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: $14.27
You Save: $9.73 (41%)
New (38) Used (7) from $14.27
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 164051
Media: Paperback
Edition: Pap/Com Bl
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
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
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. Delivery is usually 5 - 8 working days from order, International is by Royal Mail Airmail
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| Customer Reviews:
The best Japanese reader I have seen October 28, 2008
Zack Davisson (Seattle, WA, USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is the Japanese reader I have been hoping for! I can hardly believe that such an excellent book has finally been made available after suffering through sub-par readers for so long. This book is just awesome, and if you are studying Japanese then you are going to want it as soon as possible. br / br /Japanese has always suffered from a dearth of good readers. Some, like A Japanese Reader are so dense and academic as to put off all but the most dedicated student. Some, like Mangajin's Basic Japanese Through Comics, are fun to begin with but don't get you very far. The biggest problem has always been that middle ground, that 2-kyu level where you need some help getting over the hump from constructed text and into the real world. br / br /I had the previous edition of Read Real Japanese, and this release is a vast improvement. The old version relied far to heavily on romaji, which anyone reading at this level should be long past. This new edition eliminates this problem, using only the kanji and hiragana character sets. All kanji are initially presented with furigana, but afterwards appear on their own so you have to work for it. The stories are presented with the right hand being the original text, then the left hand presenting translations on difficult passages. In the back, there are more detailed translation notes and a dictionary of all the words used. The system works excellently, and it is a good challenge to mentally create your own translation then flip to the back and see what the editor translated the passage as. A CD is included as well for pronunciation, and I have found it is helpful to put on the CD and read along to increase your speed. br / br /The selection of authors is also enjoyable, with only the ubiquitous Yoshimoto Banana making a repeat appearance from the previous edition. There are horror stories, magical realism, "slice-of-life"...one of my favorites was a scary tale about a solitary boy late at night and a mysterious sandbox with something lurking underneath. They are graduated in level, with the earlier stories being simpler to read, and then slowly gaining in difficulty. The goal is to eventually wean you off of readers, and the editor gives several suggestions of follow-up stories on each level that you can seek out and try on your own. br / br /I am really happy that "Read Real Japanese" was published, and I hope that more follow suit. There is a companion book, "Read Real Japanese Essays: Contemporary Writings by Popular Authors 1 free CD included", which is of the same high quality, and students of Japanese will be wanting that as well. Highly, highly recommended. br /
Excellent learning tool but only for hard-wrokers September 29, 2008
Anatoli T (Australia)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The other reviewer have already praised the book enough and I agree wit their assessment. This is a must have book for Japanese learners. br / br /Something that might discourage some buyers: the texts chosen are not simple at all, they are very challenging. The audio recording is natural but very fast, you need to work hard to be able to understand the text by listening. it's a big jump in difficulty from reading/listening to Genki, Japanese for everyone, Minna-no Nihongo and other popular textbooks, which was exactly what I was looking for. br /
 A useful addition for the intermediate learner's library September 22, 2008
Juviebetfixer (Turin, Italy)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
There really is a market for this kind of book; and Kodan-sha have been at the vanguard of providing hands-on instruction for advanced students looking to take a serious plunge into the realms of 'real' Japanese writing. br / br /The emphasis here is on 'real', in that these are fresh from the magazines with little editorial intervention. They are not 'watered' down nor stripped of their colloquialisms, erratic grammar, or other aspects that make them authentic examples of Japanese prose. Indeed, the selections here are all contemporary, mainstream (if also faddish) authors who enjoy a popular readership in today's Japan. br / br /Michael Emmerich, an active translator, has culled an interesting selection of authors here. I must say that my tastes don't necessarily match his own: the authors here, to my mind, depict the kind of ueber-hipness that has defined the Akutagawa Prize over the last ten years. To my mind, you could find better examples of Japanese stylistics and the kinds of literary praxis that makes Japanese literature unique, but you can't fault Emmerich for going with the current herd of award winners. At the very least, you'll be reading the same laureates who fill the pages of GQ Japan and other trendy storytellers. br / br /Emmerich's notations vary from the fascinating to the disposable. His command of Japanese syntax, undoubtedly, is superb -- but his annotations more often come across as 'close readings' in the mode of lit criticism than useful grammatical explanations. By and large, more grammatical explanations would have been useful. Often, we're given translations (which are always well done) but little in the way of analysis as to the particulars of the example. And, sometimes, when a grammatical explanation is offered, Emmerich slips into dense meditations on 'temporal flexibility' and other such discourses on time and space. They're interesting, to be sure, but I think they would have better suited an essay, as they can often digress too far from the task at hand: explaining the mechanics of grammar. One often things, 'Just the facts, sir', rather than the kind of metaphysical acrobatics that really would suit a book with a different agenda. br / br /All and all, though, you can't go wrong with this book. For more 'classical' selections, I recommend Giles Murray's _Exploring Japanese Literature_ which surveys more canonical (and quite frankly more accomplished) authors such as Tanizaki and Mishima. I would love to see another book specifically address 'newspaper' Japanese. br / br /Considering the demise of Nihongo journal, and the like, more books like Emmerich's would be appreciated. Indeed, for French or Italian you can subscribe to services that provide you with a book each month of an annotated novel from the bestseller's list. Something similar in Japanese would be wonderful indeed. Until then, books like this challenge and instruct, taking your Japanese to the next level.
Why aren't all readers like this one? August 30, 2008
Rachel Kaelin (Nunnayorbiznis)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This reader is the one I compare all others to. br / br /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? br / br /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. br / br /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. br / br /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
Zarxrax (North Carolina)
8 out of 8 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. br /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. br / br /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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