This best-selling Japanese textbook is a user-friendly guide for beginners designed for use in a classroom or self-study. It adopts a very different approach from other Japanese language books—teaching you the underlying sentence structures and patterns of Japanese along with essential vocabulary and phrases so you can attain basic fluency quickly. The emphasis is on acquiring a working knowledge of simple, everyday Japanese sentences. This new edition has been thoroughly updated and expanded to reflect the way Japanese is spoken in Japan today. Manga illustrations have been added to each dialogue along with the latest jargon for the internet, social media, cellphones, and IT, and a bidirectional dictionary is included at the back. Each self-contained lesson presents a simple four-step method: Step 1: Basic Sentences: Each lesson begins with a few simple sentences. Essential vocabulary and phrases are learned within the context of these sentences. Audio recordings by native speakers are in the free CD in the book. Step 2: Communication Notes: A detailed discussion of each sentence follows to assist you in understanding the underlying structure and how to form new sentences based on the same pattern. Step 3: Everyday Conversations: Authentic dialogues with manga illustrations and native-speaker recordings show you how people communicate naturally in Japan today through simple, everyday interactions. Step 4: Exercises: Several sets of easy exercises help reinforce your understanding of the key points presented in the lesson and review what you have learned so you can move on to the next lesson.