Has anyone used materials written for English-studying Japanese people to study Japanese? I was browsing at the local Kinokuniya and noticed that there were quite a few books on useful English phrases for everyday life and for business presentations etc. Flipping through it, I thought it actually might be useful for me to learn nice idioms and phrases in Japanese, especially for business and presentations. Just wondering if anyone else had that idea and had any recommendations.

I bought one of these entitled その「ひとこと」、ネイティブ英語でこう言います。I found it at a used book store for $2 so I figured, what the hell. I use it as an occasional reference, but haven't found it very useful.

I'd caution that these books are geared towards teaching Japanese people American cultural idioms, manners of expression, and in many cases, the correct context for certain expressions, and that this can differ wildly from Japanese cultural norms.

Also, leafing through the book I have, I see certain phrases that I hear all the time in anime and drama, and other phrases that I almost never hear. One example: "Keep your mouth shut!" is given as　ひっこんでろ！This seems to pop up in manga, but you're much more likely to hear 黙れ！、黙ってくれ！、静かにしろ！,etc.

I would say use them as references, but make sure to check with your teacher before using such phrases in any situation that matters, esp. a business context.

I've discovered a Japanese pocast that teaches English named Fly to the World: http://podcast.1242.com/fairies/index.xml. Each episode is only 2-3 minute long and explains how to use certain words and phrases like affect, short of, be sure to etc in common situations. I find it a refreshing way to learn Japanese and the podcast is certainly the easiest one to understand.

No. But I've heard of people using duolingo Japanese>English to learn English > Japanese instead. In the case of duolingo, it makes sense because people specifically want to use the duolingo algorythm. But I don't see the point of using J>E materials unless you need to brush up on your english grammar while learning Japanese.