Japanese from Zero! 1: Proven Techniques to Learn Japanese for Students and Professionals

I have just begun the Japanese From Zero; (JFZ 1) book, but I can already say I like it very much! The organization is excellent, the explanations are clear, and the Japanese taught is so relevant. The book starts you off with Pre-Lessons (in Roomaji;English letters;) that teach numbers and simple introductory exchanges, extremely useful for tourists and more serious students alike. I was especially impressed by JFZ teaching the question "Nansai ni miemasu ka?" (何歳に見えますか？), which means more or less "How old do you see me?", a cool question to ask when someone asks you how old you are (a common question to foreigners in Asia). The explanations of grammar, syntax and vocabulary are also accompanied by warnings of what NOT to say, which is very helpful (e.g., yonjuu; for 40, never shichijuu;). There is even information for how and when to bow, another important point not generally covered in a Japanese textbook. JFZ 1 also slowly teaches writing hiragana (katakana and kanji are tackled in later books), which is by far the most useful of the syllabaries for a beginning student. I already speak Chinese, so the kanji that the student will need to learn later on are far less of a problem, though the Japanese use the older traditional forms (繁体字 in Chinese) rather than the simplified characters (简体字) used in the PRC. But a person knowing Chinese can adapt pretty quickly. A knowledge of Chinese can also be very helpful with Japanese vocabulary, even after the phonetic modifications they undergo, since a large percentage of Japanese words were borrowed from Chinese (though usually from a different dialect than Modern Standard Chinese). The lessons are light-hearted and fun, a real pleasure to tackle, and this is a good thing, because Japanese appears as a rather "strange" language in its grammar and syntax (which to me are harder than Chinese). Though I haven't bought the other books in the series (JFZ 2, JFZ 3, JFZ 4), I've looked at them on Amazon, and they seem very good. The pacing in this series is conducive to mastery, and I disagree with the reviewer who wrote that it moves too slowly. How is that a problem? If you think the book moves slowly, go through it more quickly (duh). The point is that it is easy to become discouraged in studying a language---Japanese more than most---and the measured pace (which I don't find slow in the first place) encourages mastery and builds confidence in your ability to make real progress in the language. The author George Trombley doesn't avoid certain difficulties in the language but presents them in manageable bites (the modest distance I have covered has taught me irregularities in the counting system which are basic and certainly need to be learned at an early stage because of counting's fundamental nature). One of the best points of JFZ 1 is the online component, which is free. Apart from some crude language on the part of the author in one video that I watched, they are entertaining and extremely helpful. Japanese is a pitch language, and having recordings of native speakers using correct pitch will help your Japanese to sound more natural and even avoid confusion. I use the online component all the time. As a language teacher and learner, I know that poor textbooks can do great harm to the learning process, and the complexity of Japanese draws this point home in spades. JFZ 1 is a refreshingly manageable and even entertaining book that leads the learner by small steps to a good knowledge of the language and culture. I highly recommend it! すごいですね！

This book is amazing. George Trombley does a great job at explaining concepts. One thing that I appreciate is that he gives you a quick rundown of the formal Japanese (so that you recognize it when it pops up), but then focuses on how you'll most hear / be using it. He also just has a general demeanor of teaching in a down to earth manner. This removes some of the rigid feeling and droll of merely grinding through coursework. He also implements a "progressive" hiragana technique. This is a great idea. As you progress through the chapters, you pick up a new grammar concept, a list of new words, and 5-10 new Hiragana per chapter. The new Hiragana you learn will replace the "romaji" (english alphabet) until you are reading in complete Hiragana. This is a wonderful mechanism for learning as he eases you into everything rather than having massive knowledge dumps which feel discouraging. This book is not filled with a lot of filler and redundant information as other books can be. However, I would appreciate having extra examples or additional explanation of nuances like that you would find on the website / youtube version. For this reason I would highly encourage combining this with their website/youtube channel. Also, I'm a visual learner, so having the visual audio reinforcement really helps me excel. Something that you have to understand as a language student is that learning another language is not a passive activity; it takes hard work, dedication, and immersion. There is no other way to learn another language, so do not pay money to scam artists who will tell you otherwise. I have browsed through other Japanese learning programs like JapanesePod101 (which I don't feel is the best for actually learning Japanese), and have thus far found Japanese From Zero! to be the best there is. This book also does a really good job on worksheets. Again, I