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Title: Learn to talk like an oba-san
Review: It's hard to dislike a book where one of the first sentences you learn in "Oh no! Grandmother has fallen in the septic tank again!" The problem with this book is that it teaches Japanese as it was spoken maybe 60 years ago, while the language has rapidly changed both in formal speech, and more particularly, in informal speech. An easy example is the use of "watakushi" for the 1st person singular - which is something like saying "thee" for the 2nd person singular. I showed this book to a native speaker, and they just laughed - "that's how my grandmother talks!" The book has character, but you won't learn current Japanese from it.
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