Japanese for All Occasions: Mastering Speech Styles from Casual to Honorific Paperback – April 1, 2011

First off, I appreciate that Kodansha did not make yet another book with a bunch of annoying romanized text (my biggest pet peeve about Japanese language books). Instead, this book not only uses furigana, but also drops it when a kanji recurs in the same dialog. This helps kanji recognition and reading speed.The format of this book is situation-based, in contrast to the grammatical concept approach of most textbooks, so the lessons can be better integrated into real everyday use more quickly. Make sure to use the audio CD, obviously. It surprises me how hard it is to find good resources that bridge the gap between serious language lessons and everyday phrasebooks. I personally have no interest in passing a test, but would like to both serious understand the language and understand what people around me are actually saying in real life.I just started with this, but I know enough Japanese already to recognize that this approach has quite a bit of potential. I dread doing Genki exercises, so this is a welcome change of pace.

I like this book as it is oriented towards Japanese conversation in real life (mostly). It was fun to mimic the conversations with a friend as well! I would highly-recommend for beginners.

For all lover s of 日本語の勉強。。。I highly recommend this book. I absolutely love it!!!!! It doubles as a learners aid as well as a novel I can browse at my leisure...

Required reading for understanding the caste system of Japanese and slight variations in speaking to avoid hurt feelings. Smooth translations will be essential.

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was exactly as described.

fairly disappointed. it cost $25 and there's not much to it. it's very small very thin. I guess I expected a lot more. the furigana is so tiny it can't even be read. this book is useless. absolute waste of money!