Lesson 17: Describing Things
THE CONJUGATION OF ADJECTIVES
Lesson 18: Describing Things (continued)
Lesson 19: Talking about This and Th at
Lesson 20: Using Another Kind of Descriptive Word
Lesson 21: Determining Likes and Dislikes
Lesson 22: Handling Money
Lesson 23: Buying Tickets at a Movie Th eater
Lesson 24: Buying Tickets at a Train Station
Lesson 25: Buying Tickets at the Post Offi ce
Lesson 26: Keeping Track of the Time
Lesson 27: Understanding Telephone Numbers
Lesson 28: Telling What You Do or Will Do
Lesson 29: Telling What You Did Do
Lesson 30: Telling What You Don’t or Didn’t Do
THE JAPANESE VERB
Lesson 31: Buying Fruit
Lesson 32: Buying Vegetables
Lesson 33: Counting People
Lesson 34: Keeping Track of the Time
Lesson 35: Making Requests and Offers
Lesson 36: Requesting Things at a Department Store
Lesson 37: Giving Directions to a Taxi Driver
Lesson 38: Making Sure You Understand and are Understood
Lesson 39: Seeking Advice
Lesson 40: Doing What the Teacher Tells You
Lesson 41: Being Very Polite
Lesson 42: Going to the Beauty Parlor or the Barber
THE VERB -TE FORM
Lesson 43: Greeting Your Friends
Lesson 44: Greeting Your Friends (continued)
Lesson 45: Rising to the Occasion
Lesson 46: Eating at Someone Else’s Home
Appendix 1: Supplementary Vocabulary
Appendix 2: Commonly Seen Words for Recognition
Appendix 4: Summary of Verb Conjugation
Grammar Discussions
Vocabulary Lists
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I should like to express my warm thanks most of all to my students, who have taught me the importance of placing in real-life situations each language pattern they learn. Their interest and motivation to learn when language comes situationally alive has been a major inspiration for me in preparing this book.
I am deeply indebted to Mrs Pamela Miller for her help with the initial editing. The ideas, suggestions, and encouragement of my husband, Dr Joseph Monane, have been a constant source of support. Finally, I should like to express my appreciation to the Charles E. Tuttle Company, whose receptivity to the format of this book has been a warm and gratifying experience.
—TAZUKO AJIRO MONANE
I would like to thank all the editors and designers at Tuttle Publishing, especially Eric Oey, Bob Graham, Nancy Goh, and Angie Ang, for inviting me to participate in this project and assisting me in my efforts. The core of the late Dr. Tazuko Monane’s work is timeless, and is as valuable for today’s students as when it was first written. It has been an honor for me to revise the work to reflect current language usage, and I have done my best to do so in a manner that is sensitive to the integrity of the original material. I would also like to thank my sons, James and Luke, for their love and support.
—YUMI MATSUNARI
STUDY SUGGESTIONS
Japanese Made Easy is a basic, do-it-yourself guide to the Japanese language and is designed for people living in or going to Japan who have never studied Japanese before. Obviously, living or traveling in Japan is itself not the secret of learning Japanese—many foreigners live in Japan for a long time and except for a few words learn very little about its language. The important thing will be your motivation to learn. Whether you go to Japan as a tourist, student, or businessperson, whether you use this book before or after your arrival in Japan, what could provide better motivation than knowing that a familiarity with the Japanese language (and with the culture it reflects) will help make your stay in Japan much richer and much more interesting.
If you have the good fortune to know a Japanese person, he or she will surely make your learning even easier—especially when you study pronunciation. But don’t be discouraged if you have no “live model” to learn from. By following the simple suggestions given here, you will be able to come out with good, understandable Japanese on your own. Here are some ideas, then, for how you can get the most out of this book.
Chapters and lessons
This book contains ten chapters. Each chapter contains an introduction, dialogue, and several lessons. The introduction provides a brief overview