Japanese Core Words and Phrases: Things You Cant Find in a Dictionary

by Kakuko Shoji

Some Japanese words and phrases, even though they lie at the core of the language, forever elude the student's grasp. They are not explained satisfactorily in dictionaries or textbooks for the simple reason that they cannot be conveniently defined. Japanese Core Words and Phrases brings these recalcitrants to bay.

The book is divided into two parts, each of which is arranged in alphabetical order. The first part is devoted to words indicating...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 4770027745
• ISBN13: 9784770027740
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Kodansha
• Length: 131 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.9" x 4.9"

Customer Reviews

Very helpful

I guess this book came about because the author has taught many students and has found some general problems. Some of these problems are highlighted in this book. Thus it is very useful for the learner. The structure of the book is not that great, but that is not important. You just work yourself through the whole book. This is not a dictionary for looking things up. It is a book to be studied from the beginning to the end. Intermediate level

Essential for natural-sounding spoken Japanese.

At about 130 pages, this book isn't the comprehensive guide to speaking Japanese naturally. However, it is an invaluable supplement to intermediate or advanced students of the language. For students with a grasp on basic and intermediate grammar points, this book will take your speaking ability to the next level. The book reviews simple constructions, like "over here," "from now on," "lately," and many many more. However, both sections of the book include a wealth of more advanced highly-used expressions. For example, the book explains how to say things like: "I could care less if...," "One way or another...," "When you look at it that way...," "Out of nowhere...," "Who the heck...?!" You can review the table of contents of this book by clicking "Search inside this book," underneath the cover image above. A few examples are given for each expression, written in Japanese and romaji with English translations. Along with the examples, a general explanation of the expression and its usage is given in English. In all, this book is a great reference for students of Japanese. I recommend studying one or two of the expressions every day. Before long, you will begin to notice them frequently in conversation and even start to use them yourself.

An Excellent Aid for the Intermediate Student

This little book provides a guide to many important Japanese words and phrases that are difficult to find in a dictionary. The explanations are straightforward, and it provides sufficient examples (although more would be better). I find this book very helpful, and have gone back to it again and again for the better part of a year. I suspect I will keep it around for some time to come. Not bad for 131 pages. A couple of warnings, however: This book is not for beginners. Moreover, it is a supplement or aid, rather than a complete textbook. With those caveats in mind, I wholehearted recommend it.

Wish I'd bought this sooner!

This book really is excellent in every way. I'm an intermediate/advanced japanese student, although I mainly study on my own these days. Because of that, I needed something to teach me some of the little things that are difficult to find in a book, yet are a big part of the language, and this book does that. It has a HUGE list of Japanese idioms, set phrases, and similar grammatical tools that are absolutely integral to the Japanese language, and I often found myself going "Oh yah, that's the kind of thing I would say in English, but never thought to learn it in Japanese!" Basically, if you want to take a break from the textbooks and learn some really good fundamental and natural Japanese grammar, this book is for you. For the price, you simply can't beat it. I also HIGHLY recommend "Basic Connections:Making Your Japanese Flow." With those two books, you'll have enough info to last you a long time!

A Great List of Expressions that are not in Dictionaries

I feel that my comprehension of written Japanese has improved as a result of reading this book. By reading novels in Japanese I found out how insufficient most dictionaries and grammar references are with regard to the Japanese I often found in novels. Thus, I was quite pleased when I found this book because it seemed to cover a lot of the words that I had been unsuccessfully searching for in dictionaries. This book is broken down into two sections: gdemonstrative pronounsh and gidiomatic expression.h Under each section there is a list of phrases; each phrase covered receives over a paragraph long explanation, as well as numerous example sentences. Furthermore, I feel that this bookfs best point is the selection of words covered. Thus, I feel that this book is a good value because you will likely not find the same expressions in other resources. Also, I think that this book has particular value to those students who want to start to gain confidence reading Japanese literature.