Japanese Beyond Words: How to Walk and Talk Like a Native Speaker

by Andrew Horvat

Learning Japanese is a challenge. And, as many students find out, memorizing sentence patterns, vocabulary, and lists of kanji doesn't necessarily make it easy to communicate with Japanese people. Barriers of culture and social etiquette can be just as difficult to overcome as problems of grammar. And until now, these aspects of learning to communicate with a new culture could only be learned first hand by trial and error. Japanese Beyond Words was written to fill this gap, giving you the tools you need to effectively communicate in Japanese, with the Japanese. If you want to become truly competent in Japanese, you will need to know what your clothes say about you
business cards, and why you should be nice to them
when and how to bow
they're on, they're off, they're on, they're off
what's expected of foreigners (that means you)
circumlocution without dizziness
pronunciation ("read my lips," just doesn't cut it)
how to say no without saying "no"
social uses of politeness . . . and rudeness
behavior at parties and other social gatherings
English in Japanese, and Japanese in English
the differences between men and women (you don't know as much as you think) Long-time Japan resident Andrew Horvat presents these and many, many more topics through a wealth of experience, research, and anecdote. Entertaining, opinionated, as well as educational, Japanese Beyond Words will help you to walk, talk, slurp, and bow your way to cultural (as well as linguistic) fluency in Japanese. A Tokyo-based writer and broadcaster for many years, Andrew Horvat has been a fellow at the National Foreign Language Center in Washington DC (1997), at Stanford University's Center for East Asian Studies (1994/95), and at Simon Fraser University's David Lam Centre for International Communication (1990). His research into the increased international use of the Japanese language was supported in 1994/95 by the Abe Shintaro Fund. He is a member of the Japan Foundation's advisory committee on the teaching of Japanese as a second language.

Genres: Japan, Nonfiction, Japanese Literature

176 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

Reviews

[Geneviève Gish Allouche · Rating 4 out of 5]

Offers lots of insight on Japanese culture and customs.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, mostly because it was a gift from someone special. But it was intellectually stimulating as an exercise in comparing Horvat's description of the Japanese language and culture from a layman's perspective with what I've learned after taking courses on Japanese sociolinguistics and studying the language for 9 years. Not all of what he writes is accurate, but that can be partly attributed to the fact that this book is 15 years old and languages inevitably evolve along with the culture they belong to. Horvat writes clearly and accessibly, although the later chapters (i.e. Advanced Topics) get a bit bogged down by jargon and linguistic terminology. He offers a wealth of entertaining anecdotes from his and others' experiences as foreigners in Japan, as well as Japanese nationals' experiences with Westerners, which carrying each section along just enough to avoid being pedantic. My honest opinion? You'd get more out of this book if you've already some experience with Japanese language and culture. If not, it might be a case of information-overload.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

The history and culture described in this book help explain nuance in Japanese language. The stories drive home the author's points. A short book...but not a quick read. The content is best mulled over and tested.