Customer Reviews

A Homestay in Japan: Nihon to no Deai

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I've been teaching myself to read Japanese for quite a while, and have been frustrated with the paucity of intermediate learning materials. I have worked my way through the first volume of Jorden's classic "Beginning Japanese", and really need stuff to read to build my fluency. This book is pretty good for the self-taught, since it gradually introduces kanji and forces you to learn them. Most "odd phrases" can be deciphered from context. If you have a native speaker of Japanese who can help you with bits here and there, even better.

I do wish this was the first of a series, because I'm nearing the end and wondering what to do next.

This isn't a bad book for the intermediate Japanese reader. The only problem is that it's a bit TOO intermediate. Neither readers slightly over or under intermediate will be able tolerate this book. For those who are slightly under that level, it makes far too many assumptions of what you "should" already know, and for those over intermediate, the story is too obvious and juvenile for you to care.

"A Homestay in Japan" tells exactly that: the story of a Japanese exchange student, Amy, and her 'adventures' with her host family around Japan. Focuses are placed on Japanese culture, with a specific section at the end of each chapter designated for addressing cultural ideas introduced in the preceeding chapter. Many readers will be frustrated with the glossary at the end of the book, which groups new vocabulary terms by chapter and THEN alphabetically, so you'll have to find the chapter before you can find your word.

I would recommend not giving this book to anyone without at least 2 years of Japanese experience. I, personally, had 3 years, and still relied heavily on my instructor for help with many of the "figure of speech" type concepts in this book.