A review by ninineji
Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You by Jay Rubin
4.0
A very very good essay. It's nicely written and quite witty. The author clarifies a certain number of points in Japanese language that often appears vague to the students. It's the kind of book that you read once in its entirety and then you come back to it when you think about the Japanese language and you want to clarify.
The last part where the author explains how he actively understand a long Japanese sentence by anticipation is very clever and interesting to follow.
After reading, I really feel like I learned things. Not necessarily about Grammar per say, but how I can approach the Japanese language.
It quite makes you want to get even better.
I only regret the use of romaji that made it difficult to me to read from time to time. But you always can use post-it and translate it in hiragana/kanji... it's actually a good exercise.
The last part where the author explains how he actively understand a long Japanese sentence by anticipation is very clever and interesting to follow.
After reading, I really feel like I learned things. Not necessarily about Grammar per say, but how I can approach the Japanese language.
It quite makes you want to get even better.
I only regret the use of romaji that made it difficult to me to read from time to time. But you always can use post-it and translate it in hiragana/kanji... it's actually a good exercise.