Breakthrough Japanese: 20 Mini Lessons for Better Conversation

Japanese is a notoriously difficult language to learn. There may be no easy way to learn it, but there are ways that are easier than others.

Breakthrough Japanese is a lively, reader-friendly book that amplifies and reinforces the skills gained from more conventional textbooks. Designed to stimulate or rekindle a learner's curiosity, it is packed with activities that make language speaking fun. At the same time, learners at all levels, from beginning to advanced, will find many useful expressions and speaking strategies throughout its pages.

Author Hitomi Hirayama is the director of Japanese Lunch, a popular language school in Tokyo. Her teaching methods focus primarily on communication: she explains fundamental points of grammar, but with a succinctness and clarity that even advanced students will appreciate. She combines these with crossword puzzles, word games, practice conversations, proverb practice, and kanji games that make her book perfect for use in the classroom or, equally, for self-study.

Hirayama makes it easier for students to finally grasp the "big concepts" like the difference between wa and ga. She also has a unique way of introducing ideas that are applicable to any Japanese conversation, such as what she calls the "large-to-small rule" of sentence structure, and the way that word order in a sentence is basically up to the speaker. Her method instills confidence and helps readers take their Japanese skills to the next level.

New to the language? An old Japan-hand? Someone who has had some study, but then forgotten it all? Regardless, Breakthrough Japanese will make the language seem less formidable and more fun.

HITOMI HIRAYAMA is a Japanese language teacher with over fifteen years of experience. She established and directs Japanese Lunch, a popular language school in Tokyo. Her column of Japanese language lessons, "Pera-Pera Penguin's 5-minute Japanese Class," appears regularly in the Daily Yomiuri, one of Japan's largest national newspapers.