National Network for Equitable Library Service

This book is a user-friendly language guide for basic spoken Japanese. More than a phrase book, Conversational Japanese provides basic material for practical day-to-day communication. Through hundreds of example sentences and dialogs, as well as thorough explanations of the customs involved, learners will know what to say and do when: -Meeting new people -Reserving a hotel room -Buying a train ticket -Offering a gift -Writing email, business letters, cards and thank-you notesThis book is about communication. As we all know communication is more than just language. Our body language is just as important, as we all bring a host of personal and cultural baggage to each conversation we have. To communicate successfully in another culture and speak Japanese we need more than the bare bones of the language. Unlike most language books, Conversational Japanese does not restrict the use of kanji (Chinese characters), and the sentences are written in the usual Japanese combination of kana (hiragana and katakana) and kanji. Since learning kanji is a difficult task, Conversational Japanese includes romanji (Romanized Japanese) for each word or phrase. As you progress, using kanji and kana will become easier to remember and you should be able to pick up new kanji over time.