would recommend combining this with George Trombley's online resources so you can receive a few more helpful examples, pronunciation, and Japanese nuances. If you are debating between just doing online versus this book, realize that you will miss out on the worksheets which I feel are done better in the book. I definitely think you get a good deal for this as compared to other language learning programs (way better and cheaper than Rosetta Stone if that is on your mind). Is this book perfect? No. For instance, there are a few cases where a new Hiragana which you, as the student, have not learned yet will be slipped into text. It is, in my opinion the best book out there and prefer over Genki. As per my personal recommendation, you should make flashcards of words outside of the books. The books build a fantastic foundation, but you really need to build up your vocab on your own. It's pretty easy to find some word lists out there. However, I would work on those vocab lists after this book or when you are able to use it in a sentence. Learning words is MUCH easier when you can them in a sentence because then you aren't memorizing meaningless scribbles. This book consists of 13 chapters and gives you the basic structure of the Japanese Language. Everyone is different, but I would have a "focused study" a couple hours a day (you need to be practicing your and phrases throughout the day) and was able to get through this book in about a month. After completing it, my vocab was still relatively small, but I could pick out words and phrases people were saying. Certain topics people talked about, I could get the gist of what they were saying. Most topics though, I could only pick out small parts. Also remember that this is just book 1, so don't expect perfect fluency upon its completion. So far I have been very pleased with this book and my progress so far. Learning a language can definitely be daunting, especially when it is something as foreign as an Asian language. This series has definitely kept at bay that anxiety. Sometimes I have to remind myself of how far I've come and the things I do know rather than focusing on what I have yet to learn. George Trombley is very encouraging in his teaching. "Even dust when piled up becomes a mountain" As a little bit of my personal background, I have learned Portuguese as a second language and lived their several years. My experience in learning it was horrible, solely because I did not have anyone take the time to give me that down-to-earth explanation of how Portuguese functioned. I then made a friend who gave me that explanation I desperately needed. At this point in my Portuguese, I understood what people were saying but I could not speak very well myself. This friend transformed my Portuguese within a week so I sounded like a native and I could be considered "fluent". That friend to me in Portuguese is equivalent to how I feel George Trombley is for Japanese. ありがとう ございます

As a beginner in learning a foreign language you know it is easy to get overwhelmed. This is especially true if you are like me and are trying to teach yourself on your own rather than in a classroom. If this is the sort of situation you have found yourself in this is the perfect starter japanese series for you. I will be focusing on the two biggest aspects that set this book apart from the rest: Lesson Structure and Ease of Learning. Before I get into that however, I do want to let you know this is a series geared towards those who are beginners in learning Japanese. Those who are more fluent in Japanese already should check out a different series. Now let’s jump in. Lesson structure: To start, I wanted to mention that the lesson structure of the Japanese From Zero series is one of the best I have seen to date. Each lesson starts with a brief rundown of what skills you should already know, what you will be learning in the upcoming lesson and a few notes on what you should be sure to practice. It then moves on to give you a list of new vocabulary words. Don’t worry if you don’t know your Kana yet. This series moves at a pace that allows you to learn the Kana at the same time as learning new vocabulary. The only drawback is that I wish it put more of an emphasis on learning kanji, but I understand that can be intimidating for those looking to more causally learn japanese. Now the meat and potatoes of each lesson are the sections that follow, which include a grammar section that is easy to understand and not overwhelming, and the practice sections. The practice sections will likely become your new best friend as they are a fun way to apply what you just learned and a good way work on your writing. Ease of Learning: The second most important aspect is the ease of learning and the practicality of what you are learning. It is easy to get discouraged when all your book seems to throw at you are obscure words and phrases. This book does the opposite of that. Within the first few lessons you will have learned enough japanese to be able to form your own sentences that have practical applications in daily life, including asking questions and creating basic conversations. Not only do you learn in a practical way but with the book’s integrated workbook the learning comes easily as you work through simple problems such as reading and writing along the way! Overall if you are looking for a fun, well set up textbook for learning japanese this series is the way to go. Good luck on your quest for learning a new language!

