Japanese language books

Japanese Language Books If you are looking for books to teach yourself Japanese from scratch, please bear in mind that it is extremely difficult to achieve this without a teacher. We would strongly recommend you take at least a few lessons to get you started, if not with us then at evening school or wherever suits you best. We have heard so many stories of people who tried to learn a language just from books and tapes but soon gave up in frustration. A few lessons at the beginning sets you on the right path. Once you have grasped how the language works and how it sounds, you can learn more and more by yourself. If you live in or near Manchester, you could start a one-to-one Japanese course with us tomorrow (or whenever you like). Click here to read about our flexible, customised courses. These books, then, are recommended as additional resources to accompany a course of lessons and/or for more advanced study.

	Beginner's Japanese (Teach Yourself Languages) (Book +CD) by Helen Gilhooly An excellent, well paced, accessible course to get you speaking Japanese. Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

	Oxford Take Off in Japanese: Complete Language Learning Pack by Lynne Strugnell Learn to speak basic Japanese pretty quickly. A very successful course. Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

	Beginner's Japanese Script (Teach Yourself Languages) by Helen Gilhooly A very helpful book showing you how to read and write Japanese, using the three alphabets - hiragana, katakana and kanji (the Chinese characters). Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

	An Introduction to Modern Japanese: Grammar Lessons Vol 1 by Richard John Bowring and Haruko Uryu Laurie An extremely thorough, extensive course for the serious student - actually much more than an introduction. You need to buy Volume 2 as well. Quite an investment but ultimately a safe one, if you think you're going to stick with learning Japanese. Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

	An Introduction to Modern Japanese: Exercises and Word Lists Vol 2 by Richard John Bowring and Haruko Uryu Laurie The companion volume to this comprehensive course. Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

	Let's Learn Hiragana: First Book of Basic Japanese Writing by Yasuko Kosaka Mitamura A very good book that teaches you to write one of the Japanese alphabets. One at a time is probably the easiest way - and this book is great for regular practice at home. Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

	Let's Learn Katakana: Second Book of Basic Japanese Writing by Yasuko Kosaka Mitamura And now the second Japanese alphabet. Useful reference book. Completely up-to-date and very accessible. For beginners onwards. Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

	Let's Learn Kanji by Joyce Yumi Mitamura and Yasuko Kosaka Mitamura And now the Chinese characters used in Japanese writing. Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

	Japanese for Busy People: Kana Version Bk. 1 by Association for Japanese Language Teaching An introduction to Japanese, mainly for businesspeople. It's worth getting this version (with the Japanese script) because you're going to want to learn the writing anyway and having everything romanised for too long holds you back. Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

	Japanese for Busy People: Kana Workbook Vol 1 by Association for Japanese Language Teaching A workbook to accompany the preceding coursebook. Very useful, though you might want to buy the Let's Learn books (see above) as well, to help you to master the alphabets. Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

	Japanese for Busy People: CDs Vol 1 by Association for Japanese Language Teaching Audio to accompany the course. A great help with pronunciation and working out what the script says/sounds like. Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

	Japanese Core Words and Phrases: Things You Can't Find in a Dictionary by Kakuko Shoji An excellent reference book for the more advanced student. Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

	A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns by Naoko Chino A useful reference book. Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

	Japanese Verbs at a Glance by Naoko Chino Shows you how the verbs change according to tense etc. Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

	Oxford Beginner's Japanese Dictionary by Jonathan Bunt and Gillian Hall Much more than a dictionary. Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

	Martin's Concise Japanese Dictionary: English-Japanese/Japanese-English by Samuel E. Martin A useful, well compiled dictionary. Click here to buy this now from Amazon.

Interested in reading more about Japan? Check out our books about and set in Japan. Wondering about learning Japanese? Have a look at page on why learn Japanese? Back to Recommended Reading

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JMJ Manchester - 318A Palatine Road, Northenden, Manchester M22 4FW UK
Telephone: +44 (0)161 613 7373 E-mail: info@jmj-manchester.co.uk