Japanese For Dummies

Hiroko M. Chiba, Eriko Sato

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781119475415
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Learn to speak Japanese

Japanese language enrollment is up by 27.5 percent since 2006, making it the sixth most popular language studied on college campuses. Whether studying for school, business, or travel, Japanese For Dummies provides complete coverage of all Japanese language essentials including grammar, usage, and vocabulary.

Complete with free conversational audio tracks online, this handy book offers everything you need to learn the Japanese language to get ahead in class or on a trip to Japan. In no time, you'll make sense of the language well enough to communicate with native speakers!

• Includes expanded coverage of grammar, verb conjugations, and pronunciations
• Provides a refreshed mini-dictionary with even more essential vocabulary
• Offers useful exercises and practice opportunities
• Helps you learn to speak conversational Japanese with ease

Whether for work, school, or fun, Japanese For Dummies is the fast and easy way to add this language to your skillset!

Part 1

Getting Started with Japanese

IN THIS PART …

Find out what the Japanese sounds sound like.

Get to know what Japanese writing scripts look like.

Discover Japanese grammar basics.

Understand numbers, basic words, and phrases used around your household.

Chapter 1

Japanese in a Nutshell

IN THIS CHAPTER

Dipping your toes into Japanese writing and grammar

Working with simple expressions and basic numbers

Exploring Japanese at home, at work, at play, and abroad

Welcome to Japanese! Now that you’ve decided to learn this intriguing language, I’m sure you’re eager to find out as much as you can as quickly as you can. After all, you probably have co-workers, friends, neighbors, and others to impress with your newfound language skills. Well, here’s your chance to dive into Japanese. This chapter offers you a mini-preview of what you can find throughout Japanese For Dummies, 3rd Edition.

Discovering Basic Japanese Sounds and Script

Japanese sounds are pretty easy to pronounce. For one thing, Japanese has only five basic vowels: a (ah), i (ee), u (oo), e (eh), and o (oh). In addition, you don’t see a long string of consonants before or after a vowel, unlike in Russian or Polish. You just have to pay attention to a handful of strange consonants, such the Japanese r, which makes a sound somewhere between the English l and r. You can pronounce basic sounds in Japanese along with the online audio recordings featured in Chapter 2.

Japanese writing, on the other hand, can be confusing because Japanese scripts don’t look at all like Western alphabets. The Japanese scripts consist of two sets of kana (kah-nah) — phonetic symbols for Japanese syllables — and about 2,000 kanji (kahn-jee) characters, which are Chinese characters adapted for Japanese. If you just want to learn how to speak Japanese, you may want to skip focusing on these Japanese scripts and use rōmaji (rohh-mah-jee), the Romanized spellings of Japanese words. However, getting used to the Japanese scripts is a good idea, especially if you plan to use your Japanese skills to travel. If you can recognize some of the Japanese scripts, you can get around in a Japanese town more easily because all street signs are written in only the Japanese scripts.

Another advantage of being able to recognize the Japanese scripts, especially kana, is that you can avoid reading Japanese like English. For example, the Japanese word that means bamboo is take. As an English speaker, you may have an urge to read take as teh-ee-koo because you know the English word to take, but the Japanese pronunci...