Unlocking Japanese

by Cure Dolly

A ground-breaking book that sets out to demonstrate that Japanese is “simple, logical and beautiful” and that most of the apparently “arbitrary rules” that you “just have to learn” can be reduced to simple, easily intuitive patterns if you just understand how the language really works.

Genres: Japanese Literature, Language, Nonfiction, Japan, Reference, Linguistics

117 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 23, 2016

Reviews

[Ashley Lambert-Maberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems aimed at those who have already studied Japanese grammar and found it a bit confusing--Cure Dolly clears it up--but how much better if only it were pitched toward beginners who wouldn't have to become confused in the first place (like me). The parts she (?) explained were perfectly clear, but every so often there would be some hand waving about aspects she wouldn't get into because presumably our other, less helpful grammar lessons were covering them.

As a result it's awfully short, and not enough to learn Japanese grammar from. It could well be called "A Few Notes on Some Aspects of Japanese Grammar." Despite the brevity, it is clear and explained well--and I will definitely be holding her cautions in mind when I study grammar elsewhere, as I will have to.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!

[Sudipa (A Bookish Marauder) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding ideas accompanied by brilliant explanations. The Japanese primer to end all other 'beginner's Japanese study materials' (no kidding :D).

I've been following Cure Dolly Sensei's Youtube channel for almost a year now and there hasn't been a single video of hers where I haven't gone "Wow! So this is how it works!" at least once. Every video of hers is no less than a masterpiece marked with sheer ingenuity, and of course, her own love for the Japanese language. Her 'structure-course' on Youtube has been the most helpful for me (learning Japanese structure through 'train-language') and parts of this book were for me, the reiterations of some of the most fundamental knowledge about the Japanese language that I had first gained from watching those videos (this book was written before Sensei started making the videos, and so those who already watch her videos can get a copy of this book to have a written version of some of her most important explanations to refer to).

For anyone starting to venture into the Japanese language and wanting to start with Cure Dolly's content (good choice!), I, as a fellow learner, would recommend them to first watch the first few videos of her 'structure course' on Youtube - as there she teaches what we can consider to be 'Japanese from Scratch' - and then grab this book, to get the most out of this excellent primer. For those already learning Japanese, they can still grab this book and experience the benefit of getting some very principal concepts of Japanese explained clearly that are often left ambiguous by textbooks. I'm sharing the links of her 'structure course' and her channel for any inquisitive learner to check out.

Japanese Structure Course by Cure Dolly

Organic Japanese with Cure Dolly Youtube Channel

I will write a detailed summary of the book with chapter notes and upload the link here. Thanks for reading! :)

[Yegor Rodygin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's full of useful information. It's short. It was a bit too short for me. But it was fun. This book is more like an interesting comment to other textbooks so it should be used along with them. It's not suitable as a single source of knowledge about Japanese language.

[Oji Kenobi · Rating 5 out of 5]

First Vision of Oz

Apparently I, too, was wandering in a B&W world. Recently I stumbled into the Cure Dolly world and now all is in color! Cure Dolly’s explanations make Japanese sentences so much more fun to parse. This book delivers a short version of a Unified Field Theory for Japanese. It dyes the strange attractor of a seemingly chaotic system to reveal a beautiful order. Makes students of the language want to revisit each misinterpreted sentence of their pasts to marvel with improved vision. Treat this text as part of a larger effort to educate. The Cure Dolly videos on YouTube offer more, detailed explanations and examples. Great stuff!

[Kim Schjang · Rating 5 out of 5]

The old me would have been upset to know that most Japanese textbooks don't bother to make learning easy, but the current me is just glad someone actually wrote something that helps! This is not a book that will teach you Japanese, it will teach you what is not taught that should be taught in order to grasp the concept of Japanese grammar. Spoiler alert, the usual textbooks make it harder than it should be. The Cure Dolly YouTube channel compliments this book perfectly! Do yourself a favor and supplement your Japanese language textbooks with this book and the YouTube channel.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps outdated?

