or when you travel or need your hands free).Out of the four Japanese courses I now own (Hugo's Japanese in three months, BBC's Talk Japanese, Teach Yourself Beginner's Japanese and Living Language Ultimate Japanese) this is without a doubt the best one. Well worth it's money.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
With an Amazon.co.uk 
