Request for Resources from Middle School and High School

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Zachary S

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Dec 10, 2022, 9:31:06 PM12/10/22
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Hello Fellow Honyakers,

                I am writing this email to ask if anyone knows of a complete set of middle school and high school materials that can be found online for purchase or otherwise. I have been a translator for over ten years, and have decided to switch careers. I still plan on translating on the side, but wish to fill the holes in my Japanese knowledge by going through the normal curriculum as a hobby of sorts.

                I feel free now to explore an option like this now that I have another career path, but do not want to reduce my skills. Rather, I want to be the best translator I can be, and break into literary translation, which has always been my goal and desire. I have found many are in this for publication credits for degrees I do not possess and I do not know how to enter into this world professionally.

 

Thankful for any hints or advice,

 

Zachary Soter 

Karen

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Dec 12, 2022, 12:27:08 PM12/12/22
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If you've been translating for ten years, I assume that you are way past the middle school level in Japanese. 

As one who taught Japanese in the U.S. for eleven years, I have another suggestion, one that I used to keep my language fresh and to improve during the times I wasn't in Japan (which was most of the time).

There's a company called Bonjinsha, which specializes in selling materials for 日本語教育. You can find the basic elementary and intermediate textbooks there, but they also produce a lot of advanced materials aimed at foreign students or other expat learners. You can find series of books that prepare you for the JLPT, for example, not that you want to take the JLPT, but the books cover a lot of the points that are tricky for foreign learners. You may want to try the workbooks for specific topics in Japanese grammar, such as particles or 敬語. When I was teaching, Bonjinsha was always a stop on my summer trips to Japan, and I bought books to work on during the school year. 

At the time I was frequenting them, Bonjinsha had a retail store between the Kojimachi and Hanzomon subway station, and Google maps tells me that they still do: Chiyoda-ku, Hirakawa-cho 1-3-13.

Since you probably know where your own weak points are, I suggest a stop at Bonjinsha to look over their offerings. They also have a store in Osaka, if Kansai-based shopping is more convenient for you.

Pedagogically yours,
Karen Sandness

Warren Smith

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Dec 12, 2022, 12:30:21 PM12/12/22
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Thanks, Karen. This sounds good. (Perhaps it will help me shore up my into-Japanese skills, which have atrophied for lack of use...)

 

W

 


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Tom Gally

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Dec 12, 2022, 8:24:48 PM12/12/22
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As suggested by Karen (Hi!), Bojinsha has been a good resource for nonnative people studying Japanese.

If, out of curiosity or whatever, you want to read textbooks used in Japanese schools, the following is probably the best:

広島教販

A few years ago, for my own post-translation career, I wanted to buy of set of the new government-approved elementary school English textbooks, and I was surprised that neither the big bookstores in Tokyo nor any of the usual online bookstores carried them. I was finally able to get them from the above place.

All the best,

Tom Gally

Jeff Slenker

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Dec 13, 2022, 8:41:42 AM12/13/22
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Hi Zachary. Just in case you prefer to read literary works in order to
get better at translating literary works, I have about 1000 works of
fiction I have intended to read for a very long time but which I have
never gotten around to, which my wife would like out of our garage. A
lot of them have the furigana above the Japanese characters, while
some do not. If you contact me outside this string I will offer a
decent price in order to get them off of my premises, while admitting
to myself that I will never get to them, and making my wife happy.
Jeff Slenker



On Saturday, December 10, 2022 at 8:31:06 PM UTC-6 Zachary Soter wrote:

Hello Fellow Honyakers,

I am writing this email to ask if anyone knows of a complete
set of middle school and high school materials that can be found online for
purchase or otherwise. I have been a translator for over ten years, and have
decided to switch careers. I still plan on translating on the side, but wish
to fill the holes in my Japanese knowledge by going through the normal
curriculum as a hobby of sorts.

I feel free now to explore an option like this now that I
have another career path, but do not want to reduce my skills. Rather, I
want to be the best translator I can be, and break into literary
translation, which has always been my goal and desire. I have found many are
in this for publication credits for degrees I do not possess and I do not
know how to enter into this world professionally.



Thankful for any hints or advice,



Zachary Soter




--
Jeff Slenker
J>E
Huntsville, AL USA
My web page is here (click on triple horizontal bars in upper-left corner
for more pages) <http://slenker-translation.jimdo.com/>

Zachary S

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Dec 21, 2022, 9:53:10 AM12/21/22
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Hello Karen,

     Thank you very much for the information. I will definitely have to check it out next time I am in Japan.... Or maybe get someone to ship me some stuff. 

Happy Holidays,

Zach

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