Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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!

If you aren't serious about learning Japanese, I don't advise getting this book. However, if you are thoroughly interested in becoming fluent, this is the book for you. This isn't slang--this is real life, everyday Japanese that almost anyone can use--and everyone DOES use it! The book has it's share of informal phrases, but so many of them can be used in formal and informal situations. This isn't all about idioms, it's about real-life conversational speaking! It's about grammar and set phrases that teachers have never taught you, and that so many other lessons just love to skim over or skip completely! Instead of saying, "He's ok, but he might die," you learn to say, "He's ok right now, but the doctor says that if worst comes to worst, he might die."

It also gives GREAT explanations between "wa" and "ga," that many students of all level struggle with, along with ample explanations of the uses of "no."

To be honest, I'd rate this book 4.5/5 stars instead of 4/5. But, since I can't...

The only minor-flaw that this book has is it's lack of quizzes or any other study-friendly things. Although I can't really blame the book, considering it would be incredibly difficult to make a quiz for this. The author gives enough example sentences for you to remember most of the things you learn, and, if you read through the phrases a couple times, you can remember the main part of it, if not the whole significance itself. I'm not a person who can just sit down and memorize a dictionary. This is not a dictionary to begin with.

I highly recommend this to anyone studying Japanese, from upper-beginner to advanced students.

Well, as the title so boldly states you WILL find things in this little gem that you wouldn't find in just any dictionary(although you might want to try eiwa-waei dictionaries aimed at native japanese speakers if you've reached a certain level of proficiency). I do have one gripe, though. Why can't language guide publishers be more careful when it comes to typo's?They've even misspelled the name of the author on page 3(dai6satsuhakkou).Who is "Kazuko Shoji"? This kind of thing is pretty common in koudansha publications which is pretty sad considering the outstanding work of(most of)the authors. Fortunately, romanised text helps clear any discrepancies most of the time but it's still annoying.

This little book provides a guide to many important Japanese words and phrases that are difficult to find in a dictionary. The explanations are straightforward, and it provides sufficient examples (although more would be better). I find this book very helpful, and have gone back to it again and again for the better part of a year. I suspect I will keep it around for some time to come. Not bad for 131 pages.

A couple of warnings, however: This book is not for beginners. Moreover, it is a supplement or aid, rather than a complete textbook. With those caveats in mind, I wholehearted recommend it.

I'm an intermediate-advanced Japanese speaker. I'm always trying to improve my vocabulary. This book is great for learning common phrases that you probably wouldn't learn in a class or normal textbook. I have heard of many of the phrases already. There are a couple that I didn't know and I asked my Japanese friend if they were common and not old-fashioned. (I'm always skeptical if books are using outdated terminology.) She assured me that they are common expressions used today.

My main gripe is that Kanji and romaji are used but not furigana. This is surprising because the sentence examples use very difficult vocabulary, much too advanced for a beginner, but only a beginner would want to see romaji.

Otherwise I find it to be quite helpful.

I guess this book came about because the author has taught many students and has found some general problems. Some of these problems are highlighted in this book. Thus it is very useful for the learner. The structure of the book is not that great, but that is not important. You just work yourself through the whole book. This is not a dictionary for looking things up. It is a book to be studied from the beginning to the end. Intermediate level

At about 130 pages, this book isn't the comprehensive guide to speaking Japanese naturally. However, it is an invaluable supplement to intermediate or advanced students of the language. For students with a grasp on basic and intermediate grammar points, this book will take your speaking ability to the next level.

The book reviews simple constructions, like "over here," "from now on," "lately," and many many more. However, both sections of the book include a wealth of more advanced highly-used expressions. For example, the book explains how to say things like:
"I could care less if...,"
"One way or another...,"
"When you look at it that way...,"
"Out of nowhere...,"
"Who the heck...?!"

You can review the table of contents of this book by clicking "Search inside this book," underneath the cover image above. A few examples are given for each expression, written in Japanese and romaji with English translations. Along with the examples, a general explanation of the expression and its usage is given in English.
In all, this book is a great reference for students of Japanese. I recommend studying one or two of the expressions every day. Before long, you will begin to notice them frequently in conversation and even start to use them yourself.