Page:Lange-Noss - A text-book of colloquial Japanese.djvu/19

 the north say yogambei (it may be good), from yokaru-beshi, thus preserving the classical beshi.

In the ports there is a good deal of pidgin-Japanese (Yoko-hama-kotoba), which is to be avoided ; e. g., peke = dame bad, spoiled. The student ought also to be on his guard against the slang of the laboring classes.

Practical Hints

It would be well for the student before he begins work on this book to go through a briefer course of the nature of a primer. To get a general idea of the genius of the language it is well at the outset to read rapidly a book like Chamberlain's "Handbook of Colloquial Japanese," not stopping to master the details. Imbrie's "English-Japanese Etymology" will be found helpful later on.

During the first year it will be a saving of time to employ as a teacher one who has a good knowledge of English. The teacher should be instructed when reading the Japanese sentences to vary them as much as possible. The student after translating into English should retranslate into Japanese. He will then be well prepared to take up the second set of exercises. If the teacher knows no English, have a friend instruct him how to proceed. Read to him the Japanese sentences one by one and have him criticise the pronunciation. Let him then ask simple questions which require the student to give the substance of the sentence in his replies. Let the teacher repeat each answer, correcting it as he does so. Don't let him ask questions about the grammar or definitions of words. Then translate the English sentences and ask the teacher to correct the translations in the same way. In translation it should be the aim of the student to render the ideas of the original in as brief a form as possible, translation word for word being quite out of the question in nearly all cases. When learning words the student should try to form in his mind a vivid conception of the actual thing or act or relation expressed by it, without reference to English equivalents. The measure of one's progress is the degree in which the untranslatable elements of the language are mastered.

One peculiarity of the Japanese must be kept constantly in mind, namely, the persistent consciousness of the relative rank of the speaker and the person addressed as shown in the choice of words and grammatical forms. For the same idea there may be two sots of expressions, one used when the