18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but better available, July 4, 2005
This review is from: Japanese Verbs at a Glance (Power Japanese Series) (Kodansha's Children's Classics) (Paperback)
Although Chino adds a lot of information and forms about how to approach in Japanese with verbs but with some issues she's totally different comparing to other books. For example she claims that the conditional form "ba" cannot be used to express suggestions, commands or orders, and you should use "tara" instead while other writers in books published by Kodansha claim it can and "tara" is the colloquial form. Just check "A dictionary of Japanese particles" and "The handbook of Japanese adjectives and adverbs". Plus she makes mistakes by dropping out the Copula "da" in certain important subjects while it is important to mention it and to mention for example that in the formal past tense the ending "su" changes into "shi", like she mention it with ending "tsu" and does with both in the present tense. She also leaves in certain subjects the past tenses such as the progressive past tense while it's so important to know that as well.
This book is good at some point but can also be very confussing, especially for beginners in studing Japanese language.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Good book on verbs, with a couple of problems., September 26, 2000
I like this book, and it does a good job of what it sets out to do, but there are a few little things that bother me. I dislike roma-ji, and I'd prefer to see Kana in their place. This book has examples sentences in Japanese(using Kanji) follow by roma-ji, and then an English translation. I am assuming it is this way because the book is geared towards beginners, but it is still very useful for intermediate level students. The only other problem is that it doesn't teach you about compound verbs.
I think most people will be happy with this book. The power Japanese series is a good series, even if they do use roma-ji.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Source to Find Out About Japanese Verbs, May 29, 2007
This review is from: Japanese Verbs at a Glance (Power Japanese Series) (Kodansha's Children's Classics) (Paperback)
Before describing the book, a word or two has to be mentioned regarding the publisher, Kodansha International. I don't know if it's because of the policy within Kodansha, or the Japanese culture in general, but you can feel the tidiness, accuracy, and meticulous nature of each author, and the effort expended in order to convey information to the reader the best possible way.
When first starting to learn Japanese on my own, I had tried grammar texts and dictionaries from two other publishers. I found out after a couple of months, that they only cause the reader great confusion, lack a lot of important concepts, the print is often ineligible, and the sentences are in Romaji and not in the native alphabet (Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji), which is so necessary in order to learn the language properly. Other Kodansha publications which I found useful for learning Japanese are
Kodanshas Essential Kanji Dictionary (Japanese for Busy People)The Kodansha Kanji Learners Dictionary (Japanese for Busy People)Kodansha's Furigana Japanese Dictionary: Japanese-English English-JapaneseAll About Particles: A Handbook of Japanese Function Words (Power Japanese Series) (Kodansha's Children's Classics)The Handbook of Japanese Adjectives and Adverbs (Kodansha's Children's Classics)
The text is divided into four chapters. The first chapter gives a general outline of verbs. The second chapter discusses the way verbs are used. For example, there are three polite ways to ask someone to do something, three formal ways, seven informal ways, and three ways to say it in a blunt manner. The third chapter discusses verb conjugates. For example, when the verb "owaru" is added to "yomi" (reading), the resulting connotation is "the end of reading". The third chapter discusses common expressions and phrases. For example when "shika nai" is added to "iku" (to go), the resulting connotation is "the only way to go".
Each case starts with a general form of the verb in each type of expression (polite, formal, and informal), and an example with a verb in each type, all in a block which makes it easy to locate it. Then it follows with an explanation of that case, and three sections for each type of expression. For each type of expression, two or three sentences are given, each in Japanese, Romaji, and English. The stem of the verb is given to the right of each sentence.
The appendix includes two tables of different tenses of common verbs, one for each type of verbs. The index is organized in English, and includes Japanese text for each subject. Sometimes the English translation isn't the way it is spoken in the US, but I don't see it as a major drawback.
In short, I recommend it for every English speaking Japanese student learning on his or her own, or even as supplementary material at college.
Verbs are the most easily comprehensible element of Japanese sentence, and pose almost no hurdle in comprehension. Once the general structure is understood, which is in a simple manner divided into two major types, and a third restricted specialized one, which constitutes a handful of common verbs, and a few tenses and social status allusions, one is on her way, together with proper knowledge of particles and adjectives, to understand Japanese statements. Each variation is restricted to a specific circle, and once a reader enters a specific one, she shouldn't have to worry about the various other ones, and a general knowledge of the few prevalent ones, does the job. The verb structure is greatly invariable across all domains, and circumstances, which makes it all the much easier to read Japanese text. In this textbook one finds only a handful verbs. For definitions, one should resort to a reliable taxonomical source, to satisfy the specific need of the user. This is a general guideline, only showing the various structures, and a very comprehensive one, above that, describing in a consice, distinct, to-the-point, plausable, complete manner, readily amenable to definite distinction with other ones.
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