Reviews

This introduction to Japanese comes with both a textbook of the same name and a cassette tape, recorded by a native speaker (our copy was blank‘oops!). Since it is designed as an introductory tool, the scope is limited to 300 illustrated words. Every word is shown in the three kinds of Japanese writing: Kanji, Katakana, and Hiragana, and each word can be clicked to display its English meaning. The games of tic-tac-toe and Concentration are included to make it fun for the learner to develop vocabulary. The lessons, covering the family, home, school, the body, clothing, food, opposites, numbers, nature, and time, accurately portray each culture as well as teach basic vocabulary. Bottom Line: We won't go so far as to say that this disc makes Japanese an easy language to learn, but it is a comforting introduction.