Arrival of first book from The Book Depository!

Posted 2008-08-29 (金) 午後5:44 by terra

About nearly two weeks ago, after having found out about The Book Depository’s free worldwide shipping and handling, I immediately placed an order for Jay Rubin’s* Making Sense of Japanese (ISBN-13 9784770028020) book that I so really wanted, yet would cost so much if ordered from Amazon. I paid only £5.98 in total!! Such a steal ^_^. Anyway the book arrived and I must say I’m not disappointed at all. (Actually I already read quite a number of pages from this book via Amazon before getting the book so there’s no way I would have been disappointed)

You know how people usually insist that they be taught by Japanese natives when learning the language? I can’t say disagree with this for the most part but certainly there are exceptions. Japanese native speakers will never understand the problems faced by English speakers learning Japanese, so if you have an English native speaker who understands the Japanese language perfectly and can explain difficult Japanese concepts in plain English well, that is a double blessing.

I was attempting to study my portfolio theory textbook late this afternoon without falling asleep (and failed), but very little got into my head. Whereas with this book, I sat down and read a couple of sections and before I knew it an hour had flown by. Learning a new language is really a wonderful experience and I recommend everyone to try it. When you get to the intermediate level and find yourself being able to read novels and articles in that language, the satisfaction is immense. Sadly to say I don’t have that pleasure with Chinese though, because of my bad memories learning it under a teacher who forced me to write with my right hand even though I am left handed, and giving me tons of homework over the weekends. I do wish I could speak the language better though (but not writing) and am glad for having friends from China at Sydney who have helped me improve my speaking ability somewhat!

*Jay Rubin is notable for translating Murakami Haruki’s books