Читать книгу Nihongo Pera Pera - Susan Millington - Страница 6

• PREFACE •

I came to Japan for the first time 23 years ago as a newlywed, to begin married life in a country I knew almost nothing about. I made the journey by sea with my husband, a young British diplomat. It took us seven weeks to reach our destination. When I first learned I was going to Japan, I had no grand design on how to go about mastering Japanese, although the long sea journey meant I would have plenty of time for reading and study. Once on board the ship, I started to explore, in a leisurely fashion, what lay ahead of me. I scanned my blue and yellow Teach Yourself Japanese for days, confident I was making great progress. When we disembarked at Yokohoma, I had, in effect, mastered only two words of Japanese: pen and inki. I did not realize that pen really referred to something other than a fountain pen, whose correct name was mannenhitsu. Even the word inki let me down, as it is now more commonly pronounced and spelled inku.

We were to spend two years learning Japanese before my husband began work in the Embassy. There were three other young diplomats also embarking on language study. For the first time ever, another wife and I were to be allowed to participate in the training, with one proviso: our husbands and the other men had to be able to make satisfactory progress in spite of our presence.

Although I was not a diplomat, I would be learning the language of diplomacy: the vocabulary of politics and economics; official government jargon; gyōsho and sōsho, the cursive and very cursive styles of writing; polite ways to address the Emperor, should we ever meet him. It was very odd. After two years of intensive study, I could sort out a visa problem in Japanese or discuss a Ministry of Foreign Affairs Note Verbale with the loftiest of Japanese bureaucrats, but I could not have a casual chat in colloquial Japanese with my neighbor or simply and correctly order a bag of onions from the vegetable shop.

I remember how difficult it was to pick up the language at first. I had studied French, German, and Latin before coming to Japan, but nothing prepared me for learning Japanese. It is truly a difficult language to master, and many people must reach the conclusion early on that it isn't worth the bother. For those who feel this way about learning Japanese, I have four words of encouragement: First is the Worst. The stress of the first attempts to pick up the language is almost unbearable. Hairlines have been known to recede under such pressure, ulcers have formed, and romantic bonds have snapped. But it does get easier and, yes, it can be fun.

When I look back over my years of studying Japanese, I wish I had had more user-friendly materials to help improve my speaking ability. I've tried to write the sort of book that I would have liked to have had myself, a book that would have helped me improve my spoken Japanese and my understanding of the subtle nuances of the language. I've never stopped studying, but now I try to learn only what I want to know and what I can use. I have not had a chance to speak to the Emperor and have had little need to read cursive script. What I would like is to enrich my everyday spoken language and to use more effectively the language I have already acquired. There is no better way to do this than to add a few of the colorful onomatopoeic phrases the Japanese put to such skillful use themselves.

There is no right or wrong way to learn Japanese. After an initial period of hard work picking up the basics, it should become fun. Whether you are seriously studying Japanese, hoping one day to become a great expert, or just grazing on the surface of the language, trying to decide whether you want to delve deeper, I hope this book will be of use to you. Above all, as you read the book, I hope you will enjoy thinking about the language and how you can make use of these expressions yourself.

I would like to thank Keiko Plater for her assistance in proofreading this text and the staff of the Charles E. Tuttle Company for their editorial guidance.