Japanese Textbooks

[egenglert]

So this is a question for English-speaking students learning Japanese:

Would you recommend your textbook and workbook (and by textbook, I mean, the hard back, that you usually have to order direct from the publisher, and costs around $30-$60 in USD) and if so, what is it?

Here's a question for native Japanese-speakers:

I found one textbook, "Ima!" but the Hiragana seems... it's like they didn't get the correct pronunciation. Here are some examples of what they put:

ぢ = ji
づ = zu
を = o

Though I always thought it was like this:

ぢ = di
づ = du
を = wo

Is their pronunciation guide correct and I'm just off because I'm teaching myself, or is this book not worth purchasing?

[SSJup81]

Can't comment on "ぢ" or "づ", since I've seen it both ways and probably depends on what you're spelling, but as for を, it can be pronounced both ways.

First and foremost, を is used as an article. 手紙を書く. (Tegami o kaku). You can pronounce it there as "o". Also, if I'm not mistaken, usually when を is at the end of a sentence, you probably pronounce it as "wo".

Sorry if I'm being confusing, I can't really explain it, so I guess I'll just leave it up to the experts around here. ^^

[egenglert]

No, no, it makes sense to me, (after learning two languages in Texas, with neither one being Spanish, you gotta be able to comprehend any explanation given, because here, it's the only one you'll get). The textbook though offered no other pronunciations. The reason I'm confused is that I would ask someone a simple question, or say a simple phrase in Japanese when I was in Japan and people would look around for the person who said it and eventually say something along the lines of "I thought the person saying that was native". I'm familiar with the differences in pronunciation based on grammar with は, but I thought that was the only character that did that. I'm trying to get a background in Japanese before I go to a Community College to take it so I'm not completely clueless like I was with French and so I can minor in Japanese in college. Well, I'm rambling so, thanks for the explanation.

[Rogozhin]

Originally Posted by egenglert

Here's a question for native Japanese-speakers:

I found one textbook, "Ima!" but the Hiragana seems... it's like they didn't get the correct pronunciation. Here are some examples of what they put:

ぢ = ji
づ = zu
を = o

Though I always thought it was like this:

ぢ = di
づ = du
を = wo

Is their pronunciation guide correct and I'm just off because I'm teaching myself, or is this book not worth purchasing?

I can't comment on whether the book is worth purchasing (based on what is said about it) but the pronounciations they gave for the letters sound accurate enough. You can't get totally proper pronounciations out of romaji anyway. ji, zu sound closer to the real pronounciation of ぢ,づ than di, du.

[egenglert]

ありがとう

I looked for more information and found it.

Some sample pages to the textbook I'm talking about can be found here

Again thanks for the help