books/cds

mac123

anyone recommend any good books or cds for learning japanese? where would be the best place to get them?

FruitLover

Pimsleur CDs are pretty popular, but they're expensive. I'd recommend the (free) lessons at japanesepod101.com over the Pimsleur ones any day.

Popular textbooks are 'Japanese for Busy People' and 'Minna no Nihongo', available from Amazon, or probably most language shops.

If you're serious about learning the language long-term, go with kana/kanji-based books any time you can.

There's plenty of info in the stickies for online resources if you're interested.

Giruilla

FruitLover wrote: »

If you're serious about learning the language long-term, go with kana/kanji-based books any time you can.
QUOTE]

Hey fruitlover,

just wondering what you mean by kana/kanji based books? are they one with no english in them? as in just teach exclusively through japanese?

よろしく

ギーリラ

FruitLover

Giruilla wrote: »

just wondering what you mean by kana/kanji based books? are they one with no english in them? as in just teach exclusively through japanese?

Well, that would be too difficult for a beginner (but a good idea for someone at an intermediate or above level). I mean books that don't try to teach Japanese through rōmaji. I firmly believe that if you're serious about learning Japanese, then you need to start reading/writing it properly as soon as possible. Katakana is easy to learn, and can help you a lot in Japan (e.g. reading bits of menus, signs, etc). If you get good at reading hiragana, it takes a lot of the burden off when you try to learn kanji. If you were to start off with the Kana version of 'Japanese for Busy People 1', you'd be reasonably adept at reading kana by the time you finished it.

Of course, if someone only wants to learn the bare minimum for a short visit, then they would be fine with rōmaji (and preferably katakana).