Japanese for Professionals

Book excerpt: A new course in business Japanese from the authors of the bestselling Japanese for Busy People series. The Association for Japanese-Language Teaching (AJALT), renowned for its Japanese for Busy People series, has developed a comprehensive course for students who need to use Japanese in a business environment. Japanese for Professionals is a serious and detailed manual of the language of trade, commerce, and government, aimed at intermediate students who work with Japanese on a daily basis. Thirteen lessons introduce common business situations—first-time meetings, directing subordinates client negotiations with key sentences, and a dialogue to illustrate how Japanese is used in a business context. Precise definitions for all new vocabulary and lucid explanations of grammar, idioms, and cultural differences provide the reader with powerful communication tools for the office. Exercises and quizzes have been included to help students check their progress, and four lessons have been set aside for review. Busy professionals will find the bilingual glossaries a useful reference even after completing all the lessons in this clear and extremely helpful textbook. FEATURES: Emphasis on how to communicate with Japanese colleagues and clients All elements of working Japanese, from using the telephone to directing subordinates, presented in thirteen systematic and fully structured lessons Focuses on authentic spoken Japanese through dialogues based on real-life business situations 165 Essential Expressions classified into 50 business functions that can be used by all busy professionals Detailed analysis in English of all phrases and expressions introduced in this text Challenging exercises and quizzes that actually reinforce language acquisition Four special chapters for comprehensive review and further practice Three special chapters provide important background information about common Japanese business practices Equally effective as part of a college course or for learners studying without formal tuition Furigana (phonetic superscripts) added to all difficult kanji and two full bilingual glossaries