A Japanese Handbook

A Japanese handbook
A book about culture, honorific language, telling words apart, writing practice,…

Is studying for the JLPT enough?
As someone with years of experience in teaching, active in community work, running a fanpage group, holding workshops to share knowledge and offline Vietnam-Japan cultural exchanges,… I have heard a great many remarks like “Japanese is so dry and so hard”, “I have no motivation to study Japanese”, “I'm not used to life in a Japanese working environment”, “Japanese people are conservative and rigid”, “how do I improve my communication skills”, “there is so little on business Japanese, honorific language and office culture”, “the books and reality are completely different”…. That made me realise that most of what is on the market today is material or courses on revising for the JLPT. There has not been a single book written for Vietnamese readers on culture, honorific language, communication skills,…

Besides, with over 400,000 Vietnamese now living and working in Japan — 10.4 times as many as at the end of 2008 — we have had to witness a great many painful incidents, from stabbings and killings to babies being born and abandoned,… I ask myself whether it is because people go to Japan so young, knowing Japan only through Minano Nihongo or the N-level revision books, or through what a broker told them,… and forget to equip themselves with any social or cultural knowledge about Japan and its people? The JLPT has never been enough. It is only a certificate of ability and a passport to help you find work more smoothly.

Having struggled to get used to life in Japan myself, I have always wanted to share as much as I can beyond the JLPT — vocabulary and grammar for improving the communication skills you only meet in daily life, honorific language, translation, the cultural differences between the two countries,… through experience or through my own reading. I believe the “law of attraction” exists in this world. If you think positively about something, good fortune will surely come to you. That is why I put so much time and effort into designing the book to look as bright and attractive as possible, to make taking in the knowledge easier and to help you grow fonder of this difficult language.

With over 300 pages of varied colour images, its price could easily be over 500k. That would make it hard for students in Vietnam to get hold of. Because I want this to be a book of real value to the spirit, supporting people's study and building their cultural and social knowledge,… I decided to share it openly and completely free. Any copying or printing for commercial purposes is not what I want and should be condemned.
Thanks to An Nhiên fb.com/annhien96tcc for compiling and sharing the material.

Download the material: PDF

See also:
Honorific Language in Japanese – How to Use Keigo
How to Say “Good Luck” in Japanese and How to Reply