Read Japanese Today
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
For anyone who has ever gazed at a Japanese street sign, menu, or newspaper and felt the frustration of total incomprehension, Read Japanese Today offers a brilliantly structured path to literacy. Len Walsh's landmark guide presents the Japanese writing system — kanji, hiragana, and katakana — not as an impenetrable wall of abstract symbols, but as a living, logical pictographic language whose characters tell visual stories rooted in ancient meaning. Walsh systematically deconstructs each character by tracing its origins back to its original pictorial form, making the learning process intuitive and remarkably memorable for the complete beginner. What distinguishes this work from conventional language textbooks is its elegant argument: that kanji, far from being arbitrary, are a coherent visual code that any motivated learner can crack. Walsh's prose is clear, witty, and encouraging, stripping away the intimidation factor that so often derails Western students of Japanese. The method has earned this guide an enduring reputation as one of the most accessible entry points into Japanese literacy ever published — and once you see a character transform from a brushstroke into a picture, you will never look at the written Japanese language the same way again.
Author: Len Walsh
Format: Paperback
Genre: Reference & language
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
For anyone who has ever gazed at a Japanese street sign, menu, or newspaper and felt the frustration of total incomprehension, Read Japanese Today offers a brilliantly structured path to literacy. Len Walsh's landmark guide presents the Japanese writing system — kanji, hiragana, and katakana — not as an impenetrable wall of abstract symbols, but as a living, logical pictographic language whose characters tell visual stories rooted in ancient meaning. Walsh systematically deconstructs each character by tracing its origins back to its original pictorial form, making the learning process intuitive and remarkably memorable for the complete beginner. What distinguishes this work from conventional language textbooks is its elegant argument: that kanji, far from being arbitrary, are a coherent visual code that any motivated learner can crack. Walsh's prose is clear, witty, and encouraging, stripping away the intimidation factor that so often derails Western students of Japanese. The method has earned this guide an enduring reputation as one of the most accessible entry points into Japanese literacy ever published — and once you see a character transform from a brushstroke into a picture, you will never look at the written Japanese language the same way again.