How to Sound Intelligent in Japanese: A Vocabulary Builder

Power Japanese

by charles-m-de-wolf

For every student, a time eventually comes when basic grammar is no longer the problem. You can say a few words about the weather, or the depleted state of your stomach, or explain that you are going out for the day-and actually be understood. Beyond that, however, the going gets a little rough. You cannot make pertinent comments about philosophy, politics, art, science, law, or business-simply because you lack the necessary vocabulary. How do you go about acquiring this specialized vocabulary (most of which consists of kanji compounds)? Usually by spending hundreds of hours reading Japanese publications. This book is an attempt to shorten that process by collecting a good number of the more commonly used key words from crucial areas of human endeavor. Now, without spending years mastering the written language, you should occasionally be able to come up with the right word at the right moment in a conversation that is striving toward intelligence.

Genres: Japanese Literature, Language, Reference, Nonfiction, Japan

125 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1993

Reviews

[Johanna Lehto · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect companion for someone that has the basics of the Japanese language under control.

This book really added more nuances to the daily and more advanced conversations.

Personally, the literature and historical terms was most convinient! This has also been an amazing book when writing essays. A lot of the academic terms is compacted here with their kanjis and all!

In other words, great book!

[Nathan Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely important vocabulary builder who anyone who likes to talk about anything more advanced than the weather.
Linguistics, physics, chemistry, politics, music, geography, business, economics, etc. Very necessary.

[Bill Michaud · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for anyone looking to expand their knowledge into different areas of Japanese.

[Bobbi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book.

[Chase · Rating 1 out of 5]

so this book really just played with kanji a lot like 理論 and 論理. I think it's helpful for more advanced language learners, but it would kind of overwhelm a beginner (speaking from experience here). I was a novice japaneser when I picked this little jewel up and it really made no sense to me at the time.

[Moazbellah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It covers a goo amount of vocabulary in a variety of fields, such as politics, economy, science.
I think it would be very useful to intermediate to advanced learners.
If you can make an Anki deck to review all the vocabulary in the book it would be a great plus.