Japanese Particle Workbook [Paperback]

Taeko Kamiya (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1998

Particles are an essential component of the Japanese language, and a facility with their use is essential for a mastery of both spoken and written forms. This new workbook will help students acquire that facility. It introduces 60 particles and their 188 basic functions in order of frequency of usage. Each function is illustrated with example sentences, and exercises are presented every few lessons to allow users to test their understanding, writing directly in the workbook and checking their work against the answers provided. A basic vocabulary is employed throughout to allow students to concentrate fully on one important goal—the mastery of Japanese particles.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Taeko Kamiya graduated from Doshisha Women's College in Kyoto and holds master's degrees in education and linguistics. She has taught Japanese for 25 years at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Weatherhill; 1st edition (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0834804042
• ISBN-13: 978-0834804043
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.4 x 9.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #182,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #69 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Japanese

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very helful, September 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Japanese Particle Workbook (Paperback)

It is a no-nonsense workbook ideal for anybody taking beginning Japanese. It divides the particle usage into different topics, making it easy or users to study. I use this for my Japanese class and it is helping me tremendously.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good workbook that taught me a lot about particles., April 16, 2010

By 

naware (san diego) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Japanese Particle Workbook (Paperback)

I am learning a lot from his workbook. I really like the workbook style. After every couple pages or so, there are 10-20 sentences in which you fill in the correct particle. I had already read almost all of Naoko Chino's book "How to Tell the Difference Between Japanese Particles," but I am still learning a lot from this workbook. I would even go further and say that I have learned more from Kamiya's workbook than from Chino's book. The particles in this workbook are presented/grouped in a way that makes them logical and helps you make sense of the rules behind their use. Also, you have so many opportunities to practice using the particles so it really helps you to learn them.

One advantage of this book over the Chino book is that with this book, the usage of particles that you learned in previous lessons are used in future problems so it helps you not forget what you learned in prior lessons. This book is really well done.

I would recommend it. I am a high beginner or low intermediate. I think that stage is the perfect time to use this book or the Chino book I mentioned. All the example and problem/practice sentences in this book are given in English and romaji and kana/kanji.

There are a couple of typos in this book but none of them seem to be in the answer key. Instead, they are minor misspellings of words. For example, in one place, 'takusan' (a lot) is written as 'takusen.' Chino's book has much worse mistakes because some of them are in the answer key.

Overall, I think you can learn a lot from both books, but if you plan to buy only one, I strongly recommend Kamiya's book (this one) over Chino's book (which I have also reviewed if you would like to read that review by me, too). But I don't think it is a bad idea to work through both books.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great reference book, April 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Japanese Particle Workbook (Paperback)

A good exercise book for beginner/intermediate level. However, some of the sentences are not very accurate (according to my Japanese wife). But all in all, a good book to have together with other reference books.