Some of those little (standard JP size) Kodansha books can be pretty good. Aside from grammar, particles, and other vocab I think they have some that are conversational. Have you tried a more advanced version of, say, Japanese for Busy People?

I happen to have a couple of old Navy-issued books that focus almost exclusively on conversation at various levels and in different situations. Mine are pretty old but you might be able to find something more up-to-date. I would recommend these over the books you’ll find in the language section simply because of their genuinely practical nature (i.e. these are for use in the field as well as the classroom).

Additionally, I highly recommend Using Japanese by William McClure. If you have the fundamentals down then books like these will be more helpful than travel phrasebooks.

I was thinking about this the other day. IT would be much more helpful if instead of offering a free ticket lottery, they entered a partnership with the airline industry to subsidize flights for tourism during a certain period. A $600 roundtrip ticket from the US (or anywhere else where the average is $800-1400) would probably stimulate tourism much more than 10,000 random people waiting to see if they’re lucky. In addition, they could really push the JR rail pass since it’s not as well known as it should be and definitely worth it (I couldn’t use it regularly enough so have yet to try it, but the price is right!).

I had this same argument in 5th grade with this one kid… he never learned…

Looks like the others have got it covered. Pronounce it as it’s written, deviations within a certain range can be chalked up either to accent or speed. The longer you draw it out the more obvious it will become though– a quick a • ni • mé will likely be truncated to a • ni • me, either by your throat or the listener.

I used to drive an hour and a half each way per day to school. Best time to learn some new vocab! ;) Oh, and change the language on your console. At least it’ll remind you what to do once you’re done even if it doesn’t affect anything in game.

Basically, I don’t eat anything except vegetables or grains. しか (shika) is the only / except for part. For now it’s just a phrase but once you start tackling particles you’ll see it in a snap.

この料理に魚はつかわれていますか。
Kono ryouri ni sakana wa tsukawarete imasuka?
Is fish used in this dish?

In the beginning, looking at the print-based writing is fine for keeping you from the brink of information overload– eventually though you should look at handwriting or at least typefaces which describe the strokes. You’ll gain a much better understanding of what the characters are and how to compose them with relatively little effort (basically, you’ll write faster and read more, faster). It’s like touch typing vs. one or two finger pecking, but with no practice required (or at least, no more than you already need to be copying the other font).

Edit: Whoops– clicked one of your links and thought another tab I had open (jisho) was the other, so I assumed you were looking at something else. Left behind for posterity, I guess? ;) As for the gap, you can tell that it’s really only the infinite thinning of the stroke. It varies from person to person (though I know people who get a twitch when they see it without a gap), but remember it next time you’re looking at any calligraphy.

• This reply was modified 12 years, 5 months ago by  Ian Smith.