Challenge Japanese Speaking - Advanced Edition (Includes Practice Answers, Companion CD)

Author: Zhao Ping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: Two years ago, Zhao Ping completed Challenge Japanese Speaking (published by USTC Press) while lying in a hospital bed. Initially, he intended to write a Japanese speaking textbook for learners with some foundation in the language. However, due to his dire condition, he wrote with a worse-than-average mindset, pouring his wisdom into the book. As a result, Challenge Japanese Speaking diverged from its original intent, becoming a challenging "hard nut" that would be difficult for readers without a university-level Japanese major (3-4 years of study) to tackle.
The greatest difference between Challenge Japanese Speaking and other Japanese speaking textbooks lies in its oral material, which comes from real-life situations and is collected and compiled by Chinese authors. The text sections are humorous and engaging, avoiding the monotony often found in language learning. The language is un, completely breaking away from the rigid and overly polite conventions of typical textbooks. Loanwords, contractions, dialects, idioms, and even slang are used freely in the lessons. Combined with various special expressions of spoken language, these elements make the content as close to real-life as possible, allowing readers to step directly into the context of daily life in Japan.
Zhao Ping has studied, lived, and taught in Japan for over a decade and has long served as a column writer for the magazine Hinabeshi, writing numerous articles in Japanese. He is extremely meticulous in collecting Japanese language material, always paying attention to the often-overlooked details of everyday language. This has formed the distinctive style of his writing. Professor Motohiro Ito, a renowned scholar and editor-in-chief of the Japanese theater magazine Maku, wrote in the preface to Challenge Japanese Speaking: "I feel Zhao Ping's 'ease' in his articles. This ease breeds warmth and humor. The atmosphere of this book resonates with what I perceive in his novels."