Customer Reviews
Probably the best book for this level - By: Griff, 13 Feb 2008 
I agree with the previous two reviews. Overall this is a very good book & introduces an easily digestible mixture of grammar, vocabulary & speaking/readingin each chapter. The included CD really helps to give you much needed speaking & listening practice. The exercises are a little repetitive though, & the "everyday" situations that are introduced are geared a bit too much towards business. However, of all the Japanese textbooks I have seen, this is by far the best. Especially useful for people trying to learn Japanese on their own.
Highly recommended.
JBP 2 new edition - By: Mr. M. Geary, 28 Sep 2007 This is a great series of books for learning Japanese. I started off using the previous edition of book one & a few chapters of book two before moving to Japan where I have now finished the new edition of book two.
There is good use of the three scripts (hiragana, katakana & kanji) & lots of listening practice on the accompanying CD. There is also a great introduction of useful grammatical structures & vocabulary which have often got me through dealing with everyday situationsin Japan.
However, the grammatical explanations are sometimes too brief, & certain things are not returned to laterin the book & so it is easy to forget what was learnt previously. Each chapter introduces 10 new kanji characters but the explanations are not clear or detailed enough. There are also a couple of chapters which are not useful for everyday situations.
Allin all it is a good text & I will be starting the new Book IIIin a couple of weeks. Infinitely better than the Minna no nihongo series which is dry, outdated & far too complicated.
Improvement from the previous edition. - By: gaikokujin, 24 May 2007 Overall this is a very good book, it comes with a CD & encourages speaking practice which is very important to gain fluency.
Grammar is clearly explained with plenty of examples. At this stage, learning Japanese one can be overwhelming with the amount of vocabulary & grammar. However, the contentin this book appears to have been carefully selected with clear & concise material. There's also the introduction of Kanji with furigana throughout the book.
JFBPII introduces various written styles of texts (such as a web blog & magazine articles) which at first can be overwhelming due to the unfamiliar writing style & the amount of new vocabulary. The texts are interesting & give some insight into Japanese history, culture & lifestyle. Understanding these texts will prepare you well for getting accustomed to reading real material such as websites & newspapers as I found. Although you still need to learn a far greater vocabulary beyond this book & start with furigana texts.
The book is light on grammar exercises. The previous edition seems to have more exercises so you may want to consider getting the workbookin addition. Perhaps this could be a move to encourage students to practice grammar via conversation rather than writing.
Having since completed this book I still find it very useful as a reference. Occasionally when I need to send an emailin Japanese I check the example emailsin the book & use those as a template. Note: the previous edition was a bit outdated & therefore did not include such real life example material.
The voices on the accompanying CD appear to have a clear Tokyo dialect that are easy to understand. On the CD's that were sold for the previous edition it seemed like the characters would mumblein the conversational dialogues adding unnecessary difficulty for a student at this level.
The book starts out at a level where the revised edition of Japanese for Busy People I left off, however the difficulty increases with the introduction of hypothetical forms of grammar.
The opening pages of the book give clear instruction on how to approach each chapter & study the new material. This is especially useful for those learning on their own. If you follow the book as outlinedin the introduction & devote the necessary time, your Japanese will improve a lot.
