How to Sound Intelligent in Japanese: A Vocabulary Builder (Power Japanese)

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.

CHARLES DE WOLF is a professor at Keio University, Tokyo. He is the translator of T-shirt Japanese Versus Necktie Japanese.