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Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You

Textbook

by Jay Rubin

( 10 ratings, 4 reviews )

person( 3 reading, 19 finished )

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Blurb

Making Sense of Japanese is the fruit of one foolhardy American's thirty-year struggle to learn and teach the Language of the Infinite. Previously known as Gone Fishin', this book has brought Jay Rubin more feedback than any of his literary translations or scholarly tomes, "even if," he says, "you discount the hate mail from spin-casters and the stray gill-netter."

To convey his conviction that "the Japanese language is not vague," Rubin has dared to explain how some of the most challenging Ja...

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Specs

Page Count:

144

ISBN13:

9781568364926

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Reviews

(3.70/5)

10 ratings4 reviews

Entertainment(3.50/5)

4 ratings

Language learning(4.20/5)

5 ratings

blakedgrosssays

December 25, 2023

Language Learning

Entertainment

Lack of Kanji/Kana holds back what is otherwise a well written resource

The other reviews are very thorough. I thought this was mostly well written and a resource I’ll return to, but wanted to emphasize that if you aren’t very familiar with romaji like me the examples are very difficult to read. The last chapter is a highlight that uses kanji/kana.

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Anomalysays

September 27, 2023

Language Learning

Entertainment

It wasn't worth it.

This was a DNF at approximately 75%. Approximately, because I ended up skipping the last 1/3 of Part 1, and skimmed through Part 2 – essentially looking for “The Good Parts, Abridged” – before getting fed up.

I read the 2012 reprint, which appears to be an unaltered reprint of the 1998 edition. The book relies on romaji (some scarce scatterings of kana and kanji), which fell out of favor between those two dates; along with the preface it indicates that this text has remained unchanged for a qua

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eefarasays

August 9, 2023

Language Learning

Entertainment

I don't have much to add after pm215's excellent review, only to say that I found this book more helpful when I was a solid intermediate learner, rather than anywhere in the beginner stages. By that point I knew each topic well enough to understand the fine distinctions the author was trying to make, as well as understand why I would need those fine distinctions.

A great little book, but definitely as a supplement and not as any source of knowledge you're studying for the first time.

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pm215says

August 2, 2023

Language Learning

This is a slim volume of articles on a variety of mostly grammar topics that tend to cause trouble for Japanese learners at the early intermediate stage, where they've completed the equivalent of a basic textbook like Minna no Nihongo but some of the grammar is still confusing. It helped me a lot when I was at that stage, and I find myself frequently recommending the book to other people, because the topics covered are mostly the main ones everybody has trouble with at that point in their Japane

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squarefairyrated

December 22, 2021

Language Learning