An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese

I bought this used, but while the sleeve and cover was a bit damaged the rest of it seemed almost like new. The one I got doesn't look like the picture on either the sleeve or the book cover though, there is no yellow or any of that stuff written on the bottom.I'm not sure if the way the discs were packaged is how they come in new books, but the discs looked brand new and untouched. They were in a plastic slip case with a thin pad in between the two, and that slip case was completely glued to one of the blank pages towards the front of the book. After spending several minutes trying to find out how to get to the discs, I eventually just had to get out my mini swiss knife and carefully slice the plastic open on one side. I do appreciate that the discs were protected so well during transport though.I haven't finished going through all the beginner books and stuff yet so I can't say much about the book itself yet. But I can say that the majority of it is in pure Japanese, and there are only rare parts of it in English which briefly explained certain things. The content appears to be arranged a bit differently than the genki textbooks in that it jumps right in and it doesn't space out the content so much. It still has you reading from left to right, top to bottom, so a paragraph still looks the same only it's in Japanese.

I had just started using it by this time but already had a lot of appreciation on its the contents. it will start the chapter with a Kaiwa Text (also available in the include CD) which is well assisted with index numbers indicating row numbers of Kanji characters used. That was very helpful in confirming the meaning of the the Kanji Charactes in a 単語 list which is located just next to the Kaiwa Texts. Kaiwa text also provide indexes for grammar which will help you located its grammatical explanation.I am looking forward to step up my Japanese language proficiency with the help of this book.If you have took n4 before, pass or failed, and looking forward to step up, i suggest you try this one.

Purchased this for my daughter, she loved the book.

Preface: I'm a self-studier. College is now a distant memory and everything I have learned to this point has been from my many experiences in Japan and all the study I do on my own before and after work. I've never taken a single serious Japanese class in my life. The past year, I made it through the Genki books wondering what/if anything I learned. This book was nothing of the sort. It's the gift that keeps on giving for me. I don't even use the CDs, because in the way I use this text, they are completely useless.Why is this book so darn good? There's very little English in here at all. This book is the exact thing I've been missing from my study for at least the last six months. Too many study books throw grammar at you when you don't have nearly enough vocabulary to stand on. Other books give you a Japanese sentence or pictures to fill in blanks with instructions in English and Hiragana for everything. This is a disaster because to fully commit to the language, you really need to be in "Japanese Mode" as much as possible. In these other materials you find the compliment CDs have a couple of short sentences or dry cliche situations and you answer some pretty simple questions. You get that here too, but I don't follow the book that way at all.What really won me over was the page long dialogs written with Kanjii. For my self study, I would read each page until I could get read out all the kanji at a decent clip, if not not a native speaker speed. At the point where I felt I had gasped the situation and speech, and the vocabulary included after all the lessons, then I would move on to the questions at the end and so on to the next page of lessons. I'm pretty sure the people who wrote the books fully intend the CDs to be a primary tool in doing all the work. You're more than welcome to go that route. But reading and having to really get the Kanji to click was a revelation for me.THIS BOOK FORCED ME TO THINK, TO SEE AND TO COMPREHEND. It made me a better speaker overall and by consequence to all of this, my grammar comprehension went up exponentially. Some people need a more guided approach. That could be an instructor-led program, or more guided instructions. None of that works for me. I've been to Japan enough times to have a feel for the speech rhythms and I know now with significantly deeper vocabulary and reading comprehension, I fear nothing ahead of me in my studies.This is definitely a "your mileage may vary" type of book. It's absolutely not perfect and I'm sure the two CDs will come in handy for most people, but after a couple lessons, I never touched them again. I had a lot more fun making my own notes in the dialogs and just practicing my reading comprehension and speech. There is no template for learning a language, but this is the tool I've been looking for and I'm glad I found it.

Perfect condition, with cd and was arrive very fast