Customer Reviews

How to Sound Intelligent in Japanese: A Vocabulary Builder (Power Japanese)

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I am a little surprised at some of the other reviews of this book. It's title I feel can be a little misleading and there is no way this book will make you sound "pedantic or insincere". It really is a Vocabulary Builder and is meant to be a quick and concise way to build specialist vocabulary across many topics. I am quick to add though, that this is not specialist vocabulary in your native language, in fact if you could not speak on the topics and using the words described in English in this book you would most probably be considered ignorant. Too many people live in Japan, learn a little Japanese and then think that the Japanese don't talk about politics, business, science, religon etc in everyday ilfe. The sad fact may be they don't talk to you about it because they don't think you could talk about it.

This book is a great way to learn a lot of vocab. Chapters are split into topics with an excellent background and etymology for most chapters and also excellent examples in both romaji and kanji, so you can increase your kana and spoken comprehension at the same time. If you are already a fairly strong reader and speaker of japanese this book can help you reach into new topics.

As a longtime student and translator of the Japanese language, I would like to see more books like this on the market, in contrast to the sea of books that focus on Japanese slang, foreign loanwords, and profanity. Japanese academics and professionals who operate in an English-speaking environment don't expect to get a free pass on difficult English vocabulary. "How to Sound Intelligent in Japanese" seems to be based on the premise that foreign speakers of Japanese should also be able to handle advanced terminology.

Historically, native Japanese speakers have been amazed at a foreigner who can manage even a passable sentence or two in their language. Ten years ago, it was not uncommon for Japanese to heap praise on an American visitor to Tokyo for correctly ordering lunch without resorting to English. Americans were even complimented for knowing how to say "konnichiwa" and "ohayoo gozaimasu."

Today, the bar has been raised substantially, and a reasonable comprehension of professional and academic terminology is needed in order to be taken seriously as a foreign speaker of Japanese. This is especially true if you intend to rely on your Japanese skills in a professional context. "How to Sound Intelligent in Japanese" can help the intermediate student to polish her skills to the point where Japanese speakers will regard her as an adult speaker of their language.

The book is laid out in a convenient thematic format, so you can focus on the areas which are most relevant to your own needs and interests (science, law, etc.) There are enough example sentences to give you a sense of the context in which the specialized vocabulary items are used. Nonetheless, this book does assume an intermediate to advanced grasp of Japanese, so it may be a bit too much for first-year students; and the book doesn't offer much in the way of grammatical instruction.

However, this is an extremely valuable resource for intermediate students who want to ease into more complex subject matters in Japanese. After working diligently through this book, the student will have the appetite and confidence necessary to tackle the publications that Japanese professionals themselves read.

I have studied Japanese for quite some time, and managed to get a good grasp of basic vocabulary and most sentence patterns, but was at a loss for words when the conversation became the least bit intellectual. This book filled in the gap in my Japanese quite nicely. Most textbooks are geared at least in part for the tourist, presenting practical, but simplistic conversations. If you know that you are going to need to discuss anything beyond the weather and your health in Japanese, I would strongly recommend this book.

I like this book because it groups a lot of the basic vocabulary you need about specialized fields. You don't have to go searching through a dictionary to pick it all up. There is maybe one field where I feel fairly confident, but most of the rest I'm not that interested in and only want the vocabulary because I absolutely need it to listen to a lecture, read a book or the newspaper, or just talk to someone who I know will bring up a certain topic because it's in the news or it is their pet pieve.

The book is also useful because the author tries now and then to give hints on differences between certain words or groups of words. That's something you will definitely not find in a dictionary.

If you're a beginner, you can just read the commentary and look at the lists and pick up what you need, not try to memorize everything. If you're more advanced you can read the sample sentences. I definitely don't agree with those who say if you're intermediate or advanced, you can go out and read the books themselves, and don't need a book like this. I don't want to be reading many Japanese science books, but I still want to know how to say chemistry. The easier it is, the better, and this book does make it easier.

If you're looking to go from talking about the weather and what your favorite food is to more complicated topics, then this IS NOT the book for you.

This book is geared for students who already have a very good grasp of the language, i.e. are at about a can-read-the-newspaper level and are looking to move to a can-attend-Japanese-college level.

Some sample sentences are something in my wildest imagination I would never use unless I was in a graduate seminar.

But, for its intended purpose, it's a very good book.

It breaks up the topics into subjects such as philosophy, religion, politics, economics...and then gives key words that are used in these arenas. In this way I find it useful. (I'm at about a JLPT 2 level.)

Like much of the rest of the Power Japanese series, this book does a good job of introducing vocabulary that you may not find in other sources. However the vocabulary is so high level that beginning and intermediate learners will have a hard time memorizing it and using it in conversations. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the book covers such a wide variety of specialized fields that the terms may be inadequate for an advanced learner. Advanced learners may be better served by reading books written for Japanese people about a particular subject. If you find books written for adults too difficult, books written for children and teens may be helpful. Beginning and intermediate learners might impress some people by reading sentences out of this book, but you'll probably never use a lot of this vocabulary, and hence will probably forget it. There are better books to spend your money on.

This is a great book for the dedicated Japanese student. Many, many useful words and phrases for someone tired of the same old "introductions and asking for directions" kind of Japanese book.

Pros:
-Categorized well
-Tons of great vocab
-Kanji with furigana

Cons:
-Too advanced for beginners. Dedicated third year college students, or fourth year college students should definitely consider this as a supplementary text to their assigned readings.

A more accurate (though decidedly less catchy) title for this book would be "Introduction to Talking About Issues of Importance to Scholars, Critics, Philosophers, Pundits, Journalists, Politicians, and Intellectuals."

If the phrase "sound intelligent" makes it seem like a way to deceive people into thinking you're intelligent when in fact you are not--think again. "Sounding intelligent" refers to a communication strategy for making your conversation partner feel confident that they can speak with you about any topic without baffling you or risking a one-sided conversation. I find that when you use words like "yuigaron" (solipsism) or "dokyo" (Taoism) just reassures people that it's okay to go beyond the typical "How long have you studied Japanese?" and "Can you eat Japanese food?" rigamarole.

If you're genuinely interested in talking about this stuff, this is the book for you. If not, don't expect that it will be some kind of self-help book designed to help you achieve any kind of intellectual image-makeover.

Perfect for graduate students, long-time residents of Japan, researchers going to do archival work in Japan, those seeking to build academic/critical/intellectual relationships with native Japanese speakers, and lovers of complex debate in cross-cultural context...

I was familiar with the Kodansha series--some I have loved, and some I have hated--so I was prepared for either option.
I'm intermediate-advanced, but lots of "useful" words I don't know. I still haven't done the "do you really use this" test with my Japanese friends, but they seem to be the kinds of words I've had trouble finding elsewhere.

This little book is of great pleasur and fun. It gives you a hole lot of special and essential vocabulary,and does it with fun examples and explanations . It's a great tool for the advanced students and the only weak spot is the lack of grammar notes. I know that the aim of the book isn't grammatical, but I would loved it if there were some Keigo, Ukemi and other advanced notes. All together a very fun book that will build up your vocab confidence.