Book Review: "日本人のちょっとヘンな英語"

title: 日本人のちょっとヘンな英語
rating: ★★☆☆☆

     Easy, fun to read English education books are becoming more popular- and that's great. I'm all for "fun and easy." Several of them incorporate manga or helpful illustrations. However, a great many of these books focus too much on being easy or cute, and end up straying from the real target- learning a language.  "日本人のちょっとヘンな英語", although entertaining, often sacrifices quality English education for humor or shocking English tidbits. Unfortunately, lot of the content is not so useful and even confusing.

     Although amusing, many of the phrases author David Sane* includes are not actually common mistakes that Japanese people make. After teaching English for seven years, I am familiar with the typical mistakes and weird things that Japanese people say when speaking English. Most of Sane's "ヘン" English would not normally come up in conversation.

For example:
"I like street walking." (p.17)
"Did you go all the way with Keiko?" (p.23)
"I don't know how to dump." (p.24)

     Okay, so now we know that "street walking" refers to prostitution, "going all the way," means having sex, and "taking a dump" means pooping. Haha. Very funny. But I've never heard Japanese people make these mistakes and form these sentences like the hapless characters in the manga.  Toilet humor is great (especially if you're a ten year old boy,) but it isn't so necessary in this type of book. The book can be fun without sex and poo.

   This book also has a few mistakes.
*For example, p.110 says, "There's a department nearby," is correct English.  But native speakers never say "department." It is always department store. Department just means "部門."
*Instead of "Do you have a paper?"(p.40), you should say "Do you have a piece/sheet of paper?" Paper is non-countable! Some paper is okay. A paper is not okay.
*And...Sane translates "beautiful" into "色っぽい." He says beautiful has a "セクシー ニュアンス." (p75) This is wrong. Beautiful does NOT mean sexy. "You look beautiful," is perfectly acceptable to say on a date or to one's wife.

     Finally, some advice in this book is just plain wrong. One example is the totally bizarre conversation on page 141-142. Next Sunday and this Sunday, often mean the same in English.  If it is Tuesday, I can say "See you next Sunday," or "See you this Sunday." Same thing- 今度の日曜日。来週の日曜日is usually another phrase such as "Sunday, two weeks from now."The book actually reinforces a common (and troublesome) misunderstanding.
Another example is: You're welcome. The books says it is a "高飛車" phrase. It is not 高飛車! Native speakers often say "No problem," in casual conversation, but "You're welcome" is okay too.

     Overall...This book does not seem like it was written by an American person. The type of humor, the illustrations, and the situations seem very Japanese. And in order to learn a language, it is important to fully immerse yourself, not only in grammar and vocabulary, but also culture. Even the American-born author's name is in Katakana! It is sad that many books on English are filled with typical Japanese characters, humor, and things familiar with Japanese people. We do not need more books dealing with umeboshi, hanami, and overbearing bosses. How about something new and challenging? Something not so familiar. Also, once again the stereotype that foreign people are obsessed with samurai is reinforced. Instead of showing accurate representations of foreign people, we are only given a caricature- a joke.

     Now that I've torn this book apart, I'd like to mention that it does have a few redeeming points. I did give it two stars after all, not one. Some of the phrases are useful. For example page 47 explains that "claim" and "complain," are not the same. Students often say "claim," when they mean "complain."  And "It's hot today," is much better than "Today's hot," which is weird (p.110).

     I do not recommend this book. It is a quick and easy read, and perhaps amusing to some. But overall, it is not very helpful and might end up causing confusion. There are much better books out there. 


*Unfortunately, I could not find his name written in English- only Katakana. So I am unsure of the spelling.