First of all, I am not a teacher and I think many people are more qualified to review textbooks than I am. I am a student who feels this books has been pivotal in my study of Japanese. I started learning the language with the Yookoso! series, and those books were very good for drilling grammar but rather poor for dialogue or reading practice. This book and the Genki series seem to take the opposite tact and focus on total immersion through reading passages of dialogue and short informative articles. This book's only fault is the manner in which it teaches kanji. I feel that if it had a companion workbook with enlarged printing of each compound with stroke order (the way Yookoso does), it would not be so daunting, even though the vocabulary lists are 40-50 compounds long. Also, there are only two example sentences for each grammar structure taught, so it is difficult to understand the range of contexts each structure is used in.

To sum up, this book is terrific for practicing conversational skills and reading. For best use, pair it with a more grammar/writing intensive book like the Yookoso series. There is some overlap between the vocabulary of the second Yookoso book and the vocabulary at the beginning of this book. ( )