Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You [Paperback]

Jay Rubin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2002 | ISBN-10: 4770028024 | ISBN-13: 978-4770028020

Making Sense of Japanese is the fruit of one foolhardy American's thirty-year struggle to learn and teach the Language of the Infinite. Previously known as Gone Fishin', this book has brought Jay Rubin more feedback than any of his literary translations or scholarly tomes, "even if," he says, "you discount the hate mail from spin-casters and the stray gill-netter."

To convey his conviction that "the Japanese language is not vague," Rubin has dared to explain how some of the most challenging Japanese grammatical forms work in terms of everyday English. Reached recently at a recuperative center in the hills north of Kyoto, Rubin declared, "I'm still pretty sure that Japanese is not vague. Or at least, it's not as vague as it used to be. Probably."

The notorious "subjectless sentence" of Japanese comes under close scrutiny in Part One. A sentence can't be a sentence without a subject, so even in cases where the subject seems to be lost or hiding, the author provides the tools to help you find it. Some attention is paid as well to the rest of the sentence, known technically to grammarians as "the rest of the sentence."

Part Two tackles a number of expressions that have baffled students of Japanese over the decades, and concludes with Rubin's patented technique of analyzing upside-down Japanese sentences right-side up, which, he claims, is "far more restful" than the traditional way, inside-out.

"The scholar," according to the great Japanese novelist Soseki Natsume, is "one who specializes in making the comprehensible incomprehensible." Despite his best scholarly efforts, Rubin seems to have done just the opposite.

Previously published in the Power Japanese series under the same title and originally as Gone Fishin' in the same series.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Brief, wittily written essays that gamely attempt to explain some of the most frustrating hurdles [of Japanese]...It can be read and enjoyed by students at any level."

About the Author

JAY RUBIN is a professor of Japanese literature at Harvard University, where he has employed the pedagogical techniques contained in Making Sense of Japanese "as infrequently as possible." He has authored Injurious to Public Morals: Writers and the Meiji State and Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words, edited Modern Japanese Writers, and translated Soseki Natsume's Sanshiro and The Miner and Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Norwegian Wood, and After the Quake (Knopf and Harvill, 2002).

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha USA (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4770028024
• ISBN-13: 978-4770028020
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.4 x 7.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #499,073 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jay Rubin is a professor of Japanese literature at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has written on prewar literary censorship, No drama, and the authors Natsume Soseki and Murakami Haruki. His translation of Soseki's Sanshiro was included in Kodansha's English Library. His other books include Injurious to Public Morals: Writers and the Meiji State. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1984; The Miner, by Natsume Soseki. Translation and study of Kofu. Stanford University Press, 1988; The Elephant Vanishes. Translation of 8 of 17 stories by Murakami Haruki. New York: Knopf, 1993; The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Translation of Murakami Haruki's Nejimakidori kuronikuru. New York: Knopf, 1997; Norwegian Wood. Translation of Murakami Haruki's Noruwei no mori. New York: Vintage, 2000; and Modern Japanese Writers. Edited volume. New York: Scribner's, 2001.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

166 of 166 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A great treasure for intermediate students. May 9, 2004

By B. M. Chapman

Format:Paperback

Having been studying Japanese on and off for, oh, nine years now, I have learned that not all educational tools and methods work for everybody. People have their own way to learn languages, and in my case the straight-up textbook approach never entirely succeeded. I lived and studied in Japan for several years, and that helped in conversation and in terms of immersion. I have purchased everything from particle guides and Kanji dictionaries and even children's books to help my study, and all of them help in ways, but it is a very piecemeal way to learn.

And I guess that is how it is when learning languages. Only the true geniuses of language can grasp these things in a ready and total fashion. And unfortunately for me, this piecemeal approach left me missing things from my study of the language. And then Jay Rubin stepped in.

Jay Rubin knows the Japanese language. He teaches it, and is a translator of Japanese literature. (Most famously he translated into English Murakami Haruki's "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle" and "Norwegian Wood", as well as writing a biography of Murakami.) To steal a line from Lawrence of Arabia, "He knows his stuff."

And so it is that Rubin decided to stuff all that stuff into a book for those of us who struggle with the more delicate grammatical issues of the Japanese language. And he does so with brilliance and wit and ease of use that I have yet to have seen surpassed. "Making Sense of Japanese" is indeed a precious little gem in my collection of Japanese learning aids that fills in so many holes in the facade of my shoddy language capacity. For instance:

Wa and Ga - Never before has there been a more thorough and easy to remember explanation of the delicate differences between these two particles. They are a great bane to learners of Japanese, and Rubin dedicates 20 pages to truly making sense of them.

The Myth of the Subjectless Sentence - and how it is a true myth. Which is followed by a really nifty look into the differences in pronoun use in Japanese and English.

Receiving and Giving - and all the verbs that pertain to those actions.

Causitives and Passives - and how they combine at times.

Tame - Rubin succinctly explains the two forms of "tame" and gives examples.

Tsumori - and how it too has a double use.

And so much more! All told in a very lucid style and sharp wit that is sorely missing from most study guides. The final part of the book is dedicated to taking a very complex sentence in Japanese and breaking it apart and showing exactly how it forms a full statement. To some this may seem a little tedious and an over-indulgence in explaining in English what is fundamentally the properties of another language, but I have always felt in my studies that most texts and aids are lacking in easy to understand explanations. If you get frustrated with what seem to be overly simple and/or boring explanations of some very important grammar elements of Japanese, this little book is a marvel. But like any other language guide, these lessons must be studied to have impact. Though Rubin makes it very easy to read these passages over and over.

124 of 124 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Successfully disarms the scariest concepts in Japanese. July 16, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

If you're an intermediate student of Japanese, but haven't yet begun to really understand the language, this book will clear up a lot of your concerns. The author takes a humorous approach to some intimidating topics, and yields new insight on other, easier topics which textbooks often leave vague. The book frequently illustrates these concepts with examples in Japanese literature and journalism. Even examples in speech are explained in-depth. Yet, it remains light-hearted and humorous, relating the mysterious translations and hidden connotations in a way that the English-speaking mind can understand. Most importantly, it debunks many of the myths and misconceptions about Japanese that make Westerners fear it so. It also seemed that the author was subtly trying to prepare the readers to think in Japanese, which as wel all know is a vital step towards fluency.

The title pretty much sums it up when it says "What the Textbooks Don't Tell You." This book ! ! essentially takes the information from your textbooks and makes sense of it. If you study independently, like me, this book should be on your list. If you don't need this book, you probably know someone who does.

61 of 62 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Totally deserving of these 5 stars January 4, 2000

By Tim

Format:Paperback

When I ordered this book, I hadn't read it, or even seen the cover. I just picked it up because I'm anxious to learn more daily Japanese conversation. While this book didn't teach me the slang and modern speech I'm wanting to learn, I did find it to be extremely useful. I'm not finished yet, but this book has so far been very informative and easy to read. The writing is excellent, and it's entertaining to read. It explains how "subjectless" sentences work and how to use "wa" and "ga" properly, amomg other things of course. If you're a student of Japanese, and you want to actually understand the logic of the language instead of simply memorizing vocabulary, this book is a must-have.