Customer Reviews

Zakennayo!: The Real Japanese You Were Never Taught in School

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Every language has its own "dirty words," whether you like it or not. If you want to REALLY understand Japanese people and their culture, this book can be a help. This book is loaded with slangish terms and expressions, (by the way, the title "Zakennayo" is a "correct" phrase,) but even to me(30+ Japanese) many of them seemed either "might've been cool a decade ago," "my parents might say that," or "only for mafias." Anyways, read this book to understand Japan, but don't use the phrases unless you don't mind being labelled as a crazy, dangerous foreigner by Japanese people.

This book is for English speakers struggling with learning Japanese and want a comic book to stimulate some interest in continued learning. The slang is out dated and mostly likely used a few decades ago. The converse would be a Japanese coming to the USA speaking like Austin Powers, "Groovy Baby!" Naturally proper etiquette requires you would not speak such words in civilized company. As in the USA using out of date slang is most likely going to result in you getting laughed at, beat up or a combination of both. I say buy the book for a few good laughs and encourage yourself to learn more Japanese. I recommend Barrons CD set although it too is a little dated and when the Japanese women narrators speak they are almost inaudible.

I found this book pretty useful- but would have liked it more if it had some way to easily find a word you're looking for, or an index in back so you can look up what page a word is on.

I read this after my first year of Japanese study. I would not recommend using any of the terms or phrases discussed in this book without first bouncing them off a few native Japanese speakers. I suggest this because you run the risk of sounding like a total fool if you try some of these phrases out on strangers. Problems: First, the author does not point out that many of the phrases used in the book would only be used by women or school girls (if you want to appear effeminate, use these terms recklessly). In addition to this, many of the expressions discussed are terribly outdated. Finally, several of my Japanese friends told me that they had never heard the word "Zakennayo" before. To be fair they did tell me that the term might be from a dialect they were unfamiliar with. However, I think they were just being polite. Anyway, please don't take my opinions and experiences with this book as gospel. I'm in my third year of Japanese study, so I'm no way near fluent. Rather, go to any well known internet search engine any type "Zakennayo" in. Be sure to take note of the number of hits you obtain. Now type in an equivalent term in English, German, French, Spanish, or any other European language you may be familiar with. Compare the number of hits. Well, this was fun, Thanks for listening.

Though this book might prove to be an interesting diversion on a rainy day, it fails to serve the purpose advertised on it's cover, namely helping the reader to break from the textbook-style language patterns learned in school or through self-study. Aimed at a male audience, it portrays foreign men in Japan making pathetic one-line passes at the local women, but fails to help the reader to understand the cultural context of the various examples.

The language presented herein consists mostly of obscene words rather than true slang, in any case not useful to actual communication. The abundance of errors in Japanese grammar leads one to doubt the author's knowledge of the subject discussed and of the language in general. My apologies and best wishes to the author should he choose to update and improve this book in the future, but for now, I cannot in good conscience recommend this book.

This is the kind of book that makes me cringe. It goes far beyond its slightly risque predecessor "Making out in Japanese" and instead delves right into the downright vulgar. What is absolutely flabbergasting to me is that so many gaijin go out and buy this trash, spend countless hours memorizing its phrases, then actually say them in public. While it may get a few laughs in bars, the Japanese hearing this kind of talk are likely to think to themselves that the speaker is a real low-class loser. Don't buy this book, unless you want to sound like a moron. Instead invest a few more dollars in a REAL Japanese text. I promise, your Japan experience will be far more fulfilling.

It is a funny collection of stories about some foreigners in Japan, Kenny is an American English Teacher, Nigel is a British news writer, and Sharon is an Australian hostess. In Japan, they are simply gaijin. Taro is a Japanese-American who is gaijin as well, but he doesn't look like the others, so he is never called gaijin. I have lived in Japan for about 3 years, and I can say that there are many similar stories that happen in Japan every day. I have read this book twice, and these stories made me laugh too much.

However, many of the terms used in this book are outdated and the dialect used is "adequate" only in Tokyo, and truly obscene.

A Japanese friend who is from Hokkaido and lives in Nagoya doesn't understand some of the words used in this book.

As I have said, this book actually doesn't improve your vocabulary, unless you want to be a Yakuza in Tokyo, but as other reviewer said maybe it encourage yourself to learn more Japanese because it presents many truly stories that happen even today.

They are 12 stories:

-Alien Invaders.

-The ABC's of Japanese.

-Street Jive.

-Waiting at Hachiko.

-Talking about people.

-The gay life.

-Hookers and Gangsters.

-Disco City.

-Foreign Drinking Holes.

-After Hours.

-Romance and Low life.

-Talking about Sex.

The dialogues are presented first in Romaji, followed by their English translations, and there is a vocabulary list at the end of each story. I gave it 4 stars because I consider it much better than "Japanese Street Slang", both are outdated, but "Zakennayo" is much more humorous and easier to read.

Okay, on one hand, this book has some high calibre words if you want to piss someone off. However, it loses strength since it doesn't really attack the slang of the language in dictionary form, and depends on the reverse engineering of the dialogue in order to figure out how to use the phrases, etc. It was average, but I've seen better.

The book is outdated... but it is a great book, one of the best! The characters are spot on. This was the first Japanese language slang book i bought back in 1997, when I first started studying Japanese language. The only real knock (and the reason I gave it four stars) is that the whole thing is in romaji. I really hate romaji most days, because it makes me pronounce the word wrong if I'm not careful - watch out for words with "a" in them. The book needs to be updated, as far as including kanji/furigana/hirigana -- but that's about it. The illustrations are great as well, they catch the avarice and sheisty-ness that people living in a country obsessed with the concepts of tatemae/honne/mie know so well. The ending of this book is all too true! This is exactly how it works... again, one of the best books of the genre.

well this one is not one I'm fond of.. i only read it for like 30 minutes.. i think that perhaps a 13 year old boy might be interested in this book but not me.. i really don't think i want to speak nihongo in such a tacky manner.. which is weird because i swear like a sailor in english.. i think i want to have a bit more class than that when i speak japanese.. it might be mildly entertaining to read on an airplane..

all and all its awful.. i bought it for 3$ and ended up giving it to a library..