Colloquial Japanese : The Complete Course for Beginners

Colloquial Japanese provides a step-by-step course in Japanese as it is written and spoken today. This new edition has been completely rewritten by experienced teachers; it combines an accessible approach with a thorough treatment of the language, equipping learners with the essential skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Japanese in a broad range of situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required.

Key features include:

• progressive coverage of speaking, listening, reading and writing skills
• jargon-free explanations of grammar, with key structures presented through user-friendly diagrams
• Coverage of the different writing systems of Japanese: hiragana, katakana and kanji
• an extensive range of focused and stimulating exercises
• realistic and entertaining dialogues covering a broad variety of scenarios
• useful vocabulary lists throughout the text
• additional resources available at the back of the book, including a full answer key, a grammar summary, a verb/adjective list with conjugation aid, bilingual glossaries and English translations of dialogues

Balanced, comprehensive and rewarding, Colloquial Japanese will be an indispensable resource both for independent learners and for students taking courses in Japanese.

Audio material to accompany the course is available to download free in MP3 format from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. Recorded by native speakers, the audio material features the dialogues and texts from the book and will help develop your listening and pronunciation skills. Supplementary exercise sheets for hiragana, katakana and kanji and two additional units can also be found here. These additonal units cover more advanced features of Japanese and incorporate a wide assortment of supporting exercises.

By the end of this course, you will be at Level B1 of the Common European Framework for Languages and at the Intermediate-Mid on the ACTFL proficiency scales.

Junko Ogawa is Language Coordinator for Japanese at the University of Birmingham, UK

Fumitsugu Enokida is Language Tutor in Japanese at the University of Birmingham, UK