Making Out In Japanese? But I’m in a happy relationship! We have a house and a tortoise! I don’t want (or need) to make out in Japanese!
Tuttle Publishing Making Out in Japanese Review and Giveaway Lindsay Does Languages Blog
This was my first reaction to the second book in the package the good people at Tuttle Publishing sent to me. I cast it aside and didn’t look again until very recently in preparation for this review. As it turns out, I’d judged a book by its cover, well, its title at least. The cover is pretty funky. There’s actually not as much lovey dovey or flirty Gerty stuff as you’d expect. (I totally made up ‘Flirty Gerty’, but I like to think she exists somewhere). In terms of whole chapters about love ‘n’ stuff, you’ve got chapter 14 ‘Love and Sex’, couldn’t be clearer on that one, and chapter 15 ‘The Other Side’ about break-ups.

So that means that a surprising amount of this book is actually relevant to anyone who wants to make friends in Japanese, socialise casually, or just learn to speak a bit of slang, like. Cool. Cool cool cool.

Now we’ve cleared that up, let’s start at the beginning. The introduction has one of the best starts to any language learning book ever.
Tuttle Publishing Making Out in Japanese Review and Giveaway Lindsay Does Languages Blog
I love this. Honest, to the point, and, most importantly, readable. This friendly tone continues throughout the book and is complimented nicely by a page of manga style cartoons at the start of each chapter. For a book about slang and ‘real’ language, I think this is a really important tone to take. I don’t want to read something that even utters the word pronoun or adverb if I’m looking for some quick, casual Japanese. Win.
Tuttle Publishing Making Out in Japanese Review and Giveaway Lindsay Does Languages Blog
The rest of each chapter basically works like a vocabulary list with extra explanations (maintaining the fun tone) where necessary. The vocabulary lists consist of English, Romaji, and then Kanji and Hiragana with Furigana over the Kanji, so this book is great for all levels because no one is excluded from understanding. There’s also some grey boxes scattered appropriately throughout with words linked to cultural information, such as ‘otaku’ and ‘meido kafeh’. There’s even a whole chapter with some social media chit chat.

Pros

This book is great if you’ll be conversing with young Japanese people or already have Japanese friends to speak with. I also love the easy to read layout and fun tone of the book. It’s definitely a must if you’ll be using Japanese primarily in casual social situations. I’d have to say the size is also an advantage, as it would fit into a bag without weighing you down.

Cons

Like I said right at the start of this review, the name doesn’t accurately reflect the content of this book. It needs to be made clear that I wasn’t disappointed with this but rather pleasantly satisfied that I could actually use the book myself. However, if you were looking to…how can I say this politely when children might be reading…you-know-what, then this book might not be as helpful as you’d first think. To be fair, on the back of the book, this is clarified, but if I saw this in a shop I wouldn’t get as far as picking it up to look at the blurb.

Giveaway!

Tuttle Publishing have given me 2 copies of this book to giveaway to you lovely people. Hooray! All you have to do is enter via the Rafflecopter box below. You can enter up to 10 times so it’s definitely worth a shot! Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway Rules

This giveaway is open to UK and international residents. Entrants must be over 18 years of age. Entrants are entitled to ten entries per person if all entry options are used. Entrants must log in via Rafflecopter and answer the question in the widget in the Disqus comments below – this is the ONLY mandatory task. Entrants can gain extra entries in the draw by tweeting a link to the giveaway, following Lindsay Does Languages on Twitter, or visiting the Lindsay Does Languages Facebook page. Entry closes at 00.00 on Thursday 23rd April 2015. The winner will be picked at random on Friday 24th April 2015 and contacted via the email given on your Rafflecopter account. If I cannot contact you this way, then I may attempt to contact you via Facebook in alignment with these rules. If I cannot make contact with you, I will have to offer the prize to another entrant and pick another winner at random. The winner will be announced on the blog and/or social media. The prize will be dispatched from Tuttle Publishing. There is no sponsorship or affiliate link to this giveaway or in this blog post. Tuttle Publishing have been kind enough to send me some of their products in exchange for blog reviews and giveaways. Thank you!