These days, people come to Japan from any number of countries for a wide variety of reasons. There are people who come for business, for learning Japanese culture or technologies, for studying at universities or vocational schools, for vacation, for living with family, the list goes on… We wrote this book for any of these people who wish to try to speak Japanese, even just a little, whatever their reason for being in Japan.
There may be some who argue that as long as one can speak English, one would not have much trouble managing a trip to Japan, or even life at their work or school. There may be many who think it’s not necessary to learn Japanese at all if their stay in Japan is only for a short time. But now that you have come all this way to Japan, even if it is only a short time, wouldn’t you like to try speaking some Japanese for communicating with the Japanese people and people from other countries? Even just a little effort in speaking Japanese will enhance your Japan experience, and result in you making new acquaintances. It will make your time in Japan that little bit more memorable and special.
There may be many who think the Japanese language is difficult to learn because of its complicated writing system, with multiple alphabets of hiragana, katakana and kanji. But rest assured that you can speak Japanese without knowing how to write it. This textbook intends to allow the reader to learn to speak Japanese while enjoying manga (cartoons). So don’t worry about the Japanese writing, and just keep talking!
With this book, we trust your stay in Japan will be a more fruitful and memorable one.
