Starting From the One Year Point

[TonarinoCaitlin]

I've been taking classes on Japanese for about a year, now, but I really feel that what I'm learning in school isn't really enough. Well, I mean, learning in school has its advantages, because it keeps your butt in gear, even on the things you don't want to do, but it's also a bit lacking because of the limited amount of time, you know? There just isn't enough time to go over everything.

Anyway, I'm looking for a book series that I can do, starting from the one year point. I mostly want to focus on conversational Japanese, but I never could stand stuff that doesn't have explanations. Actually, I really love technical explanations about things, and a workbook that I could use to write things in to solidify it all would be really good, too. I'm not *too* interested in learning kanji right now, but I also would prefer that I get to use a book without Romaji (I really can't stand romaji...)

I know I'm asking for a lot, but does anyone know of a good book series for this? I heard that "Barron's Mastering Japanese" and Living Language's "Ultimate Japanese" are good series for this. Is this so?

Thank you so much for your help!

[Miaow]

I really like the "Elementary Japanese" book. There are two in the series, and a Teacher's Guide that you do need for the answers to the exercises in the main text. It comes with a CD with all the dialogues and other goodies like listening worksheets and an Excel spreadsheet with kanji information.

You NEED to know kana before using this book.

I like "Japanese for Everyone" too - and there is indeed a workbook and kanji book, but those must be ordered from Japan. (The main text is available in thejapanshop.com, amazon,etc. The workbook and kanji book I ordered throught White Rabbit Express.

The Dictionaries (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced) have wonderful in-depth grammar descriptions and examples.

"Japanese: The Spoken Language" is GREAT for grammar/lingustic intricacies explained, but the adherance to romaji is such a nuisance.

Hope this helps!