Job Discussion Forums

GajinGirl · Joined: 24 Jun 2003 Posts: 9 Location: U.S.A

Hello Everyone

I'm very excited to have been offered a position in Chiba. It starts in about 5 weeks and I was wanted to get a little familliar with some basic Japanese writing.
I have seen many books on the 3 types of scripts at my bookstore but does anyone have a recommendation on a favorite book or suggestions on what script to focus on (katakana, hiragana, kanji)? I just want to learn some basics so I'm not totally helpless Embarassed

Thanks so much folks.
Regards

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Any Japanese-English dictionary will show you the basic 47 characters in hiragana and katakana, so no special book is needed for these (unless you really feel the need to learn how to write them in proper stroke order).

For kanji basics, look at these.
Basic Kanji Book, Volume 1 and 2
by Chieko Kano, Yuri Shimizu, Hiroko Takenaka, & Eriko Ishii; 1989, Bonjinsha Co., Ltd., (228 & 262 pages), 2400 yen and 2500 yen

markosonlines · Joined: 22 May 2003 Posts: 49 Location: Ise

Get your hiragana and katagana down pat, then move onto kanji. You'll pick up a dozen or so kanji just through exposure and if you're going to stay for just a year or two I wouldn't bother with kanji much, unless you're particularly studious or have lots of free time.

I agree with Glenski, get yourself a dictionary, and an exercise book to practice them in. Also, any good Japanese language book will have the kana alphabets in it. The first page of one book I have has the alphabet even though the entire book is in romaji !?!?! I learned them by using home-made flashcards for a month or two when I got here in March. Now that I can read the scripts I have to learn what the words actually mean!?!?!

Markos

GajinGirl · Joined: 24 Jun 2003 Posts: 9 Location: U.S.A

Thanks so much Glenski and Markos,
this will give me a good place to start!

easyasabc · Joined: 13 Jul 2003 Posts: 179 Location: Japan

Gaijin Girl,

For learning to recognise some basic kanji that will help you get around I would recommend a small paperback book called Read Japanese Today by Len Walsh. It really helped me and it only cost about 1200 yen here in Japan so I think it must be pretty cheap wherever you are.

I agree with the other on the hiragana and katakana - they're not really that hard and katakana is kind of good because once you can read it you can often figure out what the word means because it will sound so much like an English word. E.G. If you are looking at a menu and recognise the katakana enough to make out something that sounds like "su-pa-ge-ti" then it's easy to recognise as "spaghetti".

shmooj · Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 1758 Location: Seoul, ROK

And another thing about reading menus. Once you have figured out all the characters it might still sound completely obscure. Try saying all the sounds really fast and it usually resembles the original language more. Now you have to hope the original word was English otherwise it will still be hopeless!

For practice here in Japan, get hold of takeout menus when you visit a place. Then you can practice going through the menu at home.

Another tip, drop the short u vowel after s (in the su character) so that su-pa-ge-tti becomes s-pa-ge-tti. The Japanese do this and it often makes katakana words easier to decipher.

shmooj · Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 1758 Location: Seoul, ROK

GajinGirl · Joined: 24 Jun 2003 Posts: 9 Location: U.S.A

These are great tips! Thanks everyone. I am off to Barnes and Noble bookstore.

Cheers