Review & Giveaway 20: More Making Out In Japanese

Here’s another review of a book I’ve received from Tuttle Books!
As always, they have agreed to give (gave) one free copy of this book to a random visitor to my blog!

The book I’m reviewing today is titled “More Making Out in Japanese: Completely Revised and Updated with new Manga Illustrations – A Japanese Phrase Book” by Todd Geers and Erika Hoburg; revised by Elisha Geers.

More Making Out in Japanese:  A Japanese Phrase Book

I will put the details of the free drawing for this book at the end of this post.

This is a Japanese language phrase book mainly aimed at people looking to hook up romantically with a Japanese person, either short-term or even possibly long-term.

Most of the language and phrases in it are extremely casual…and some are even vulgar. So, it’s not particularly useful as a standard phrase book / study guide.

Though it’s best to stick to speaking polite Japanese in almost all cases…especially if you’re not really strong with the Japanese language – but there are some situations where this type of language is more appropriate…but, if you’re unsure, it’s always best to err on the side of caution and use “standard” polite language.

“More Making Out in Japanese: Completely Revised and Updated with new Manga Illustrations – A Japanese Phrase Book” can be purchased through Amazon here.

But, as I said above, Tuttle Books has agreed to give (gave) one random visitor to my blog a free copy of this book.

To enter the drawing for the free book, submit this form by 2015 August 31st:

***** Updated August 31st, 2015 *****

This special promo ended on 2015 August 31st. One random winner was selected and contacted directly by Tuttle Publishers (via email) with the details about the free book.

Thank you to all who entered, but only the winner was contacted.
*****

Review & Giveaway 19: Mastering Japanese Kanji

Yet another review of a book I’ve received from Tuttle Books!
As always, they have agreed to give (gave) one free copy of this book to a random visitor to my blog!

The book I’m reviewing today is titled “Mastering Japanese Kanji: The Innovative Visual Method for Learning Japanese Characters (CD-ROM Included)” by Glen Nolan Grant.

Mastering Japanese Kanji: The Innovative Visual Method for Learning Japanese Characters (CD-ROM Included)

I will put the details of the free drawing for this book at the end of this post.

The written Japanese language has three scripts: hiragana and katakana (collectively known as “kana“) and thousands of kanji.

The script that is taught in this book is kanji. These are the characters that make up most of the Japanese written language. They were introduced to Japan from China. The Chinese written language uses these characters (albeit often a bit different from Japanese ones), but because Japanese grammar is quite different from Chinese, kana characters are needed in addition to kanji to write Japanese.

These characters are the most difficult to learn because there are so many of them, they are often complicated to write, and almost all have more than one possible pronunciation.

But, if you can read kanji, it helps a lot if you live in, or even visit, Japan!

If you’re serious about learning Japanese, you should begin studying kanji after you learn hiragana and katakana.

“Mastering Japanese Kanji: The Innovative Visual Method for Learning Japanese Characters” is an excellent tool for studying Japanese kanji.
It tells the most common pronunciation for 200 common kanji characters, the English meaning, gives examples of compound words with that character, and example sentences.
It also tells how to write each character properly and has spaces to practice. There are quizzes throughout the book to test you comprehension (with the answers at the back of the book).
In addition, there is a free CD-ROM included that demonstrates how to write the characters and how to pronounce words using the characters.

“Mastering Japanese Kanji: The Innovative Visual Method for Learning Japanese Characters (CD-ROM Included)” can be purchased through Amazon here.

But, as I said above, Tuttle Books has agreed to give (gave) one random visitor to my blog a free copy of this book.

To enter the drawing for the free book, submit this form by 2015 August 31st:

***** Updated August 31st, 2015 *****

This special promo ended on 2015 August 31st. One random winner was selected and contacted directly by Tuttle Publishers (via email) with the details about the free book.

Thank you to all who entered, but only the winner was contacted.
*****

Review & Giveaway 18: Writing Japanese Katakana

Here’s another review of a book I’ve received from Tuttle Books!
As usual, they have agreed to give (gave) one free copy of this book to a random visitor to my blog!

The book I’m reviewing today is titled “Writing Japanese Katakana (An Introductory Japanese Language Workbook)” by Jim Gleeson.

