Review of Colloquial Kansai Japanese by Josh Reyer

This was formerly published as @book@Kinki Japanese@.

As a connoisseur of the Kansai dialect(s), I thought the book was well-written, much better than @author@Peter Tse@'s Kansai Japanese. All of the expressions sound natural and believable, and provide also a nice example of playful nature of Kansai conversation. I recall I had a quibble or two when I first read it, but I can't remember what those were, so they must not have been particularly important. In addition to the language, there are also chapters on Kansai culture: food, comedy, and the Tigers. Especially valuable, to me, was that all Japanese is written both in romaji and Japanese kanji/kana. One of my biggest peeves with the Tse book is that it's all in romaji.

I didn't have this book when I first landed in Shiga Prefecture in 1998, but I wish I had. It would have made my acclimation that much easier. I would certainly give it to anyone who was going to be living in Kansai.

☆ See all reviews by Josh Reyer.