Easy Hiragana: First Steps to Reading and Writing Basic Japanese by Fujihiko Kaneda; EasyKatakana: How to Read and Write English Words Used in Japanese by Tina WellsReview by: Mutsuko Endo SimonThe Modern Language Journal, Vol. 75, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 156-158Published by: Wiley on behalf of the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers AssociationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/329876 .

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156 The Modern Language Journal 75 (1991)

first text volume) contains the first twelve lessons; part two, lessons thirteen through twenty-four; and part three (just published but known only in draft form to this reviewer), the remaining six, very long lessons plus extensive charts and indexes. Each of the thirty lessons is divided into two semi-independent parts, sec- tions A and B. Thus, there are actually more like sixty lessons in

JSL," it is probably three

times as detailed and extensive as Jorden's BeginningJapanese, the two-part, 1963 textbook it replaces. In other words,JSL requires about three years of intensive language study to complete.

In addition to sections A and B, each lesson has a section C, which consists of three parts: "Eavesdropping," "Utilization," and "Check-up." In the "Eavesdropping" exercises students listen to a Japanese conversation on audio tape and then answer questions about the content; "Utili- zation" exercises present situations in which stu- dents respond in appropriate Japanese. Each of the exercises in these two parts is ingeniously thought out and fun to do. The "Check-up" evaluates the student's mastery of the "fact" component of the language.

I began this review by stating thatJSL is the most consistent and rigorous language text I know of. It is also the most demanding and rewarding. JSL is not a text to be taken lightly, and programs that adopt it must make a serious commitment to this language-teaching pack- age. The structure is so tightly organized that virtually nothing can be omitted or abridged, and students who do not work through the package to the end will have gaps in their understanding of basic Japanese patterns: causatives and passives, for example, are not introduced until part three. On the up side,JSL neatly resolves the decades-old problem about what textbook to use in second- and third-year Japanese. If instructors and language coordi- nators accept the premise that the spoken lan- guage should have primacy, then they should simply allow students to completeJSL. Read- ing can be taught using the complementary textbook Japanese: The Written Language, now available, in part, in draft form.

On the other hand, however, Jorden and Noda have taken a calculated risk in producing this text. By requiring so much basic language work, they force teachers and coordinators to face an unavoidable fact: However much we may wish it or require it in our college pro- grams, students at a lower level of language

ability cannot realistically be expected to read unedited literature--or scientific or business prose. Written Japanese is far too difficult for that. Deciphering should not be confused with the pleasurable experience of real reading.

Bringing this fact to the attention of academia is a little like announcing the need for a tax increase. The truth can be unwelcome. Jorden and Noda are well aware of the attitude of many educators. They know that some will be unsettled byJSL (one already hears rumors of nervous program coordinators anxiously looking around for ways to adapt or to find alternatives to parts two and three ofJSL). But Jorden and Noda believe that real proficiency in Japanese can only be gained through the kind of intensive work on the spoken language that JSL requires -the title is, after all, Japa- nese. The Spoken Language. If they are right, the advantages of the series will become obvious, as the Japanese proficiency of the students who use it begins to speak for itself. That is the kind of reward a language program should produce. It is also the kind of no-nonsense pedagogy one expects, and gets, from Eleanor Jorden.

S. ROBERT RAMSEY

University of Maryland

KANEDA, FUJIHIKO. Easy Hiragana: First Steps to Reading and Writing Basic Japanese. Lincoln- wood, IL: Passport, 1989. Pp. iv, 156. $12.95, paper. WELLS, TINA. Easy Katakana: How to Read and Write English Words Used in Japanese. Lincoln- wood, IL: Passport, 1989. Pp. ix, 149. $12.95, paper.

Easy Hiragana is an introductory book consisting of the following sections: How to WriteJapanese, Basic Hiragana, Basic Way of Writing, Voiced and Semi-Voiced Syllables, Long Vowels, Double Consonants, Contracted Syllables, Long Vowels in Contracted Syllables, How to Write Sentences in Hiragana, Some Model Writing for Punctuation, Sokuon and Yooon, Exercises with Basic Verbs, Writing Vertically, Cardinal Numbers, National Holidays in Japan, Days of the Month, Familiar Body Parts, Main Cities in Japan, and Exercise Sheets.

