Oxford Take Off in Japanese: Complete Language Learning Pack (Take Off In...)

click here for more details, find new or used items	Lynne Strugnell Our price £16.99 (£25.99) New from £11.83 Used from £14.51 Pages: 256 (Audio CD) ISBN: 0198603002 Pub: Oxford University Press Pub date: 2000-05-25 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 8674

Reader Reviews:

For casual learners only... (1/1 people found this helpful)

If you're serious about learning Japanese then there are better book/audio combinations available.

I picked this up as it looked like an easy introduction to Japanese with everything written in Romaji (Japanese written in English) with both reading,writing and listening activities.

But that's really all it is, an introduction. The first 10 units are fine and it's relavtively easy to pick up. It doesn't overwhelm you with vocabulary to remember but instead introduces up to a dozen a page along with (brief) explanations on grammatical rules.

Towards the end you will become frustrated with it as you'll find yourself wanting to know more than the book is telling you especially in terms of sentence structure and the use of particles.

Lastly there is very little regarding the Japanese writing system, just one or two pages per unit (maybe 30pgs total!) which would be fine for the casual learner but would leave you at a distinct disadvantage in terms of reading and writing. If you're serious about the language then these are things you should be learning from the very beginning, especially Hiragana.

The audio is relatively good though, with pronunciation exercises and dialogs to listen to, along with additional practice of things learned from the book.

I've finished this book and have moved on to 'Japanese for Busy People' which, with hindsight, is what I should have started with instead. I'd recommend the same for anyone serious.

Also; hire a tutor as well to get conversational practice unless you have Japanese friends.

its great (1/2 people found this helpful)

i bought this set a few months ago and and within a few days i'd already learnt how to talk about the weather introduce myself and even order food in a kissaten (japanese coffee shop). i have now got upto the time and am finding that i need to listen to it a little more but i think after a few days ill have this bit cracked aswell.i even think i can start to piece my own sentances together although they are basic. it also goes into the japanese culture which makes for a nice break from all the language. unfortunatly as others have said it does not go into writing or reading japanese in much depth so i have ordered japanese from zero for that. when that arrives i will review that one aswell so people can get an idea what thats like and i hope it will be a good partner for learning to read and write

When is the next level coming out? (23/23 people found this helpful)

Very good self-study course for learning to SPEAK and understand. (But no good for anyone wanting to learn to READ japanese). Standard format for each unit: Language Presentation (by listening dialogues), Pronunciation Practice, Speaking Practice.
Only one criticism - could be use a bit more variation on the "drilling" instead repeating the dialogue sentences.
I think this course takes you to a more advanced level than most courses for this price.

Most of all it has left me wanting more. There are plenty of Beginners Courses but now I need a course which will build on this.

Brilliant! (16/18 people found this helpful)

I just recieved my 'take off' kit today and after twenty minutes I could already say basic polite greetings, talk a bit about the weather, introduce other people and other general introductions. The combined reading and listening elements work very well together and I look forward to continued speedy progress. Great value for money and it really works!

Excellent (23/23 people found this helpful)

I used this book for three months before coming to Japan and found it extremely user friendly and not at all dry like a lot of other similar texts aimed at beginners. I would sincerely recommend it to anyone coming over for a visit or to work.

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