Elementary Japanese, Volume 3

This new textbook is not a revision of the author’s Elementary Japanese for University Students, but is an almost entirely new compilation. The 770 Chinese characters and 1750 words of the vocabulary present a basic vocabulary which is necessary regardless of the specialized field of Japanese the student will eventually study. The book is divided into 75 carefully graded reading lessons, with five lessons near the end devoted to “classical” grammar as it is used in newspaper and official documents. The grammar notes, which are very full, serve as a fairly thorough survey of colloquial grammar and a simple but practical introduction to “classical” grammar. There are detailed indexes to the grammar notes and vocabulary. Writing charts help the student to learn to write both kana and characters. Thirty-six series of conversation pattern sentences are the starting point and backbone of conversational instruction. For classes in which the emphasis is entirely on conversation, there is a Romanized transcription of the Japanese texts, which can be secured either in place of or in addition to the usual character and kana texts.