Japanese From Zero! 5: Continue Mastering the Japanese Language and Kanji with Integrated Workbook

When I first started with the JFZ book series (It's not JPZ, boys and girls!), I admit I may have blown through the first couple of books fairly fast. I had already learned both Hiragana and Katakana, so I am not going to be able to speak how helpful books 1 and 2 are on that front. Books 3 and 4, however, were instrumental in giving me a solid foundation in Japanese grammar. Couple that with instructional videos at no cost (among a variety of other learning tools provided to students), and JFZ gives the committed student all the tools they need to move forward in their Japanese study. Book 5 is going to be hard, from the reading ahead I did when I got the book, but I know the results will be worth it. George has never given false hope of being fluent in a matter of weeks or months; it's a multi-year process that, just like my native language, I will never be finished learning. But it's fitting that the book starts off with a description of the difference between 直訳 and 意訳 (ちょくやく and いやく, or a direct vs. natural/intended translation). I found myself naturally doing the latter with the first reading exercise in Chapter 1 of book 5, which gave me a lot of pride in how far I have come. JFZ may be the slow and steady method, but the method is thorough. I continue to use JFZ because at the end of the day, it works in addressing every facet of language learning, both written and spoken. I hope that whichever book you start with, you will try JFZ. George has a refined and invested method, yet continues to learn from mistakes and give back to his community. 頑張れ！

The most easy and consistent way to enter into the Japanese language starting from 0. The last book in the series. Many accompanying videos by George Trombley on YT, constantly new are being added. I think I have made a good choice to have selected this course.

I've used multiple books and sadly lost interest, however, JFZ books are fun and thr absolute best if you looking to study Japanese at any levels along with the free videos. Please don't waste your time and money on other sources, these are the best!

Book 5 is well worth the wait. It's packed with new grammar and vocabulary. I love that the answer key directly follows the workbook section of each lesson, which is much more convenient than having to flip to the back of the book each time. I really like the new Japanese Living sections that give interesting little bits of info about what it's like to live in Japan. The new formatting style looks beautiful.

I own all 5 of the books and they are spectacular! I absolutely love the simple, easy to understand teaching method George Trombley uses to teach the complex Japanese language. Thanks to his books and YouTube videos I am proficient in Japanese grammar, kanji, vocabulary, and culture, and I know that through this wonderful book series you can become proficient, too!

Another great and interesting workbook to go through. It's meaty and dense but still fun. I like being able to switch up some writing practice with various types of reading practice and subtle explanation points.

Japanese from Zero 5 is quite the beast. Not only is it thicker than all the other books, it also follows a slightly different format compared to the other books in the series. Japanese from Zero 5 attempts to prepare you for more advanced study in Japanese by holding your hand way less. There are exercises where you are asked to read material that purposely has unfamiliar vocabulary that you must look up. A lot of grammar and vocabulary explanations go more into nuance than simply just what a particular word or grammatical structure means. In other words, it attempts to prepare you for what you will be doing after finishing the book. Advancing in the language requires you to learn how to fill in the gaps yourself. If you don't know a word, you look it up. There is more than just learning words or grammar; you also need to know their connotation. This is how you achieve fluency, not just memorizing a list of words or rote learning grammar. You also will learn more specific vocabulary and the topics won't always be your happy-go-lucky scenarios as there are a couple of chapters that cover things like natural disasters, crime and violence. It is a reality that you need to know those words in order to learn the language holistically. And this is not necessarily to understand situations either. If you want to watch action movies or read more adult manga or literature, it is a must to learn words to describe the good and bad in the world. Overall, it is a great final book in the series and after this you will have a solid foundation in the language where you can learn further on your own with ease. I do think the jump is a little but too quick and they could have possibly slowly pulled the reader into this new learning style with book 4, but I think anyone who has made it this far probably is willing to take on the challenge at this point.

Book 5 is by far the best book of the series. George has an amazing way of teaching language and this book absolutely hits a homerun. Thank you George.

So what has seemed like an eternity is now finally upon us, Japanese from zero book 5 has landed, and the book is so big that you could hear the *thump* of it dropping from streets away (Kidding, but you get the idea). I will admit to have only being able to glance through the book at this stage, it will take many weeks, even months to complete and I just wanted to put a review out there for you guys as a brief heads up. First Impressions: Like I say, the book is big, coming in with 442 pages. As I first opened the book my eyes were immediately drawn to how much smaller the font actually is, I suspect some people will require to wear eye glasses in order to comfortably read the material, it's not a major issue but one worthy of noting. I do want to mention there is a distinct lack of the cute pictures that have adorned previous JFZ books, sure they are still here, but much fewer of them, this book looks like a serious tool, it is most definitely NOT a childrens book and do not let the cover fool you otherwise. Two of the best things I like about the book in a huge way (and these are not to be underestimated as they are excellent) are... 1. The translation section, one thing I think we students of this level need a lot of is reading material and there is plenty here, in the description it states you will need a separate piece of paper to translate onto as there is no room for this in the book (I will come to this more in a minute) and whilst that might bum a few people off it was actually necessary, I suppose the smaller font style is also part of the same reason, I mean, this book is already jammed into 442 pages and if the font was bigger and there was space to write in the translations sections then this book would have been well over 500 pages long and or could have become 2 separate books. 2. Now this is golden, throughout the grammar explanations sections are reference points to previous Japanese From Zero books where a similar grammar or verb point may have been taught there is a little box which states what book, lesson and page the point was taught, and this is truly excellent. There is not a lot more I can say at this stage, I only just recieved the book, but my first impressions and very favourable and I highly recommend it to anyone who has completed the previous 4 books in this series. I paid £27 for my copy, it arrived today, so order away, and be rest assured that this really is a thing... it finally does exist. Thank you for reading.

Studio giapponese da autodidatta da un paio di anni ormai, ho provato diversi libri (italiani e non) e stavo quasi per mollare perché non riuscivo ad apprendere bene i concetti, trovavo le spiegazioni molto complicate e incomplete e mi stavo scoraggiando, quando un giorno per caso ho trovato il primo volume di questo libro. Ho deciso di acquistarlo e dargli una possibilità e devo dire che sono felice di averlo fatto perché questo libro è assolutamente il migliore su cui io abbia mai studiato. Se non lo avessi acquistato probabilmente ora avrei mollato questa passione per la lingua giapponese. Nonostante sia in inglese è comprensibilissimo e le spiegazioni sono fatte molto bene, a differenza di molti altri libri di testo che spiegano le cose in modo un po' approssimativo lasciando mille dubbi allo studente. L'ho trovato talmente prezioso che ho acquistato tutti i volumi di questa serie e se state iniziando a studiare questa lingua partendo davvero da zero ve lo consiglio vivamente! L'ho trovato interessante, piacevole e ricco di nozioni. Credo che questo volume sia l'ultimo al momento ma spero che gli autori proseguano la serie!

He empezado con el libro 1 y me ha repasado y ensañado mas es pocas páginas que otros. Recomendable

Muito bom material para estudantes de japonês!

I love this series of books. It feels incredibly rewarding working through them as the chapters do not cover too much grammar, but convey a lot at the same time. You can feel the author's enthusiasm for teaching. One thing to note is that these books do not follow the JLPT framework, so if you are looking to sit this exams, you may need to use Genki or Minna No Nihongo. Having said that, I find these books very dense and less enjoyable.