Writing Japanese Katakana (An Introductory Japanese Language Workbook)

I will put the details of the free drawing for this book at the end of this post.

The written Japanese language has three scripts: hiragana and katakana (collectively known as “kana“) and thousands of kanji.

The script that is taught in this book is katakana. This script is mainly used for writing foreign words (such as English), onomatopoeic words and also it’s used for emphasis (in a similar way that italics are used in English).

I’d recommend learning hiragana before katakana, just as Japanese children do…so, if you don’t already know hiragana, there’s still time to enter the drawing for the free copy of the (a) hiragana study book in this series. (Click here)

“Writing Japanese Katakana (An Introductory Japanese Language Workbook)” is a good book for those who wish to learn Japanese. When studying Japanese, you should start by learning to read and write hiragana…and then, you should study katakana next.
Not only will it help you to be able to read signs, menus, etc in Japan…but knowing and using katakana will help you to pronounce foreign words and onomatopoeia in the way that Japanese people understand them.

This book has plenty of spaces for you to practice writing the katakana characters as you learn them…which is the best way to remember them.
It also has you write some example sentences using the characters you’ve learned up to that point.

“Writing Japanese Katakana (An Introductory Japanese Language Workbook)” can be purchased through Amazon here.

But, as I said above, Tuttle Books has agreed to give (gave) one random visitor to my blog a free copy of this book.

To enter the drawing for the free book, submit this form by 2015 August 31st:

***** Updated August 31st, 2015 *****

This special promo ended on 2015 August 31st. One random winner was selected and contacted directly by Tuttle Publishers (via email) with the details about the free book.

Thank you to all who entered, but only the winner was contacted.
*****

Japanese palindromes and semordnilaps

Do you know what a “palindrome” is?  In Japanese, it’s called 「回文」 (“kai-bun“).
It’s a word or phrase that is the same word or phrase when it’s written backwards.

English examples are:
-“Race car“. Written backwards, it still spells “race car”.
and
-“Never odd or even“. That phrase is the same when it’s read back-to-front, too.

A Japanese palindrome is:
– “トマト” (tomato). In English, “tomato” is “otamot” when it’s written backwards, so it isn’t a palindrome in English. But written in Japanese, 「トマト」 is the same word back-to-front.

Then there are semordnilaps. These are words that spell a new, different word when written in reverse.

Examples in English are:
– “Star“. It spells “rats” when written backwards.
– “Live” → “Evil“.
– “Desserts” → “Stressed“.
And – “Semordnilap” is a semordnilap of “palindromes“.

In Japanese, a couple examples:
– “すずき” (“Su-zu-ki”) → “傷す” (“Ki-zu-su”) (“scratch”)
– “砂糖” (“Sa-to-u”) (English: “sugar”) → “疎さ” (“U-to-sa”) (Eng.: “sparse”)

But, because of the way that Japanese is written (with 漢字 characters), the Japanese language has a unique kind of “semordnilap“.
There are Japanese words that, when written in reverse, not only have a different meaning, but the words also have a totally different pronunciation. I mean, they aren’t pronounced as a backwards reading (like “star” and “rats”, etc).
They do, though, have the same 漢字 characters…just in the reverse order.

Let me show you an example:
– “花火” (“hanabi”) (Eng.: “fireworks”) → “火花” (“hibana”) (Eng.: “spark”).

Both of those words have the same two 漢字 characters, but in reverse order.

Here are some others:
– “神風” (“kamikaze”) (Eng.: “kamikaze” (lit. “Wind of God”) → “風神” (“fu-u-jin”) (Eng.: “God of the Wind”).
– “会社” (“kaisha”) (Eng.: “The office”) → “社会” (“shakai”) (Eng.: “society”).
– “日本” (“Nippon”) (Eng.: “Japan”) → “本日” (“honjitsu”) (Eng.: “today”).

There are also words in Japanese which have more than one pronunciation…and sometimes even different meanings.
For example:
– 風車　… it can be pronounced “fuu-sha” and mean “wind mill” and it can also be pronounced “kaza-guruma” and mean “pinwheel“.

風車 (fuu-sha)

風車 (kaza-guruma)

What are other “semordnilaps” and “palindromes” that you can think of (in any language)?

