I am trying to get my hands on Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication: A Self-Study Course and Reference. I wanted to buy it but neither Amazon US or Amazon Japan have it in stock. I can't find it online either. Am I out of luck?.

Amazon.fr and amazon.co.uk have it in stock, but deliveries are only domestic...
So you have to find someone in those countries that can order it, then mail it to you.
Good luck!

Amazon Canada has the book (this is where I got my copy); I'm assuming this is the text you are looking for.

http://www.amazon.ca/Japanese-Sentence-P...=8-1-spell

Not sure about deliveries outside of Canada, however.

Hope this helps.

Kinokuniya has the book in their New York, Portland, and LA stores and they ship all over the US.

https://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/guest/c...on&AREA=02

This book seems pretty hard to find. And the price range for used has to be a typo, can the book possibly be worth a thousand dollars?

Note that the Amazon Canada page says that the book "usually ships in 1-3 months". In other words, they don't have it, but think that maybe they'll be able to get it later. I have an order submitted in case it does, but these things often fail.

Kinokuniya is similar, the web site claims that they have it, but when I tried to order from LA, I got a message saying that they didn't have it in stock, but the NY store had one and it will be shipped out right away. I have some hope that this one will work, but will not believe it until I see the book in my hands.

Also, Amazon.co.uk usually allows delivery to the US, why would this book be any different?

Good luck on your quest.

The publisher Kodansha International was closed last year. So I believe all their books are now out of print and becoming harder to find

It might be worth checking barns n nobles or other local bookstores in your area. I remember seeing copies in mine not too long ago. I'll swing back and check again and if I find a copy ill snag it for you

Bummer about Kodansha Int'l. They had some cool little books. (I have a bunch of them.) Some of them weren't so hot, but they at least made Japanese a little more approachable.

I'd recommend hunting them down before they're completely impossible to find.

"All About Particles" and some of their other particle-related books are worth it, as are their "Dictionary of Basic Japanese Idioms"; their book on "Common Japanese Collocations"; and 2 of their phrasebooks: one is a translation of Sanseido's "A Handbook of Common Japanese Phrases," which is handy, and the other is "The Ultimate Japanese Phrasebook," which is useful because it comes with an MP3 CD with 1800 spoken phrases on it. (So for those who are looking for Anki material, that might be a good book if you can still find it.)

I have the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Idioms, I got it a couple of years ago when I was starting with Japanese and didn't have a clue about anything. Last time I check, the book still was way too advanced for me. If anyone is interested in swapping, I am really looking forward getting my hands on JSPEC.

The dictionary of idioms could interest me, but apparently it's a two-parter with idiomatic phrases and yojijukugo. Since I don't need the yojijukugo part (because of the 3300 deck), the price is a little steep for 400 idioms + shipping to Japan (JSPEC and the dictionary are about the same price). If it's not edited any longer, now would be a good time to make an Anki deck about the idiomatic phrases part (there are two shared deck with "Japanese idioms" that could match the description, but I have no way to check if they come from the dictionary); I know I would be interested...

EDIT: I'll probably buy JSPEC anyway and photocopy it, but amazon.fr says "temporairement en rupture de stock" which could either mean "sold out" or "out of stock", that's weird, I wonder if it's not up to date...

[Katsuo]

The Dictionary of Basic Japanese Idioms is a compilation of four older books: Body Language, Communicating with Ki, Kanji Idioms and Animal Idioms. I have those four books and am also familiar with the data in the Anki decks (I didn't upload any of those decks, but most of them seem to be based on spreadsheets I made).

So comparing the books and decks:

四字熟語: The deck with 3,300 four-character idioms includes English meanings for all of them and example sentences for a few hundred. The book on the other hand, has just over 200 expressions with two or three example sentences for each. Pretty much all the expressions in the book are in the deck too, but the deck only has example sentences for about half of them. (The examples sentences in the deck are not taken from the book.)

Idioms: The deck with 476 proverbs and idioms includes example sentences for each, but the one with 2,100 idioms doesn't have any. The material isn't taken from the Kodansha books, but many expressions appear in both. Again, one plus for the book is that there are multiple examples for individual expressions.

I've always enjoyed reading this kind of material. One occasional downside though is finding a really interesting idiomatic expression, trying it out, then finding almost nobody knows it.

so no dice on JSPEC at my bookstore...But did find and pick up Ultimate Japanese Phrasebook and Common Japanese Collocations.

I have a copy of JSPEC that I bought back in 2006. Maybe I'll start a project one day of making a deck for it?

Merocor Wrote:I have a copy of JSPEC that I bought back in 2006. Maybe I'll start a project one day of making a deck for it?

This has already been done by fluxcapacitor (in the form of an Excel file, which can readily be imported into Anki):
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=2609&page=1

Then again, rolling your own is always a good way to learn the material.

I think these books have some really useful content, but with frustrating presentation decisions.

In the books I've looked at, example sentences are written in kanji with no furigana, and with romaji directly underneath.

In the "Read Real Japanese" series, I wish they had put the furigana on the left-hand page instead of the right.

mmhorii Wrote:This has already been done by fluxcapacitor (in the form of an Excel file, which can readily be imported into Anki):
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=2609&page=1

Thanks a bunch for the info mmhorii.
fluxcapacitor for ever!

[Katsuo]

HelenF Wrote:In the books I've looked at, example sentences are written in kanji with no furigana, and with romaji directly underneath.

Personally, I like that layout for reading practice. When furigana are written close to and right above the corresponding kanji it's hard to avoid reading them, which means you are not getting practice at reading the kanji. It's possible to cover the kana with a card, but that is awkward, especially if you aren't sat at a desk.

In the romaji underneath layout, words usually aren't aligned right under the corresponding kanji and the spacing is greater, so it's easier to ignore them or cover them up.

Katsuo Wrote:In the romaji underneath layout, words usually aren't aligned right under the corresponding kanji and the spacing is greater, so it's easier to ignore them or cover them up.

... which is why, despite using limited number of kanji and simpler grammar, the reading of sentences from DoBJG seems more advanced then in the subsequent volumes.

As a follow-up, Kinokuniya NY did have a copy of JSPEC and I am reading it right now. I don't know if they have any more, but it's certainly worth a try.

I have managed to track down reasonably priced copies of many of the Kodansha Intl. books, but couldn't find a reasonable Basic Connections:Making Your Japanese Flow. I didn't find any reviews of it here, is this book worth it? I can't seem to find much on building longer sentences, but perhaps when I get to that level Japanese language textbooks would be better anyway.

KallistiX Wrote:I have managed to track down reasonably priced copies of many of the Kodansha Intl. books, but couldn't find a reasonable Basic Connections:Making Your Japanese Flow. I didn't find any reviews of it here, is this book worth it? I can't seem to find much on building longer sentences, but perhaps when I get to that level Japanese language textbooks would be better anyway.

I have this book... definitely worth it! Teaches you in a straight forward way basic word to use in order to be more fluent, along with example sentences and right and wrong use.. GET IT!!!