New Shadowing: Let's Speak Japanese! Intermediate to Advanced Edition picks up where the beginner book leaves off, covering N3 through N1 grammar across 8 units. Instead of organizing by difficulty alone, the units are grouped by relationship type: family and partners, close friends, acquaintances, service encounters (doctors, shop staff), colleagues, superiors, external business contacts, and longer conversations including interviews and presentations.
The scripts include abbreviations, katakana loanwords, youth slang, onomatopoeia, idioms, and proverbs. All scripts include English, Chinese, and Korean translations. Audio is a free download from the publisher's website using a password printed in the book.
The relationship-based structure is what sets this apart. Conversations between close friends sound different from conversations with a boss, and Japanese handles that gap with more range than most languages. You get keigo with superiors, casual contractions with friends, and the grey area in between with acquaintances and colleagues. The cultural and grammar notes sit at the end of each section rather than alongside the scripts, so expect some page flipping.
This is for learners who are comfortable reading at an intermediate level but want their spoken Japanese to sound less like a textbook. The series has been widely used in classrooms and self-study since the original 2006 edition, and reviews are consistently positive.
