Contemporary Japanese Workbook, Volume 1: Practice Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing [With CDROM]

This Japanese language workbook was created as supplementary material for Contemporary Japanese.

A workbook which is best used for reviewing and reinforcing the concepts and learning materials introduced in the textbook, it is also designed to function as a standalone comprehensive workbook. Some of the features included for this purpose are (a) presentation of a brief note on the concept tested before every question, (b) providing of vocabulary and kanji glossaries on unfamiliar words, and (c) an audio input by native speakers. This workbook also offers materials in the business, traveling and daily life contexts, in addition to the college life context featured greatly in the textbook.

Contemporary Japanese Workbook series comes in two volumes, consisting of 26 chapters (Chapter One to Fourteen in Volume 1 and Chapter Fifteen to Twenty-Six in Volume Two) in all. It integrates all the information provided in the textbook. Each chapter in the workbook has specific objectives and includes the following six sections:

• Kanjia and vocabulary
• Grammar.
• Conversation and Usage.
• Listening Comprehension.
• Writing.
• New Vocabulary Reference List.

In Contemporary Japanese Workbook Volume One, hiragana characters are introduced in Chapter One in the form of questions along with audio recordings and are used in subsequent chapters without ruby, in this case in romanji. Katakana characters are introduced in Chapter Four, also in the form of questions, and are used in subsequent chapters without ruby. Kanji characters are introduced in the form of questions, accompanied by detailed information such as meanings, component equations, remembering guides, stroke order, and usage examples. The required kanji characters in every chapter are introduced without ruby. When they appear again in the following chapters, ruby is sparingly provided, wherever it is thought to be helpful, and the use of this pronunciation guide is gradually reduced. Non-required kanji characters occasionally appear with ruby to help learners get accustomed to kanji and thus, able to see the phrase boundaries in a sentence easily.

All media content is accessible on the Tuttle Publishing website.

Dr. Eriko Sato is Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She teaches Japanese language, linguistics and pedagogy as well as translation studies and acquisition of Asian languages. She serves as the adviser for teacher education program for Japanese. Dr. Sato developed numerous courses including the first online Japanese course at her University. She has also authored or co-authored a number of books for teaching and learning Japanese including Contemporary Japanese, Japanese Demystified, Japanese for Dummies, Complete Japanese Grammar, Basic Japanese, Basic Japanese: Introduction of the Structure of Japanese, Essential Japanese Grammar, My First Japanese Kanji Book, and Learning Japanese Kanji.