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+--- Thread: What are you currently reading? (/thread-8105.html)
RE: What are you currently reading? - eslang - 2016-02-25
This book title caught my eye lately!
Amazonで変なもの売ってる
Kindle無料アプリまたはKindle電子書籍リーダーで今すぐお読みいただけます。
Book review : Amazonで変なもの売ってる (in Japanese)
http://bookmeter.com/b/4781611788
And I can't help laughing when reading this article (in English).
Customer reviews on Amazon Japan are more priceless than the expensive items they’re about
RE: What are you currently reading? - RandomQuotes - 2016-02-25
Recently, I've been reading this high school textbook supplement, 理解しやすい古文. If anyone is interested in kobun, and is at a decent level, this book lives up to it's title.
RE: What are you currently reading? - Bokusenou - 2016-02-28
(2016-02-25, 9:26 am)RandomQuotes Wrote: Recently, I've been reading this high school textbook supplement, 理解しやすい古文. If anyone is interested in kobun, and is at a decent level, this book lives up to it's title.Hmm, seems like it might be useful for me. Could you give a few more details about the book, if possible? I can't seem to find images of the pages. From the description it looks like it's not for complete beginners. I've been going through the grammar overviews on this site lately, and I have a kobun dictionary. When I finish do you think I'll be able to go through that book without being overwhelmed? If not, do you know any good beginner-level kobun books, by any chance?
RE: What are you currently reading? - RandomQuotes - 2016-02-28
(2016-02-28, 7:06 pm)Bokusenou Wrote:(2016-02-25, 9:26 am)RandomQuotes Wrote: Recently, I've been reading this high school textbook supplement, 理解しやすい古文. If anyone is interested in kobun, and is at a decent level, this book lives up to it's title.Hmm, seems like it might be useful for me. Could you give a few more details about the book, if possible? I can't seem to find images of the pages. From the description it looks like it's not for complete beginners. I've been going through the grammar overviews on this site lately, and I have a kobun dictionary. When I finish do you think I'll be able to go through that book without being overwhelmed? If not, do you know any good beginner-level kobun books, by any chance?
Sure. So, being that this book is aimed at native speakers, it's obviously not for beginners of Japanese, however, I'm completely new to kobun, and I picked this up on a whim, and I'm following it. Looking at the inside cover, it says this book goes from the building blocks up to expanding on a standard level of knowledge.
The book has 2 main sections each divided into a number of subsections as well as a preface and a grammar reference.
The preface goes over things like pronunciation rules, some simple grammar, and reasons to study kobun done in a Question-and-Answer style format.
The first section is titled「古文に親しむ」, and it contains subsections devoted to different works. Each subsection is divided into a few smaller parts. The first is the work is the 宇治拾遺物語. Running along the left side the original text is a translation into modern Japanese, and on the right are pronuctions for unusual words and the modern kana for words that are using historical kana. On the bottom of the page are notes. So, an example of one of the notes is "(3) 児子[ちご]⇒貴族や武士の子弟で、学問や行儀作法を習うために寺に預けられた少年" The next page has a summary of what happened in the passage, useful words to know, how to approach this passage, and some practice exam questions.
The second section, which is the bulk of the book is titled 「古文に味わう」. There are roughly 15 different works or categories, and there are 40 passages from these works. Each of the works starts with a short description of the work and then is followed by the aforementioned passage. In this section the original passage is at the top, with the modern Japanese translation sitting at the bottom. The next page has word caution section. This is then followed by import words and phrases. Then there are some cultural notes or approaches to take, and then a number of practice questions.
The last part is just 15 page grammar summary and an answer booklet.
The book assumes you are a high school student, and thus have a teacher to whom you can ask questions, but I, myself, am completely new to kobun, but aside from the need for an occasional dictionary look up, I'm not having any issues.
RE: What are you currently reading? - Bokusenou - 2016-02-28
Thanks a lot! It's great that it sounds like I can use it without knowing kobun already! One more question, does it say that they changed a lot of things in the edition you have? The previous edition is much cheaper, and looks like it has only one page less than the latest one, so I'm debating getting that one instead...
