Comments on: Momoko’s Musings: Finding Good Things in the Strangest Places

By: a Chinese language learner

a Chinese language learner — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 07:24:17 +0000

I’m a teen learning Chinese, and I was lucky enough to get my hands on bilingual versions of the first two books of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I’m one of those people who likes really dumb humour for some reason, so Diary of a Wimpy Kid appeals to me. If I tried to read Diary of a Wimpy Kid in English, though, people would probably raise an eyebrow- not so much if I’m reading my bilingual edition!

Anyway, my bilingual edition is filled with footnotes and annotations in the margin and stuff, so I thought, “This is great for learning Chinese!” I soon realised that the bilingual edition was actually published to help Chinese people learn English, but never mind: it works the other way as far as I’m concerned… Nowadays, I do the bare minimum work I can get away with for my Chinese class at school, and then go back to reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid in Chinese. I have actually learned quite a lot of new words from this book, and I think that when I become familiar enough with all of the new words, my brain will be able to concentrate on understanding grammar and syntax and whatnot more effectively and with less active effort on my part.

By: already been said

already been said — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:24:45 +0000

This is actually a no-brainer for me. (I stumbled upon this page looking for better examples of degrees of politeness that might be comparable to Japanese.) I actually think that East Asian Language materials from other East Asian Languages are far more superior than ones translating directly to English. Japanese was my first EAL and though I have the fundamentals, the dearth of descent intermediate-advanced level materials left me on plateau. It was not until I started studying Korean and used Japanese dictionaries to study Korean that I began to understand some more advanced grammar patterns in Japanese. In addiction the example sentences are more natural. I think this is because linguists or whoever is writing these books are so careful to remain within the grammar rules they establish, trying to make EAL to English translation seem like an exact science, that they cease to make natural sounding sentences in either language. No, now I think it is best to think of all rules (in Korean and Japanese at least — my Chinese is still too green to make any claims about it) as grammar TENDENCIES, often subject the flow and context of the situation. If that much is understood, there’s less likelihood of getting frustrated when things don’t quickly add up like the textbooks tells us they should. The rest has already been said…

By: Amelia

Amelia — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:40:30 +0000

It helps me! I’m also making the switch from Chinese to Japanese. Thanks for the tip–and just in time for my massive Amazon JP order.

I noticed Amazon CH also had a bunch of Chinese-language textbooks for Japanese…but since the goal is to get 100% Japanese, it might be better to do as you are.

By: Tracey H

Tracey H — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:25:20 +0000

hey Khatz, very interesting. Just had a quick look since im at work. that remembering the kanji book looks useful. This will be a great site for my students to check out next year. thanks. keep up the good work. Trac

By: Christina

Christina — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:59:32 +0000

I have some books for Chinese-speakers to learn English and they are just filled with example sentences.

What happened to Khatzumoto? He hasnt posted in a looooooong time. Im starting to have withdrawel symptoms.

By: nacest

nacest — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 21:29:02 +0000

Nice post, thank you Momoko!

On that matter, if anybody could suggest one or two specific books of this kind that you found helpful and well-made it’d be awesome. Only, it should be available on Amazon.co.jp (I live in Italy) and have English as the target language. There are so many out there and it’s impossible to tell which ones are good for this “reversed use” from the outside. Besides, I always go with recommendations when it comes to books 😀

Thanks again and keep it up!

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:35:06 +0000

I’ve thought about this before, except where the book would be teaching English (and not some other language; I only do English), because I feel like the Japanese in the book would be more natural. I can handle the English not being natural, as long as I get the meaning, but it is crucial for the Japanese to be natural. And unlike an English -> Japanese textbook, they won’t hold back on difficult Japanese grammar at the risk of sounding unnatural, because even Japanese kids can pretty much understand all the Japanese grammar you could throw at them.

I’m glad to hear you had success with this, I may look into it.