With over 128 million speakers across the globe, Japanese is one of the world's most widely-spoken languages. Most major universities, and even many primary and secondary schools, offer courses in Japanese. International interest in learning Japanese has been strong for decades, as Japan is an important economic, political, and business partner to many countries.

Equally suited to both new students and heritage speakers, Beginner?s Japanese with Online Audio includes 25 carefully-paced and practical lessons updated with modern text and phrases in the revised Hepburn system of revised romaji. It also includes:

• An introduction to the Hiragana and Katakana writing systems
• Exercises for each lesson with answer key
• Japanese-English and English-Japanese glossaries
• Online MP3 audio files for free download featuring pronunciation by native speakers

Joanne Redmond works in executive communications for one of the world's largest technology companies. She previously served for many years as a personnel relocation consultant for Japanese businesses in the U.S. She lives in the Washington, D.C. area. Visit her at www.joanneredmond.com