Teach Yourself Get Started in Japanese: Absolute Beginner Course

Do you want a solid foundation to your Japanese studies?
If you are looking for a solid foundation to your language studies for school, work or travel, this engaging course will get you speaking, writing, reading and understanding Japanese in no time. Through authentic conversations, clear language presentations, and extensive practice and review, you will learn the Japanese you need to communicate naturally in everyday situations - from booking a hotel room to talking about friends and family.

The main body of the book is written in Romanized script. Each unit also offers reading practice in the Japanese scripts: hiragana, katakana and some simple kanji.

What will I learn?
Basic Japanese is slowly and carefully introduced to ensure you progress confidently through the course and build up a foundation to allow you to feel confident in everyday situations and move to the next level of your learning. It teaches grammar, vocabulary and listening, reading, writing, speaking and pronunciation skills. By the end of the course you will reach a solid Novice High proficiency level of ACTFL (The American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages) and A2 Beginner level of the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) guidelines.

Is this course for me?
Get Started in Japanese is for absolute and false beginners of Japanese. Clear and simple explanations make the course appropriate and accessible to anyone learning Japanese. There are extensive illustrations to support the learner working on his or her own. This course is also ideal to use with one-to-one tutoring and as a classroom course.

What do I get?
This book has a learner-centred approach that incorporates the following features:
- 10 units of learning content - covering everyday topics from booking a hotel room to talking about friends and family
- Discovery Method - figure out rules and patterns yourself to make the language stick
- Outcomes-based learning - focus your studies with clear aims
- Vocabulary building - thematic lists and activities to help you learn vocabulary quickly
- Test yourself - see and track your own progress
- Native speaker audio - available as a digital download
- Free, downloadable audio transcripts and vocabulary and language reference lists

This pack includes a book and one MP3 CD of audio material.

Where do I go next?
If you want to advance your Japanese, our Complete Japanese course (9781471800498) will take you to an intermediate level of Japanese.

If you want to practice your speaking and listening skills, Get Talkingand Keep Talking Japanese (9781444185362) is the perfect audio course.

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Helen Gilhooly has lived and worked in Japan, and has a PGCE and an MA in Japanese. She is a university teacher trainer, language materials writer and senior director at a specialist language college in the UK.