Specs
Reviews
(3.55/5)Slow
Very slow in kana and grammar.... it takes the whole book to learn all hiragana, no katakana or kanji. I was able to self study all kana very quickly. Also, i do not like the 'progressive' kana, where it slowly replaces romaji with kana. It makes it even more confusing. After studying Japanese through this book and giving up a few years ago, I decided to continue Japanese with more energy. I used a free online grammar guide and in just the first few short lessons, there were so many things I wasn't told in JFZ, such as informal copula 'da'. I studied until 1/2 book 2 and was never told about it. Verbs are introduced in the very end, and only polite forms. No plain forms..
Too slow, many mistakes in English and Japanese (even more in 2)
I would recommend 'genki' as a physical book or 'sakubi' (grammar) as an online guide.
I did not like the way this book was set up.
Now, if you are heavily struggling with learning Japanese or hiragana and katakana, then yes, maybe I'd recommend this for a starting book. If you already know your syllabaries, I'd pick something else.
Like someone else said, this book is paced differently. It's way slow for my taste (requiring more textbooks to cover the same as Genki or Minna do in one book, and not because of the amount of exercises). I did not enjoy the progressive introduction to hiragana and katakana or the mix of it and romaji while studying.
That said, the work done on it is commendable, as is the fact that there are free videos online to help you study. It is a self-study friendly book, but again, moves too slow for my taste and I do not agree with the way the syllabaries are taught.
Great resource for absolute beginners
The Japanese From Zero series is a fantastic resource designed specifically for self studying. The first book will teach you hiragana and some basic vocab each lesson along with a main grammar topic. Grammar explanations are concise and the book is deliberately crafted to be as easy to grasp for learners as possible. It is even better paired with the youtube video lessons created by the author.
This series moves at a much slower pace compared to other beginner textbooks, which is a great thing for brand new learners especially. The pace can be painful for more experienced or faster learners though. This is compounded by the progressive kana system. I personally hated it and it actually made me move through the book faster just to be done with it.
A learning experience akin to zipping off a hangnail.
I genuinely did not enjoy using this book. I studied halfway through it before I decided to stop. I used the YouTube companion videos as well. I think those have *some *merit to them but I didn't like how the information was presented a majority of the time.
I could NOT stand the "progressive kana" system. Kana that the book hasn't introduced you to appears in Romaji. It breaks any concentration and immersion. If the book did not have that system then it would be salvageable.
A majority of the worksheet type pages are taken up by oversized graphics geared towards children. You will get to do one or two exercises before having to move on/until the book stops torturing you with progressive kana. The back of the book seems to have, "translate this sentence" exercises.
Two good things: