Introduction 1

About This Audio Set 1

Conventions Used in This Audio Set 2

Foolish Assumptions 2

How This Audio Set Is Organized 3

Where to Go from Here 3

Romanization 3

Punctuation 6

Pitch Accents 6

Lesson 1:1: Welcome and Overview of CD1: The Basics 9

Lesson 1:2: Personal Pronouns and Formalities 10

Respectful titles 11

Lesson 1:3: Saying "Hello" and "Goodbye". 12

Lesson 1:4: Saying and Replying to "How Are You?" 13

Lesson 1:5: Introducing Yourself and Talking about Where You're From 14

Lesson 1:6: Indispensable Words 15

People 16

Places 16

Emergency 17

Important items 17

Lesson 1:7: Useful Expressions and Phrases 18

Lesson 1:8: Question Words 19

Lesson 1:9: Useful Questions 20

Lesson 1:10: An Overview of Numbers 21

Lesson 1:11: Talking about Time 23

Asking about time 24

Time-related terms 24

Lesson 1:12: The Calendar and Dates 25

The days of the week 25

The months 25

The days of the month 26

Month and date-related questions and answers 27

Lesson 1:13: Directions 28

Lesson 2:1: Introduction and Overview of CD2: The Nitty-Gritty: Language Structure 29

Lesson 2:2: Nouns 30

Things in your room 30

Locations 30

Transportation 31

Animals 31

Foods and beverages 31

Lesson 2:3: Plain and Polite Family Terms. 32

Older family members 32

Younger family members 33

Spouse 33

Extended family members 33

Lesson 2:4: Counters. 35

Lesson 2:5: Demonstratives 37

Lesson 2:6: Adjectives 38

Preference and desire 39

Colors 40

Nationalities 40

Lesson 2:7: Degrees of Adjectives. 41

Lesson 2:8: To Be or Not to Be: A Very Important Verb 42

Lesson 2:9: Verbs. 44

Irregular verbs 45

Ru-verbs 45

U-verbs 45

Desu 46

Lesson 2:10: Verb Tenses. 47

Plain 47

Polite 48

Desu 48

Example sentences 48

Lesson 2:11: Negatives 49

Lesson 2:12: Particles 50

Particles for subjects and direct objects 52

Example sentences 52

Lesson 2:13: Conjunctions. 53

Example phrases and sentences using conjunctions 53

Lesson 2:14: Forming Simple Sentences 54

Lesson 2:15: Introducing More Complete Sentences. 55

Lesson 3:1: Introduction and Overview of CD3: Real-World Situations 57

Lesson 3:2: At the Office 58

People around the office 58

Office activities 58

Example sentences 59

Lesson 3:3: On the Job 60

Occupations 60

Work-related verbs 61

Example sentences 61

Lesson 3:4: Making Small Talk. 62

Lesson 3:5: Making Appointments. 64

Lesson 3:6: Arranging Travel 66

Lesson 3:7: Asking for Directions 67

Lesson 3:8: Asking for and Getting Help. 69

Lesson 3:9: At the Restaurant 71

Lesson 3:10: At the Hotel 72

Lesson 3:11: At the Bank 73

Lesson 3:12: At the Store 74

Mini-Dictionary 75

Japanese-English Mini-Dictionary 75

English-Japanese Mini-Dictionary 82