しあわせ

Michael L Maynard, Senko K. Maynard, (Passport Books)

I have always liked sayings and aphorisms. Here 101 japanese sayings are collected and presented with cartoon like illustrations, an explanation of the saying with insights into the culture and an example of how it could be used. This is a short book and it feels informal and less of a textbook than others I have seen. This is good as it makes it more readable.

My only qaulm would be; if you were to use these sayings would they sound as cliched and stilted as English proverbs can sound in conversation? Or worse sound like the meaningless jargon of management-speak? maybe just maybe used sparingly they might give a bit of gloss to what you say.

by Wayne P. Lammers, (Stone bridge Press)

This has it’s origions in Basic Japanese Through Comics above. However this time it is a more structured and comprehensive course on grammer and usage than before. It can be followed as a course in Japanese, however it is probably more difficult than a standard text like Japanese for Busy People. I think it is better as a way of reinforcing and expanding what you have learnt in class. It uses kanji as well as romaji and all the examples are from Manga. However there are no other reading excercises or comprehension tests.

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