Japanese Workbook Vol.27

About this book

Japanese Workbook Vol.27: Friends, Relationships & Social Life Japanese — The Japanese of Making Friends and Keeping Them

The name you must give so it is remembered. The invitation you must phrase so that it can be refused. The bill you must settle so that no shadow falls on the evening. The apology that must come before the explanation. The letter that must cross a time difference and still arrive warm. If your life in Japan includes other people — and whose does not — this is the Japanese that friendship runs on, and it cannot be improvised at the friend's door.

Part 1 — 300 practical expressions in 20 scene groups Meeting someone new, exchanging contact details, inviting a friend, choosing a day, meeting up, eating and drinking, visiting a friend's home, gifts between friends, talking together, helping each other, thanking, apologising and making up, saying no kindly, keeping a comfortable distance, worrying about a friend, old friends and reunions, friends far away, group gatherings, introducing friends, and partings and promises. Every expression includes its reading, romaji, English meaning, a usage note (the scene, the care to take, the rule to remember, the words to confirm), three example sentences in Japanese and English, and a ruled practice space for three sentences of your own.

Part 2 — 12 writing tasks in three stages Short notes of friendship (greeting a new acquaintance, inviting a friend for a weekend walk, telling a friend you will be late, thanking a friend who helped you), messages that handle a situation (thanks for a visit and inviting in return, declining an invitation kindly, sending your news to a faraway friend, apologising after a misunderstanding and hoping to make up), and full written pieces (looking back on a reunion with an old friend, introducing two friends in writing, writing to everyone as the organiser of a gathering, a parting letter to a friend who is leaving, with a promise) — each with a model answer that really uses this volume's expressions, a self-check list and a full writing grid.

Part 3 — 12 readings on friendship and social life How to write the first message after exchanging contact details, inviting a friend without pressing, the manners of visiting a friend's home, choosing a gift for a friend, declining an invitation kindly, apologising to a friend and making up, keeping in touch with a friend far away, holding a small gathering of friends, introducing a friend to another friend, words of thanks that reach the heart, supporting a friend in a hard season, and parting well and meeting again — each with a full translation, five key words and three comprehension questions.

Series integrity: zero overlap, no exceptions All 300 expressions and all 12 reading titles were checked item by item against everything in Vol.1–Vol.26 (9,900 headwords and 312 reading titles): overlap zero. Across the twenty-seven volumes you now train 4,200 words, 300 sentence patterns, 5,700 practical expressions and 324 readings. One honest note: distances, customs and costs differ by person and by town — this book teaches you to ask, and to leave room, and it is a language workbook, not a book of etiquette law or of counselling: it teaches you to invite, to thank, to decline and to write, and leaves the judging of hearts to their owners.

For learners who have finished Vol.1–Vol.26 or who already read and write Japanese at an advanced level — and above all for anyone who wants their friendships in Japan to be carried by their own words, not by gestures and hope.