The Ultimate Japanese Phrasebook: 1800 Sentences for Everyday Use

The Ultimate Japanese Phrasebook is an ambitious phrasebookfor students who want to improve their speaking and listening skills. The bookfeatures 1,800 expressions for daily use, in English and Japanese, with theJapanese presented in both native script and roman letters.

Topics include basic greetings, self-introductions, talkingabout the weather, getting around, ordering at a restaurant, visiting aJapanese friend”s home, special events (birthdays, funerals, weddings, baby”sbirth), and much, much more.

What sets this book apart from others is its focus onsentence-level utterances. Many phrasebooks present loads of useful vocabulary,but provide little or no guidance on how to use those words in actualsentences.

The Ultimate Japanese Phrasebook shows how Japanesesentences work. All the sentences are of the sort students are likely to use inJapan. Throughout the book, key vocabulary is listed along the bottom of eachpage, allowing learners to build on what they already know.

And there are notes and special columns on usage andcommunication strategies.

Best of all, the book comes with audio containing all thesentences read aloud, with feeling, in both English and Japanese. The audio isavailable for free from kodansha.us.

About the Author

KIT PANCOAST NAGAMURA, a Tokyo resident since 1991,has a Ph.D. in literature and has won various teaching and writing awards. Sheworks as a freelance writer and editor, and as an acquisitions editor atKodansha Ltd. She has authored or coauthored three English-language phrasebooks for Japanese learners of English. She regularly writes for the JapanTimes and other media outlets.

KYOKO TSUCHIYAwas born in Nagoya, Japan, and graduated from theTokyo University Faculty of Liberal Arts, where she majored in Americanstudies. She is a professional translator. Among the works she has renderedinto Japanese are Emotional Intelligence (Daniel Goleman), Divine Secrets ofthe Ya-Ya Sisterhood (Rebecca Wells), and The Yearling (Marjorie KinnanRawlings).