Japanese Resource Review #35: Classical Japanese Reader and Essential Dictionary!!

The final book in the Classical Japanese Series of reviews: does this Reader and Essential Dictionary hold up the torch of epicness the first volume in the series ignited: or does it simply fall flat? With an expensive price tag, but with a previous volume to justify it, is it simply too expensive for what it gives? Or is it worth every penny? Let's take a look on this week's Japanese Resource Review!

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[ThatsMyChad]

The end of the series has me looking forward to the next books I'm gonna review, as well as some new videos coming in new formats! I can't wait to share these new projects with yall ^^ Enjoy this and thank you always for the constant insane support T___T

[wufnozr]

私は日本人ですが、これは買いかもしれませんね...。






Advice(?) for learners: never mind if you should feel it too hard. We Japanese feel the same. Most modern Japanese people, even educated ones, don't know a lot of words used there, some contemporary customs or their way of thinking, the grammar, etc.

I suppose Japanese don't understand 古文 (especially those written in the Heian period or whatever) as well as native English speakers do Shakespeare.
But we can read those written recently (like the Meiji period).
I find writings of the early(?) Meiji period (before the unification of the written and spoken language) to us are like Walter Scott to you (or it might be a bit more difficult, though).
I hope more non-Japanese will enjoy Japanese classics.

[dosgos]

This looks like a great self-study primer to classic Japanese.

Multi-dimension "text" choices must have been a challenge for the author in printed text. Some choices made not on pedagogy but rather based on the limitations of traditional printing of black ink on white paper. All that said, a nicely printed, well thought out book can be easy to pick up, enjoyable to use, and promotes good concentration.

On the other hand, digital allows toggling classic & modern furigana, toggling definitions/comments in Japanese and/or English, eliminating romaji, adding many colours, etc. But maybe "too many digital choices" can get overwhelming.

1. The classic furigana is a bit frustrating but could be "removed" by printing it in red and supplying a red plastic sheet. I don't know if there is an "easy" way to also print modern furigana in green, supplying a second green plastic sheet, allowing the student to select: no furigana, red furigana, or green furigana.

2. The romaji is frustrating all around and I think it should be avoided by all learners as it is a (bad) crutch. That said, the author uses it as a neat tool to communicate "modern pronunciación". And the capitalisation for popular vocab was smart too.

[Alostbutterfly]

I'm using these books now for my Classical Japanese course... 🙃 although I'm intermediate Japanese, I find it to be a lot.

[AugsburgAugustinian]

So glad everything worked out for your visa. Take tons of pictures for us!!!

[johnleake]

Sounds a very good price, given the limited market and the scholarly standard. You're getting a lot for your $65, especially with that super-useful dictionary. Does it use historical kana or are the kana normalized to the modern forms?

[Nighteye]

Honestly any Dictionary seems to be expensive in comparison to other books I've bought for Japanese. I decided to get 小学漢字辞典 and 小学国語辞典 both of those were around $100 once it was all said and done but could buy those for half that in Japan. 😆 This is the first time I've seen a classical Japanese reader/dictionary but it seems kind of obscure so I could see why the price tag is $65 honestly. And, looks really nicely laid out too.

[homerthompson]

I might have to pick these up when I get good at the language, as I get thrown off sometimes by the old-school Japanese when I have been playing Dragon Quest games lately, eg like うれしい becoming うれしゅうございます and stuff like that. Plus at some point I really want to play 龍が如く維新 and figure that has to have some older Japanese in it. I still definitely need more practice with native material in current Japanese though before I can really look at these books profitably. Though at least my 日本語 has gotten passable enough to have played through Dragon Quest 1 & 2 and the first 逆転裁判 so far.

[lizrae]

if you do a video closer to halloween were spooky out fit and gloves for the hands on table.

[mrdavuk]

This books content looks so good but is there a book that is similar to this book(like text and detailed explanation of vocab and grammar) for modern Japanese?

[cap-pa]

Star Wars : The Last Jedi T-shirt????

Bruh I'm trying to forget it exists 😭

Just started learning from Genki and RTK, Your videos are really helpful.

[rynchn]

yooo i'm earlyy, video is great like always!!