Grammar and content topics are carefully selected to assist learners to effectively develop sentence patterns and vocabulary related to each topic through the practice of talking about them. Kanji (Chinese characters used in Japanese) are gradually introduced in Book II along with furigana so that learners know how to pronounce them. By the end of the book, learners will have acquired through a series of concise grammatical explanations and extensive speaking and listening exercises a command of Japanese that will enable them to carry on a variety of daily conversations. Audio recordings can be downloaded for free from kodansha.us.