Unlocking Japanese

"Every student of Japanese-and perhaps more importantly, every teacher of Japanese-should read this small book."

"Is there a dark conspiracy among schools and textbooks to make Japanese seem far more complicated than it really is? Of course not. But there might as well be."

So begins this ground-breaking book that sets out to demonstrate that Japanese is "simple, logical and beautiful" and that most of the apparently "arbitrary rules" that you "just have to learn" can be reduced to simple, easily intuitive patterns if you just understand how the language really works.

The problem is that Japanese is continually described in terms that fit English and other European languages. This prevents us from seeing Japanese as it really is and often creates a sense of vagueness and guesswork and the illusion of multiple irregularities and exceptions. In fact, there is nothing vague about Japanese, and it has (unlike most languages) very few irregularities. It is extremely precise, economical and elegant.

What is needed is a model that allows us to see Japanese on its own terms rather than trying to describe it in terms of European languages - an enterprise akin to doing electronics with a kitchen knife.

Building on the pioneering work of Dr. Jay Rubin, Cure Dolly provides the foundation of a new model for understanding Japanese. One that does not involve difficult terminology or abstruse concepts, but allows us to see Japanese in easy, commonsense terms.

An ambitious claim? The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Applying Cure Dolly's methods, we do indeed gain a clear, intuitive grasp of many things that seemed complex or confusing before.

This is not a massive tome, but a short book, whose aim is not to deliver hundreds of Japanese grammatical fish, but to show the reader how to fish for herself.

It is not aimed at the absolute beginner. The reader should know at least a little basic grammar. But arming oneself with these concepts at an early stage in Japanese will make everything much easier. However, even advanced students can benefit from these eye-opening techniques that really do help to unlock the simple elegance of Japanese.

Cure Dolly is co-founder and editor of the KawaJapa Japanese-learning website.