To convey his conviction that "the Japanese language is not vague," Rubin has dared to explain how some of the most challenging Japanese grammatical forms work in terms of everyday English. Reached recently at a recuperative center in the hills north of Kyoto, Rubin declared, "I'm still pretty sure that Japanese is not vague. Or at least, it's not as vague as it used to be. Probably."

The notorious "subjectless sentence" of Japanese comes under close scrutiny in Part One. A sentence can't be a sentence without a subject, so even in cases where the subject seems to be lost or hiding, the author provides the tools to help you find it. Some attention is paid as well to the rest of the sentence, known technically to grammarians as "the rest of the sentence."

Part Two tackles a number of expressions that have baffled students of Japanese over the decades, and concludes with Rubin's patented technique of analyzing upside-down Japanese sentences right-side up, which, he claims, is "far more restful" than the traditional way, inside-out.

"The scholar," according to the great Japanese novelist Soseki Natsume, is "one who specializes in making the comprehensible incomprehensible." Despite his best scholarly efforts, Rubin seems to have done just the opposite.

Previously published in the Power Japanese series under the same title and originally as Gone Fishin' in the same series.

Customer Reviews:
Best of the Power Japanese Series-
I distinctly remember the sense of relief I felt when I read Rubin's Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You (Power Japanese Series) (in its earlier incarnation under a better title as "Gone Fishin'"). I usually loathe grammar explanations, but this was a fun read, and I finally understood some of the Japanese grammar structures that I had been struggling with for years! Shortly afterwards I managed to pass the first grade of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. He doesn't get all of the credit for my success, but I know I couldn't have managed it without him either.

CONTENT
-----------------
The book is a collection of mini essays divided into two parts. In the first part he addresses various problems related to the subject in Japanese. The second part is a more loosely organized collection of thorny issues.

The writing is hilarious. Take this phrase, for example: "Japanese is not even vague. The people of Sony and Toyota did not get where they are today by wafting incense back and forth." It still cracks me up.

His explanations for the following concepts remain the best that I have encountered:
-wa and ga
-yaru, ageru, sachiageru; kudasaru, kureru
-morau, itadaku
-the causative (The best part of the book--"Honjitsu wa yasumasete itadakimasu....As the great Zen master Dogen himself might have translated it, "Gone fishin'"--I remember when I FINALLY got it here, and everything clicked into place)
-passives, passivication, and the passive-causative
-the natural potential
-kara da, wake da (I used to be completely befuddled by this one), no da
-hodo
-kanji (hilarious--he says he has nothing to say about the world's most clunky writing system here, and that explains why he left the Japanese out of his book)
-shiru, wakaru
-tame
-tsumori
-kimeru, kimaru
-early warning systems for upcoming grammar structures, because the language works backwards
-why Japanese is fun to read (I totally agree)
-aru, de aru
-going and coming with the command form (this section is too short)
-word order + counters
-itadaku
-how to anticipate what is coming next (similar to the early warning system above)

HOW TO USE IT
-----------------
Like most of the books in the power Japanese series, it works best in small doses, and does not need to be read cover to cover. As clear as his explanations are, it took a while for me to let go of my preconceptions about some grammar points and wrap my head around what he was saying. If you don't get it the first time, just move on and come back to it later. He's addressing some of the toughest problems in Japanese, so it's no surprise that they put up a struggle before you master them.

ROMAJI INSTEAD OF JAPANESE
-----------------
It never bothered me a bit that there is no Japanese in the text. It usually does, so I sympathize with the sentiments expressed by other reviewers, but this time I was OK with it. Unlike the rest of the books in the power Japanese series, which typically collect examples of Japanese on a certain topic (idioms, emotions, verbs, etc.), and therefore do have Japanese, Rubin is talking about grammar, and troublesome concepts are his main focus.

As mentioned above in this review, he explains on pages 92-93 why he doesn't have the maddening writing system in this book. Of course, what book on grammar would be complete without some rule-breaking? From 119-129 he includes Japanese. This essay was added to the book later. Perhaps he read everyone's views and took them to heart!!!

SUMMARY
-----------------
Every minute I have spent with Rubin's book has been as productive as spending hours agonizing over grammar in classes, doing drills, and struggling with other books. The other works in the Power Japanese series have their merits--see my Listmania List for more of these ("Power Japanese Series")--, but this is the best of the bunch!

Making Sense of Making Sense of Japanese
This is a perplexing, frustrating book. My issue with it comes down to one thing, which other reviewers on this site have already pointed out: the Japanese examples are written in romaji.

Every intermediate Japanese student should be working on and pushed to understand the Japanese writing system if they don't, and folks, this book is definitely for intermediate students of Japanese. While it's fine that Rubin may believe Kanji are stupid (I'm not-so-grotesquely simplifying his very brief section on Kanji...) this book is written for--as far as I can tell--determined learners of Japanese, not for dilettantes.