Conspicuously missing here is an introduc- tory section outlining the format and goals of

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Diane W Birckbichler 157

the book. The only thing close to the author's intent may be his controversial view expressed in the first section: "Hiragana is more impor- tant than Katakana in writing Japanese, . . . so it has to be learned first" (p. 1). As yet, no research has been conducted to determine which syllabary is more important or which has to be learned first. It is doubtful whether any kind of agreement in this matter can ever be reached, or is even worth reaching, that would apply to learners of all types and in all settings.

In terms of the organization, the last eight sections would best be treated as appendixes. In fact, inclusion of the section with exercises on basic verbs (divided into exercises with "come," "get," and "take") in a book designed to teach reading and writing hiragana is perplexing. It is irrelevant that "get" in Eng- lish, for example, is translated into various verbs in Japanese, such as kau, te-ni-ireru, okiru ("get up"), and toochaku suru ("get in").

The book is conveniently compact and the handwriting appearing therein is nice, but, as it is, Easy Hiragana is difficult to recommend for several reasons. In addition to English explanations that are awkwardly phrased and confusing, two major problems persist. First, studying hiragana is not made particularly enjoyable. Users first practice individual sym- bols, then they read and/or trace words for which English equivalents are provided. These words (and later, sentences) are unrelated to each other and appear out of context. Re- grettably, no activities are included to enhance the users' knowledge, test their understanding, or motivate them to learn the material. It also seems educationally unsound, even for the sake of practice, to have them write in hiragana loan words that are normally written in katakana.

Second, linguistic inaccuracies abound, e.g., ". .. N is considered soundless" (p. 4) [n is a syllabic, or moraic, nasal]. "The particle wa fol- lowing a noun or pronoun shows the nomina- tive case" (p. 103) [wa indicates topic, while ga indicates nominative]. The words dakuon and han-dakuon are translated "voiced and semi- voiced syllables" (p. 30), which should be explained, respectively, as syllables with a voiced consonant and those with p, so that syllables consisting of a single vowel would be correctly excluded from the former and the inappropriate term "semi-voiced syllables" would be dispensed with in the latter. The first problem may not be so serious to a devoted user, but the second is insoluble.

On the other hand, Easy Katakana is com- pletely different, a delightful, innovative, stu- dent-oriented book. It contains an introduction, a chapter on "how to use this book," twenty lessons, appendixes, and bibliography.

The introduction explains concisely what the book is designed to achieve ("perfecting loan- word literacy," p. v), how the loanwords are used, why learning katakana is important (to understand familiar food items on menus, to read important words on signs, and to spell one's name in Japanese, etc.), the kinds of problems learners are likely to encounter in reading and transcribing in katakana, and, finally, how this book is different from tradi- tional books ("to teach you to read starting from Day 1," p. vi, which it succeeds in doing). Another way in which this book is different is that it contains many games and puzzles and also brand names, e.g., Badowaizaa. The next chapter gives users a clear idea as to how to proceed and why.

Each of the first nineteen lessons is divided into six sections. "New Kana" introduces four or five new symbols or combinations. The sym- bols are selected in such a way that users will be able to read and write words immediately. "Recognition" tests individual symbols and pro- vides useful tips on how to look up katakana words in dictionaries. "Key Words" is accom- panied by helpful information relating to pro- nunciation, spelling, definitions, usage and/or etymology. "Practice" is for testing recognition of words, which are presented in context; e.g., drinks on a menu, items found at a neighbor- hood supermarket, and pastimes and hobbies. "New Words" lists a great number of practical, up-to-date words, from aisukuriimu to Shiti (Ea) Taaminaru, yunitto basu, rimo kon, and Warushawa. The author's sense of humor permeates. For example, sandoitchi is defined as: "two pieces of bread with anything from fried noodles to mashed potatoes in it" (p. 90) and hurii saizu as "one-size-fits-all (if you are small or medium); from 'free' and 'size"' (p. 96). "Chal- lenge" includes tasks of various types, such as reading menus and labels, guessing the katakana spelling of English words, and distinguishing words with similar-looking symbols. They are indeed "fun but not too easy" (p. viii) as the author intended. The answers to the "Practice" and "Challenge" sections appear at the end of each lesson.

