Reading Japanese with a Smile
Author: Tom Gally
I have been learning and using Japanese for more than 20 years and while I do well enough, I am also extraordinarily aware of my shortcomings. Despite years of study and a plethora of programs, there has always been a lack of specific, explicit understanding for every single element in any given Japanese sentence. While context and background knowledge do a tremendous job of filling in gaps in pure linguistic understanding, I never fail to marvel at those moments where the meaning of a Japanese sentence is absolutely clear, but I fail to understand what each kanji, particle, or conjugation is specifically doing.
That’s why I was so excited to find an intermediate reader titled Reading Japanese with a Smile by Tom Gally. The book isn’t marketed for translators but rather Japanese language learners and there are two main reasons this book appeals to me. First, it contains stories from 週刊朝日 rather than fables or fiction like other readers I have seen. Second, the layout of the text and the analysis thereof appeal to me as a learner–more on that below!
Right off the bat, I loved the format of the book. The original Japanese text appears on the left page and the corresponding English translation appears on the right. The original/translation texts comprise the first four pages (two Japanese, two English) of each story. Next is the “Commentary” section. In this section, every element in the original story is defined and explained (in English). More specifically, the Commentary lists each Japanese sentence individually and beneath it, there is gloss of each term, a gloss of each verb, notes, and (occasionally) cultural notes.
The glosses are self-explanatory, but I appreciated how each verb in the story gets unconjugated in the gloss. The cultural notes are also interesting for me, reminding me of my own experiences in Japan. But the star of the show for me is the notes section. The notes here meticulously describe each element in the original article sentence by sentence. I especially appreciate how Gally explicates all the implied elements like subjects, objects, agents of action, etc.
Reading Japanese with a Smile would make marvelous study material for intermediate Japanese language learners. As a translator, the explication is a fantastic test of my own linguistic understanding of Japanese. Not only that, but the stories are delightfully zany, giving readers material that they can both learn from and be entertained by.
Audra Lincoln is a Japanese to English translator and interpreter with over eight years of in-house translation experience in manufacturing. They have also completed several programs to build the necessary translation and interpreting skills: the Summer Intensive Interpreter Training course at the University of Hawaii Manoa; a master’s degree in interpreting and translation at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a year-long program at the Inter-university Center for Japanese Studies.
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