Hi, I've never seen this book before. It does have three 5 star reviews on amazon. On the other hand, I see from the copyright page that it was first printed in 2009 and there's no indication that there are any later printings. Which could indicate lack of demand for it.
I see it uses romaji as well as kanji/kana. Romaji is always welcome (at least for some of us).
My concern about Japanese textbooks written for native English speakers is when there is an absence of any native English speaking co-authors. At a certain level of nuance you need a native English speaker in order to explain the grammar IN ENGLISH for the benefit of the learner.
I find that when you get to a certain stage of learning Japanese, the grammatical explanations for English speakers need to be at a fairly high level of sophistication.
For example, when I took Japanese at night school last year the native Japanese teacher had trouble understanding one of my specific questions about Japanese grammar. Ideally you want a teacher who is totally fluent in both English and Japanese.
I see it uses romaji as well as kanji/kana. Romaji is always welcome (at least for some of us).
My concern about Japanese textbooks written for native English speakers is when there is an absence of any native English speaking co-authors. At a certain level of nuance you need a native English speaker in order to explain the grammar IN ENGLISH for the benefit of the learner.
I find that when you get to a certain stage of learning Japanese, the grammatical explanations for English speakers need to be at a fairly high level of sophistication.
For example, when I took Japanese at night school last year the native Japanese teacher had trouble understanding one of my specific questions about Japanese grammar. Ideally you want a teacher who is totally fluent in both English and Japanese.
Edited: 2014-07-05, 9:12 am