Expensive, but a necessary reference. My main gripe is that it's sometimes not obvious how to look up a phrase and i spend a lot of time digging through index. A little standardization would help (Ex: yarou to suru... would you look this up under "you to suru", or "to suru", or "suru"?)
The appendices offer good usage info on topics as compound verbs and counters. I use it as an English counterpart to some of the japanese profieciency exam grammar reviews that are available in Japan in Japanese.
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Chapter 1 starts off with a brief yet to the point introduction to Hiragana. Hiragana characters are then covered in detail. Specially created manga (cartoons), vocabulary words, and listening sections (provided in a cassette should you happen to buy it) make it easy for the student to learn and master this basic set of characters (Hiragana). By the end of Chapter 1, the student should be able to easily write and read Hiragana. By the end of Chapter 2, the student would most likely have mastered Hiragana.
Chapter 3 covers Katakana in detail - basically the same way Hiragana is covered in Chapter 1.
Kanji is introduced gradually in the second half of the book with stroke orders followed by reading practice. Hiragana superscripts are provided for both, Kanji vocabulary throughout the book and Katakana vocabulary in the first few chapters of the book to help the student with character pronunciation.
There are many features designed to help the student make the most of Nakama 1. Ohh, I should also mention that there is a very useful Japanese-English and English-Japanese Glossary at the end of the book that contains a fair amount of vocabulary.
I am very satisfied with Nakama 1's performance and I'm looking forward to getting started with Nakama 2. Nakama 1 is indeed a great starting point to learning Japanese.
I wish all of those who are determined to learning Japanese much success in their journey.
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violence n. the use of strong physical force, etc.
1. hageshi-sa (adj(i)) stem of hageshii vehement + suf. sa (ness)
extreme intensity of force or strength, either physical or emotional (vehemence, intensity, passion)
example sentence
2. bo[okoo - an action involving strong physical force intended to harm or injure (fig. rape), outrage, attack, assault)
bo[oryoku - strong physical force used to arbitrarily carry out one's intentions (brute force)
example sentence
I have never seen a book like this before. If you get any supplementary book to go with a good textbook, get this. I might also suggest Yookoso Revised Edition as that main textbook as well.
On the up side, this book introduces both phonetic alphabets, some kanji, vocabulary, and some basic grammer rules. It also attemps to attract the reader into thinking by using cartoons, sample sentences, and questions.
On the down side. It requires the teacher to work harder than nessesary to accomplish the task of teaching. Some parts of the book are down right confusing, even to a native Japanese teacher.
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Good examples and simple explanations for all the little things. Perfect for intermediate students trying to be advanced.