Switching Smoothly between Casual and Polite Japanese: Sixteen Dialogues, Quizzes, and Tons of Tips for Intermediate Learners

Arguably, one of the biggest hurdles to speaking Japanese is the need to switch between casual and polite Japanese: or, to put it another way, the need to speak politely in some situations and to speak casually in others. The two modes are so frustratingly different that they can require years and years of serious study to master. The present book aims to cut down on that time by comparing the casual and polite modes in practical terms, showing just how they differ in actual speech, and giving you enough ammunition in the form of realistic dialogues and sample sentences to enable you to speak much more fluently in either mode.

This is accomplished, first of all, by contrasting and comparing sixteen real-life dialogues in eight chapters, each dialogue presented in English, Japanese, and romanization. The first dialogue uses casual Japanese because the relationship of the speakers requires it; the second, even though the situation is much the same, requires polite Japanese because the speakers are of different ages or social positions, or are simply speaking to each other for the first time. Following each dialogue is a discussion of each key word and phrase, with a great many example sentences, which enables the student not only to understand the point in question but to internalize it in a practical, reproducible form.

Next comes the Equivalency Charts, listing relevant words and phrases from the dialogues in their parallel polite and casual forms, giving the student another opportunity to note differences and similarities. At the end of chapters four and eight are quizzes, where the student is given another means of mastering the material.

Some students may choose to concentrate on the mode that they feel is most in need of work. Others may choose to study both modes. The latter approach has several advantages. First of all, it highlights elements in the two modes that would otherwise escape notice. Second, it enables students to come to grips with conversations that combine both modes. And third, it helps students, as an unintended benefit, to recognize when one mode is inserted into the other for humorous, ironic, or sarcastic effect, something that is not uncommon in real life.

All in all, the purpose of the book is not to have students memorize the explanations but to help them internalize the key words and phrases, which, after all, is the rationale for the plethora of example sentences. In fact, after going through the book once, students might best go through it again, skipping the explanations and focusing on repeated readings of the dialogues and examples sentences, thereby committing them to their subconscious minds, ready to pop up for use one day, quite to the speaker's surprise.

With the help of "Switching Smoothly between Casual and Polite Japanese," you can save years of time and immense amounts of energy. You can learn to speak casually or politely, and you can get it right.

This book is an revised version of "T-Shirt Japanese Versus Necktie Japanese: Two Levels of Politeness," published by Kodansha International in 1995.