Is this Japanese Textbook good?

[babaliaris]

Hello Everyone!

I'm trying to learn Japanese by myself and i was searching for some good books to start with. Well, firstly i tried to find free stuff on the internet but i wasn't that lucky and then is where i found about Japanese From Zero. This book looks promising, but i wanted to make some research first and ask others about it.

I also found this which helped me memorizing all the Hiragana Symbols (but still i don't know how to write them).

So what do you think?
Do you have anything else on your mind that might help me?

PS: I'm from Greece and new to this forum. Finding someone to teach me Japanese in Greece is quite difficult since we mostly have private schools only for English, German and French.

Thank you.

[Speakeasy]

Welcome to the forum, babaliaris! I look forward to reading your contributions to the numerous discussions threads on Japanese and many other topics related to language learning.

Japanese From Zero
Please note that I have never studied Japanese and have no intention of ever doing so. Nevertheless, I recall several members expressing their support for the “Japanese From Zero” course. I would note that the course book “Japanese From Zero” to which you provided a link, has been evaluated 565 times by confirmed buyers on Amazon, of whom 96% rated the book at 4 or 5 stars. This level of support is unusually high and I would tend to accept the reviewers’ opinions. By the way, the publisher has a website:

Japanese From Zero - Homepage
http://yesjapan.com/YJ6/

Additional Links
It occurred to me that the following discussion threads might be of some interest to you:

East Asian Study Group
https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=5145

Japanese Resources
https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2907

Good online Japanese courses?
https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&p=83699#p83699

Learning Basic Japanese
https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&p=82668#p82668

New to languages learning Japanese*
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=40887&PN=1

Comparison of Japanese Textbooks Table
http://rtkwiki.koohii.com/wiki/Comparison_of_Japanese_Textbooks_Table
With many thanks to member Aokoye!

*Please note that the present forum, “A Language Learners’ Forum” replaced the “How-To-Language-Any-Language” forum circa July 2015 and that, while the latter continues to serve as a much-appreciated archive, most of the active members are registered on this forum. So then, should you post questions/comments on the previous forum, the likelihood of your receiving replies would be quite low.

EDITED:
Tinkering.

[stelingo]

I have just finished Japanese from Zero book 3 and have started the 4th book. I find this course to be a good supplement to my main textbook Genki. Each chapter just focuses on one or two main grammar points so you are not overwhelmed. There are plenty of example sentences and dialogues. You will find the audio for these on the website. In addition the author has made Youtube videos for all the lessons up to the end of Book 3. You can download book 1 free of charge so you have nothing to lose.

[babaliaris]

Thank you for your replies! I've decided that Genki 1 is the most proper book to start leaning Japanese for my age but still i'm not in a rush because i'll probably buy it on summer break after i'm done with my University priorities.

[tarvos]

Honestly, which textbook you use doesn't matter that much, honestly. Real life practice will make you speak Japanese, and textbooks are aids to help you, but they can never replace the real thing.

[Josquin]

In the meantime, Genki is an excellent choice though.

I've used both volumes of it myself and I can highly recommend it.

[stelingo]

If you are a complete beginner to Japanese, and still unfamiliar with Hiragana and Katakana I would say Japanese from Zero is a better book to start with, then move on to Genki.

[Sayonaroo]

I recommend tae kim's guide to japanese grammar. it's available free online.