{"id":1841,"date":"2011-11-01T10:00:31","date_gmt":"2011-11-01T08:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=1841"},"modified":"2011-10-28T11:16:16","modified_gmt":"2011-10-28T09:16:16","slug":"learning-japanese-for-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=1841","title":{"rendered":"Learning Japanese for real"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;\"><strong>Learning Japanese for real: <\/strong>A guide to grammar, use, and genres of the Nihongo world. By <strong>Senko K. Maynard<\/strong>. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2011.<em> <\/em>Pp. xiii, 357. ISBN <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/title\/learning-japanese-for-real-a-guide-to-grammar-use-and-genres-of-the-nihongo-world\/oclc\/656556528&amp;referer=brief_results\">9780824835408<\/a>. $30.<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Reviewed by <strong>Paisly Di Bianca<\/strong>, <em>Northeastern Illinois University<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This book \u2018is written with English speakers in mind\u2019 (xii) and is geared toward the learner who has at least an intermediate knowledge of the language, including the graphemes, grammar, and some vocabulary for comprehension of the examples. It serves as a reference manual that explains some of the particulars of Japanese grammar and provides tips for successful study of the language. Moreover, it includes numerous sociolinguistic and discourse examples that facilitate language competency and performance. M is a linguist and bilingual speaker of Japanese and English. Her knowledge and experience manifest well in a book that answers many of the questions a student of Japanese as a foreign language might have.<\/p>\n<p>The book is divided into seven parts. In Part 1, \u2018Preliminaries\u2019, which comprises the first three chapters, M details her intentions in the book and includes a discussion on the history of Japan, its culture, and variations in the language. Part 2, \u2018Sounds and scripts\u2019, (Chs. 4 and 5), covers the sound and writing systems of Japanese. Part 3, \u2018Words\u2019, (Chs. 6 and 7), discusses the lexicon. Part 4, \u2018Grammar\u2019 (Chs. 8\u201311), covers grammar basics, including a section on emotive expressions. Part 5, \u2018Use\u2019 (Chs. 12\u201316), addresses discourse and sociolinguistics. Part 6, \u2018Genres\u2019 (Chs. 17 and18) includes real examples from <em>manga <\/em>(comic books\/graphic novels), advertisements, magazines, and cell phone novels (a Japanese phenomenon), to illustrate the language topics discussed in the book. The inclusion of these genre sections make M\u2019s book stand out because they are current, pragmatic, and meaningful. The final section, Part 7, \u2018Learning Nihongo\u2019 (Chs. 19 and 20), includes tips for improving language learning, a list of books on Japanese language learning, and information on select study abroad programs.<\/p>\n<p>The book is geared toward American English speakers; the author often points out the differences between Japanese speakers and American speakers. For example, M explains that \u2018in some parts of the United States it is common to\u2026greet complete strangers in an elevator\u2019, which is not customary in Japan (205), and points out that \u2018Japanese speakers apologize far more frequently than Americans\u2019 (212), but she does not give similar examples for other speakers of English.<\/p>\n<p>The book also targets traditionally college-aged students. The resources provided in the final chapter are opportunities typically available to young people. This is not to say that the book would not be useful for the older learner of Japanese, but it is a point worth mentioning.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, this book would be a useful tool for students of the Japanese language who are interested in developing their knowledge of the language as they move towards fluency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learning Japanese for real: A guide to grammar, use, and genres of the Nihongo world. By Senko K. Maynard. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2011. Pp. xiii, 357. ISBN 9780824835408. $30. Reviewed by Paisly Di Bianca, Northeastern Illinois University This book \u2018is written with English speakers in mind\u2019 (xii) and is geared toward the learner [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1841"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1842,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1841\/revisions\/1842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}