‘”Read Real Japanese Essays” has 8 stimulating essays with translations of all the complex passages, a Japanese-English dictionary for quick lookup, tailored to your needs, and a free CD with audio narrations performed by a professional actress. A wonderful read for those learning Japanese and for anyone who is interested in Japanese culture’
TITLE: Read Real Japanese Essays
EDITED by Janet Ashby
NARRATED by Matsunaga Reiko
PUBLISHER: Kodansha International; Pap/Com Bl edition
PAGE COUNT: 240
Released in June 2, 2008
“There is a world of difference between reading Japanese that has been specially contrived for students and reading real Japanese– that is, real-world Japanese written for native speakers. The contrived variety might be called schoolmarm Japanese: standard to the point of insipidity, controlled to the point of domestication, restricted to the point of impoverishment. The Read Real Japanese series, comprising one volume each of essays and fiction, provides the real thing– lively writings by contemporary authors.”
Read Real Japanese Essays is a great read for those trying to learn the language because it has written translations and you get to listen to the light-hearted passages while reading along.
This book includes essays from Murakami Haruki, Sakai Junko, Kakuta Mitsuyo, Yoshimoto Banana, Machida Kou, Ogawa Yoko, Hirano Keiichiro, and Hideo Levy.
Not only are there translations as you read, but there is a whole section of the book that has a glossary, and in depth notes on various parts of each essay to help those still learning the language. Actually, almost half of the book are notes and a glossary.
This book can be enjoyed by various audiences: those who are learning Japanese, those who can read and understand Japanese but could use a little help at times(like me), native Japanese speakers and even those who don’t know Japanese. I think this could also help native Japanese speakers who are trying to learn English because they can see how the Japanese is translated into English.
Not only is this book a very helpful book, but most of the essays themselves are very light reads and they are actually fun to read. They are entertaining. So what could be better than reading something that’s entertaining and educational? However, the essays do vary in difficulty from the beginning of the book to the end of the book.
The subjects vary from telling white lies to talking about mathematical equations. Though it may sound difficult, the essays still somehow end up rather easy to read and are fun. For the harder essays, I personally used the CD to listen as I read which helped me greatly.
My favorites were Sakai Junko and Machida Kou’s essays. Sakai Junko’s essay dealt with the theme of how one’s outlook changes once they become an adult. Machida Kou’s essay dealt with how in the Japanese language and how just ending sentences in “desu” can change the sound of the whole passage. Machida Kou even used the Sex Pistols in his example which made for a very fun read.
The extras in this book are great and help so much with reading the book. The in-depth notes break down various passages (which are all numbered), to explain everything about the passages that they might have excluded in the initial translations which are located right next to the Japanese text. The glossary covers the terms and words used in the book, but most of which are used in everyday life so that would help people as well. There is also an introduction to each author before each essay begins. On top of everything else, this is a very well organized book.
This might be too much for those who don’t know the language at all, but it would not be impossible to read. This book can also be used for Japanese classes and I think students would enjoy the passages here because they are light hearted and real life situations.
This book has quickly become one of my favorites and I highly recommend it.