Quick grammar lesson?

Have you never met a くそじじい before? That’s like the 国立名物

I have. This guy didn’t happen to be one. He was a perfectly normal dude. I’ve had old dudes hit me because I accidentally jostled them on the train.

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That’s how they get you, by looking like a normal person. The only person who has ever yelled at me on a train was a white kid who wanted to be the holier-than-thou-gaijin.

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Thanks. That sounds like a worthwhile investment. I’ll have to check that out.

I’ve it read it twice. He does a great job making sense of wa and ga, too. Despite his credentials and career Rubin writes with the same enthusiasm for learning the language we have.

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That’s great. I went ahead and purchased the ebook from Amazon. However, it doesn’t seem that it will be release until January 26th. I don’t know if this is a new version - or just for the ebook version. Either way, I look forward to reading it.

Sorry you have to wait a few days, but hope it’s as useful and interesting for you as it was for me. The book was first published in 1993, or thereabouts. It was titled “Gone Fishin’.” That’s the first copy I owned. Then it was printed again in 2000-ish. Happy reading!

You bet. I’ll leave you a message after I get it and start reading. I’ve been speaking Japanese for a long time - but I still have fundamental areas that I have never mastered - probably because I didn’t understand the basic nuances. So I always look forward to books like this. Basically you had me sold when you said he was one of the translators for Murakami Haruki. Thanks again. I’ll post back later.

Thanks for the heads up. I’ve been waiting for a Kindle version for years.

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Is this a book that’s best suited for more advanced learners, or beginner learners?
Is it something you are supposed to read and take notes, or just read for “leisure” if you will?

Read it for fun. Don’t take notes. Just enjoy the humour and the flashes of insight that will stay with you forever. That said, it is probably most useful for intermediate learners.

I tried to read it as a beginner, but at that stage much of it went over my head. I came back to it later as an intermediate learner, and at that stage I got much more out of it. I have the 1998 paperback edition.

There is a wonderful chapter called “The Johnny Carson Hodo”, which you may not appreciate unless you’re old enough to remember the Johnny Carson show. If you struggled with hodo sentences before, this will finally make them clear to you. There’s also a memorable explanation of the suffering passive.

The chapter on Wa and Ga is worth reading at any level. (It’s very early in the book, right after “The Myth of the Subjectless Sentence”). You will laugh out loud, and you will never confuse wa and ga again.

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I think Rubin’s book is what a lot of Cure Dolly’s method is based on so it is indeed insightful.

Aye, I’m at the age where I don’t remember who hosted it after Leno. :joy:

Nemurineko hits the nail on the head, especially as concerns wa and ga. That section is perfectly suited for beginners. It is a leisurely read. Rubin explains kara, tame, the differences between shiru and wakaru, and his chapter on giving- and receiving verbs (“The Invisible Man’s Family Reunion”) taught me more than a textbook explanation.
Great point, Nemurineko, about Johny Carson. I’m old enough to know who he was, but I’m old! In any case, you don’t need to know Carson to understand the hodo chapter.

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Thank you, Kitakamikle-san. Looking forward to hearing your impressions.

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Thank you so much for doing this because there are a lot of people who have not played well when it comes to their grammar games and lessons because this is one of the hardest languages to learn and looking at the intricate phrases and sentences that you have to learn is very hard. It is nice to see that there are great threads like this that can help me to learn more because people are not aware of the possible subjects that you need to learn. It is hard to od but it is great that there are forums that have made it known because there are people who are unaware.

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Got the kindle version as well, thank you for the tip!

You bet! Hope is useful for you.

Started reading it and I really enjoy it so far. Actually nice to read something that isn’t in Japanese or a japanese textbook at the moment :stuck_out_tongue:

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I just finished it as well and there were some great insights, but the romaji was really hard to parse. Plus, there were a few OCR errors with the romaji alone that had me stuck for a minute.

I did a quick read and the following really stuck out to me to go back to for a second pass:

  • the direction of the action for あげる・くれる・もらう・etc.
  • the Johnny Carson ほど
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