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| Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You (Power Japanese Series) (Kodansha's Children's Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: Jay Rubin
Publisher: Kodansha International
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $9.10
You Save: $6.90 (43%)
New (23) Used (7) from $9.10
Avg. Customer Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 13079
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 144
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7 x 5.1 x 0.5
ISBN: 4770028024
Dewey Decimal Number: 495
EAN: 9784770028020
ASIN: 4770028024
Publication Date: March 1, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW
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| Customer Reviews:
Greasing the transition from intermediate to advanced... October 28, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is lots of fun. Rubin is witty, his turns of phrase are memorable, and overall the book will certainly put a smile on your face.
It's only useful once you've been studying Japanese for a couple of years, though.
Before then, it'll go over your head.
I mean, I can only wish for the day when figuring out the passive-causative is the biggest problem I have in Japanese. I bet this book will be all kinds of useful that day, but I'm sure not there yet.
Good information and a good read April 24, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is exactly as advertised; complete, concise information about Japanese grammar. It really fills in the holes in my college Japanese textbook. The auther has a way with words, he had me laughing and remembering language structures I had been struggling with
Such an awesome book for third-years March 31, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I've been studying Japanese for three years now and I've been hitting real walls to my understanding. Jay Rubin is awesome! I had the worst trouble understanding giving and receiving verbs, but he explains them in a way that I can finally understand. The same goes for his section on causatives and passives.
If you are an intermediate Japanese student, BUY THIS BOOK!!! I was blown away.
The only one that... March 24, 2006
21 out of 21 found this review helpful
I own numerous fantastic Japanese grammar reference volumes on Japanese (most of which are available through amazon.) All of them allude to the points that Rubin tackles in this deceivingly slender yet startlingly informative volume. Despite avid interest in grammar and having studied countless hours huddled over cup after cup of espresso, I had questions to which I could not seem to find adequate answers. That changed when I finally tracked down a copy of this book.
If it is credibility you're looking for, Jay Rubin has it: besides a position as a professor of Japanese at an ivy league, he is a famous translator whose works read like English rather than an attempt to superimpose foreign syntax upon each sentence. In other words, this is someone who is comfortable with Japanese and can explain it both as an expert and as one who at one time studied it in school (and struggled, as he explains briefly.)
As for content, the book is concise, funny (I laughed out loud a dozen times,) and incredibly helpful. The content is focused upon the greatest ills of English-speaking students of the Japanese language. The book begins with a fun introduction in which Rubin assaults the myth that Japanese is somehow vague or alien in comparison to other languages of the world. He begins by debunking the tale oft-perpetuated by well-meaning Japanese instructors. You know what I'm talking about: the subjectless sentence. In actuality, these are NOT subjectless anymore than an English sentence using a pronoun or demonstrative is subjectless. Rubin spends time warning the reader to re-evaluate his/her understanding of what it means to have a passive/intransitive verb versus one with an agent and helps to once and for all expell the confusion.
Next comes the reason I purchased the book: an explanation of WA versus GA. Certainly, one may go through years of study believing one's understanding of these particles is moving in the right direction, but Rubin separates them in a way this reviewer certainly has never been taught. Regardless of the mound of linguistic texts and the thousands of grammar drills that have turned my eyes bloodshot over the years, I have never found a single person/book/textbook that has been able to adequately explain which particle is grammatically correct given a specific linguistic environment.
The giving and receiving verbs, passives, causatives, causative-passives, multiple particles, and so on are all discussed in part one. Part two concerns specific problems, including TAME (its uses and distinction between the two), TUMORI (if you just said to yourself "that just means 'i intend...' I suggest checking out the book!), and so on.
It's an inexpensive title and it provides one with so much wonderful information. It's easily some of the best money I've ever spent on my education. I recommend it and could scarcely recommend it with more enthusiasm. I've purchased volumes heavier and much more expensive that have offered less in a half a thousand pages than this one does in far fewer.
Buy this book September 28, 2005
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
Ahh, the wonderful world of particles. Especially wa and ga. If you were confused as I was with the use of these two, fear not for this book will save you. Somebody finally took the time to thoroughly explain these in a perfectly clear fashion, and gives you a whole chapter on them no less.
I am so glad I found this book, the title doesn't lie. Everything is explained in an interesting and sometimes humorous way, and focuses on the topics that most English speakers struggle with while learning Japanese. I highly recommend this book, it will pay for itself 100 times over.
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