Workbook/Laboratory Manual to accompany Yookoso!: An Invitation to Contemporary Japanese

While no student ever falls in love with a required text or workbook, I've found this workbook to be very helpful. The Hiragana practice in particular has been the best tool I've used so far. The clean structure of the format is great and easy on the eyes. If you have to buy this, don't be worried, it'll help you get through Japanese and it won't be a pain. If you're looking for something as a tool to teach yourself without a textbook, this might not be it. It relies heavily on the book for examples and does not explain an activity beforehand.

The textbook that I got was in great condition. It did have some markings throughout the book, but nothing too crazy or anything that impacts the books readability. The textbook itself is easy to read and follow.

I got this because it was required for my class with the textbook, and it was decent in that it gave us problems to practice our Japanese with. I liked that, but ultimately, we ended up not using most of the book. Perhaps that was an issue with my class's structure, but I do think if the book was more engaging, it could have had more use put into it.In addition, I don't like how close the tears are to the side of the page. When I'm trying to tear a page out, it takes a while and it can mess up - it would've been better design if the microtears were another half inch or so away.Also, just a general note of Yookoso! series overall - I think its a generally fine book, but the later books (level 3 and up) rapidly pile on the kanji, and its hard to remember with so many thrown at you. I also think the series fails at reinforcing old grammars and vocab as they are sometimes rarely brought up again after their introduced chapter.

I got it for college and it was a good useful tool.

Used every day in Japanese 101. My professor required pages from the workbook to be turned in.I woould suggest future purchasers to scan the pages from the workbook if they are required to turn them in...that way, you'll be able to sell the book back afterwards. It would save so much money. (I can't sell mine back because I ripped out the pages to turn them in.)Very useful, good purchase.

great for understanding, Some of the charts need one more or one less column. you will understand when you are practicing with kyo kyu and kya

I used this book for my Japanese 101 and 102 courses at a local community college. In conjunction with the class it was a great asset to teaching me Japanese. It has been two years since I had a Japanese class so I decided to buy a second copy of the workbook to practice course work I did so I don't get rusty.

It appears to have about two semesters worth of work in it. We're almost done with this semester and about half way through the book. There are online activities to go with it and it does a great job of teaching/testing knowledge on the hiragana and katakana alphabets as well as different sets of kanji.