101 Common Japanese Idioms in Plain English

Once one zooms beyond the basics of a language, idiomatic expressions, proverbs, and slang can provide the spice to keep motivation up and progress going forward. This book will introduce 101 of the most common Japanese idioms. We are including at no extra charge MP3s for all the examples found in this book. Create play-lists to study on the go or burn the sound files to a CD to listen at home. The download link is found on the last page.We believe the best way to learn vocabulary--by far--is to study words within their proper context. Every idiom is followed by an example sentence and a paragraph or two explaining the context and usage. Each idiom will have three sound files associated with it. The MP3s are all recorded by native voice actors and actresses. The first sound file is the idiom itself. The second is the example sentence. The third sound file has the idiom, an English translation, the idiom repeated slowly, and the example sentence with translation. Try to mimic the Japanese speakers in sound and presentation. We highly recommend knowing hiragana before tackling this book. Most words have romaji, but the example sentences do not. Every kanji here has furigana (small hiragana) over it to aid reading. If you do not yet know hiragana, please check out our Hiragana book: "Hiragana, the Basics of Japanese."