Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If Japanese was that easy to learn..., October 19, 2005
This review is from: Japanese Verbs: Saying What You Mean (Paperback)
Japanese is a very complicated language is you have no previous knowledge of any Asian languages. One of the easiest things to learn is the alphabet. One of the hardest things to learn is the grammar (which includes verbs). This book is suited for both beginner and advance. Total there are 82 lessons in the book covering all the forms and uses of each verb. For the beginner, text inside of the book is written in romaji (the English way of writing Japanese) if you haven't learned the three systems of writing. If you are an expert, then there are also sentences written in all three systems. Each lesson is suited to be user friendly. At the beginning of the lesson, it will tell you uses of the verb form. Next, there are examples of how the verb form is used. In between examples and at the end, there may be explanations on how to create sentences in that structure, and sometimes it gives you advice on how to use it correctly. A sample structure of the examples is: Sentence using kanji and hiragana with the aspect being learned bolded (Sentence in romaji also with the aspect being learned bolded) Translation in English After, it will give you a "Word Check" that defines words used in that lesson and lessons before for those beginning to learn and memorize words. It is a very helpful tool to review with. At the end, there may be Notes on the particular lesson like the culture, what words not to get confused with, or more on the language. At the end there's a reference on the pronunciation and writing systems, the dreaded particles (not as much as verbs of course... which is why you're going to buy the book!), and "About You and Name Suffixes". You'll literally get more than you bargained for (by going to his website where it will give you some information on other aspects of the language). Edward Lin
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding book!, July 9, 2006
This review is from: Japanese Verbs: Saying What You Mean (Paperback)
I've had this book for over a year now and have had a chance to really wear the pages down. I must say that the lessons are structured very well and are short enough to make review a painless task. Something Mr. Matheson states in it is that Japanese is really made up of about 80% verbs and their various conjugations. That was a revelation that really helped to take me to a higher level in my studies. I regret not finding this tool earlier in my learning. The cover may not be too fancy, but we all know the old saying about judging books by their covers. If you are just starting out on learning Japanese, you really owe it to yourself to get a copy of this right away. It'll help you grasp concepts much earlier on. Its worth its weight in gold. sukatto
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good book with potential to be excellent, October 11, 2008
This review is from: Japanese Verbs: Saying What You Mean (Paperback)
This is a good book. I've been studying Japanese as a hobby for a year or so and making slow but steady progress. I use this book all the time. I love the author's clear, pleasant style, through which I discern an amiable, helpful, knowledgeable person. Reading this book is like being helped with your Japanese by a good friend. I would recommend this book to anyone. I hope the author does a second edition and alters it slightly. The book's major problem from my perspective is that the author did not decide whether he wanted to write a reference grammar or to write a textbook to teach Japanese verbs. If it is meant to be a reference grammar, it minimally needs a good index and an informative table of contents. As it is, it is really hard to find anything in the book. Sometimes I know I have seen something in the book, but I am reduced to going through the book page by page to look for it. There is no index, and the table of contents, which consists solely of entries like "Base 1 + nakareba," would only be useful to someone who already knows the stuff in the book. It might be nice also to tighten up organization a bit. As it is, the book is studded with subsections that begin something like "Oh, as long as I'm telling you this, now would be a good time to mention this." So important topics get buried in sections nominally covering other topics. And, since so much in this book depends on the bases from which verb forms are made, it might be nice to have one section where the formation of all the bases is laid out in methodical fashion so that the user, confronted with some utterance like "'you desu' after base 3," can easily track down what base 3 is without paging through the whole book. However, the author actually seems to have set out to write more of a textbook than a reference grammar because the book generally assumes that the reader knows what has already been covered earlier in it. If that is the case, the author needs to include exercises so that students can actually practice what he is explaining and to give more thought to systematically building up vocabulary and grammar from the rudimentary to the complex as the book moves on. And even then, a decent index and table of contents would help. I actually think this book would be easier to nudge into the direction of a reference grammar than a text book, and that's what I would advise. But, please, don't let my comments deter you from buying this book. It has been a great help to me and it will be to you, too.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
