Japanese from Zero! 2: Proven Techniques to Learn Japanese for Students and Professionals (Japanese Edition)

This book exponential increased my ability to understand and speak japanese. Its easy to learn vocabulary but its difficult to learn how to use it correctly. This book shows you how to use them multiple ways (informal, and polite ways). And on top of that you are learning Katakana. This book does contain typos but its not the end of the world, this book was made by humans.

My teen son has been homeschooled since eighth grade. One of his main interests in languages. In his first couple years of homeschool, he attempted to learn Japanese using Rosetta Stone (he went through the full first level and most of the second), by using the first Genki book and workbook, various other beginner books (as I scroll through the popular books on Japanese language in Amazon, I see we now own many of the titles...), and by doing a few other things like us just going through flashcards of hiragana and katakana.Partway through last school year (Jan 2017), he told me he feels like he's learned a lot of Japanese, but said he felt he wouldn't be able to put together even the simplest sentence - written or spoken - if he was put to the test. As with all things homeschool, there's some trial and error, and we occasionally try something that doesn't work. This was definitely one of those things. I knew he was frustrated, but not at all ready to give up.We came across Japanese From Zero! Book 1. When he started using that first workbook and discovered the hundreds of free videos the author, George Trombley, put on YouTube, I mean, this kid was transformed. He ate that book up, and book 2. By the end of that school year (June 2017) he'd gone from saying he couldn't say "How are you?" to being comfortable enough to converse with teens in Japan. In the summer he completed book 3. This school year (starting September 2017) he began Japanese From Zero! 4 and Kanji From Zero! 1, and he's working his way through both now. He keeps up with the supplemental videos from George. When George asks a question, I'm continually impressed at how my son replies correctly, without fail, before George supplies the answer.My son just asked me what I was doing, and I told him I was typing up a review for these books -- he said I should say he doesn't feel he started actually learning Japanese before he opened the first from Zero! book.These books and the free supplemental videos are by far the best system we've found for any English speaker who wants to learn Japanese.UPDATE MAY 2019:My son graduated homeschool Spring 2018. He asked if he could take a placement test for Japanese at the university he was planning to attend. Recall he’d only gone through George Trombley’s Japanese From Zero! books 1-4 plus Kanji from Zero! book 1 and the free YouTube videos. From the placement test, he was put in 3rd semester Japanese. He likely tested into 4th semester, but as that class is only offered each Spring, he was happy to go into 3rd semester.How did he do? He got straight As - a 4.0 in both 3rd and 4th semester. Each class is worth 5 credits, and for the two classes he skipped, he was given 4 credits each. So for 3rd semester he got 13 credits for his one Japanese class, and another 5 in 4th semester. Just from self studying these books in homeschool.

This is the 2nd book in the series and I'm going to get the 3rd soon.I tried so many other learning Japanese products including Rosetta Stone and the most I could do was count to 10 say hello and good bye. This book series allows you to learn at your own pace.I can now speak and understand full sentences.I can understand what is going on in anime and other movies without having to constantly look at the subtitles. I can read most Japanese writing, but I still don't know all of the words and Kanji. In book 3 I am sure will widen my vocabulary and understanding.I recommend getting a Japanese copy (writing) book to go along with it if you really want to write in Japanese.As for pronunciation, I probably sound horrible. I have been watching a lot of youtube videos on getting that right. I suggest watching educational Japanese videos for kids, because they repeat things over and over so you can remember things and have Japanese subtitles at the bottom so you can read in Japanese what they are saying to get you word recognition up to speed. My whole family can recite Twinkle Twinkle little star in Japanese and Oni No Pants... fun times.

I'm one chapter away from finishing Book 2! I have been switching up my studying by adding multiple resources. I'm currently using Genki and the JFZ books plus videos from George and Japanese Ammo with Misa. I must say that although the series starts slow (Genki 1 covers in the first 7 or so chapters book 1 and book 2 + some parts of book 3 except for the counters which JFZ starts covering since the first book and they are very important to specify quantities) I love JFZ and will continue to use it. Genki is not as detailed and it doesnt have the videos plus it goes faster because its supposed to be a university level book. JFZ really helped me learn the hiragana and katakana in a way that I wont forget (and genki didnt) and it helped me solidify and explained better things that genki couldn't or wouldn't (that chapter on conjugating verbs into polite form is complete garbage on genki so I really learned it well with George). If a you like a slower pace (that really helps if you're too busy to spend 6-8 hours a day studying) I recommend JFZ. If you want to immerse yourself in japanese and get N5 level in about 3 months get genki and JFZ. And go through both books to really get it down. Keep up the great work! Looking forward to reviewing the rest of the series!

I never write reviews but I wanted to write this one. I started studying Japanese after my first trip to Japan in 2019. I found George on YouTube and started with book one. After covid hit and life happened I only finished book one and progressed to book 2 last year. After visiting Japan for the second time last year, I realized I was able to read and even understand quite a bit of Japanese. Katakana is everywhere so it is very useful to know. I realized how much though was put into the book to make the information digestible and focus on the most useful things. Thank you George for the book and the YouTube videos. よくできました