Dictionary of Common Japanese Expressions and Usage

Author: Zhao Huamin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: It has been our long-standing wish to compile a reference book that can benefit users in improving their language communication skills. With the increasing emphasis on language communication, especially through years of language teaching and practical application experience, we have come to realize that to truly master a foreign language, after acquiring a certain vocabulary, appropriately using various forms of expression is crucial for accurately conveying the speaker's intent and achieving high-quality language communication. At this very moment, the Japanese publisher Kuroshio Shuppan introduced this book, which provided great inspiration to the authors. Meanwhile, in recent years, the idea of pragmatics research has emerged. Here, we have compiled the results of daily language research, Japanese teaching experiences, and practical application insights to dedicate to the users. The following points are particularly noteworthy.
1. This book collects 697 forms of expression. They are primarily derived from "The Examination for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Question Paper Guidelines," "Japanese Sentence Patterns Dictionary," "Japanese Expression Sentence Patterns," and the authors' accumulated teaching practices. They basically cover common forms of expression used at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.
2. In the textual explanations, we strive to approach the perspective of actual language communication, emphasizing the precautions to be taken due to differences in usage contexts, the ages and statuses of the speaker and listener, etc.
3. We have not provided corresponding Chinese translations for each form of expression itself. For those with relatively clear correspondences, translations are included, while for those with less obvious correspondences, textual explanations are used to avoid forced interpretations. However, all example sentences are fully translated to help users grasp their exact meanings.
4. The majority of example sentences are close to daily life. While sentences from classic works certainly carry authority, they are often limited by contextual constraints, which may hinder users' understanding and make them difficult to use in practice. Therefore, we had to reluctantly exclude them.
5. To facilitate use, an index I and index II are appended at the end of the book. In the main text and index I, expressions marked with an asterisk are those at the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 1. We hope to draw users' attention to them.
We hope this dictionary can provide convenience for Japanese learners, teachers, researchers, and those interested in Japanese.