Comprehending Technical Japaneseby E. Daub; R. Bird; N. Inoue

Comprehending Technical Japanese by E. Daub; R. Bird; N. InoueReview by: Seiichi MakinoThe Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Jan., 1976), pp. 112-115Published by: American Association of Teachers of JapaneseStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/489181 .

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BOOK REVIEWS: MAKINO

COMPREHENDING TECHNICAL JAPANESE, by E. Daub, R. Bird & N. Inoue. The University of Wisconsin Press & The University of Tokyo Press, 1975. 437pp. $15.00.

Reviewed by SEIICHI MAKINO

University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana

The textbook of technical Japanese under review is no doubt a welcome addition to the field of teaching Japanese. It is the first textbook of its kind to appear in the United States, and in general it is carefully organized.

The organization of the textbook is as follows. It is comprised of a total of 25 lessons, each with the

following structure:

(1) A tabulation of 29 required new kanji with both on and kun readings, selected on the basis of frequency counts made in high school physics, chemistry and biology textbooks.

(2) A reading selection, taken mostly from high school textbooks, is given along with a voca-

bulary list. The romanized version of the

reading selection and its English translation follow.

(3) Explanatory notes that explain mainly how to translate given words or phrases into proper English.

(4) Examples of new grammatical constructions to-

gether with the meaning of each construction.

(5) Supplementary readings for translation

practice using similar vocabulary and construction in a similar type of passage.

(6) Translation test dealing with a similar topic as the reading selection. No vocabulary or construction assistance is given the student.

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The authors assume that the student has completed a one-year course in beginning Japanese, but they appar- ently have not carefully checked the kind of basic grammar and vocabulary items which are covered in an elementary Japanese course, considering that quite a few basics appear in the vocabulary list, explanatory notes and construction examples. To cite a few examples of many:

Vocabulary

tD b> ' ,

A __r ' 'ft,

r1<l. etc.

Grammar

^ . ' * * 7' , G (verb stem) i 3) .

* * *· CD 5 i c L . u · · · * t · a {a _ * · · · -t

- - etc.

However, repetition of the beginning Japanese vocabulary and grammar may not constitute a drawback after all, because it may offer a good review of first year Japanese.

What bothers me is the repetition of identical construction examples in different lessons, as in the following examples:

* - tltf (L. 1, L. 3, L. 4)

a* * * i A L C (L. 11, L. 24)

-lId 0tC (;t) (L. 3, L. 7)

L c- ( ;) (L. 1, L.9)

t -C (L. 4, L. 9)

{i )~-S LC ({[) (L. 7, L. 8) * * * (& * * * ·t (L. 7? L. 23) etc.

There are quite a few redundant listings ot vocabulary items, but I will not recount them here. Again, this may assist the student who has a short- memory span, but I do not feel that a textbook should

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'41_1 fj L ~ A - 7 - 0 _ , In Y) 6,

* * * a & ~ . f s , ·* * * ;- 1 - - .




be edited with such tolerance.

The authors correctly pointed out in the preface that "the Japanese used in modern technical writing is not nearly as difficult as that encountered in the literary or the spoken language." The emphasis of the textbook is naturally placed on the learning of the technical terms, the kanji, and the method of translation. The learning of grammar is justifiably kept minimal, beyond the point of elementary Japanese. In short, the classical translation method permeates every page of the book.

Thus, the explanatory notes are typically as follows:

EXPLANATORY NOTES (p. 57)

(1) zengo ni

(2) aitsugu ten

(3) susumu koto ni naru

Here the meaning is "back and forth." In other con- texts Zengo ni means "before and after" (in time) and "in front of and behind" (in space). See Construction Examples.

The word aitsugu is some- what unusual. On the other hand, aitsuide (successively) is a fre- quently encountered word.

The phrase koto ni naru, very common in scientific texts, implies that the statement is a consequence of previously given information or principles. It can sometimes be conven- iently translated as "hence," "it turns out that," or "would + verb;"

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often it is best omitted in translation.

(4) tatenami...yokonami Both tatenami and yokonami have de aru as the verb. One could insert de atte immediately after tatenami.

As for the main reading sections and the supplementary readings, they represent well-balanced material in scientific fields taken mainly from high school textbooks. They cover nearly all the basic areas in biology, chemistry, and physics and provide the student with an excellent initiation into the reading of scientific literature.

I can say with reasonable assurance that the student who has a solid background in first-year Japanese can reach the point where he/she can read technical Japanese intended by the authors. The main obstacle for the student will be the memorization of technical terms and kanji. The student is required to master about 500 kanji, approximately 5 to 10 per cent being those which the first-year Japanese student is expected to have mastered.

This textbook deserves the keen attention of both the student who is already motivated to learn technical Japanese and the Japanese teacher who has faced a demand for the teaching of technical Japanese.

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Documents

Comprehending Technical Japaneseby E. Daub; R. Bird; N. Inoue