I'll be the first to say I've never studied the language in the 'Traditional Way', no Genki textbooks or University Classes, so perhaps I'm not the target audience but nothing here seemed to be a revelation. I often found the way things are described as being taught normally , by this book to be strange and the 'revelations' to be more or less how I've understood the language and learnt it.

[MR A O NOTARIANNI · Rating 5 out of 5]

Explains a lot!

This one of those books that broadens your thinking when it comes to learning Japanese. I truly wish I had learned the information in this book a long time ago, but I'm glad I found it. Really helpful!

[Robina Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear and helpful.

[Rui · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very refreshing indeed, a must-read for all Japanese learners.

[Geoff Swan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Very concise and enjoyable.
Definitely a perspective on Japanese grammar that I hadn’t come across.
I think I’ll read this a few more times.

[Hoot · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining and motivating read for self-learning weebs like me.
I just wish it was longer. All in all just as valuable as her Youtube lessons.

[Zephyr Mang · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good refresher on Japanese grammar. A reminder to try to think in the language, in an immersive way.

[Rebo · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I’ve been studying Japanese on my own for awhile off and on (more off than on due to chronic illness, unfortunately), so that’s why it took me so long to finish this book. (I only had one short chapter left.)

I am (at least) functionally fluent in several languages other than English, and something I’ll admit has always frustrated me in language learning is how much we’re taught by forcing English onto the source language and not in actually understanding said language. I realize not everyone thinks like me, and it’s possible that it’s much more difficult to do if you only know English (I grew up with both English and Spanish so I was never completely monolingual to start). But for me, it made it harder for me to jump into fluency bc I didn’t feel like I really had a “grip” on the language so that I could just speak without fumbling over tense and grammar and so forth.

This book is incredible and honestly something I recommend reading early in your Japanese studies bc it makes things sooooo much easier to wrap your brain around. More than once I would be studying from one book/source or other and get frustrated by the attempt to make Japanese seem like English when it’s much more like American Sign Language in structure and grammar. I felt like I could never really get a handle on it bc of this, since Japanese sentence structure is nothing like English (especially when you get into more complex sentences).

This book boils everything down into the simplest of ways that actually explain what’s going on instead of giving you this insane explanation with lots of grammar terms you probably don’t understand/have forgotten and a ton of rules and exceptions to memorize. It also helps you to THINK in Japanese (in a manner of speaking) rather than English aligned to Japanese, which means you won’t understand what you’re reading/hearing correctly, and coming up with your own sentences will be even harder and less natural.

I especially appreciated the part about particles, bc I struggled with wrapping my brain around them and when to use which ones, but this laid things out in a simple way without forcing me to research things every sentence, like what the hell a “predicate” is (a big issue I ran into with the All About Particles book).

I definitely will re-read this from the top, and probably keep a set of notes to help remind me as I study in a very unconventional way 😅, but this is one Japanese book I would recommend to almost anyone, and especially if Japanese is your third or higher language (you already know English plus one other language).

[Anton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Эта книга - немного странный гайд по японской грамматике. Он ставит целью рассказать о фундаментальных концептах японской грамматики в противовес более традиционным учебникам. Традиционный учебник будет рассказывать про глаголы, спряжения, прилагательные и прочее. Unlocking Japanese расскажет чем отличается wa от ga и почему глаголы спрягаются так, как они спрягаются. Большая часть написанного здесь пересекается с серией роликов от той же Cure Dolly на ютубе, поэтому нового я открыл мало.

В чем же проблема? Во-первых, книга довольно паршиво структурирована. Сама Cure Dolly советует прочитать эту книгу в самом начале изучения японского. Только вот контент книги предполагает, что читатель уже знает основы японской грамматики и лишь пытается глубже их объяснить. Автор постоянно прыгает с темы на тему, изза чего книга ощущается скорее справочником чем руководством.

