So I purchased this back in 2003 and here I am, over 10 years later, writing a review on it. This was one of the most instrumental books I used to learn Japanese. This review may be a little long, but I'll share how I studied Japanese while living abroad in hopes that some will find it helpful. While stationed in Okinawa, I tried to learn by taking a college Japanese course. In my honest opinion, I learned more from this book than from the college course. Don't get me wrong, the college course was good as it relates to learning how to read/write romaji, hiragana and katakana. It also helped in pronunciation. However, the course taught how to speak using the "polite" verb conjugation, which isn't too helpful if you want to shoot the breeze with the locals. I primarily used what I learned from this book to speak with the local community. What I liked about this book is that it starts off by teaching you the "plain" form of the verb, which all other Japanese conjugations are based off of. From there, it teaches all the other conjugations of the verbs. After I completed my college course, I studied on my own by diving into this book and making hundreds of flash cards containing all the verbs from this book. My flash cards didn't simply have the verbs on them, it had example sentences in them. This way I was memorizing sentences rather than just a single word. I forced myself to review these flashcards EVERY single day. Armed with this book (among others) and the knowledge from hundreds of flash cards, I gathered enough courage to go into a small "mom and pop" restaurant and try to order something on my own. From there, I learned more practical Japanese from the patrons of that particular establishment. Eventually, I was able to meet my future wife and made many local friends (including the owners of various restaurants). Fast forward to now, I'm now married to an Okinawan and converse daily with her in Japanese. I credit this book and the other Kodansha Dictionary books I had (Handbook of Japanese Adjectives and Adverbs, Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns, All About Particles) in me being able to meet & mingle with the local Japanese community. Negative reviews on this mention that this book isn't for beginners. I disagree, if you go through this book from beginning to end, even a beginner could effectively learn from this book. Word of caution however, this book will only be useful if you're serious and eager about learning Japanese. If not, then you'll be overwhelmed. Some further advice, after you've gotten a good handle on this book and learned to read hiragana & katakana, get yourself a book that's meant to teach English to Japanese tourists. I bought these tourist books from a nearby 100 yen store and learned a lot from them. Also, watching an American movie in English first, then watching it in Japanese was surprisingly helpful. In conclusion, I strongly recommend getting this book if you're serious about learning Japanese. With the help of this book, I've had one of the greatest times in my life learning the language and experiencing the Japanese culture.
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- Rover BrownReviewed in Japan on December 4, 2007
By far the best on Japanese verb use
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