Book review & giveaway 2: Intermediate Japanese

As I mentioned last month, Tuttle Books sent me a couple books to review on my blog here.

And they also are kindly giving one free copy of each book to a random visitor to my blog.

Click here to read my review of the book about Japanese architecture (and to enter , by 2014 August 31st, for a chance to win a free copy of that book).

The book that I am reviewing here is titled “Intermediate Japanese by Michael L. Kluemper and Lisa Berkson.
(At the end of this post will be the details of the book giveaway.)

Are you studying Japanese? If so, this book and accompanying CD are an excellent tool!

All of the other Japanese study materials that I have were written by Japanese people, so I was at bit skeptical at first about this book because neither of the authors are native Japanese speakers.
But they both have studied Japanese for years and worked as translators and Japanese language teachers at high schools in America (that was a surprise to me too! Do high schools in America have Japanese language classes now?)…and their method of teaching the language is a bit differently than a Japanese teacher’s. I think that, as they learned Japanese as a second language too, they have an approach to teaching it that may be easier for non-Japanese to learn.

This book has a manga style story written in Japanese. New kanji is introduced using “furigana” the first time, but is written without it from then on.
It also has kanji study pages, vocabulary drills, and exercises to test the learner’s understanding.
It also has a CD of the new vocabulary words and the story dialogs. I copied the CD onto my phone and listen on the train during my work commute.

I have the “Intermediate Japanese” book. The book have little English and the CD has none. So it’s good for intermediate level learners…there are also beginner and advanced level books in this series.

As I said above, I like this book and think it’s a very good study tool.

If you’d like to purchase it, it’s available at this Amazon.com link.

Tuttle Books is giving (gave) one copy of this book to a random visitor of my blog.

Fill in this form by 2014 August 31st for a chance to win it:

***** Updated September 1st, 2014 *****

This special promo ended on 2014 August 31st. One random winner was selected and contacted directly by Tuttle Publishers (via email) with the details about the free book.

Thank you to all who entered, but only the winner was contacted.
*****

 

Chance to win a free Lexikeet subscription

Last April, I wrote a blog post about Lexikeet, the online language study program.

Lexikeet has just contacted me again and would like to offer three random visitors to my blog a chance to win a free six-month Lexikeet subscription!

To qualify to enter the raffle for the free subscription, you must:

1.   follow my blog “Tokyo Five” and/or follow my Twitter account,  and

2.  like Lexikeet on their facebook page and/or follow the Lexikeet Twitter account.

After you’ve done those, then fill out and submit the following form (all information you submit in this form will remain confidential and not shared with any other parties other than Lexikeet)

***** Updated August 1st, 2014 *****

This special promo ended on 2014 July 31st. Three random winners were selected and contacted directly by Lexikeet (via email) with the details about the free subscription.

Thank you to all who entered, but only the three winners were contacted.
*****

As a disclaimer: I, the blogger known as “Tokyo Five”, have no affiliation with Lexikeet and I gain nothing from this promotion. I simply believe their program is a useful tool to learn Japanese or other languages.
I cannot be held responsible for any misunderstandings that possibly arise from this campaign.

Lexikeet

Do you study Japanese (or Spanish or Chinese)?  Or plan to?

You should look into signing up with Lexikeet.

To really learn a language, you must practice reading, writing, speaking and listening…this program helps you to do that.
Not only reading and listening, like many online study programs…but it also has a system to help you to practice writing and speaking Japanese, as well.

It’s not perfect though. I signed up for a free trial and I didn’t use it as often as I would have liked…simply because there is no mobile version of their site or Android app.
I prefer to study Japanese on my morning train commute to work…I don’t really “feel like it” after work or on weekends.
But, they’re currently running a special campaign until the end of this month (2014 April 30th)…membership is only US$9.99 / month.

So…if you like to study with your computer, and you want to learn Japanese, Chinese or Spanish…I recommend Lexikeet.

Riddle

Here’s a なぞなぞ (Japanese riddle).

Can you guess the answer?

ねだんが分からない寿司はな～んだ？
(What type of sushi has an unknown price?)

Write your answer in the comment section of this post.
I’ll put the correct answer here soon.

