I would like to thank Rick Sutton of BOR of USG who entrusted Nattsu Kitamura of Darton College and me with the collaborative NSEP Grant project in 2002 and Phil McKnight, School Chair, whose continuous support has enabled me to continue this online course project. This textbook was not possible without the support of all of my dedicated colleagues at School of Modern Languages, Georgia Institute of Technology---Rumiko Shinzato, Kyoko Masuda, Satomi Suzuki, and Kimiaki Yamaguchi. I also would like to express my sincere gratitude to my wife and daughter, Yuko and Yuka, who endured my irregular work hours. I also would like to acknowledge the following free sound effects download sites for allowing me to add sound effects to our audio content in this textbook.