New Textbook On Japanese Provided Here

New Textbook On Japanese Provided Here

Written By Dr. Yamagiwa For Expanded Campus

A textbook tor the expanded Japanese training program, “Modern Conversational Japanese,” by Dr. Joseph K. Yamagiwa of the department of Oriental languages at the University has just been published by McGraw-Hill Book Co., and will be used on campus for intensive training in the Japanese language.

Rated as the most comprehensive textbook on spoken Japanese yet written, its purpose is to give the student an adequate conversational ability in the modern informal Japanese language. The form is that of the Tokyo middle class which is accepted as a standard in Japan.

The book employs no Japanese characters and the forms of speech in every day conversation rather than the more stilted forms used in writing.

The first section deals with pronunciation and word tone; the second presents an over-all view of Japanese grammar; and the third takes up various ways of expressing case, tense, voice and mood. The inclusion of English equivalents for all Japanese examples given makes it possible for the book to be used by students without supervision.

Of Japanese Descent

Dr. Yamagiwa is an American Citizen of Japanese descent who was born in Seattle, Wash. He received his A. B. from Bates College in Maine, and he holds A. M. degree in English and Ph. D. from the University. He is now an instructor in Oriental languages and was a research student in the literary department of the Tokyo Imperial University from 1939-41. He also traveled and studied during that time in Japan and China on a fellowship from the Rockefeller foundation.

Japanese has been taught on the University campus since the summer of 1936, and is now being given in a greatly expanded form i more intensive course as part the University’s recently inaugurated war program.