RE: What are you currently reading? - RandomQuotes - 2016-02-28
(2016-02-28, 11:19 pm)Bokusenou Wrote: Thanks a lot! It's great that it sounds like I can use it without knowing kobun already! One more question, does it say that they changed a lot of things in the edition you have? The previous edition is much cheaper, and looks like it has only one page less than the latest one, so I'm debating getting that one instead...
No worries. I don't know about the previous version. I was in a bookstore, somehow wandered into the school prep section, and this one caught my eye, so I don't know anything about the old edition. This one says it's the new curriculum version. There is no list of changes. My guess is that the official government textbook was changed, and this version was updated to match it.
RE: What are you currently reading? - Bokusenou - 2016-02-28
(2016-02-28, 11:42 pm)RandomQuotes Wrote:Ah, OK. Maybe I'll just get the cheaper one then. Thanks again!(2016-02-28, 11:19 pm)Bokusenou Wrote: Thanks a lot! It's great that it sounds like I can use it without knowing kobun already! One more question, does it say that they changed a lot of things in the edition you have? The previous edition is much cheaper, and looks like it has only one page less than the latest one, so I'm debating getting that one instead...
No worries. I don't know about the previous version. I was in a bookstore, somehow wandered into the school prep section, and this one caught my eye, so I don't know anything about the old edition. This one says it's the new curriculum version. There is no list of changes. My guess is that the official government textbook was changed, and this version was updated to match it.
RE: What are you currently reading? - NickT - 2016-03-03
I am currently just finishing up 高い城の男 (http://goo.gl/CIhw5o), which is the Japanese translation of 'The Man in the High Castle' by Philip K Dick. I read this in English as a teenager and loved it, and I saw they made a TV drama out of it recently which prompted me to try to read it in Japanese.
Generally I don't like reading translations into Japanese much (due to katakana overload, amongst other things), but this book actually arguably works better in Japanese as it is set in a fictional world where Japan and Germany won WWII and most of the book takes place in the Japanese occupied Western states of the US (it is partitioned, with Germany controlling the Eastern states). So, it makes perfect sense that the American characters are all speaking slightly broken but very honorific Japanese to their masters, and the relationship dynamic between them is a lot clearer in Japanese due to all the politeness levels in Japanese.
It is pretty hard, though, and there are a few things also that don't work so well in Japanese (for example the sporadic German) so you might want to try reading the two versions side by side, as I am, if you want to fully understand what is going on.
I am also just starting reading one of the 数学ガール series (this one: http://goo.gl/Lyn18i ) It is early days but I am enjoying it so far. The book basically takes the form of a dialogue between several teenage girls (I think, although the gender doesn't matter much) talking about maths problems amongst other things. It is written in quite an engaging way, so if you have even a passing curiosity about what 'maths in Japanese' is like I would recommend giving it a shot. You can view the first 20 pages or so for free on Amazon so that should be enough to see if you might find it interesting.
EDIT: I forgot to mention, if you are thinking about reading any of the 数学ガール books on a Kindle, you should be aware that due to the presence of quite a lot of diagrams, equations and so forth, the book is actually not formatted as normal text but is basically a series of pictures - including the pages which are 100% text/dialogue. This means that while it looks nice and pretty, it is not possible to use the in-built dictionary to look up any words.
RE: What are you currently reading? - Tzadeck - 2016-03-03
Right now I'm reading Down and Out in Paris and London, to add a new entry to stuff I've read by Orwell. It's a memoir of a time in his life when he was very poor. He was staying at a run-down hotel in Paris with a couple months worth of rent and food money set aside, but someone broke into his room and stole his money. Suddenly he had to sell all his clothes to buy food, and things begin from there. It's a pretty crazy read so far. I read another one of his memoirs, Homage to Catalonia, about his time fighting in the Spanish Civil War, and it was also pretty crazy.
RE: What are you currently reading? - risu_ - 2016-03-11
Just read this article!
～国連女子差別撤廃委員会、「日本における女性の権利」保障～ 議題「性的暴力を描写したビデオや漫画の販売の禁止」についての意見書
A very interesting response, and quite strongly worded if I do say so myself! I think I'll show this article to the next person who tells me that Japanese are all overly polite
