Learn Japanese (Set of Three Volumes) (An old and Rare Book)

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Foreword It is by sheer accident that Yuko Fukuroi plunged herself into the project to prepare Japanese teaching materials and a dictionary for the course, to teach Japanese language at the Institute of Asian Studies. The first volume Learn Japanese -Part I has come out now, and Part II is in the process of its final stage for printing. Preparation of this text was a team work lasting for two years - preparing the teaching materials, translating them into Tamil and English, testing the materials in the class, revising them again and again in the light of the problems faced while teaching, and finalizing the material for printing. I am so proud' of Yuko Fukuroi, for having produced this useful and indispensable material to teach Japanese language through Tamil at the Institute of Asian Studies, which will bring India, particularly Tamil Nadu, and Japan a little more closer. The Institute has plans to bring out this textbook in other important Indian languages too, replacing Tamil in the textbook by other Indian languages. Yuko is largely responsible to put the Japanese Language teaching programme at the Institute on a strong foundation.

Yuko Fukuroi came to the Institute to learn Tamil, to be of use to collect data for her doctoral programme and was my student in Tamil for the last two years with breaks now and then when she would go out to collect data for her thesis. I am really amazed at the speed with which she picked up Tamil in speaking, reading and writing. She is a committed and hard working young scholar not only in learning but also in teaching. My text-book to teach Tamil to foreign students, my mode of drilling and extracting work, have helped her a lot to evolve her method of teaching and I should say, her text-book is an improved version of my teaching materials for Tamil, which I have been using all these years.

The second part of the text is expected to be printed in the next one year which will be followed by Part III of the book and a multi-lingual dictionary, Japanese-Tamil-English, to be of use for those who undergo these language courses.

Preface When I started to learn Tamil, I took hints in a notebook in my mother tongue, Japanese, though the Tamil textbook contained explanations in English. I found that it was easier to understand Tamil through Japanese rather than through English. I showed that notebook to Dr. M. Shanmugam Pillai, my Tamil teacher, and we discussed the linguistic similarities between Tamil and. Japanese. And one day, he unexpectedly asked me, "Why don't you prepare a Japanese textbook through Tamil?"

The preliminary textbook on Japanese through Tamil was completed in 1994. As soon as I began to use that book in my Japanese classes, I found that learning Japanese through Tamil helped students, who knew Tamil, to understand Japanese easily. What is more, that book could remove the student's prejudice that Japanese language is strange and difficult. But at the same time, I faced problems mainly on the differences between Japanese and Tamil. Each language has a structure different from that of others, and at the present stage we cannot say for certain that Tamil and Japanese belong to the same language family. Owing to various problems that I faced in the class-room, my textbook has undergone revisions.

I am indebted to Dr. Shu Hikosaka and Dr. G. John Samuel, Directors of the Institute of Asian Studies, for their encouragement and support in publishing this textbook, Learn Japanese-Part I successfully. I am happy in bringing out this text-book in print through the Institute of Asian Studies, a research centre with Indo-Japanese collaboration promoting academic research on the cultural facets of Asian countries.

I thank Dr. M. Shanmugam Pillai who has always given me valuable suggestions and advice for the successful completion of this text-book.

Dr. C. Rajeswari, who is a prominent scholar in Tamil with a deep knowledge of Japanese language and its structure, translated the preliminary textbook into Tamil. Ms. J. Kalpana Joy Selvakumari, Dr. N. Chandra Segaran, Dr. R. Jayaraman, Dr. V. Ganesan were kind enough to go through the proofs along with me. Ms. Jija Shelley and Mr. K. Selladurai operated the computer in Tamil, English and Japanese for printing. I am grateful for their great help in bringing out this textbook.

I hope this Learn Japanese - Part I would be of immense help for Tamil students to learn Japanese and also to understand the Japanese culture.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages