A Simple and Effective Japanese Grammar Book
Tired of overly complex and wordy Japanese textbooks written by stodgy blowhards? Does the concept of understanding Japanese grammar remind you of the quadratic equation? If so, you should check out Japanese Verbs and Essentials of Grammar [Amazon Link].
A friend recently loaned me his copy and I’m quite pleased with the book’s brilliant simplicity. No complex diagrams or pictures. Just easy to understand text and the occasional table. All of this is neatly condensed to well under 200 pages.
This book does have the standard grammar formulas that you can study ’til your eyes bleed. My advice…ignore those formulas and instead focus on the example sentences. Flipping through the pages, you’ll get a lot of sentences that are often used by native Japanese speakers in actual everyday life.
You won’t see too many of those stiff sentences and phrases frequently found in college style textbooks. Focusing on those types of materials will only get you awkward stares during your next trip to Japan.
I would give this book a near perfect score if they got rid of the romaji. But since the best way to learn these sentences would be to transcribe them to flashcards, I’ll only take off a half point.
I’m tired of wading through all the crap Japanese language books. Most, I feel are written by people who are determined to transform the process of learning Japanese into something that is simultaneously painful and boring. This book simplifies and at the same time teaches all the right things.
My advice: get this book and download the free flashcard program, Mnemosyne. Input the example sentences into Mnemosyne and review them on a regular basis. You’ll be way ahead of those who prefer to use more traditional methods.
[Pic from Amazon]
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I love that book. Had it for years. Actually it was studying the grammar formula’s that really helped me out but what ever works for each person is what they should go with.