Japanese Beyond Words: How to Walk and Talk Like a Native Speaker [Paperback]

Andrew Horvat (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2000

Learning Japanese is a challenge. And, as many students find out, memorizing sentence patterns, vocabulary, and lists of kanji doesn't necessarily make it easy to communicate with Japanese people. Barriers of culture and social etiquette can be just as difficult to overcome as problems of grammar. And until now, these aspects of learning to communicate with a new culture could only be learned first hand by trial and error.

Japanese Beyond Words was written to fill this gap, giving you the tools you need to effectively communicate in Japanese, with the Japanese. If you want to become truly competent in Japanese, you will need to know about:

what your clothes say about you
business cards, and why you should be nice to them
when and how to bow
shoes: they're on, they're off, they're on, they're off
what's expected of foreigners (that means you)
circumlocution without dizziness
pronunciation ("read my lips," just doesn't cut it)
how to say no without saying "no"
social uses of politeness . . . and rudeness
behavior at parties and other social gatherings
English in Japanese, and Japanese in English
the differences between men and women (you don't know as much as you think)

Long-time Japan resident Andrew Horvat presents these and many, many more topics through a wealth of experience, research, and anecdote. Entertaining, opinionated, as well as educational, Japanese Beyond Words will help you to walk, talk, slurp, and bow your way to cultural (as well as linguistic) fluency in Japanese.

A Tokyo-based writer and broadcaster for many years, Andrew Horvat has been a fellow at the National Foreign Language Center in Washington DC (1997), at Stanford University's Center for East Asian Studies (1994/95), and at Simon Fraser University's David Lam Centre for International Communication (1990). His research into the increased international use of the Japanese language was supported in 1994/95 by the Abe Shintaro Fund. He is a member of the Japan Foundation's advisory committee on the teaching of Japanese as a second language.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Andrew Horvat has written a witty, intelligent, and practical guide to one of the world's less practical languages and the culture behind it." -Edward Seidensticker, Professor Emeritus of Japanese, Columbia University -- Review

"Instructive and entertaining." -Donald Richie, for The Japan Times -- -Donald Richie, for The Japan Times

About the Author

Andrew Horvat took his Master's degree in Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia. During his distinguished career as a journalist specializing in East Asian affairs, he has been a reporter for the Associated Press, Asia Correspondent for Southam News, Tokyo Correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and The Independent, and Tokyo Bureau Chief for American Public Radio.

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Stone Bridge Press (May 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1880656426
• ISBN-13: 978-1880656426
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #269,951 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Informative, Interesting ... and slightly misleading, December 30, 2004

By 

Charles E. Stevens - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Japanese Beyond Words: How to Walk and Talk Like a Native Speaker (Paperback)

I stumbled across this book at the bookstore, and it looked interesting so I bought it. I was pleased to read a book that was both educational and entertaining, and covers a topic that is unfortunately so-often neglected: practical, modern Japanese culture. This book should be required reading for anyone interested in either living in Japan or working with Japanese either at home or in Japan. This book should also be required reading for students of Japanese as well, regardless of language level. Even for people with experience in Japan (for whom most of the information is hopefully second nature by now) this book serves as a helpful reminder and warning to common cultural pitfalls that even experts can fall into.

There were only a few aspects of this book that disappointed me and kept me from giving it 5 stars. These points include:

-The title: whoever came up with title should be fired. Not only is it generic and uninspiring but it could give the reader the mistaken impression that it is a language textbook. By and large, it is NOT. This is a book on Japanese culture with a few language tidbits thrown in.

-The infatuation with Eleanor Jorden's works. Some people love them, others hate them ... count me in the latter category. From the perspective of pure linguistics, Jorden's might be superior books but from the perspective of language acquisition I cannot recommend them: particularly if you are studying on your own. Horvat partially redeemed himself in my eyes by praising Nagara Susumu's "Japanese for Everyone" which I think is an outstanding textbook.

-Anti-Hepburn attitude. I'm sorry, but romaji should be there for the aid of people who are NOT proficient in Japanese (those that ARE proficient really don't need romaji!) ... you'll never convince me that a person unfamiliar with Japanese will pronounce "Huzi" or "Mitubisi" close to how they should be pronounced!

-Length: as other reviewers have mentioned, this could have been two or three times as long. $15 for a book under 200 pages seems a bit steep.

But these are relatively minor points and should not keep you from buying this book. Horvat's work contains the type of hidden gems that can spell the difference between business and/or personal success ... and failure!

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but a bit weak and dated, January 12, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Japanese Beyond Words: How to Walk and Talk Like a Native Speaker (Paperback)

Having worked for two Japanese companies in Tokyo and Osaka I disagree with some of the authors remarks. Meishi (and a hanko) are generally supplied to you and are not something you need to get for yourself. Slurping your soup is NOT a good habit and is generally far more prevalent with old people. And as a gaijin, you are not expected to make a big bow to your employer. In fact if you do, you probably made your first mistake. Also it's not how long you work but HOW LATE YOU LEAVE. More useful would be pointing out that Japanese are really unfriendly with directions (the huge exception to this being the excellent Japanese cops), asking a girl for a date is much bigger stuff there..., etc. Aside: the Jordan Noda Japanese the Spoken Language books are really speech accurate.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars agreed, it is 'weak stuff', May 7, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Japanese Beyond Words: How to Walk and Talk Like a Native Speaker (Paperback)

This book is a confused hodge-podge of different cultural aspects of Japanese. While only useful to the rank beginner, it addresses topics that in order for one to understand and appreciate must already have a degree of Japanese competence. While one *could* buy this book, most of the material in it is available online at the author's website(Total Quality Japanese). If you actually want to purchase something, there has to be a better source.