Customer Reviews

Minimum Essential Politeness: A Guide to the Japanese Honorific Language

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This book is a great introduction to the Japanese keigo system. It takes a practical approach by giving examples all levels of politeness in all of the book's sections. Such as, showing utterances in an informal form, formal form, honorific form, and in a super-honorific form. Also, throughout this book the instruction is not only about forming sentences in keigo but it is also about the socio-cultural aspects of choosing between kenjougo and sonkeigo. I would recommend this book for any intermediate student of Japanese.

There are few books which really spell out the necessities of courteous speech in Japanese--different verbs for humble and superior forms etc. Many cultural notes as well. If you are serious about becoming fluent in the language you should buy this book and study it hard.