前言（繁體中文）

From JapaneseGuide

常見課本的弊病

常見課本的弊病是它們經常有以下的目標：

希望讀者儘快可以使用實用又有禮的日本語。
不希望日本語字母及漢字嚇跑讀者。
希望教讀者用日本語說出英語語句。

原本羅馬語系比如西班牙語，由於其與英語的相似性，以上目標不會有實行性的問題。然而，因為日本語甚至從思考的根基上都截然不同，以上目標導致現今市面上無數令人困惑的課本。它們經常充滿複雜的法則和數之不盡對應特定英語語句的語法。它們也會全無漢字，令你有天到了日本，環顧四周，驚覺自己完全看不懂菜單、地圖、甚至所有東西；只因課本認定閣下沒有記憶漢字的能力。

歸根究底，這些課本嘗試以英語教導日本語。它們在第一頁就教你如何說「你好，我的名字叫史密夫。」卻沒有告訴你它們在你背後已作出的所有武斷的決定。它們也會決定使用敬體，不管敬體比標準語法先學是如何的不合理。它們也許亦已決定了包括通常被省略的次要主題。事實上，以日本語說出「我的名字是史密夫。」最正常的方法是「是史密夫。」因為大部分旳資訊都從前文後理中理解了，所以被排除，可是課本有沒有根本上解釋日本語是如何運作？沒有，由於它們忙著塞給你「有用的」短句，然後說你學成了。結果讀者只有一大堆「如果你想表達這個就用那句」的費解，和「到底日本語是如何運作」的問號。

這個問題的解決方法是用日本人的解度解說日本語，從日本語開始解釋它如何運作，忘記強迫自己去用日本語語說出英語句子。要達到這個目標，解釋時保留日本語的合理性是最重要的。學習應循序漸進，絕不應急功近利。

一言以蔽之，我們學習日本語語法需要一個真正的日本語指南。

道地的日本語語法指南

本指南試圖有系統地建立一個符合日本語合理性的日本語語法結構。也許它不是一個速成日本語短句的實用工具（譬如，旅遊常用會話）。然而，它將邏輯地建立能造出堅固語法基礎的語法模塊。對那些已經從課本學過日本語的，你們會看到這裏材料的編排和演示和課本的有顯著的差別。這是因為本指南不欲強行用英語的演示方式在英語和日本語之間建立突兀的關聯。反之，附有翻譯的例句用令人更易吸收的簡單解說示範思想如何經日本語表達。

剛開始，例句的英文翻譯亦會盡量逐字直譯以保留日本語的合理性。這樣常會得到英語語法標準上的翻譯錯誤。例如，譯句可能欠缺主詞，只因日本語不需要它。再者，由於日本語沒有「the」和「a」，譯句亦不有包含他們。還有日本語不區分將本式和一般式（例如「我將會去商店」和「我去商店」），譯句不必作出以上區分。例句的解說能夠表達日本語的真正意思是我的希望。當讀者熟習用日本語思考，譯句會減少字面直譯以增加可讀性及集中在進階主題上。

Be aware that there are advantages and disadvantages to systematically building a grammatical foundation from the ground up. In Japanese, the most fundamental grammatical concepts are the most difficult to grasp and the most common words have the most exceptions. This means that the hardest part of the language will come first. Textbooks usually don't take this approach; afraid that this will scare away or frustrate those interested in the language. Instead, they try to delay going deeply into the hardest conjugation rules with patchwork and gimmicks so that they can start teaching useful expressions right away. (I'm talking about the past-tense conjugation for verbs in particular) This is a fine approach for some, however; it can create more confusion and trouble along the way much like building a house on a poor foundation. The hard parts must be covered no matter what. However, if you cover them in the beginning, the easier bits will be all that easier because they'll fit nicely on top of the foundation you have built. Japanese is syntactically much more consistent than English. If you learn the hardest conjugation rules, most of remaining grammar builds upon similar or identical rules. The only difficult part from there on is sorting out and remembering all the various possible expressions and combinations in order to use them in the correct situations.

※Before you start using this guide, please note that half brackets like these: 「」 are the Japanese version of quotation marks.