Lesson twenty presents the Japanese pronun- ciation of English letters and acronyms and

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158 The Modern Language Journal 75 (1991)

their meanings, which will come in handy when telling someone how to spell one's own name, company, etc., and ordering a glass of bui-esu- oo-pii (VSOP). A comprehensive review follows, including a crossword puzzle and a sec- tion comparing hiragana and katakana symbols with their historically related kanji.

The major strength of Easy Katakana is that learning katakana is made easy and enjoyable. Users study meaningfully and are encouraged to think on their own or with friends. The re- viewer would only make the following sugges- tions: include a list of all the words with the page number on its first appearance, add accent marks, and change the phrase "English Words" in the subtitle to "Loanwords," since words of other origins are included.

Although it may be intended for beginners, learners at all levels will benefit greatly from Easy Katakana. For teachers of Japanese, this book serves as a model of how to present mate- rial effectively by being sensitive to the students' needs and interests.

MUTSUKO ENDO SIMON

Michigan State University

CHEUNG, KING-KOK & STAN YOGI. Asian-Ameri- can Literature.: An Annotated Bibliography. New York: Modern Language Association, 1988. Pp. x, 276. $39.50, cloth; $18.50, paper.

This is a welcome research aid on a subject that has emerged only within the last two decades. Heretofore, the writings of Asian-Americans (some adamantly deplore the hyphen) could be characterized as "fugitive": produced by exiles, by the dispossessed, the disenfranchised, the alienated or the self-alienated, these writings were furtive outpourings, self-consciously con- fessional, anecdotal, sometimes composed in a "debased" pidgin; they hovered uneasily on the periphery of attention, and were truly "mar- ginalized." Now, with the forceful emergence in the public eye of such figures as Frank Chin, Maxine Hong Kingston, and David Henry Hwang, this corpus has attracted scholarly interest, and not merely among Asian Ameri- cans. That the Modern Language Association has sponsored the publication of this bib- liography is a sign of the times. It was not too

long ago when the MLA would have dismissed these immigrant scribblings as "subliterature" and worthy only of personal, possibly anthro- pological interest.

This bibliography of 3,395 items is a helpful resource to what is clearly a difficult field to define: the compilers have tried to be "inclu- sive rather than exclusive." In this they are surely right: the field is too young to be pre- scriptive; it must be descriptive. But there are inclusions that undermine the focus of the enterprise. Although it is not stated, "Ameri- can" includes Canada, since many Canadian authors of Asian descent are included, and there are many citations from Canadian jour- nals, such as Asianadian and the Toronto South Asian Review.

Doubtless, the scope in this bibliography will be thought too capacious by some. But Cheung and Yogi are surely correct when they admit that there is no persuasive basis in their defini- tion of the Asian American experience: they remind us that criteria that are based on Asian American sensibility must by necessity be sub- jective. Language does not discriminate: there are authors who write originally in an Asian language as well as those who write in English. Nor is subject matter a basis: Asian-American authors who write about their motherland are included as well as those who write about their experience in America. Ethnic origin - some- times difficult to determine - does not provide a categorical distinction either. I mention these points not to quibble with the compilers, who have wrestled valiantly with these problems, but rather to indicate the Gordian nature of the knot. The authors apologize in advance for any omissions, asking graciously that these omis- sions "not be considered indicative of dis- courtesy or disinterest" (surely, they mean "indifference": one would hope that a bibliog- raphy would aspire to disinterest, i.e., objec- tive, even-handed curiosity). In the interests of space, I have provided the compilers directly with a list of omissions that I noticed, but will not offer them here.

In surveying the items, one is surprised that Japanese American literature includes 742 items, more than any other. By comparison, Chinese American is represented by 433; Fili- pino American by 307; Korean American by 54; South Asian by 303; and Vietnamese American and others, 31.

Cheung and Yogi have made an admirable

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