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Read Real Japanese Fiction: Short Stories by Contemporary Writers 1 free CD included | 
 enlarge | Creators: Michael Emmerich, Reiko Matsunaga
Publisher: Kodansha International
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy New: $14.34
You Save: $9.66 (40%)
New (26) Used (6) from $14.34
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 92278
Media: Paperback
Edition: Pap/Com Bl
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.9
ISBN: 4770030584
Dewey Decimal Number: 895.630108
EAN: 9784770030580
ASIN: 4770030584
Publication Date: June 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Absolutely Brand New & In Stock. 100% 30-Day Money Back. Direct from our warehouse. Ships by USPS. 1+ million customers served-In business since 1986. Happy Customers is Our #1 Goal. Toll Free Support
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Book Description
There is a world of difference between reading Japanese that has been specially contrived for students and reading real Japanese--that is, real-world Japanese written for native speakers. The contrived variety might be called schoolmarm Japanese: standard to the point of insipidity, controlled to the point of domestication, restricted to the point of impoverishment. The Read Real Japanese series provides the real thing--lively writings by contemporary authors. Read Real Japanese Fiction presents short works by six outstanding writers, from popular to avant-garde. The spellbinding world of Hiromi Kawakami; the hair-raising short horror of Otsuichi; the haunting prose of Banana Yoshimoto; even the poetic wordplay of Yoko Tawada--whatever your taste, you are sure to find some stories in this book that bowl you over and leave you wanting more. Following the form of real Japanese novels, the text runs from top to bottom, right to left. To guide you in your reading, each double-page spread features translations of nearly every sentence or phrase, making it possible to understand the meaning at a glance. Moreover, in the back of the book is a tailor-made Japanese-English dictionary covering all the words appearing in the stories, and a series of notes that elucidate issues of nuance, usage, grammar, and culture. Best of all, the book comes with a free audio CD containing narrations of the works, performed by a professional actress. This will help you to get used to the sounds and rhythms of Japanese, as well as the speed at which the language is normally spoken. Whether you are a dedicated student or a dabbler, and regardless of your mode of study, Read Real Japanese Fiction will serve as your gateway to the pleasures of reading contemporary Japanese fiction--in the original.
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| Customer Reviews:
Why aren't all readers like this one? August 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This reader is the one I compare all others to.
It goes above and beyond in every respect. It features enjoyable stories, furigana by every kanji, a dictionary wherein every term is listed, a line-by-line "literal" explanation, and in the back of the book the grammar and cultural points of each line is discussed in depth. And as icing on the cake, there's a fabulous CD wherein an actress reads each story aloud. How can it get any better than this?
Frankly, I am being spoiled rotten by this book. It's going to be hard to go back to other readers that lack comprehensive dictionaries and feature complex kanji with no furigana.
That said, don't be fooled by all the goodies it gives you -- it's not holding your hand. Furigana is only listed once, forcing you to recall it when the kanji is repeated later in the story. Any new devotees of the Japanese language will probably be bowled over -- it's definitely for the intermediate students, who will benefit most from seeing all of those grammar forms they only previously knew in textbooks.
If you're a student of Japanese, you'll find this reader helpful and fun. It's definitely worth the money -- you're paying for some wonderful features that many other readers skimp on. I suggest getting the Nonfiction version of this set as well, as it features all of the same perks.
Helps you do just what the title says! July 24, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I love this book! It presents you with 6 short stories (each one around 12 pages long or so, but the last one is only about 2 pages). On one page it presents the Japanese text, and on page opposite of it you will find a translation of the phrases. Towards the back of the book, you will find another 50 pages or so of additional notes, which explain things such as words or grammatical patterns and other such things. There is also a japanese-english dictionary containing the words that you find in the stories. I love this format, because everything you need is right here in the book, so you don't have to constantly be looking up phrases on your computer or electronic dictionary. You can just lay back, relax, and read! However, the format of having the notes in the back of the book make it a little annoying, since you have to keep flipping back and forth, but you should be alright if you use two bookmarks to keep your place.
The stories themselves are real Japanese, just as the title says. These aren't watered-down stories designed to be easy for beginners. I've only read the first story so far, and I found it extremely challenging. The translations and notes and everything really helped out a lot. Although it took me over an hour to read the first page, as I continued on, I found that my speed was increasing quite well. I've completed advanced classes in Japanese in college, and I could hardly understand any of the sentences in the first story. However, the notes are all so helpful, I feel like I learned enough from just one page of this book to make the price worth it. If something is difficult to explain in English, the author will sometimes provide you with additional sentences for the purpose of helping you understand how a certain phrase or grammar point is used. There is furigana over the kanji the first time a word appears. I really like this, since it forces you to learn the reading of the words when you encounter them again later in the stories. The included cd is also very helpful, since it lets you hear how to say everything naturally.
This book assumes you have about an intermediate (or higher) level of knowledge with Japanese. For someone who has only completed intermediate classes, you may find the book fairly slow to work through, but as long as you actually study and try to learn from the material, I don't think you will have a problem.
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