Reading Academic Japanese

Japanese Language Reading
1

As I mentioned in my last post, I kind of struggle reading Japanese, and this is something I’m trying to work on.

At the same time, however, next year I’ll be beginning a masters degree, and my dissertation is on Japanese history. I’d love to be able to properly read Japanese writers/ primary documents, but my experience with english academic writing is that academic literature tends to employ much more complex and rare vocabulary and grammar than regular english.

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with Japanese academic literature? I’d love any tips for dealing with complex vocab and grammar, general information about what to expect from academic literature, and even resources or texts for practice. Thanks very much for your help :slight_smile:

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2

Well, odds are you’ll need to familiarise yourself with the である form, and all the associated grammar structures and occasional bits of fairly unique vocabulary changes.

Here’s a couple of hastily-googled links to get you started:

https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-lessons/how-keigo-polite-speech-works-in-conversation/

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