Вторая проблема - постоянное нытье о том, что классические книги по грамматике сосут. Добрая треть текста каждой главы посвящена ранту о том как учебники грамматики натягивают сову на глобус, путают читателя, а эта книга открывает секреты японского языка о которых вам не поведают в школе. Ролики от Cure Dolly страдают от такой же херни, и это в целом не так сильно мешает, но это нужно иметь ввиду и фильтровать.

В целом неплохое дополение к роликам CD и книжке Тае Кима.

[Jenael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even after faithfully following Minna No Nihongo which has done a wonderful job of teaching Japanese to me, this book has so so much value to add to the learning process. This would be useful regardless of whether you are studying with a class, or self-learning. Actually, without a (good) teacher to clear your doubts, this book might be even more valuable.

One thing to note is that I believe this book shouldn't be used as an the first reference book/textbook to start your studies with. If you don't even have a vague sense of how particles such as wa, ga, wo etc are commonly used, then you probably can't appreciate how this book is really drawing the line for you as to how to 'understand' these usages. I'm not saying you need to feel confused and frustrated before reading this so it can serve it's intended function of clearing things up, BUT at least don't let this book be the one to introduce these particles.

The author has promised to clear away the feeling of having to memorise exceptions to japanese grammar wrt particles, and he has definitely delivered. I am now convinced that usage of these particles represent a defined set of meanings and the vague suspicion that i-adjectives and verbs are connected, have finally been explained.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I downloaded this book because "Cure Dolly's" YouTube channel is so informative and interesting, but I find "her" (who knows who/what the real person identifies as) schtick pretending to be an AI anime girl avatar to be so annoying that I can hardly stand watching it. (Side note: allegedly the person behind "Cure Dolly" passed away not long ago. True? It's the Internet, who knows?)

Anyway, digital wifu affectations aside, Cure Dolly really describes some of the finer points of Japanese in a clear manner that really don't ever seem to be fully explained in textbooks. So I found this little ebook to be a treasure.

This isn't a textbook or an introduction to Japanese. It's a collection of chapters explaining some of the essential points of Japanese grammar in an intuitive way rather than just saying "Here's the general rule and here are all the exceptions you just have to learn by heart." You need to have at least a basic grasp of Japanese sentence structure, but this book clarified a lot about the opaque は "topic marker" vs. the が subject marker, な-adjectives vs. い-adjectives, and so on. I feel like this little ebook taught me more than most of the Genki book about grammar.

[Stamatios Mantzouranis · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're familiar with this book, it's probably because you've watched Cure Dolly's videos on YouTube about misconceptions or misinterpretations of Japanese grammar by textbooks written for English speakers.

Unlocking Japanese is a collection of essays that have been already covered on her channel. The only reason one would buy this book would be to support Cure Dolly and thank her for sharing such instructive content freely. In that regard, I wholeheartedly suggest that you go ahead and buy it.

As for the book itself, I must say I found it lacking. Which is a pity, because text is arguably a much better medium for explaining grammar than video. Alas, the book was too short, there weren't as many examples as I hoped and the chapters tended to focus on the same subjects. A missed opportunity I'd say.

[Dimitris Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this little book together with Alice in Kanji Land as a way to support Cure Dolly, whose channel I've spent many hours watching on YouTube. I recently learned the author has passed away, which is a crying shame, and makes me wonder who gets the money she would otherwise be getting.

Anyway, the book itself has some interesting insights on how Japanese works differently than how your typical textbook would present it, but there's nothing here I hadn't already seen or heard on her channel - and better delivered (even in the typical quirky Cure Dolly that really has to grow on you).

So, my recommendation would be to get this small book only as a bookmark of sorts of her work on YouTube.