What is not covered in this guide?

The primary principle in deciding what to cover in this guide is by asking myself, "What cannot be looked up in a dictionary?" or "What is poorly explained in a dictionary?" In working on this guide, it soon became apparent that it was not possible to discuss the unique properties of each individual word that doesn't correspond well to English. (I tried making vocabulary lists but soon gave up.) Occasionally, there will be a description of the properties of specific words when the context is appropriate and the property is exceptional enough. However, in general, learning the nuance of each and every word is left to the reader. For example, you will not see an explanation that the word for "tall" can either mean tall or expensive, or that that "dirty" can mean sneaky or unfair but cannot mean sexually perverted. The edict dictionary (mirrors also available) is an extensive dictionary that not only contains much more entries than conventional dictionaries in bookstores, it also often contains example sentences. It will help you learn vocabulary much better than I ever could. I also suggest not wasting any money on buying a Japanese-English, English-Japanese paper dictionary as most currently in print in the US market are woefully inadequate. (Wow, it's free and it's better! Remind anyone of open-source?)

Suggestions

My advice to you when practicing Japanese: if you find yourself trying to figure out how to say an English thought in Japanese, save yourself the trouble and quit because you won't get it right almost 100% of the time. You should always keep this in mind: If you don't know how to say it already, then you don't know how to say it. Instead, if you can, ask someone right away how to say it in Japanese including a full explanation of its use and start your practice from Japanese. Language is not a math problem; you don't have to figure out the answer. If you practice from the answer, you will develop good habits that will help you formulate correct and natural Japanese sentences.

This is why I'm a firm believer of learning by example. Examples and experience will be your main tools in mastering Japanese. Therefore, even if you don't get something completely the first time right away, just move on and keep referring back as you see more examples. This will allow you to get a better sense of how it's used in many different contexts. Unfortunately, writing up examples takes time and is slow going. (I'm trying my best!) But lucky for you, Japanese is everywhere, especially on the web. I recommend practicing Japanese as much as possible and referring to this guide only when you cannot understand the grammar. The Internet alone has a rich variety of reading materials including websites, bulletin boards, and online chat. Buying Japanese books or comic books is also an excellent (and fun) way to increase vocabulary and practice reading skills. Also, I believe that it is impossible to learn correct speaking and listening skills without a model. Practicing listening and speaking skills with fluent speakers of Japanese is a must if you wish to master conversational skills. While listening materials such as tapes and T.V. can be very educational, there is nothing better than a real human with which to learn pronunciation, intonation, and natural conversation flow. If you have specific questions that are not addressed in this guide, you can discuss them at the Japanese grammar guide forum.

www.guidetojapanese.org/forum/

Don't feel discouraged by the vast amount of material that you will need to master. Remember, every new word or grammar learned is one step closer to mastering the language!

Requirements

Since Japanese is written in Japanese in this guide (as it should be and NOT in romaji) your browser must be able to display Japanese fonts. If 「こんにちは」 does not look like http://www.guidetojapanese.org/konnichiwa.gif (minus differences in fonts), then you need to install Japanese language support or use some kind of gateway to convert the characters. Links to instructions and a translation gateway are below.

Japanese Language Support
Translation Gateway (Considerably slower)

Also, please make sure you have a recent browser to enjoy all the benefits of stylesheets. I recommend Firefox.

Don't worry about having to manually look up all the Kanji and vocabulary. You can go to the WWWJDIC and paste all the examples there to quickly look up most of the words.

All the material presented here including examples is original except for some of the common terminology and when explicitly stated otherwise. I hope you enjoy this guide as much as I enjoyed writing it. Which is to say, frustrating and time-consuming yet somehow strangely mixed with an enormous feeling of satisfaction.

There are bound to be (many) small errors and typos especially since I wrote this in ed, haha, just kidding! (Sorry, nerd joke). I actually wrote this in Notepad which has no spellcheck, so please forgive the numerous typos! Please post any feedback, corrections, and/or suggestions at the Japanese Grammar Guide Forum

Well, no more chit-chat. Happy learning!

-Tae Kim

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