Customer Reviews

Colloquial Japanese

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is about Grammar-- and it explains this REALLY well if you are the type of learner that is good at using patterns, and experimenting with them.

Each lesson builds on the previous lessons, and by the end of the book there one can express a decent amount of ideas if all the vocab, and sentence structures are mastered.

You wont be able to say everything you want(not a realistic expectation of any ONE book anyway)--- but if you are creative and can think on your toes-- you should be able to talk around these problem areas so that your meaning is understood.

like saying "a scientist who looks at stars" if you dont know the word for "an ASTRONOMER." --granted: its a little more wordy-- but totally understandable. And being wordy is definitely better than just going---

a.... guy...... um...... stars..... looks at...

--- right?

Which makes this book a great foundation before more indepth independent learning.

I got this book at a used store-- and I have to say it is one of the best written grammar references that I have ever found for studying japanese. It has a couple of issues that keep it from being a 5 star book in my opinion-- some dated vocabulary items and a lack of less formal registers. My friends here in Japan do not talk to me this politely! haha...

Also, I doubt that it could really be used as a stand alone textbook for most students. I understood some of the reasoning and sentence structures from prior experience studying the language, and am not sure that a novice would follow everything perfectly on their own.--- That said though, I dont think that this is necessarily a bad thing.

Its better to have native friends who can help you anyway, and this is a good book to elict their help-- it makes the rules and patterns clear to THEM! SO they can teach you better!

As for the supposed evils of Romaji-- I understand the arguments for why people say its BAD! And in some ways--i think they are right, but usually for the wrong reasons.

When I am studying GRAMMAR issues, I like to isolate the grammar-- and not worry if i am reading a particular kanji correctly.

its not always best to learn GRAMMAR only in context-- in context is good, great even... but you can do both... its not just an either or thing... and a book like this is a nice shortcut to understanding.

when I am studying Grammar, pronunciation and character meanings are just problems I dont want to or need to worry about. I can read the roman alphabet just fine-- and Its not always better to reinvent the wheel.

Aside from a few vowel length issues, and the /N/+/a vowel/ as two sylables like in kinen (no smoking) ki-n-e-n -- romaji usually reperesents japanese close enough for GRAMMAR study.

I agree, that it is better for the serious student to learn kanji, and the kana (as I have)-- it makes life easier. And its just a practical fact that advanced books assume a knowledge of the written language.

Do they NEED to?... not really... it would be possilble to learn very fluent japanese (spoken) with just romaji and some japanese friends or advanced texts in romaji.... but thats not the case, most Advanced books have Kanji and Kana only-- so its better to start early if you are serious because you will have to start sooner or later.

But, like I said. This book is not a reader. Its not a writing tutor. Its about word order. Sentence patterns. And building up from basic sentences, to more complex expressions of ideas. The roman letters dont change word order-- or anything else about japanese grammar. Kanji etc are only REAL japanese because JAPANESE people write japanese that way. They are marks on a page which represents sounds (yes--even kanji!)... same as roman letters.

--- so dont worry... this book is doing what it intends even though it only uses romaji.

-- And for all of you out there who still hate ROMAJI! I know I probably didnt change anyone's minds about it... but thats ok...

You should perk up! this can be a glass half-full kind of book for you too! The grammar points are really good. Even experienced students can probably learn SOMETHING from this book...

So-- buy a black pen-- transcribe the romaji to kana and kanji... and cross out the ROMAJI! it could be like a cool little writing workbook for you too... at no extra cost! Then you would get GRAMMAR--WRITING PRACTICE... and later... READING practice from one little book... and it wouldnt have any romaji anymore if it bothered you that much! We all need practice right?

Also...There are lots of other books that have REAL japanese by japanese authors with genuine kanji usage in them for reading practice-- which are more fun to read than a grammar book anyway. And more helpful because Japanese people don't speak intermediate japanese--if i can steal a thought from Barry Farber.

If you're like me, and dont mind (or even like) romaji... get it for just the grammar... its still worth it!

I have been studying Japanese for about ten years, although only seriously the last couple. This book was a very good resource for me, and had great grammar and sentence structure information in it. The only thing about the book I noticed was that it had alot of romaji in it and it distracted me a bit at times, but there is also Japanese writing so it was good for everyone. Certainly a worth while buy for the beginner and even into intermediate level.

I would just like to make an amendment to my other review, this book doesnt have kana or kanji in it, I was partially mixing it up with another book, but aside from the lack of kana it is an excellent grammar book.

If you hate the Japanese scripts, those being hiragana and katakana (with usage of Chinese characters, i.e. kanji), you are in luck. This book, fortunately for you and unfortunately for the rest of us, has absolutely no Japanese script in it. It's entirely presented in romanji.

This is a bad thing, as far as I'm concerned. If you really want to learn mastery of the Japanese language, you will NOT use romanji. Why would you? Wouldn't you want to learn to read it, too, and not just speak it?

The concept of this book is that speech is made up of units, not of words. For instance, traditional grammar books will teach you vocabulary words, then make up sentences with them. Wouldn't it be faster to learn phrases since that's how language is usually spoken? So that's what this book does; it presents the Japanese language in groups of phrases, and it does a very good job of it.

Alas, if it were not for the romanji... I wish they'd do a kana version. The least they could have done was put kana AND romanji in. I would have preferred it to no kana at all.

So, I cannot recommend it. It's a shame, too. It's an otherwise marvelous, fun book.