Page 11 - Basic Japanese

About This Book

Basic Japanese introduces the structure of Japanese through
authentic, commonly heard Japanese sentences, useful

contemporary Japanese vocabulary, and natural
conversation. This book is particularly suited for those who
wish to quickly build their knowledge of sentence structures

and their communicative skills in Japanese.

Each lesson starts with a section of Basic Sentences,
which offers ten to twenty sentences serving as typical
examples of essential sentence structures. These structures

are explained thoroughly in the Structure Notes section later
in the lesson. Basic Vocabulary lists thematically sorted

vocabulary words and phrases that are relevant to the
contextual theme of the lesson. The thematic grouping of
the vocabulary is to help learners make associations to

contexts more easily. The Conversation section offers an
authentic dialog, in which you can learn basic, everyday

discourse devices, such as natural ways of responding and
acknowledging as well as appropriate ways of ending

sentences in the context. Exercises are provided to
strengthen your understanding of the content of the lesson.

Lesson 1 is mainly on sound systems, and not many
grammatical facts are covered. However, the subsequent

lessons introduce gradually more complex structures and
facts about usage, so one can start with simple sentence

structures and eventually learn complex sentences including
conditionals, passives, and causatives by the time all ten
lessons have been completed.

Basic Japanese is an extensive revision of Essential

Japanese, by Samuel E. Martin, first published in 1957 and