JapanNewbie

TheJapanShop.com End-Year Book Sale

Posted on 29. Dec, 2007 @ 12:07 pm by harvey in Books, Language

The JapanShop.com is having another sale, on top of their currently running 10% off sale (max savings at 15$ per product). It seems they need to clear out as much inventory by the end of the year as possible, and they have unsold books stacking up.

There are a total of 12 books covered by this “extra” sale that ends December 31st. I’ve listed a few that I would recommend taking a look at below.

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar ($42.50 to $32.50, save 24%)

A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar ($49.98 to $38.98, 10 bucks off)

I have never used these particular Grammar books, but I did have a Grammar book when I was in high school first starting out, and I loved even more than my dictionary. I mean, it was easy to ask someone how to say “frog” in Japanese, “かえる”, done. But it wasn’t so easy to ask people the difference between grammar patterns like たべたら, たべれば and たべるなら, all of which could translate into “if you eat” in English, but are subtly different in Japanese. Dictionaries just don’t get into that. A Grammar dictionary can be your secret weapon when it comes to figuring out these nuances.

Japanese for Busy People (2nd Edition)* (Price Varies per Book, most are at least 50% off, this is $25.00 to $9.99, 60% off!)

I have never used the Busy People books, and frankly, if you’re busy, you probably don’t have enough time to learn Japanese… But! If you are busy and still have the motivation to learn, this might be a good way to get started.

Last but not least, some books in the excellent Genki series are on sale. Both Genki 1 and Genki 2 are 20% off.

If you bought any of these books earlier in December before this sale was announced you can contact the JapanShop for a  gift certificate for the difference!

In addition, if you order something before the 31st you’ll get a free print of one of Andou Hiroshige’s Fifty-Three Stages of the Tokaido with every book order. Bonus!

I still recommend the Genki textbook series over all of the other books available now, but the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar looks interesting!

Happy holiday shopping!

I, on the other hand, need to shop for sweaters…

- Harvey