Like some other reviewers who have written, I had no prior experience with Japanese at all. I have only heard Japanese in passing. I wanted to learn it but felt that it was too hard for someone like me to learn it and actually had a few native speakers say they think that it is too hard for Americans to speak properly, so to me, I decided to leave it alone. After looking at several AMERICANS speaking excellent, fluent Japanese, I thought, "If they can do it, so can I!" I purchased Living Language--the Complete Basics with 4 CD's and this book. I love this book *WAY* better! The Living Language course was so super grammar intensive and confusing with the layout, I gave up during the first chapter. I didn't have much hope for this book but after the first page, I knew this was different. i could follow it, even though it has grammar, it is not shoved down your throat or obtrusive to the point that it is all you see or learn about. You barely know that you are learning at all and the way it is explained, is so easy that you totally "get it" and don't feel confused. I love how you learn the Hiragana in pieces not all in one hunk. I especially love how they use progressive learning by replacing letters you learn in the previous chapter with Hiragana instead of Romaji. What is even the most awesome is, that when I looked in the other 2 books, there is no Romaji in them, just hiragana and katakana to help you not be dependent on the transliteration. Not many language books do that!I am only in the very beginnings of the book and have not finished it yer but being a total absolute beginner, this book makes learning Japanese less intimidating and fun! A few reviewers complained that the grammar is too basic and there is no depth to explanations and so forth but they tell you enough that you need to get started and get by. Plus, I hope that no one thinks that these books are the only ones that you need to learn Japanese! You can learn all that other in-depth, serious, grammar, etc in other courses, school and thru speaking a lot to natives; so this book will do a serious new beginner just fine. I just love how fun this book is and how delightful it has made me to want to continue and the confidence to learn Japanese. To people who read the person who said don't buy this book, he didn't learn anything--he is either a more advanced learner where in this case, yeah, he probably didn't learn a thing. Or maybe has issues of his own about the series, I don't know. I personally do not like the book he recommended because it has like a million books to purchase in the series and the layout is B-O-R-I-I-N-G. My opinion. :o) If you are a newbie to Japanese or language learning in general, this series is awesome; don't hesitate in buying it and tune out the negative reviews. ***NOTE*** If you are looking to this book for teaching you how to SPEAK Japanese, this book series is NOT for you; these books teach you about learning to read and write the syllabary only, not speaking. There are some basic vocab but it is mainly a reading, writing instruction book. As much as some people write bad reviews on it, I recommend Teach Youself Japanese. I think it is a great course and it teaches you how to SPEAK Japanese.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: I’ve been using Japanese From Zero (JFZ) Book 1 for about two months and it seems like a good approach. The book is supplemented by numerous YouTube videos that provide an experience something like a classroom teacher—at least the lecture part. The unscripted presentations are by the author, George Trombley, who can be irreverent at times, but offer the perspective of an American who learned Japanese as a teenager living in Japan and who now is a professional interpreter. Book 1 is the first of five JFZ books, so it seems to be intended for the student committed to the long haul, rather than someone who wants to pickup a bit of knowledge for a trip to Japan in a month or two. JFZ also offers web-based courses that closely parallel each of the books. I find combining the book with the online course to be the best approach, although that of course adds to the cost. The big advantage of the web course is that all words and phrases are pronounced by three (now five) different native speakers, and the student can set whether Japanese words are displayed in Romaji (western alphabet), hiragana, katakana or kanji with furigana depending on the knowledge the student brings to the course. Of course, one can start knowing absolutely nothing about Japanese. Back to the book. PROS 1. Its main strength is its gradual, no pressure introduction to hiragana (one of the two phonetic alphabets), plus vocabulary, grammar and culture. 2. The YouTube videos are worthwhile supplements. 3. The book provides more exercises to check and solidify your knowledge than the web-based course. CONS 1. There are no downloadable audio files for the book's vocabulary and phrases, only the fee-based web courses. Some words are used in examples in the videos but that is hit and miss. To get pronunciation right, you really need to subscribe to the web course. 2. Some find the gradual introduction of hiragana over the course of the first book to be slow and awkward. Alternatively, one can buy flash cards on Amazon and learn the 100 or so hiragana in a week or less. 3. There is no spaced repetition (periodic review based on accuracy of answers) of vocabulary or grammar in either the book or online course. And so far, I have not found a useable Anki deck (spaced repetition freeware) for JFZ so I’ve created my own flashcards, which is time consuming. In short, for me the book was a good place to start since it does not feel like an academic textbook, and it is the first of five books, so there is much more to come. However, to learn even the basics of Japanese you’ll need more than just this book, but I suspect that is true of any first book on the subject. UPDATE: now that I've finished Book 1, here are a couple of updates. 1) The online web version of the course now has absolutely all Japanese (that I've seen) pronounced by five different speakers. I find this to be extremely valuable, and the sound quality is better than comparable files for Genki (a competing textbook). 2) To the best of my knowledge, only the first lesson or two of each Japanese from Zero online course is free. After that, you must subscribe to the web courses to hear how words and phrases are pronounced. 3) The web-based courses allow either the Japanese or English text to be temporarily hidden to better test one's understanding. This too is a very valuable feature.

