Kansai Japanese : the language of Ōsaka, Kyōto, and Western Japan

Finally, a systematic approach to learning the language of Kansai's boardrooms, shops, bars, a and boudoirs.'—Kansai time OutKansai Japanese contains everything you need to know about Kansai-ben, the most important dialect of the Japanese language. Spoken in the Kansai region, which includes the well-known cities of Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe, Kansai-ben has long been considered a cryptic dialect even by Japanese. Thus it is no wonder that foreigners who speak only standard Japanese are baffled when they find themselves surrounded by the 21 million Japanese speaking the Kansai dialect.Kansai-ben is said to be earthier and more direct than standard Japanese, but it has its own system of polite language that is not taught in books or schools. In fact, Kansai-ben is rarely taught anywhere, and until now there has been no English text that explains the workings of this colorful dialect. Entertaining and very practical, Kansai Japanese has hundreds of sample sentences and dialogues with both English and standard-Japanese equivalents, covering topics like:Traditional Kyoto dialectMale and female speechLovers'languageKansai honorifics land insultsTV and movie samurai languageAnd much more! Learn the language as it is really spoken in western Japan ; includes curses and the macho style of male speech ; lovers' language ; gangster, samurai, and other rough ways of speaking ; the polite haru style of western Japanese speech ; men's and women's speech This volume seeks to teach the Japanese language as it is really spoken in the region of Japan, which includes Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Nagoya, the home of the Japanese auto industry. The purpose of this book is to give you an in-depth and fun account of conversational Western Japanese.