Modern Japanese Vocabulary: A Guide for 21st Century Students, Hiragana/Katakana Edition (Japanese Edition) [Paperback]

Edward P. Trimnell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0974833037 | ISBN-13: 978-0974833033 | Edition: Bilingual

A modern vocabulary guide for the serious student of Japanese, this volume contains 21st century vocabulary. There is thorough coverage of contemporary topics like the Internet, the post-Soviet national divisions of Europe, and the environment. The guide also inlcudes a number of special topics not ordinarily contained in vocabulary books, such as Japanese homonyms, Sino-Japanese verbs, prefixes, and suffixes. All pronunciation keys are in hiragana and/or katakana.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A Note on the Hiragana/Katakana Edition: The phonetic renderings in this book are entirely in hiragana and katakana. (A subsequent edition is planned with romaji entries in the place of the kana script.)

From the Author

A good command of Japanese vocabulary yields practical benefits each time that you use the language. This book is not intended to function as a dictionary, but rather as a tool for active study to prepare for specific situations. Suppose that you are going to a party tomorrow night and you have heard that a number of computer types will be in attendance. Spend a half hour or so in the section of this book entitled "Computers and the Internet," and you will know the proper Japanese words for "bandwidth," "spreadsheet software" and "cable modem." Or perhaps you will be having lunch with a person who works at a publishing company. If so, there is a section in this book that will give you the words for "weekly magazine," "index," "news conference," etc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: Beechmont Crest Publishing; Bilingual edition (April 1, 2005)
• Language: Japanese
• ISBN-10: 0974833037
• ISBN-13: 978-0974833033
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #614,978 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Edward Trimnell writes books on a number of topics in the fields of history, language, and business. His books have been used in college classrooms, and quoted by sources as diverse as the U.S. Army and the Wall Street Journal. Edward currently resides in Ohio.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome guide for the price!, June 11, 2005

By 

Japanophile1978 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Modern Japanese Vocabulary: A Guide for 21st Century Students, Hiragana/Katakana Edition (Japanese Edition) (Paperback)

Note first of all that pronunciations for the words in this guide are in kana and not romaji.

The range of topics is vast. There are internet terms, historical and cultural terms, and the most thorough section on colors that I have seen anywhere.

I also liked the section on Japanese prefixes and suffixes, as most standard vocabulary guides don't cover these. (Most publishers seem to want you to buy another book to get this information.)

The type and the layout also make the book easy to use.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars awesome, May 13, 2006

By 

Michael Callaghan (Jersey City, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Modern Japanese Vocabulary: A Guide for 21st Century Students, Hiragana/Katakana Edition (Japanese Edition) (Paperback)

This is another reminder that students of Japanese have it pretty easy these days - there is enough supplemental material to keep us busy for hours, to put into immediate use.

this is a slim book, but if you know you're going to the Hiroshima museum, for example, you study the section on "Military" and "Weapons". If you're meeting at a shrine, spend some time with the section on "religion". Vocabulary galore - but none of it overwhelming.

File this little book under 'secret weapon'. It's really that good.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference with one flaw, March 22, 2007

By 

Marina Michaels (Santa Rosa, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Modern Japanese Vocabulary: A Guide for 21st Century Students, Hiragana/Katakana Edition (Japanese Edition) (Paperback)

This is an excellent reference book with one flaw that makes it hard to use. First, the good stuff.

1. This book provides useful sets of related words grouped by topic. For example, one of the topics is relationship terms (my mother, my father, other people's mothers and fathers, etc.). This organization is useful because if you are speaking about a topic, you probably need to know a number of related terms.

2. Both the kanji and the kana versions of each Japanese word are included. This means you have to be able to at least read hiragana/katakana, but today's students of Japanese are expected to learn those anyway. I consider this a plus.

3. The typeface is nice and clear and readable.

Now the big drawback: The sections are randomly organized instead of being organized alphabetically, and there are a lot of them, so it takes a while to find the topic you are interested in. For example, to find the section on Colors, you have to read through the several pages of topics in the table of contents to find the Colors section, which falls toward the end of the book. If the sections were arranged alphabetically, this work would be much better.

Overall, it is a useful addition to my growing collection of Japanese books.