Supplement to Japanese: The Spoken Language PT.1 [Paperback]

Professor Eleanor Harz Jorden (Author), Associate Professor Mari Noda (Contributor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 76 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (May 25, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300042809
• ISBN-13: 978-0300042801
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #80 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Japanese

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a great accompaniment for those that know kana, June 16, 2009

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K. A. Smith (Santa Cruz, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Supplement to Japanese: The Spoken Language PT.1 (Paperback)

The JSL series uses romaji by and large, and not the Hepburn kind. I don't like romaji in any sense, but I was starting a program using JSL--which has many pluses, I think--and I didn't want to stare at romaji all day. I therefore decided to invest in the Japanese Typescript supplement, which I believe is normally aimed at Japanese instructors. I'm a student, and I love it; I use it for all my practicing, and only use the regular JSL book for grammar explanations. The supplement has only Japanese in it (hiragana, katakana, and kanji) and no explanations, only the conversations and drills. It's perfect for someone who knows kana already, and wants to avoid romaji. Another plus is that it contains the conversations and drills in a much more compact fashion, so I find it easier to flip through and locate what I want. It does not contain any translations to English, so if I'm unsure on my reading, I have to check the main JSL book, but for saving me from romaji I give it five stars.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very useful tool for Japanese reading practice, but BE CAREFUL, July 2, 2011

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Shepherd 2.0 - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Supplement to Japanese: The Spoken Language PT.1 (Paperback)

Why be careful? Here's how it is (sorry for the long explanation, but I really don't want anyone to be misled. Skip to the next paragraph to see what I have to say about the actual booklet). Dr. Jorden was of the opinion that a learner of Japanese should not begin to learn the written language right away. Why? Because mastery of the spoken language is essential in order for reading to become meaningful. In Dr. Jorden's essay, Reading Japanese- A Suggested Route for The Foreigner, she explains "The native Japanese focuses on the kanji as he reads because the kana matrix of particles, inflectional endings, demonstratives, transitional words, etc., provide an instantaneously comprehended framework of relationships. But the foreigners who, from the start, are allowed--even encouraged--to equate their mastery of reading with the number of kanji they have learned, are being distracted from that essential requirement for all reading--i.e. control of the structure of the language." Basically, if I look at a passage of Japanese text, I could decode it. That's not the same thing as reading it. Reading should be a fluid, natural activity, only made possible by thoroughly acquainting oneself with the spoken language. So, Kana for a first year student? Almost definitely not, but it depends on the student. My Japanese instructor held to a very similar opinion. One variation, which actually makes a lot of sense to me, is that he had me learn Katakana early on, and before any other characters. The reasons for this are (1) To a foreign learner (especially English-speaking) learning Katakana is useful for learning the correct pronunciation of Japanese mora (2) most of the words written in Katakana will be immediately recognizable to the learner, thus giving immediate meaning to what he's reading.

Okay, here's the actual review section. The material in this booklet coincides with JSL book 1, which can be found at: [...]
It does contain a fairly large amount of vocabulary, but mostly focuses on conversation practice and spoken drill practice. It also contains a Breakdowns and Supplementary Vocabulary section. Good if you have two or more people practicing together (you have to talk to people for a language class?!). I would definitely say, don't try to go at this curriculum alone. In fact, it's usually just a bad idea to attempt learning any language by oneself without any direction from someone knowledgeable in the particular field. For language, more than any other course of study, you really need an instructor/coach/what-have-ya. But, as for this particular book, if you have a good grasp on Japanese grammatical patterns already, go ahead and give it a shot. It's great fun to practice reading, just don't learn to decode text.