Outsourced book review: 7 days 60 minutes Japanese

I got a request via email from the author to review this book. I've been studying Japanese off and on since 1996. More off than on, but I don't think I'm reliable at evaluating what's good for a blank-slate beginner. I had a friend who was in a much better position, as he had just come to Japan and had given himself his own crash course in studying Japanese in the weeks before his trip. I electronically loaned him the digital copy that the authors had sent me. (Yay, future!) This is his review. All asterisks are his own.
 

About a month before I came to visit you in Harajuku, I had the "Oh, sh*t, I don't know a word of Japanese!" moment. So I loaded up on learning aids--an iPod app with tons of survival-style convos (useful), a Lonely Planet phrasebook and mini-dictionary (also decent) and a kana app for my Google tablet (should have started with that a year ago). I studied desultorily. "Do you speak English?" and "I don't understand" were the Japanese phrases I ended up using most in Tokyo, with mixed results. And Sandra, once I got there, you taught me to say "fukuro ha ii desu" at the konbini, and that was by far my most effective communication. I've been saying "no bag" in English for twenty years, so it seemed only natural to learn to say it in other languages.

Anyway, my patchwork, piecemeal approach to Japanese language acquisition caused me to get pretty uptight once I was on the ground in Tokyo. Well, actually, I got very uptight at times. And I must say, beginning my katakana studies on the plane was the wrong approach.

But if one is a last-minute, learn-how-to-say-it-on-the-plane-over type, 7 days 60 minutes Japanese is probably a great place to start. In fact, probably the best use for this book is a crash course on the New York-Tokyo flight (no pun intended). I particularly love the way the authors roll out the Onegaishimasu/Arimasuka/Dekimasuka triumvirate in Chapter One. I wish one of my language resources had laid it all on the line up front like that. Those are some key terms that, combined with a little vocab here and there, will get you by big-time in Tokyo. I also liked the lessons on variations of no, expected responses, key kanji and numbers. The vocab was pretty thorough for travel situations, though it could have been presented in a more organized fashion here and there.

So, in terms of drawbacks...Sandra, one of the things I caught myself doing constantly on my visit was tugging on your sleeve and asking, "What does that mean? What did he say? What's that kana again?" The fact that you didn't throttle me is testimony to your infinite patience (or to that generic Ambien I was slipping you). [This explains a few things! —ed.]

The main drawback of this book is that I find myself with the urge to tug your sleeve again about certain things I simply don't understand.

7 Days 60 Minutes leaves particles out of the equation. The authors serve up "Sumimasen toire doko desu ka?" as an example. Sumimasen, but is that correct? Where's the wa? The ga's and wo's are mostly missing too. Basic particles aren't too difficult to understand for English speakers invested in at least saying a couple Japanese phrases on their trip, so it wouldn't have hurt to include some mention of them. But, Sandra. Tug, tug. Maybe I'm wrong and you don't need them? [They are often dropped in convo, but this bears explaining.]

I'm also not fond of the way the authors have romanized certain words. Why didn't standard romaji suffice? Oo and ee (for ō and ei respectively) make frequent appearances in the text, but it's not eego (pronounced like in English "ego"), it's eigo (pronounced like "a-okay"), right? Sandra? Tug, tug, tug.

Yet all told, 7 Days 60 Minutes Japanese delivers what it promises in the title, and with a few adjustments, could be perfect for an in-flight vocab brush up on my next flight to Tokyo. So, thanks for sharing, Sandra. Or as they might say in your neck of the woods, Arigatō, Miss Thing! [You see why I love this guy?? Follow Charles on Twitter, especially if you're studying Japanese now. Or if you just like brilliant people.]