Preface:
A Note about Learning Japanesei)
the particles and particularly the distinction between
the case particle or kakujoshi (ga, wo, ni ,de etc)
Japanese is partly an inflected language, like
Latin, French, German, Spanish, and many others, but and the kakarijoshi such as wa, mo, sae, koso.
only the verbs and adjectives inflect. Japanese nouns,
instead of using inflections, are accompanied by ii) the system of inflections (katsuyo) which govern“joshi” or particles to show what their connection is to how verbs and adjectives are incorporated into sentence
the rest of the sentence. The problem the learner, and structures.
especially a native English speaker, faces in learning
It is this author’s opinion that these two aspects ofan inflected language, is that unless you know how togo from any inflected form to the form that is found in Japanese are difficult for English speaking students ofa dictionary, you are at the mercy of the author of your Japanese because English has neither of them but thattext or of your teacher, as to when and what vocabulary the difficulty has been compounded by the methods of
you are taught.
Furthermore, even if you know the language teaching and aspects of presentation of Japabase form or dictionary form of an inflected word, you nese adopted by textbooks which have been fashionable
will not know how to use the inflections to say what for the last several decades in our education systems.
you want with that word, unless the text or the teacher
This programme is concerned primarily with thehas seen fit to introduce it already.
second, that is with the system of inflections, though aWith UJVA, you learn the patterns of the inflec- student will find that the distinction between and sigtions as a systematic whole. This precisely, is the goal. nificance of substituting a case particle for a kakarijoshi
You will then be able to use dictionaries to find any or vice versa in a sentence is regularly noted.
word you want to use, you will be able to convert it to
It is the author’s opinion that in the longer run
the inflection you need to say what you want and be able
many
students benefit greatly by learning some at least
to do these things without waiting for your teacher ortext to cover that particular point. (There is a video to of the descriptive rules about the way Japanese sentencteach you how to find words in a Kanji dictionary, see es are put together. I hesitate to admit that I am really“supporting materials” on the opening card.) As you advocating the early teaching and learning of grammar
learn to do this you will come to appreciate how much and syntax as aids to learning, but in fact I am. Thisa systematic approach to the mastery of the inflections text and the computer programme which preceded it
helps you to communicate in Japanese beyond the of- are both unashamed testimony to that philosophy.
ten childlike or artificial sentences of many textbooks
Even if they are difficult to grasp at first, a goodand courses. You learn more quickly to link ideas in anormal adult way and to use the vocabulary you need in knowledge of these systems has many practical advantages for the learner. The learner will no longer be soorder to say what what is of interest to you.
dependant on teachers, texts, or any particular syllabus.
UJVA is different from many Japanese courses He or she can learn to find the dictionary form of inin that it does not need you to learn lots and lots of flected words in dictionaries, can then adapt that formwords. Rather, it shows you how to find any word in to the needs of new sentence structures beyond thea dictionary, even from an inflected form which you do confines of an institution’s syllabus and can begin withnot know, and how to use those words when you have confidence to be creative.
found them. We believe that if you can do this, you
I am not pretending that it is necessarily easy
will soon learn the words you often want to use andyou will not waste time learning words which are not for the student to gain these advantages but more than
three decades of teaching Japanese prove to my satisuseful.
faction that the effort soon has practical rewards for
Ignoring if one can, both the undeniable beauty serious students,
and also the frustrations of the Japanese writing sysOver the page is a chart showing how Japanesetem, there are two other high hurdles for native English
differs
basically from English and other European lanspeakers to clear. They are:guagesiv