Tuesday, November 15, 2011

How to Speak Japanese Today

                      Home-Course Makes it Possible
For You to Speak Japanese Today

In the last few decades there has been a huge jump in the number of people around the world studying the Japanese language—a phenomenon attributed to the extraordinary popularity of Japanese manga [mahn-gah]  “comics,” anime (ah-nee-may) animated films and video games;  judo, and karate [kah-rah-tay].

     Japanologist and author Boye Lafayette De Mente, internationally known for his 40-plus books on Japan, has published a “home-course” in Japanese that is aimed at this growing audience and anyone else who needs or wants to communicate with Japanese in their own language.

     Entitled  SPEAK JAPANESE TODAY – A Little Language Goes a Long Way!,  the book is based on using English phonetics that make it possible for one to read and pronounce Japanese correctly without any previous study or experience, an approach pioneered by De Mente in his previous books on Japan.

    “All you have to do,” De Mente says, “is read the phonetics out loud in standard English and the sound comes out in Japanese.”

     The book features key vocabulary and example sentences for specific categories of people, including airline pilots, stewardesses, Immigration officials, Customs officials, hotel staff, restaurant staff, bartenders, shop clerks, taxi drivers, tour guides, doctors, families hosting Japanese students, tourists going to Japan, and foreign students of Japanese.

     “The book literally makes it possible for anyone to communicate verbally in Nihongo [Nee-hone-go], the Japanese language, without any previous study or practice,” De Mente adds.  Speak Japanese Today is available from Amazon.com in both digital and printed formats.

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Boyé Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Asia since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, journalist and editor. He is a graduate of Jōchi University in Tokyo, Japan and Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona, USA. In addition to books on the business practices, social behavior and languages of China, Japan, Korea and Mexico he has written extensively about the plague of male dominance and the moral collapse of the U.S. and the Western world in general. Recent books include: CHINA Understanding & Dealing with the Chinese Way of Doing Business; JAPAN Understanding & Dealing with the NEW Japanese Way of Doing Business; AMERICA'S FAMOUS HOPI INDIANS; ARIZONA'S LORDS OF THE LAND [the Navajos] and SPEAK JAPANESE TODAY - A Little Language Goes a Long Way! To see a full list of his 60-plus books go to: www.authorsonlinebookshop.com. All of his titles are available from Amazon.com.