I really enjoyed working through Japanese From Zero 1. I have previously studied Japanese and could already read hiragana and katakana. It had been years since I’ve studied any Japanese. This book really starts from zero and works it’s way up. It’s an easy book and I think anyone can get through it. The things I liked most: -George presents all concepts in a way that is easy to grasp and backs it up with example sentences. He keeps things simple. -The writer has an online YouTube channel that has the book chapter by chapter. It’s almost exactly like taking a class online when you use the book and watch the YouTube videos. -In the workbook problems, example sentences, and reading comprehension exercises the author continues to use grammar and vocabulary from previous chapters. This is good because you’ll see something in a later chapter that you might have forgotten in a previous chapter and it helps reinforce what you’ve already learned. What I liked the least: -the hiragana is introduced chapter by chapter and the vocabulary words will be written using a combination of romaji and hiragana. So as you go through chapter by chapter, the words will be written more and more with hiragana. If you already know how to read hiragana this makes the reading a little difficult. But it was still good. And I knew how to read it, but I forgot how to write it. So it was still a good review. -I thought the book was kind of short. I got through it rather quickly. You might want to get book two as well. -I would like to see a section where the reader can also practice listening. Maybe in a future book add online audio files for the reader to practice in the workbook section. All in all, George really has a nice product. He avoids complex grammar words like volutional and present prefect tense. He’s learned the language himself. And took the time recently to become the student again and learn Korean and is currently learning Chinese. So he has a good understanding of how people learn languages. I actually have jfz 1,2,3, and 4 as well as his Kanji from zero book. I got through books 1-3 and most of 4 then went to Japan to try it out. To my disappointment, I really couldn’t understand much that was spoken to me. Which is normal. The truth is, listening and speaking is a skill that has to be developed over time. This book as with any other book won’t get you fluent. But it will help build a foundation for learning the language. I’ll probably buy JPFZ5 when it comes out.

After working through this magnificent book, I have never wanted to throw my money at someone more than George sensei. This book has all the ingredients to help you master the foundations of the Japanese language. It moves at a pace that is designed to ensure you do not get overwhelmed early on in your language-learning journey. I believe that this pacing is very effective when learning a new language, as becoming overwhelmed will only burn you out quicker and will confuse you when too many new things to learn are thrown at you. George is very careful not to overwhelm you and is very meticulous about his order of teaching. Not to mention, you can tell George is so passionate about these books when watching his videos on the lessons and ensuring you have a fun time mastering what is commonly thought to be one of the hardest languages for an English speaker to learn. His videos on YouTube where he talks you through each and every lesson in the book are so unbelievably helpful and reassuring when you are struggling with understanding what the books teach you, but honestly, the book is laid out so meticulously that I assure you as long as you put forth the effort and time, you will easily pick up new concepts quickly. I also must say that George is so friendly in his videos and he really makes you WANT to continue learning. He’s very humorous and makes the learning experience fun. I have had the book probably no longer than a couple of weeks and I just finished working through it without speeding, and I just ordered the second book tonight because I am so excited to see where this series will take my Japanese skills. Everything you learn from this book is so important and useful that I’m already able to make basic Japanese sentences out of my every day settings and formulate my own unique sentences based on what this book has taught me. There’s not enough good I can say about this book, all I can say is it will certainly be worth your money and time working through it. I am so happy with the progress I have made in such a short amount of time, and I owe it all to George and his wife for making this series available!

