Instant Japanese: How to Express 1,000 Different Ideas with Just 100 Key Words and Phrases! (Japanese Phrasebook)

by Boyé Lafayette De Mente

Instant Japanese allows you to quickly and easily meet people, go shopping, ride the subway, ask for directions, order food and drinks, and much more! This thoroughly revised second edition of Boye Lafayette De Mente's classic, bestselling phrase book shows students and travelers how to maximize their communication skills. The idea is simple-learn 100 words and say 1,000 things. The trick is knowing which words to learn. This book presents a basic vocabulary that will be used over and over again. All of the phrases are given in both standard Roman and Japanese scripts. A brief guide to pronunciation helps you say the phrases correctly. And an easy-to-use, 250 word vocabulary list allows you to translate from Japanese to English and vice-versa. Grammatical and cultural notes are presented in clear, accessible language.

Genres: Japanese Literature, Nonfiction, Language, Travel

98 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 15, 1993

About the author

Boyé Lafayette De Mente was an author, journalist, and adventurer. He wrote more than 100 books, most of them about the culture and language of Japan, East Asia, and Mexico.

De Mente joined the U.S. Navy and began his career as a cryptographer based in Washington, D.C. In 1948, he joined the U.S. Army Security Agency and was a decoding technician stationed in Tokyo. While there, he he founded and edited the agency's newspaper, The ASA Star.

De Mente wrote the first English guides to the Japanese way of doing business ("Japanese Etiquette and Ethics in Business" in 1959 and "How to Do Business in Japan" in 1962). His other books run the gamut from language learning to the night-time "pink" trades in Japan, the sensual nature of Oriental cultures, male-female relations, and understanding and coping with the Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Mexican mindset in business and social situations. He has also written extensively about Mexico and his home state of Arizona.

Reviews

[Jascha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not exactly what I was hoping for, but still you can go away with something.

First of all, to get something out of this book you need to know hiragana. Some katanana appears at the very end and it is not really required. Then again, every word and sentence comes in hiragana only which is NOT the way Japanese people use to communicate. It would have been great to have the sentence as it really is and, if needed, the hiragana only.

Next, I find very annoying that every sentence comes with the pronunce, which is not Romaji but the american way to read it. Finally, well, I am not sure how close is this to the really spoken language. It all felt way too formal.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very handy during a 7 week trip to Tokyo.

The progression of words is very useful when trying to acquire the language, but it's very difficult to try and find a particular word or phrase.

The book included some good introductory material about pronunciation and structure that's also helpful for wrapping your head around Japanese.

I would recommend this for someone who wants to make a concerted effort at learning some basic Japanese. If you're just looking for a phrase-book that you can look things up in while speaking with someone, I would go elsewhere.

[Mina · Rating 2 out of 5]

While not what I'd recommend for a beginner, as in can't read hiragana or katakana yet, it should be useful once that particular obstacle is out of the way. It is a good way to practice basic phrases as well as reading skills and it also helps to widen the vocabulary for anyone interested in visiting.

And you want your one phone call "Denwa o shitai desu." (Double-edged, do try to get the right pronounciation >:D)

[LKM · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a mostly-basic sentences phrasebook. It's not particularly comfortable when you're looking for specific things, but the way things are arranged makes it good to use as refresher (if only the kana were more prominent than the romaji, but at least you get both versions which is more than most phrasebooks do).
I was expecting something a little different with the subtitle of "Express 1000 different ideas" though, such as less basic sentences and instead slightly rarer expressions.

[reading woman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful little book was a joy to read for its practical approach to illustrating basic communication. It is not a textbook, so one shouldn’t expect a comprehensive treatment of the Japanese language. As a phrase book, however, it delivers quite nicely.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a perfect little handbook for those trying to learn basic Japanese phrases.

[Shu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even in such a tiny phrase book, Tuttle Publishing doesn’t stray from its mission of bridging cultures. Though the language instructions might feel a bit outdated, 30 years after this book’s release, the little chapter outros on Japanese linguistic quirks, evolution, and dialects were still quite enjoyable to read.