Arts & Culture Dec. 15, 2010 - 04:44AM JST ( 7 )

TOKYO —

“Japanese for All Occasions” explains how Japanese conversation is carried out in different social settings, with attention to the speech styles used. From casual to honorific, each style has its own level of politeness and rules of word formation.

With this book, intermediate-level students will learn how to speak in ways that are appropriate to a variety of situations, from informal chats with friends and colleagues to conversations involving professors, company presidents, and others of high social standing. It comes complete with audio for all the example sentences and dialogues, making it an ideal resource not only for understanding grammar but also for honing one’s listening skills.

“Japanese for All Occasions” is an introduction to Japanese speech styles, or the ways in which Japanese speakers adjust their words depending on who they are talking to. In this unique volume, veteran teacher Taeko Kamiya shows how similar ideas are expressed in casual, polite, honorific, and humble styles. The book is divided into two parts. The first gives an overview of the various parts of Japanese speech that play a role in creating speech styles—personal pronouns, names, honorific prefixes, copulas, adjectives, and verbs. It also touches on the role of sentence-ending particles in male and female speech.

The second part is made up of 19 lessons and deals with conversation. Here the author explains, with reference to example dialogues, exactly what goes on in each speech style, from verb conjugations to contractions and ellipses. Throughout the book, she clarifies sentence patterns that learners at the intermediate level are likely to encounter, with emphasis on the ones that come up in Level 4 (N4) of the new Japanese Language Proficiency Test. The book comes with audio for all the example sentences and dialogues, and practice questions at the end of each lesson allow learners to test their understanding.