Reviews by Charles Eicher

Common Japanese Phrases

Sometimes I jokingly say the Japanese language is 90 percent "set phrases" and politenesses, 5% "hai" or "iie," and only 5% actual content. This book covers that "90%" and contains many useful "kimari monku." Intermediate and advanced students will probably know most of these phrases, but it will be useful to beginners, or even people who don't study Japanese at all but need to know how to introduce themselves, etc.

Basic Sentence Patterns

This book is by the author the two books I recommend to students most often, "All About Particles" and "Japanese Verbs at a Glance" and this book looks like it is worthy of similar praise. I haven't had much time to examine it, but even if I did, it would be hard for me to evaluate the usefullness ... read more

An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese

Intermediate Textbook, apparently designed to follow The Japan Times's Introduction to Modern Japanese. 15 lessons focusing around 'Culture Notes' covering topics like foreign exchange study, restaurants, giftgiving, sports, etc. Extensive dialogues at several levels of ... read more

How To Sound Intelligent In Japanese: A Vocabulary Builder

Intermediate to advanced level. Vocabulary is introduced as a list, in kanji and romaji, by topic. Sample sentences are in kanji and romaji. Major chapter headings include Ideas and Theories; Philosophy and Religion; Politics and Government; Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; Science and Technology; Law and Justice; Business and Economics. A very useful book with very practical application.

NTC's Dictionary of Japan's Cultural Code Words

Not really a language book, but a book that uses language to illustrate the psychology of the japanese society. Each chapter discusses a single word (illustrated in kanji) and then discusses this topic at length. Even longtime Japan-watchers will find many fascinating and surprising insights into the culture of Japan.

T-Shirt Japanese versus Necktie Japanese

Intermediate level. Sample dialogues are introduced in English, then in formal language (`necktie') and informal language (`t-shirt') followed by extensive discussion of the grammar and idioms, and their appropriate usage. Also discusses the variation in men's and women's language.

Minimum Essential Politeness

This book is primarily written in English, and is a quite excellent explanation of all aspects of politeness besides just keigo. For example, donatory verbs (giving and receiving) as well as personal pronouns are explained. This book has extensive lists of example sentences, restated in ascending levels of politeness. This is an extremely valuable method of presenting keigo. Also addresses (to a small degree) male vs. female speech patterns. My biggest reservation about this book is that it contains no kanji, all examples are in romaji.

gaikokujin no tame no nihongo reibun - mondai shiriizu: #10 keigo (Japanese for Foreigners, #10 keigo)

This book is entirely in Japanese. I studied this book as a unit on keigo in 4th year Japanese, and I found it exceptionally valuable. Contains chapters explaining basic keigo concepts and then extensive drills on those concepts. Also discusses "set phrases" and I learned a LOT of formal phrases I'd never heard of (or perhaps, I HAD heard but never noticed).

Writing Letters in Japanese

This book is an excellent introduction to writing formal letters in Japanese. It describes everything from how to format the letter and address the envelope, typical language forms and grammar, standard greetings (aisatsu) and closings, and dozens of "templates" for standard letters. The templates ... read more

Communicating with KI

Extremely comprehensive discussion of idioms related to `KI'. Extensive usage notes and discussion of etymology. This book is an oddity, frequently offering extended discussion of japanese philosophy along with its language lessons. Sample sentences in kanji and romaji (including some very rude langugage!)

Love, Hate and Everything In Between

A survey of idioms on interpersonal relations and feelings. Covers a huge range of expressions, many are impossible to really categorize. Quite useful for building vocabulary, but probably more suited to advanced levels.

Kanji Idioms

An introduction to yojijukugo, which are kanji compounds made from 4 characters. Many yojijukugo are drawn from classical Japanese and Chinese, and these are explained with short cultural lessons. This book would probably be most useful at advanced levels.

Handbook of Japanese Grammar

One of my favorite grammar handbooks. Short on theory, long on practical examples. Each grammar item is illustrated solely with example sentences, in kanji, romaji, and English. Extensive appendices include tables of verb forms, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, counters, etc.

