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Motorcycle Book Store > Motorcycle books beginning with H
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How to Sound Intelligent in Japanese: A Vocabulary Builder (Kodansha's Children's Classics) |
Author: Charles De Wolf
Published: 2002-02-01 |
List price: $16.00
Our price: $10.88
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As of: November 22nd, 2008 05:41:22 AM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Just what I was hoping for
I was familiar with the Kodansha series--some I have loved, and some I have hated--so I was prepared for either option.
I'm intermediate-advanced, but lots of "useful" words I don't know. I still haven't done the "do you really use this" test with my Japanese friends, but they seem to be the kinds of words I've had trouble finding elsewhere.
 Sounding Intelligent
This is a great book for the dedicated Japanese student. Many, many useful words and phrases for someone tired of the same old "introductions and asking for directions" kind of Japanese book.
Pros:
-Categorized well
-Tons of great vocab
-Kanji with furigana
Cons:
-Too advanced for beginners. Dedicated third year college students, or fourth year college students should definitely consider this as a supplementary text to their assigned readings.
Excellent for the professional user and advanced students
This little book is of great pleasur and fun. It gives you a hole lot of special and essential vocabulary,and does it with fun examples and explanations . It's a great tool for the advanced students and the only weak spot is the lack of grammar notes. I know that the aim of the book isn't grammatical, but I would loved it if there were some Keigo, Ukemi and other advanced notes. All together a very fun book that will build up your vocab confidence.
Surprised at some comment...
I am a little surprised at some of the other reviews of this book. It's title I feel can be a little misleading and there is no way this book will make you sound "pedantic or insincere". It really is a Vocabulary Builder and is meant to be a quick and concise way to build specialist vocabulary across many topics. I am quick to add though, that this is not specialist vocabulary in your native language, in fact if you could not speak on the topics and using the words described in English in this book you would most probably be considered ignorant. Too many people live in Japan, learn a little Japanese and then think that the Japanese don't talk about politics, business, science, religon etc in everyday ilfe. The sad fact may be they don't talk to you about it because they don't think you could talk about it.
This book is a great way to learn a lot of vocab. Chapters are split into topics with an excellent background and etymology for most chapters and also excellent examples in both romaji and kanji, so you can increase your kana and spoken comprehension at the same time. If you are already a fairly strong reader and speaker of japanese this book can help you reach into new topics.
For professional users of Japanese
As a longtime student and translator of the Japanese language, I would like to see more books like this on the market, in contrast to the sea of books that focus on Japanese slang, foreign loanwords, and profanity. Japanese academics and professionals who operate in an English-speaking environment don't expect to get a free pass on difficult English vocabulary. "How to Sound Intelligent in Japanese" seems to be based on the premise that foreign speakers of Japanese should also be able to handle advanced terminology.Historically, native Japanese speakers have been amazed at a foreigner who can manage even a passable sentence or two in their language. Ten years ago, it was not uncommon for Japanese to heap praise on an American visitor to Tokyo for correctly ordering lunch without resorting to English. Americans were even complimented for knowing how to say "konnichiwa" and "ohayoo gozaimasu." Today, the bar has been raised substantially, and a reasonable comprehension of professional and academic terminology is needed in order to be taken seriously as a foreign speaker of Japanese. This is especially true if you intend to rely on your Japanese skills in a professional context. "How to Sound Intelligent in Japanese" can help the intermediate student to polish her skills to the point where Japanese speakers will regard her as an adult speaker of their language. The book is laid out in a convenient thematic format, so you can focus on the areas which are most relevant to your own needs and interests (science, law, etc.) There are enough example sentences to give you a sense of the context in which the specialized vocabulary items are used. Nonetheless, this book does assume an intermediate to advanced grasp of Japanese, so it may be a bit too much for first-year students; and the book doesn't offer much in the way of grammatical instruction. However, this is an extremely valuable resource for intermediate students who want to ease into more complex subject matters in Japanese. After working diligently through this book, the student will have the appetite and confidence necessary to tackle the publications that Japanese professionals themselves read.
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