In fact, I relish coming upon new words (when they are written in the Japanese writing system) so that I can look them up and add them to my vocabulary. And because I've been through Heisig now (a semi-related product plug...I love Remembering the Kanji), I don't find new words intimidating--often I can glean the meaning from both context and Kanji, and it is relatively trivial, and educational (!) to look up new words. With romaji this skill I've built up is lost.

At first I thought I could tolerate it. I even re-wrote a few of the shorter passages in, you know, Japanese. But after hitting the section "The Explainers," where he presents a long section by Murakami in romaji, I gave up. I just can't read long passages of romaji. Maybe someone with Rubin's advanced skills finds it easy (could it be true?), but I just don't get why he didn't at least include the actual text in addition to the romaji.

All that aside, what about the actual content? Well, honestly, I think it's fantastic. I've read few (er...that is to say, no) books which so lucidly explain the distinctions between "wa" and "ga," for example, and "The Explainers" section was, despite my complaints, an epiphany for me. For Japanese learners at a more advanced stage this may all be child's play, but for me, it really helped with some thorny details that I just hadn't figured out yet. It is one of the books that has helped me think in Japanese in ways I wasn't able to before. Rubin clearly has a deep grasp of Japanese and--this is where he distinguishes himself--the English writing skills to cogently transmit his deep comprehension of Japanese.

So it is a great disappointment to me that he placed this artificial barrier up in this otherwise great book. I don't know if he or his editors made this choice, but it makes no sense to me and really made the book frustrating. The Japanese don't use romaji the way it is used in this book. So why should any serious students be expected to read this way, and why should any true teacher of Japanese--as Rubin clearly is--use romaji in this way?

An incredibly stepping stone
But not necessarily for everyone.

I purchased this book sometime between during my 2nd year living in Japan. I've since been 3 years, and thanks to a lot of sources, this book perhaps most of all in its regard, I've been able to reach a level of fluency I didn't think possible. This book is not a resource for beginners, but rather, for a student of the Japanese language that have not yet mastered forms such as the passive, causative, the giving and receiving forms, and all of the combinations thereof. His explanations assume the reader has some university level experience of Japanese linguistics, although you don't need to have a 4-year degree to benefit from this book.

My only complaint, and I know he did this only to lower the mean-ability-level of accessible readers, is that all Japanese sentences and phrases are written in Roman characters (excluding the very last chapter). This is incredibly problematic for a serious student of Japanese. Roman letters do not, in any way, represent the Japanese language. If you have had a competent teacher or have adequate experience with the language, this is a no-brainer. I personally wrote in the "Japanese translation" of all of his Roman letter Japanese-examples in order to make them accessible to me as a study tool. I suggest you do the same, if you can. While this is, in my humble opinion, a big problem, Professor Rubin likely discourages, or even out-right bans (as my professor did) the use of roman characters when representing the Japanese language. That change was likely one that happened on the editorial side.

Also, and this is something I wished he had stress more in his book, his method of translation in the last chapter is a gem beyond all. He talks about how certain words trigger others, how set phrases are often, or almost always, followed up by others. For example, if you start a sentence with a time, you'll likely follow with where an action happens/happened. If you start with comparative conjugation, you'll (almost always) finish it up with what will happen if those terms are met. As you likely know, Japanese is almost completely backwards in terms of grammar.

Overall, an incredible resource and a vital step to mastering the grammar forms that would otherwise be too strange to wrap your mind around.

Andrew

Entertaining, informative and accessible for the non-specialist
This little book gives understandable, logical explanations of aspects of the Japanese language that most Westerners simply do not consider "possible", such as the "pronoun-drop" phenomenon that is common in quite a few languages, but is simply applicable to more parts of speech in Japanese.

A Winner
This book explains the most difficult parts of Japanese grammar in clear and concise English. For example, one of the hardest things to learn is when to use "wa" and when to use "ga." This is sort of like when to use "the" or "a" or no article at all in English. It may come naturally to you, if you are a native English speaker, but it drives everyone else nuts. Unless Japanese is your first language, you almost certainly feel that way about "wa" and "ga," as well as several other concepts, but this book really does help like no other I have found.

All students of Japanese should read this book. The only question is when. My advice is to buy it and read it over quickly as early as possible. You won't follow all of it right away, but that is ok. Just hang onto the book and read it again after you've finished the equivalent of one year's worth of classes. And again after two years, or whenever you get confused.

One word of caution: this is not a text book. It does not have lessons, nor practice exercises, let alone vocabulary. It is a supplement only, but an essential one.

Related Categories:
>> >>Books >>Specialty Stores >>Textbook Buyback