Customer Reviews

Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication: A Self-Study Course and Reference

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This is an excelent book. Having gone through a course in elementary Japanese, I wanted a book to quickly review the basic grammar and speech patterns. This little book does a marvelous job. It explains all the main patterns concisely, yet sufficiently. The organization and clarity of the book are its main assets. There is a detailed index at the beginning of the book, containing key examples of the pattern. That way you can jump right to the page you need. At the end of the book there are handy appendices (with examples) on counters (some 25 of them), plus charts on adjective inflections and verb conjugations. All in alphabetical english order. Every pattern, or variation, is clearly explained with 3 examples. This is followed by 3 more examples for you to try. Then, the answers are given in smaller print. All examples are given in Japanese characters plus romaji transliteration. Every unit has a few new words of vocabulary, which are then used in the examples that follow. I admired the economy of this book. Nothing is superfluous. And yet, everything is sufficient, within the constraints of its size. It is published by Kodansha International, not Oxford University Press as the Amazon description says. Very few books on Japanese language instruction are suitable for self study. This one clearly is.

Out of necessity, much of this is a copy of my other review because it is a direct contrast.

Since a search that brought up this book probably also brought up A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns (Kodansha Dictionary) (same publisher) and at first glance one might be tempted to just buy whichever is cheapest at the time. It's worth noting that they are very different books.

A Dictionary... is indexed for a reader that encounters a strange construction. It is formatted in a way to facilitate looking-up strange new sentences. Japanese Sentence Patterns is indexed for someone that wants to say something in Japanese.

Thus, If you want to tell someone in Japanese that one thing would be better to do than another, Japanese Sentence Patterns will tell you how to say it. On the other hand, if you see or hear "Yukkuri tabeta hou ga kenkou ni ii yo." Then A dictionary... is better for figuring out what the person meant.

In all, both books are very much worth getting. Both serve completely different needs, they are definitely not duplicates of the same book. I do consider this one a bit more useful than the other, it is certainly easier to use. Even a complete novice can use this to create sentences. The exercises help cement new knowledge and the use of kanji can reinforce an intermediate student's reading ability.

The basic expressions appear in English and represent ideas or patterns to be expressed in Japanese. They are arranged from easiest tư most difficult. Each has a Japanese translation, highlighting the pattern to be learned then pattern is explained with example sentences. A big leap for novice birds to get wings for advanced flyings. Enthusiastically recommended. Hotondo kanzen ni (almost perfect).

If, like me, you like your language instruction focused on examples rather than explanations, this is the book for you. 142 sentence patterns are briefly explained and then shown in action. This gives you a FEEL for how they operate, rather than just useless abstract knowledge. Personally, I found the book extremely useful.

In fact, I grabbed my microphone and recorded the examples from the more difficult patterns as MP3 files. I play them back to myself on my iPod whenever I have a free moment. It's a very useful way to get these things to stick.

Two little nits:

1-Like all of Kamiya-sensei's book, this one is more useful than it is fun. It's good for you, but dry...hardly a barrel of laughs.

2-The book should make it clearer that this is far from an exhaustive catalog of japanese sentence patterns. These are the most common, but there are many more. The 142 patterns introduced here will get you well into Intermediate Territory if you master them, but nowhere near AdvancedLand.

I really like this book because it shows you the mistakes that you are making and it has plenty of examples on how to improve your grammar in Japanese. I like how it's soo simple and it gives you the sentences that are essential in mastering Japanese. In other words, it doesn't teach you grammar that you'll never use in real life. I like how they give you common vocab. words too. If you've been struggling with Japanese and you don't know why GET THIS BOOK! It'll literally open your eyes and make you see Japanese in a different light. I also like how it gets down right to the basics which is necessary and boosts your confident with Japanese! Overall, if you feel you're not good at Japanese and have low self esteem at it get this book! You'll feel a lot better ;) It's also a lot better than a lot of Japanese Grammar textbooks because some of the other books are unorganized and don't provide you with enough examples. This provides you with enough examples and sentences for you to practice with! That's the key to learning this language PRACTICE

This book gives examples of sentence structures in every shape and form. Its useful for looking up structures for speaking and writing. One thing that I must point out; it contains a lot of Kanji without furigana. But don't be afraid because all examples are also written in romanji. Another point that I'd like to stress to any beginner is that you MUST learn the Kana's very early in your studies. Also, every book, dictionary, workbook, or program that you are interested in assumes that you have a solid grasp on English Grammar. When I say English Grammar, I'm not talking about your conversation skills; I'm talking about the elements of the English language. Do you know the difference between a transistive and intransistive verb? Or what about nouns, pronouns, adverbs, adjectives, subjects, objects, synonym's, or antonym,s? I couldn't remember all that junk from school so I had to buy a little grammar book to learn English before I could really begin Japanese. Oh well, to make a long story short; get this book because it really helps. It's easy to read, has lots of practice excersises and has tons of info in the back. Have Fun Gang!!!

This little gem packs in a lot of information. The sentences are written in kanji, romaji and English and the typeface and layout are easy on the eyes. I only know 300 kanji and this is a great way to review the old ones in context as well as learn new ones. Im using this (in addition to JAPANESE STEP BY STEP and GENKI) to prepare for my 1st college level Japanese class and Im happy with it.

This is book is simply amazing.

Grammatical coverage is methodical and logically ordered.

Plenty of example sentences are offered in both kanji and romaji. I would have liked kana/furigana as well, but the scheme the author chose works well and is nice for reading practice. The romaji is printed under the kanji examples; so it is easily covered with the included bookmark if you want to test yourself.

The book is organized by grammar point. There are 142 grammar points in all.

Each grammar point consists of:
1) A simple demonstrative example in large print
2) A short paragraph explaining the usage of the grammar point
3) Three to five additional example sentences to shown usage variations
4) A small translation quiz consisting of 3 English sentences that require the grammar point (answers provided)

Also included is 45 pages of appendix material, which provides charts/tables covering:
* Numerals - Cardinal and ordinal numbers
* Counters (measure words)
* Adjective inflection for common I- and Na- adjectives
* Verb conjugation for common verbs

I study vocabulary ordered by common usage frequency using iKnow -- words are introduced (with audio) along with an example sentence (also with audio). This book helps in understanding some of the more complex example sentences. Conversely, the vocabulary gained through iKnow makes reading this grammar book much easier and natural.

In short, if you have an external regimented vocabulary study program, this book might very well be the only textbook you need as you progress into upper-intermediate territory.

Only appropriate for those who have taken Japanese lessons previously. It's a book mainly to enhance the skills of those in the intermediate level of Japanese. I loved the way how the author gave the English-->Romanji-->Kana format of the sentences (with pronuciations too!). I can recognize more kanji now! Also, I loved how the author made sentences in a way to show the learner there are multiple ways into saying the sentence! It keeps you up to date and more well-rounded in your Japanese speaking. Overall, this book was a Godsend! It helped strengthen my Japanese language skills and made explanations on how to develop correct japanese sentence structures more clear to me. THIS IS A MUST HAVE IN YOUR JAPANESE LANGUAGE LIBRARY! I am soo glad I brought this book! I can now speak Japanese with confidence. No regrets into buying this book! You will not be disappointed.

I use this book in conjunction with an online textbook called textfugu. It has a bunch of sentence patterns in it, some of which I am already familiar with. I like to have something to study offline just in case my computer goes down or the internet goes out. The book has the English translation, then the Kana/Kanji translation, then the romaji. It is written well and easy to understand. It gives examples to study then I gives you exercises to do. At the end it gives you the answers to grade yourself. All in all this book was a good buy.