Master the Basics: Japanese by Nobuo & Carol Akiyama
Score:
8 / 10
Pros:
see pros for Barron’s Japanese Grammar; review exercises/tests for every unit; tests a bit conventional but well thought out
Cons:
see cons for Barron’s Japanese Grammar; Japanese text is now printed in black rather than stand-out dark red; more of a well-crafted grammar reference than a lesson guide
Part of Barron’s Foreign Language Guide series, Master the Basics: Japanese expands the contents of Akiyama’s Japanese Grammar. Since the heart of the book repeats the entirety of Japanese Grammar, it’s worth evaluating my review of that book first.
This lesson guide is bigger than the pocket sized Grammar, allowing for larger print and more space for notes. Apart from changing title and section colors from red to orange and Japanese examples from red to black, I don’t notice any changes to the text.
The star addition here is a series of practice activities at the end of the book that test your knowledge of each of the twenty-two chapters. Additionally, there’s a short diagnostic in the beginning that claims to illuminate how much you already know from the starting gate.
The lengthy test at the end of the book has a range of question types. All these questions test your understanding of a specific Japanese grammar topic. Each page of the exam tests you on a specific unit in the book. You’ll answer multiple choice and fill in the blanks but also do matching exercises, a word search and a crossword puzzle.
Unless you’re set on the small size or the red text, this book is recommended over the original Barron’s Japanese Grammar. It offers all the same great info, well laid out and well indexed, enlarges the text and gives you a better way to use the book by adding practice exercises. For beginners and early intermediate Japanese language learners, this is a great grammar resource.
