Japanese For Dummies

by Eriko Sato

Learn to speak Japanese—the fast and easy way Japanese is the gateway to the rich culture of the exciting and complex island nation of Japan. Some people get intimidated by the prospect of speaking Japanese—worried that it's just too complex and different—but these fears are unfounded. While you can devote a lifetime to the study of this or any language, picking up the basics of Japanese doesn't require any more than an interest and a willingness to try something new. Japanese For Dummies has everything you need to start speaking the language. Author and Professor of Japanese Eriko Sato introduces the essentials of grammar and pronunciation, giving you a working sense of the language, before showing you Japanese in action. You'll also discover social customs, formalities, and manners, from how and when to bow to how to unwrap a present. Whether you simply want to introduce yourself to the Japanese language, say a few words to a neighbor or coworker, or you're planning a major trip or study abroad in Japan, Japanese For Dummies will enable you to get the basics fast and work towards your own goal at your own pace. CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of the e-book file, but are available for download after purchase.

Genres: Reference, Language, Nonfiction, Japanese Literature, Japan, Education, Adult

650 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 8, 2011

About the author

Eriko Sato, Ph.D is Assistant Professor of Japanese Linguistics and Pedagogy in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Sato's research interests include Japanese linguistics and pedagogy, translation studies, and second language acquisition. In addition to several journal articles in these research areas, Sato published a number of Japanese textbooks and grammar/kanji reference books. Sato serves as the advisor for Teacher Certification Program for Japanese, the Executive Committee Chair for the Japan Center at Stony Brook and the Director of the Pre-College Japanese Program.

Reviews

[Maegin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like the whole of the "...For Dummies" series, this was easy to understand and fraught with puns. I enjoyed using this as a supplement to my learning software and textbooks as it explained the language to me from the perspective of a native speaker. Good stuff!

[Rubi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muy buena primera toma de contacto con el japonés. Al leerlo mientras estudiaba gramática, me ha servido de apoyo para el estudio :) Divertido y muy ameno, lo recomiendo.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are serious about learning Japanese what you need before reading this book is discipline. Discipline coupled with this book is an excellent way to start getting into the thick of the Japanese language. This book has SO much content to it. I read it as supplemental reading for a Japanese class I was taking and was surprised at the amount of information the entire book has. The grammar chapters were excellent! And the life scenarios are chock full of great verbs and nouns.

I would recommend this book as a resource to anyone who is looking to start learning Japanese. Memorizing the grammatical rules, verbs, nouns, etc. in this book would put you in a great position to move to more advanced Japanese study.

A con for this book is that it only teaches Japanese in romanji (Roman alphabet) and does not delve into the Kana. Again, if you are serious about learning you will advance and you will need more resources as you progress.

[Dennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obviously I didn't finish it or become fluent in Japanese but I got a lot more easy to learn bits out of it than I expected.

[Koby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful!

[Lili VI · Rating 4 out of 5]

Je ne sais toujours pas parler japonais mais ce petit livre explique très clairement les bases et donne quelques infos sur la culture nippone.

[Rick Jackofsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read several "learn Japanese" books. I don't think I'll ever be able to fluently read and write Japanese, but I'd like to be able to speak and understand some simple phrases as well as make my own translations (with the use of a dictionary) of some poetry. So far this book is the best I've seen as far as learning and understanding conversational Japanese. I borrowed a copy from the public library, but I definitely want to get one for my private collection.

[Kody Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

a fantastic beginners book and introduction into the Japanese language. And the best textbook I found while studying the language. master sentence structures, pronouns, numbers and basic phrases - without getting bogged down in Kanji

[SamSam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Handig maar mist een woordenlijstje met vertalingen van Nederlands naar Japans

[Lotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'ai acheté ce livre à un marché quand j'avais 16 ans, mais je n'ai pas lu plus de trois chapitres à cet âge. L'année dernière, j'ai recommencé à apprendre le japonais, pour préparer un voyage à Tokyo. Je l'ai fait sur DuoLingo. Après quelques mois, je me suis souvenue de ce livre-ci, et je l'ai lu entièrement cette fois. Moi, j'aime que ce livre explique très clairement la distinction entre les particules en japonais. Par exemple, DuoLingo n'explique pas bien la différence entre les particules "wa" et "ga", et ce livre-ci m'a vraiment aidée à comprendre les nuances. Malheureusement, Le japonais pour les nuls ne suffit pas pour apprendre à parler couramment le japonais. Cependant, les conseils peuvent être très utiles.

[Nicki Markus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Japanese for Dummies was an okay read. In some instances I found the explanations simple and well presented. At other times, though, it all felt too bare-boned. This book is probably good for travellers looking to pick up phrases and understand a little Japanese for a trip to Tokyo. If you are a serious learner, however, there are better texts out there for your purposes. 3.5 stars

[Anthony Woo · Rating 3 out of 5]

If the standard of the book contents is for dummies, I will never be able to learn the language. I find chapter 3 on basic verb forms, further illustrated in Table 3-5 extremely difficult for me to grasp.

[Ingrid Krüs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Handig als aanvulling op de soms wel erg summiere Duolingo-lesjes, zeker omdat de Japanse teksten in Romaji (het Latijnse alfabet) zijn geschreven. Niet helemaal uitgelezen omdat ik gewoon een keer een uitgebreidere cursus moet volgen.

[Chó Yêu Cáo · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a helpful book. You will learn a lot, from vocabulary to grammar. It will get even better if it teachs us more about how to write kata and some most used kanji.

[Aida Saldana Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book!
I need to reread it and practice!

Arigato gozaimasu!

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not read this book for the reason you may expect, I did not want, nor need to learn to speak Japanese. I wanted more background on Japan, so I suppose what I wanted was more like Japan for dummies, rather than Japanese for dummies. None the less I did rather enjoy this book more than expected, I thought it was very informative, fairly easy to understand and a nice addition to the dummies collection of books. I imagine there are better books for my purpose than this one, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It is hard to understand a culture without understanding their language, however basic that understanding maybe. So to this end, I found it a worthwhile read and would recommend it to others with the same goal in mind.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are so, so many better textbooks out there if you want to learn Japanese that I really don't know why anyone would want to waste their time with this one. Look, it did teach me some stuff, which is the only reason it manages 2 stars, but I could have learned it so much more solidly and efficiently if I had just gone with another book.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really comprehensive grammar of the Japanese language. However, it doesn't teach you Hiragana or Katakana, but neither of the writing systems are that useful for learning grammar and speaking anyhow. Might as well learn them from another book once you've got a handle on how to speak the language.

[Sammy C · Rating 2 out of 5]

wasn't very interesting. I couldn't focus on what they were saying at all