Reviews
This is an essential book for anyone learning Japanese. I looked through all kinds of Japanese-learning books on the library shelves, but this was the only one I found that observed and presented Japanese in such depth. I always recommend it to people starting to study Japanese.
This book offers a fresh and very helpful perspective on the origins of Japanese, considering Japanese culture and the way Japanese people think!
Lee Eun-do: Understanding the Attributes of the Japanese Language Through Japanese Culture
Stop learning Japanese by memorizing; learn it by understanding and enjoying its culture! This is a fresh way to learn Japanese while exploring Korean and Japanese culture. Unlike English and Chinese, Japanese has the same word order as Korean. Also, because both languages belong to the same Chinese-character cultural sphere, understanding a certain amount of vocabulary allows some communication. For these reasons, Japanese textbooks have traditionally focused on memorizing words. This book instead identifies the roots and characteristics associated with the Japanese Japanese syllabary, presents words through association, and explains their etymologies and anecdotes to make them easier to remember. For example, words beginning with the first vowel, “a”, often contain a sense of “brightness.” The Japanese word for morning is asa, meaning “morning”. Once you recognize this pattern, you can learn words quickly without repetitive memorization. The author goes further, including fascinating cultural details about Japanese food, clothing, and housing, traditions, history, and social customs. These help readers understand cultural context in Japanese media and satisfy their curiosity about Japan. Understanding a country helps you understand its people and is also essential to learning and using its language. Language learning is based on understanding, not memorization. This book is both a method for making the difficult process of learning a foreign language easier and a cultural guide spanning Japan’s history and everyday life.
Korean title: 일본 문화로 알아보는 일본어의 속성
Korean author: 이은도
Korean publisher: 북랩
ISBN-13: 9791172240936
Reviews
This is an essential book for anyone learning Japanese. I looked through all kinds of Japanese-learning books on the library shelves, but this was the only one I found that observed and presented Japanese in such depth. I always recommend it to people starting to study Japanese.
This book offers a fresh and very helpful perspective on the origins of Japanese, considering Japanese culture and the way Japanese people think!