[Julian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have some mixed feelings about this book. I bought it because I read something from the author that instantly clarified something I've had trouble with in Japanese for ages. Being so short, I expected it to be densely packed with insight, but it actually spends a lot of pages to say "prescriptive grammarians really messed up English" and "Japanese is an agglutinative language". If you're already familiar with some languages other than English or French you're unlikely to have trouble with the passive or agglutinative aspects emphasized here. There are also a number of errors in the kana, not present in the romaji, which is a bit distressing. All that said, there are a few really strong points here I haven't seen anywhere else that made me feel it was well worth reading.

[Rachel Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful!

This book was quick, succinct, and cleared up some foggy ideas in the textbook I've been working through. I'd recommend this to anyone learning Japanese, especially those who have become frustrated with unnecessary, overly complex rules and exceptions which can easily be avoided by reframing the way the Japanese language is explained *cough* Genki *cough*. I also feel justified in my frustration with inaccurate translation within the dang textbook. It isn't that the authors don't know better, but writing translations in a manner more familiar way to English speakers does nothing but add 1 more hurdle to overcome when attempting to write and speak your own sentences using proper Japanese grammar!

[Karol Szczepański · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading this book, I feel like it raises a few good points, but I was not the person it was targeted to.
I feel like the author explains some points that can either:
- be found really easily on the Internet,
- you might discover by immersion and simply learning the language if you are not just using textbooks.

I still consider myself a beginner in the language, but most of the concepts in the book I either already knew or thought were explanations directed towards people who sometimes think too hard about the grammar. The explanations were a mixed bag too: some of them were easy to grasp and other dived into linguistics a little too much for my liking.

[chrstphre campbell · Rating 1 out of 5]

More like a puzzle book than a tutorial ( ? )

There’s no differenation in The Japanese Characters or The English phrases, to determine what is what !
If you have a natural inclination to break sentences & pictoglyphs apart to understand The parts as they are mixed & matched, then congratulations, but this book isn’t going to help you with it ( ? )
What is The point of this book ( ? ) is it supposed to be helpful in understanding Japanese, or is a joke book for anyone that is already at a 3rd grade reading level & is able to pick apart what The author is skipping past ( ? )

[Gary D · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most important reads for any student of Japanese.

Cure Dolly has some strange YouTube videos as far as style is concerned but here the core explanations of the pure logical consistency of Japanese is laid out plainly. DO NOT SKIP THIS BOOK. So much becomes clear after her explanation of how we suffer seeing Japanese through the lenses of English grammar. I guarantee you will be glad you read it.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cure Dolly bravely wrote a book on the basic principle that if your theory of grammar cannot explain a simple sentence like “I like cake” your theory probably sucks!

Major Japanese textbooks are just addicted to writing in a way that sacrifices actual knowledge for the feeling of progress. They are very complete, so you will need them, but you need to be primed on their tricks before going in (or after being victimized by them). That’s what Unlocking Japanese offers.

[Kevin Doran · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short and not overly informative.

Reads like a long blog post. While a love short books that don’t suffer from being padded to size, I felt that this short book read more like an introductory chapter, and I feel that there is much more material that could have been included.

[Fil Krynicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow

Some amazing and surprising insights into the underlying rules of Japanese grammar. Strips away many seeming exceptions to reveal universalism instead. All in a short, 1-2 hour read.

[Clicky Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a short explanation of how to approach certain grammatical topics when learning Japanese which help make things make much more sense. It cleared up some troublesome issues for me - but is one I'll need to go back to a few times as my studying progresses.

[Fernando Paes Martin]

Makes Japanese more approachable

This book is the perfect complement to the YouTube videos. This is a complete different approach to the study of Japanese that I haven't seen before and really makes Japanese easier to understand.

[Jakub · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been studying Japanese for almost 3 years and only recently stumbled upon Cure Dolly Sensei.
To say that her explanations are “game changing” is an understatement. I wish I discovered her sooner.

[Caleb Stober · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helpful

This was actually rather insightful and goes a long way towards eliminating so many of the grammatical “exceptions” I’ve got to juggle in my mind as I’m learning and using Japanese