Beginning Japanese (Parts I and II) contains thirty-five lessons, all of which have the same basic pattern and involve the same procedures.  Each lesson requires many hours of class work supplemented by outside study and, if possible, laboratory work.  The first part of this series contains lessons 1-20. This textbook is concerned only with spoken Japanese.  Reading and writing involve a different set of habits and are best begun after acquiring some basic control of the spoken language.  It is suggested that students interested in studying written Japanese begin using an introductory reading text only after completing at least ten or fifteen lessons of this volume.