Entry point to Japanese

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Random House Japanese-English English-Japanese Dictionary (1995)

Japanese Hiragana for the five basic vowels

Hiragana:

a あ

i い

u う

e え

o お

Books to Help you Learn Japanese

• Berlitz Japanese Resources.
• Japanese: From Educational Services in their Language/30 series.
• Japanese Step By Step by Gene Nishi. [Very helpful exercises.]
• Pimsleur Japanese Resources.

Japanese Step By Step

Japanese Step By Step (2001). Also see the revised Japanese Step By Step: second edition (2010)

Advantages:

• Fast-paced introduction to writing and grammar.
• Organized methodically by an ex-IBM engineer.
• Its approach to teaching kana is one of the best. Its exercises are particularly helpful; you should take care to do them and repeat them!

Berlitz Japanese Resources

Random House Japanese-English English-Japanese Dictionary (1995)

Pimsleur Japanese Resources: Basic

Japanese: Basic.

Pimsleur Language Program:
Audio-only progam.

Advantages:

• Learn Japanese by hearing and speaking it.
• And you're hearing it at the brisk rate spoken by native Japanese speakers.
• Conversational sentences are built up from carefully introduced vocabulary.
• Each word is broken down to its sound units and the student is led through repetitions in order to internalize the sounds.
• Lots of repetition greatly helps to keep you upright on the roller skates of learning Japanese.
• Re-listen to each lesson a couple of times before you go on to the next one.
• Small booklet offers a paragraph on background for each lesson.

• Re-listen to each lesson a couple of times before you go on to the next one.
• If you're primarily a visual learner, this will be especially challenging. To help you:
  • Read the small booklet section before each lesson, to get some background grammar and words for each lesson.
  • Write down some of the words as you hear and say them.
  • After the lesson, check the words in a dictionary, particularly:

    Random House Japanese-English English-Japanese Dictionary (1995)

Pimsleur Japanese: Course I; Beginners/Part A

Pimsleur Language Program: Japanese: Course I; Beginners/Part A.
Audio-only program.

Advantages:

• Learn Japanese by hearing and speaking it.
• And you're hearing it at the brisk rate spoken by native Japanese speakers.
• Conversational sentences are built up from carefully introduced vocabulary.
• Each word is broken down to its sound units and the student is led through repetitions in order to internalize the sounds.
• Lots of repetition greatly helps to keep you upright on the roller skates of learning Japanese.
• Re-listen to each lesson a couple of times before you go on to the next one.
• Small booklet offers a paragraph on background for each lesson.

• Re-listen to each lesson a couple of times before you go on to the next one.
• If you're primarily a visual learner, this will be especially challenging. To help you:
  • Read the small booklet section before each lesson, to get some background grammar and words for each lesson.
  • Write down some of the words as you hear and say them.
  • After the lesson, check the words in a dictionary, particularly:

    Random House Japanese-English English-Japanese Dictionary (1995)

Japanese: From Educational Services in their Language/30 series

Japanese: From Educational Services in their Language/30 series.
Audio plus a booklet.

Advantages:

• Combines hearing, speaking, and reading Japanese.
• Speed is said to be realistic but it's less panicky than Pimsleur Japanese Resources, and accordingly less intimidating and friendly.

Japanese Hiragana

Hiragana for the first five vowel:

a あ

i い

u う

e え

o お

Basic Hiragana symbols:

The k- syllables:
ka か	ki き	ku く	ke け	ko こ
The s- syllables:
sa さ	shi し	su す	se せ	so そ
The t- syllables:
ta た	chi ち	tsu っ	te て	to と

Preliminary Japanese vocabulary

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