***************************************
edited: 2013 April 11

Here is the answer (there are two possible answers):

First, the more common answer is:

「いくら」 (fish roe)

This is because 「いくら」 is pronounced “ikura” and is “fish roe”, which is a possible topping on sushi.
But also 「いくら」　(ikura) is the Japanese for “What is the price?”

Another possible answer is:
「はまち」 (Yellowtail Tuna)

This is also a possible answer to the riddle because 「はまち」 is another possible sushi topping, and it’s pronounced hamachi which sounds similar (with a Japanese pronunciation) to the English phrase “How much?“

Japanese words in English

Often words or expressions from one language become part of another language. And sometimes the meaning of the word gets changed.

In Japan, alot of words of foreign origin are used in the Japanese language. Many are used quite differently in Japanese than they are in their country of origin.
For example, パン (pan) is Japanese for bread. It came from the Portuguese word “pão“, which means “bread”. And 「カステラ」 (Kasutera) is the Japanese word for a type of cake that was introduced from Portugal called “Castella“.

There are many others. From English, Japan uses words like 「アイスクリーム」 (ice cream) and バスケットボール (basketball)*.
*(Foreign sports usually keep their original name in Japanese. An exception is 「野球」 (“Yakyuu“) for “baseball”. (lit. “field globe (ball)), which isn’t called by it’s English name because it was introduced to Japan during WW2 when America was considered an enemy.)

Some words are shortened. Such as テレビ (Terebi) for “television”. And some words have morphed into something unrecognizable to English-speakers, such as 「スキンシップ」 (skinship) for “bonding”.

But it works the other way too.
America (and other countries as well, I’m sure) have adopted Japanese words into the English language. Some have retained their original meaning. But others are used with totally different meanings than the “real” Japanese meaning.
And many “Japanese words” in English are pronounced so differently that a Japanese person wouldn’t recognize it.
For example,
★ 「アニメ」 (anime: Japanese animation)
★ 「マンガ」 (manga: Japanese comics)
★ 「オタク」 (otaku: is used as “fanatic” overseas, but “a Trekkie” is closer to the Japanese meaning)
★ 「カラオケ」 (karaoke)
★ 「さようなら」 (sayonara: farewell (not used in Japan in cases when you’ll be seeing the person again before long))
★ 「台風」 (taifuu: in English, the pronunciation morphed to “typhoon”)
★ 「きもの」 (kimono)
★ 「寿司」 (sushi: isn’t “raw fish” (that’s sashimi). Sushi is vinegared-rice with a topping (such as sashimi))
★ 「(お)酒」 ((O)-saké)
★ 「すき焼き」 (sukiyaki)
★ 「相撲」 (sumo: Japan’s national sport)
★ 「芸者」 (Geisha: aren’t prostitutes)
★ 「歌舞伎」 (Kabuki)

A promo poster for a Kabuki show

★ 「班長」 (hanchou: morphed into the English “(Head) honcho“)
★ 「津波」 (tsunami)
★ 「人力車」 (jin-riki-sha: morphed into the English “Rick-shaw“)

I’m sure there are more. This is all that I could think of off the top of my head.
Do you know some other instances of Japanese words being popularly used in English (or another language)?

日本語を勉強

Do you study 日本語 (Japanese)?
Can you understand the following passage? Is it too easy? Too difficult?

(It was taken from the book A Course In Modern Japanese, vol.2).
I transcribed the first lesson of the book here (as always, I added ふりがな to the 漢字 (Japanese Kanji characters)…but only the first time each one appears.

+++

「落し物」

ルイン：　山田さん、ちょっと教えて下さい。
山田：　ああ、ルインさん。何ですか。
ルイン：　あのう、財布を落としたんですが、どこに連絡すればいいでしょうか。
山田：　えっ、どこで。
ルイン：　それはよく分からないんです。地下鉄に乗る前に駅で電話したときはあったんですけど。
山田：　じゃあ、たぶん駅か地下鉄の中ですね。
ルイン：　ええ。
山田：　じゃ、駅に連絡すればいいと思います。
ルイン：　ああ、駅ですか。
山田：　ええ。だれかが拾って届けてるかもしれませんから。
ルイン：　あ、そうですね。
山田：　私が電話しましょうか。
ルイン：　あ、いいです。私がしますから。
山田：　そうですか。
ルイン：　はい。ありがとうございました。