Japanese Demystified, Premium 3rd Edition (Demystified Language)

This book is fantastic for analytical learners at the beginning and lower-intermediate levels. I already learned Mandarin Chinese and was having a hard time finding a suitable textbook of Japanese for English speakers who are serious about learning and not afraid to jump right into the language, kanji and all (there are some passable textbooks out there for Chinese speakers, for example 《标准日本语》, but they tend to be very vocab heavy and have only brief or rushed explanations of the grammar). In terms of content, Japanese Demystified is a little heavy on the grammar and light on vocab and cultural knowledge not directly related to the language (it is a grammar book, after all), but it has enough example sentences, audio clips and word lists that one could use it as a primary learning material. Four reasons I recommend this book: 1) It explains all the basic grammar of the language in the best fashion anyone could hope for- complete, straightforward and no-nonsense, with plenty of example sentences. 2) The book is structured so that it can be used both as a normal textbook where each chapter builds on previous ones, and as a grammar reference book where one can easily look up any specific grammar topic or question. 3) Grammar topics related to each other are cross-referenced (for example, if a sentence structure introduced in chapter 7 is related to or builds from a concept introduced in chapter 2, the text will state so clearly). 4) The author is very generous in explaining the nuances of the language and does not "rush through" any topics.

I've studied Japanese in high school and college for 6 years and the hard part about Japanese is finding tools to break out of the elementary level into the intermediate or advanced level. There are 3 grammar dictionaries that are hard to find but helpful. There's basic, intermediate and advanced Japanese grammar dictionaries and this book is a great companion to build off of knowledge you already have and to refine your language skills. However I don't know how it would be starting from scratch.

This a great grammar and sentence pattern resource. With the help of a tutor I have been jumping around this book. It is clear and concise and gives examples from everyday conversation, which is a nice change from classroom conversation that is in most textbooks.

love it. I was originally teaching myself with genki, but this book helps a lot more, with genki the pace seemed so slow this book teaches you more variety faster. it's easy to understand.

Great learning tool.

This has helped me learn and write Japanese

I did it! I finally finished Japanese Demystified ! After I don’t know how many years of me checking out this book from the library, reading a little, returning it, checking it out again, rinse, repeat, I finally did it! This is a textbook, so that’s why it took me a while to get through. But I really wanted to take my time with it and read the lessons and do the work at the end of the chapters to really understand it. Japanese is a tough language to learn, and the thing I’ve found that I struggle the most with is grammar. That’s why I picked up this book in particular, and it ended up being very helpful in that department! I liked how the author explained things and it was all mostly easy to understand. The lessons at the end of the book, I’m not gonna lie, really went over my head though. Those were just above my learning level, but overall I thought the book was very helpful! I already have some of this author’s other books on my TBR! And at the time of posting this review, I actually have really fallen off my Japanese studies. I’m self-taught—I’m literally doing this just for fun, but I really miss studying the language so I’m hoping to get back into it soon!

it's a great book for studying Japanese.

Overall i'd say this IS a good book. However it is difficult to get engaged with it as each grammar point is only touched on very quickly before moving onto the next thing. A single paragraph explanation which a couple of example sentences and then you'll not come across this grammar again for the rest of the book.... If you're already someone who has a decent understanding of Japanese this will be a good book for you to go back and refresh grammar you've forgotten or are a little unsure of but don't feel as a beginner this would be a good place to start. Especially as for what I remember there are very few lists of vocabulary so if you're just starting out you may not even know what the words in the examples even mean.... Examples include basic kanji though the kanji themselves aren't taught in the book itself, however this is good for recognition when you start reading the examples and keep seeing the same kanji and you can recognise it with no problems. Also, one thing I will mention with this book is it does one of my pet hates when it comes to Japanese learning books, which often teaches words with particles behind them, such as "kirei" being taught as "kirei na" which is pretty stupid as you don't need the "na" behind it every time you use the word, only in certain grammatical patterns. I do seem to have criticised this book a lot but I did actually enjoy (enough to rate it 4 stars!) using this book and it does teach some very useful stuff and is generally pretty decent minus the few negative points I've mentioned above. But yeah, if you're just beginning learning Japanese something like Japanese From Zero would probably be better, but if you're already a good way into your studies and just want something which will introduce some new grammar points then go for this book as it should prove itself to be useful.