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 | | Nakama 1: Japanese Communication, Culture, Context by Seiichi Makino ISBN-10: 9780395912508 ISBN-10: 0-395-91250-4 ISBN-13: 9780395912508 ISBN-13: 978-0-395-91250-8 Hardcover 1998-08 Houghton Mifflin Company Find Lowest Price |
Reviews | ||
I have fun learning Japanese! I think Nakama is an excellent Japanese textbook for a college student like me. It has a total of 12 chapters, each featuring a main topic such as daily routine, family, health, restaurant, department store etc. Yes the book does work better in a classroom with the guidance of a teacher. It has many interesting activities to be done in a group with other classmates. When I just started learning hiragana and katakana, I really appreciate the mnemonic diagrams which are rather funny and therefore easy to remember. For example, it says that the hiragana の looks like a "No smoking" sign and is therefore pronounced as "no". The book also has many pictures which make learning Japanese fun. Besides, it also introduces Japanese culture in the beginning of each chapter. The workbook is not as bad as described by other reviewers, at least it is great to me. I have been taking Japanese class for 3 quarters (~9 months) and finally finish studying the book and doing the workbook. I can now speak some Japanese and write a short essay with some kanji. I love Nakama and also love learning Japanese very much. I am going to take more Japanese classes definitely and I am going to buy Nakama 2!! The only bad thing about this book is its price. I bought Nakama 1 for about $80, but considering the knowlegde I gain from it, I will probably keep the book. I recommend this book to everyone interested in learning Japanese. | ||
Not a good book - Are there better out there? I think your response to this book depends on how you like to learn a foreign language. Personally, I prefer 'direct method' teaching, which means that you learn a foreign language in that language with very little translation into your native tongue. Nakama is not designed for direct method and in fact is far too laden with English directions, translations, cultural explanations, etc. While this is understandable, to a limited extent, with a beginner level textbook it would be better to at least begin to incorporate the Japanese introduced in the course into the text. I find that all the English limits the rate at which I 'absorb' the language. The book itself is structured well enough, beginning with simple phrases and hiragana and moving on to katakana then kanji. However, it might make itself more adaptable for classroom use by adding role-plays or other such speaking activities. Basically, the book feels overdetermined and slightly like a cram-school approach to language acquisition. As for the other materials, the cassettes that accompany the Workbook are terrible quality - so much so that the Japanese members of my family cannot understand what is being said at times. The workbook itself is printed on very low grade paper that really must be photocopied before it is usuable (unless you work on a separate sheet and simple write your answers on the workbook page). Overall, I don't think the Nakama series presents value for money or education. You will end up forking out ~$200 for the set of books and tapes that really, at the end of the day, don't really give much educational return... Unless you have a good teacher and friends/family to help you - which I did. | ||
Most unhelpful This is a poor excuse for a textbook. Let's start with the poor and scatterbrained grammar explanations. Not only do the authors succeed in obfuscating what should be simple grammatical rules by introducing multiple grammar concepts simultaneously, but they often offer only a single example as an illustration. In addition, the authors introduce conjugated verbs several chapters before the infinitives. The grammar exercises serve only to confuse students because they are often used to introduce exceptions without explanation. The cursory treatment of katakana (introduced in "Chapter 3.5") also creates handicaps for students that last throughout their second semester of using this book. The accompanying workbook is next to useless due to the number of typos, the amateurish layout, and completely fictional concordance (for example, there is one place in the notebook where they refer to a family tree illustration on page 95, but there is no illustration to be found on that page). The accompanying audio (I tried the CDs, but I understand that the tapes are even worse) is of poor quality. There is a lot of background noise that muffles the speakers. The speakers themselves were apparently challenged to speak as fast as they could so that even native speakers would have a hard time discerning their meaning. For beginning students who need clarity and patience, this was most discouraging. In short, I would strongly discourage students from taking Japanese at their college if this text is being used and I would hope that Japanese programs realize the low quality of this so-called instructional text. | ||