A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar

I bought the book, and have found it invaluable. Particularly valuable are some of the essays on topics like 'inter-sentential references' and analysis of complex sentences. It would almost be worth buying just for these short chapters. There are also very valuable appendices on compound verbs and ... read more

An Introduction to Japanese Grammar and Communication Strategies

At first glance this may seem to be a typical grammar book, but it focuses on using communication strategies using those points, rather than just explaining how that grammar works. For example, there are chapters on phrases like "ee?" and "haa" But what really grabbed my attention was one chapter ... read more

Basic Connections

An excellent series of grammar lessons, intended to make your Japanese sound more natural. Starts with clear explanations of classic problems (i.e. wa vs. ga) and moves to more complex topics like sentence conjunctions, idioms, etc. The author is a Japanese teacher, and has attempted to solve the problems he has seen most often in Japanese learners. Highly recommended for beginners through intermediate levels.

Japanese Verbs and Essentials of Grammar

Some people swear by this book but I just don't like it. It's all romaji and it presents grammar in an extremely weird, disorganized way. It seems to be a list of cheat sheets, not a reference book. I don't think this book will lead to any systematic learning of Japanese. But that's just my ... read more

Japanese Verbs at a Glance

This is an ideal book for beginners, yet contains information useful for advanced students. It starts with simple explanations of verb structures, with diagrams quite similar to the explanations my teachers drew on a blackboard. Successively more complex verb constructs are introduced, categorized by topics. The book ends with a section of advanced idioms and a table of verb conjugations. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

All About Katakana

8 lessons gradually introduce the katakana characters, both writing and usage. Includes review tests and a fairly large E/J and J/E dictionary of katakana words, as well as an appendix of words by topics. Very useful to beginning students.

Kanji Pict-o-graphix

Basic level. A very beautiful book, with wonderfully illustrated visual mnemonics for all the katakana/hiragana characters, and about 1000 kanji. Some of these visual aids do not necessarily illustrate the true meanings of the radicals, but are quite memorable anyway.

The Kanji Pict- ... read more

The Complete Guide to Everyday Kanji

It has rather good etymological info and dissects most kanji thoroughly. The analysis of the components in New Kanji Dict sample is about the same as TCGTEK's analysis, except that Bart sez the two items enclosed in the "hands" are a phonetic component KOU meaning "cross," NKD sez it is a component meaning "words/concepts." At this level of analysis, you'd pretty much need to to to something like Morohashi and consult with Chinese etymologists to get any further level of detail.

Living Japanese - A Modern Reader

Intermediate to advanced level. This book contains the texts used in the Macintosh software 'Mikan'. The texts include essays on business and economics from the Nihon Kezai Shimbun, and short stories by Takashi Atoda. The texts are entirely in kanji, with no English translation. Extensive glossaries face each page of text, so it is very easy to look up words without searching. Grammar notes and tests follow each essay.

English Grammar for Students of Japanese

One of the goals of foreign language instruction in high schools and universities is to get people to think about their own native language. Alas, the typical k-12 English grammar curriculum is barely sufficient to prepare students for literate English usage, let alone lay the foundation for ... read more

Orthographic Systems

It's a workbook in the "Japanese for Foreigners" series, it's completely in Japanese and has exercises in increasing levels from intermediate/advanced to brainmelt/even-NS-don't-understand/advanced. My teacher used this book in a 4th year class, we got through about 5 pages of exercises and it's the best thing I ever learned about kanji. This is the sort of book you could study occasionally, year after year, and always find new things to learn and practice.

Nakama series

I see lots of students using Nakama, since it was written by professors at my school. Its about the best program I've seen for classroom instruction, but I've never heard of anyone using it for self study. I suspect it might be even more valuable in this role, since it comes with audio tapes. Its kinda expensive with the tapes, but this would really help if you don't have native speakers to practice with. Nakama is pretty thorough, it takes you through pretty much all the basic grammar, once you're through with this book you've got all the fundamentals.