Japanese from Zero! 2: Proven Techniques to Learn Japanese for Students and Professionals (Japanese Edition)

This book exponential increased my ability to understand and speak japanese. Its easy to learn vocabulary but its difficult to learn how to use it correctly. This book shows you how to use them multiple ways (informal, and polite ways). And on top of that you are learning Katakana. This book does contain typos but its not the end of the world, this book was made by humans.

My teen son has been homeschooled since eighth grade. One of his main interests in languages. In his first couple years of homeschool, he attempted to learn Japanese using Rosetta Stone (he went through the full first level and most of the second), by using the first Genki book and workbook, various other beginner books (as I scroll through the popular books on Japanese language in Amazon, I see we now own many of the titles...), and by doing a few other things like us just going through flashcards of hiragana and katakana.Partway through last school year (Jan 2017), he told me he feels like he's learned a lot of Japanese, but said he felt he wouldn't be able to put together even the simplest sentence - written or spoken - if he was put to the test. As with all things homeschool, there's some trial and error, and we occasionally try something that doesn't work. This was definitely one of those things. I knew he was frustrated, but not at all ready to give up.We came across Japanese From Zero! Book 1. When he started using that first workbook and discovered the hundreds of free videos the author, George Trombley, put on YouTube, I mean, this kid was transformed. He ate that book up, and book 2. By the end of that school year (June 2017) he'd gone from saying he couldn't say "How are you?" to being comfortable enough to converse with teens in Japan. In the summer he completed book 3. This school year (starting September 2017) he began Japanese From Zero! 4 and Kanji From Zero! 1, and he's working his way through both now. He keeps up with the supplemental videos from George. When George asks a question, I'm continually impressed at how my son replies correctly, without fail, before George supplies the answer.My son just asked me what I was doing, and I told him I was typing up a review for these books -- he said I should say he doesn't feel he started actually learning Japanese before he opened the first from Zero! book.These books and the free supplemental videos are by far the best system we've found for any English speaker who wants to learn Japanese.UPDATE MAY 2019:My son graduated homeschool Spring 2018. He asked if he could take a placement test for Japanese at the university he was planning to attend. Recall he’d only gone through George Trombley’s Japanese From Zero! books 1-4 plus Kanji from Zero! book 1 and the free YouTube videos. From the placement test, he was put in 3rd semester Japanese. He likely tested into 4th semester, but as that class is only offered each Spring, he was happy to go into 3rd semester.How did he do? He got straight As - a 4.0 in both 3rd and 4th semester. Each class is worth 5 credits, and for the two classes he skipped, he was given 4 credits each. So for 3rd semester he got 13 credits for his one Japanese class, and another 5 in 4th semester. Just from self studying these books in homeschool.

This book builds on all the ideas established in the first one and expands on them in great detail. One of my favorite topics this books cover is the past-tense form of verbs. I especially liked the chapters that teaches compound sentences. This section was difficult for me understand at first, but once it clicked, I felt confident in my speaking ability. After finishing this book I was able to form thoughts in Japanese with friends on HelloTalk that I couldn't before.The layout is very clean and easy to read. If you buy the physical copy of the book you get the Kindle version free. Which is really nice if you wanna study on the go, but left your book on the shelf at home. I also appreciate that all the lessons covered in this book are in video form on the JFZ Youtube channel. That's actually where I first came across this series and I recommend watching those while going through the lessons. George Trombley is a cool dude, and he has tons of helpful videos on his channel that cover topics that aren't in the books.If you've hit a plateau in your Japanese learning, or you are fed-up with books with unhelpful explanations on grammar, I highly recommend you picking up this book series. This book will help you achieve your goals.

This is the 2nd book in the series and I'm going to get the 3rd soon.I tried so many other learning Japanese products including Rosetta Stone and the most I could do was count to 10 say hello and good bye. This book series allows you to learn at your own pace.I can now speak and understand full sentences.I can understand what is going on in anime and other movies without having to constantly look at the subtitles. I can read most Japanese writing, but I still don't know all of the words and Kanji. In book 3 I am sure will widen my vocabulary and understanding.I recommend getting a Japanese copy (writing) book to go along with it if you really want to write in Japanese.As for pronunciation, I probably sound horrible. I have been watching a lot of youtube videos on getting that right. I suggest watching educational Japanese videos for kids, because they repeat things over and over so you can remember things and have Japanese subtitles at the bottom so you can read in Japanese what they are saying to get you word recognition up to speed. My whole family can recite Twinkle Twinkle little star in Japanese and Oni No Pants... fun times.

My homeschooled teen used the first book in this series last year for learning Japanese and enjoyed it so much that we're continuing with this second book. It takes off where the first one ended and dives more deeply into the language, now that she understands the very basics. The videos to this series are available for free on youtube, which is nice. We do, however, use this book in conjunction with the online class, since it offers quizzes, extra practice, some support and more. It's a great series for those wanting to dig into the language and still enjoy it.