Japanese Core Words and Phrases: Things You Can't Find in a Dictionary (Power Japanese Series) (Kodansha's Children's Classics) [Paperback]

Kakuko Shoji (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 4770027745 | ISBN-13: 978-4770027740 | Publication Date: September 4, 2001 | Edition: 2nd

Some Japanese words and phrases, even though they lie at the core of the language, forever elude the student's grasp. They are not explained satisfactorily in dictionaries or textbooks for the simple reason that they cannot be conveniently defined. Japanese Core Words and Phrases brings these recalcitrants to bay.

The book is divided into two parts, each of which is arranged in alphabetical order. The first part is devoted to words indicating physical as well as psychological distance-roughly equivalent to "this," "that," "that over there," and "where," but quite different in usage. Physical distance is covered in most textbooks, but psychological distance-every student's nemesis-is not.

The second part of the book covers a variety of idiomatic expressions, many of which appear in Japanese proficiency tests. Each entry word or phrase is not simply explained but exemplified in sentence form, clarifying its meaning (in the case of many students) for the very first time.

Japanese Core Words and Phrases has a great deal to offer the beginning student and much to offer the intermediate student. Little more can be asked of a book on the Japanese language.

Previously published in the Power Japanese series as Core Words and Phrases: Things You Can't Find in a Dictionary.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

KAKUKO SHOJI, a resident of Honolulu, is a longtime instructor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She is the author of Basic Connections: Making Your Japanese Flow and Kodansha's Effective Japanese Usage Dictionary: A Concise Explanation of Frequently Confused Words and Phrases.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

PREFACE [slightly abridged]

Students of Japanese often say that Japanese is difficult to learn because of kanji, and it is certainly true that kanji present a formidable obstacle to beginning students. But once students have gained some facility with the language, most realize that kanji are not the only problem. At the intermediate or advanced level, what is required are means of expression that are culturally textured and contextually interwoven, which I imagine is true of any foreign language. At this stage, not only must students increase their general vocabulary and store of idiomatic expressions, but also realize that previously learned words and phrases must be transformed from locutions that are simple and fixed in meaning into ones that are multidimensional and many-layered. This book is an effort to help students do precisely that.

In my previous book in the Power Japanese series, Basic Connections: Making Your Japanese Flow, I took up relatively basic problems that my students often had trouble with in the classroom. In this book, I have chosen to treat issues that often appear in textbooks and other publications for intermediate and advanced students, such as sentence structure, idiomatic usage, and conjunctions. In particular, I have focused on expressions, such as ko-so-a-do words, whose meaning changes radically according to context. Further, I have made an effort to include problems that appear in the second and third levels of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test....

Kakuko Shoji

1999

Product Details

• Paperback: 131 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha USA; 2nd edition (September 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4770027745
• ISBN-13: 978-4770027740
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #25 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Japanese
  • #45 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Japanese
  • #45 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > Japanese

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great List of Expressions that are not in Dictionaries, August 7, 2001

By 

Elijah Zupancic (Kawasaki, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Japanese Core Words and Phrases: Things You Can't Find in a Dictionary (Power Japanese Series) (Kodansha's Children's Classics) (Paperback)

I feel that my comprehension of written Japanese has improved as a result of reading this book. By reading novels in Japanese I found out how insufficient most dictionaries and grammar references are with regard to the Japanese I often found in novels. Thus, I was quite pleased when I found this book because it seemed to cover a lot of the words that I had been unsuccessfully searching for in dictionaries. This book is broken down into two sections: �gdemonstrative pronouns�h and �gidiomatic expression.�h Under each section there is a list of phrases; each phrase covered receives over a paragraph long explanation, as well as numerous example sentences. Furthermore, I feel that this book�fs best point is the selection of words covered. Thus, I feel that this book is a good value because you will likely not find the same expressions in other resources. Also, I think that this book has particular value to those students who want to start to gain confidence reading Japanese literature.

61 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A little more advanced than I was looking for, March 25, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Japanese Core Words and Phrases: Things You Can't Find in a Dictionary (Power Japanese Series) (Kodansha's Children's Classics) (Paperback)

This book seems quite useful, and is well-indexed... but this is really for intermediate to advanced students of Japanese. To use this book, you should be able to read some Kanji, and already have a good knowledge of Japanese sentence structure and a reasonable vocabulary.

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wish I'd bought this sooner!, May 30, 2004

By 

J. FELLA (Albany, Or United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Japanese Core Words and Phrases: Things You Can't Find in a Dictionary (Power Japanese Series) (Kodansha's Children's Classics) (Paperback)

This book really is excellent in every way. I'm an intermediate/advanced japanese student, although I mainly study on my own these days. Because of that, I needed something to teach me some of the little things that are difficult to find in a book, yet are a big part of the language, and this book does that. It has a HUGE list of Japanese idioms, set phrases, and similar grammatical tools that are absolutely integral to the Japanese language, and I often found myself going "Oh yah, that's the kind of thing I would say in English, but never thought to learn it in Japanese!"

Basically, if you want to take a break from the textbooks and learn some really good fundamental and natural Japanese grammar, this book is for you. For the price, you simply can't beat it. I also HIGHLY recommend "Basic Connections:Making Your Japanese Flow." With those two books, you'll have enough info to last you a long time!