Yes! 1,000 times, YES!!! At, least that was my answer. Finding a way to learn Japanese, successfully, was much more difficult than deciding I wanted to learn how. If your journey to find a teaching tool that would work for you is anything like mine was then you've already tried and failed to use other tools. In October of 2017 my sister and I decided we both wanted to learn Japanese together. So we set off on that journey only to fight with one another over the way to learn it which led us down different paths before finding Japanese From Zero! Now before finding Japanese from Zero! I had already successfully used RomanianPod101.com to learn how to speak Romanian and I liked the platform quite a bit. So I naturally headed over to JapanesePod101.com and shelled out around $200 for Premium Plus only to find that the language learning tools for Japanese were not very good once you got through the first 10 or so lessons. I had already bought and paid for Memrise ($49.99) which I had used for Romanian and German. So I tried progressing through the Japanese 1 course and what was clearly missing from that experience was context and the practicality of the vocabulary I was learning. The progression markers were encouraging and motivating but it just wasn't teaching me to "speak" Japanese but rather vocabulary and small phrases. I had concurrently used Kana Town to learn both Hirigana and Katakana yet I felt like I wasn't really getting anywhere near learning to "speak" Japanese. I decided to turn to Youtube for suggestions and it seemed that most people were suggesting utilizing Tae Kim's free grammar and video lessons or Genki. I found these suggestions from people who'd moved to Japan and were there teaching English or as students. The last thing I wanted was a textbook. I hated the language textbooks I'd used in high school and college and had always found them sorely lacking "real life" or "conversational" teachings. Knowing how Japanese culture has so many formalities, niceties, honorifics, etc I was concerned I'd learn how to speak Japanese like a foreigner from Genki. While Tae Kim's offerings were pretty good considering they were free I struggled to use his material for myself. It was while I was on Amazon looking at Genki that I came across the Japanese From Zero series. I took a look at the reviews, watched some of Georges videos, and was sure that I had found the resource that was going to work for me. My sister wasn't convinced based on my discovery. After having spent a few months on and off with Japanese because I was struggling with the tools I'd used I dove in head first into using Japanese From Zero! 1 and it just - worked! It's hard to explain but...I was...actually learning how to "speak" Japanese. Now as someone who had already spent hours and hours memorizing Hiragana and Katakana I wasn't thrilled with the progressive transition from Romaji to kana but had I just started with this it probably would have been so much easier to learn those characters than isolated drilling. The reason I found Japanese From Zero! 1 to be so much better than all the other resources I'd used is because the book was full of clear explanations about each topic, word, or phrase that was being taught. It seemed like for every question I had about the material the author had anticipated that and had an answer. Unlike the other resources I used I wasn't scouring the internet for clarification about what was being taught. Even better was finding that Japanese From Zero! has a video lesson that goes with the full book lesson where George helps his students make sure they really understand the topic and then he adds more knowledge and information that strengthens the learners confidence in their Japanese. I spent an entire weekend working through the first 4 full chapters of Japanese from Zero! 1 and I was actually "speaking" Japanese. I could say real sentences that were conversationally correct and didn't make me sound like I was a foreign learner. Could I walk around in Japan and successfully hold a conversation - no of course not but what I did have was the confidence that with this material, if I stayed dedicated, in the not too distant future I most certainly could. After that weekend of learning I forced my sister to try Japanese From Zero! 1 with me. We watched a few of George's lesson videos and then I actually taught her, with the Japanese I'd learned from the book, the material I knew. Yes, that's correct I taught my sister Japanese in Japanese. After that she was convinced and I bought her a book as well. As you can see I've committed myself to the whole series. I spent $155 after taxes for the five books that you see. When compared with the 2 Genki workbooks and the 2 Genki textbooks with at the time I purchased them were $189 after taxes these felt like a steal. I'm not sure the author would recommend this but I use Jisho.org for learning the Kanji stroke order and readings of all the vocab that appears in the book. It's amazing how quickly you start learning radicals, stroke order patterns, and general character recognition. I'd say that doing this is a big time commitment and is going well above and beyond the usage of the book. I have the aptitude for it this early in the learning process but not everyone does. So if you find it distracts from Japanese From Zero! then don't use it. At the end of the day, if you want to learn how to successfully speak Japanese that doesn't make you sound like a language learning foreigner then this is the resource for you!