Chapter 1 | 日本人の心がわかる日本語 | Weeks 1 - 3

[shablul]

Welcome to the Non-Fiction Clubs reading of this book!

The Home Thread is this link.

The Next Chapter Thread is this link.

The Natively page is this link.

Please note:

Due to the nature of this book I don’t believe spoiler alerts are necessary, but still make sure to write where you are when you discuss things since you want to give context for people to know what you’re talking about and where to look for it.

Content by Chapter Table

Thread	Chapter	Pages
	日本語を学ぶ方たちへ	3 - 4
	日本語を教える方たちへ	5 - 6
	Chapter 1	11 - 40
	Chapter 2	41 - 58
	Chapter 3	59 - 81
	Chapter 4	83 - 107
	Chapter 5	109 - 122
	Chapter 6	123 - 149
	Chapter 7	151 - 179

Content by Week

Thread	Week # (Start)	Entries	Pages
	1（1月12日）	Chapter １：「内と外」、「世間」	12 - 22
	2（1月19日）	Chapter １：「しつけ」、「けじめ」	23 - 32
	3（1月26日）	Chapter １：「素直」、「甘える」	33 - 40
	4（2月2日）	Chapter ２：「人目」、「恥」	42 - 52
,	5（2月9日）	Chapter ２：「照れる」、 Chapter ３：「遠慮」	53 - 65
	6（2月16日）	Chapter ３：「気をつかう」、「人並み」	66 - 74
,	7（2月23日）	Chapter ３：「空気を読む」、コラム①、 Chapter ４：「つきあい」	75 - 87
	8（3月2日）	Chapter ４：「愛想」、「礼儀」	88 - 96
	9（3月9日）	Chapter ４：「本音と建前」、「おかげさま」、コラム➁	97 - 107
	10（3月16日）	Chapter ５：「控えめ」、「ほのめかす」、コラム➂	110 - 122
	11（3月23日）	Chapter ６：「がんばる」、「根性」	124 - 133
	12（3月30日）	Chapter ６：「無理」、「修行」	134 - 141
,	13（4月6日）	Chapter ６：「武士道」、コラム➃、 Chapter ７：「品」	142 - 155
	14（4月13日）	Chapter ７：「やまとなでしこ」、「派手・地味」	156 - 165
	15（4月20日）	Chapter ７：「恩・義理」、「いさぎよい」、「もったいない」	166 - 179

[shitsurei]

Are we reading the two 日本語をX方たちへ sections or are we going straight to chapter 1?

[mic]

Oops, I read them already the day I got the book.

[shablul]

They’re unofficial so it’s “read if you want to but you can technically skip”

[Biblio]

I have read the 2 prefaces and the part about 「内と外」. I had to look up a couple of things in the “もっと深く” section, but overall very accessible, imo. I enjoy the writing so far.

I think most people are 内弁慶. and I am sure we have all met 外面がいい people…

Not much new for me in this part - apart from the actual language. I don’t think I have come across よそ before… or at least, I didn’t actively notice.

That Japanese have a very strong us vs. them menality is nothing new, imo. I think it exists everywhere but at least here, it feels less… set in stone… I have never lived in Japan, though, so my knowledge is solely based on having to study (cross-)cultural theories, etc.

[MintTea]

Not much new information apart from some new vocab, but it’s good to check my understanding of the concept.

I always found it fascinating how 内 and 外 changes depending on who you are talking to, and how the language used changes with it. Like for example if you are talking to your boss directly you might address them as 田中さん, but if you’re talking to someone from a different company suddenly it’s just 田中.

[mic]

But knowledge about European languages is a bit limited, I think. It looks that the author mainly thinks about English. E.g. in German their does well exist a difference on the language level between how people talk with people of the in-group, using “du“, and with others, using “Sie“. Though nobody (at least currently) makes a philosophy from it.

[shablul]

For some reason I expected this to be harder.
The phrase with Benkei is gonna hopefully be my take from this week lol it’s a fun one in terms of how it’s pictured in my head

[暁のルナ]

@Biblio

I think most people are 内弁慶

I’m not reading this yet, bc I’m focused on マリみて - but this phrase gets constant use there (to describe particular characters), and it was my first time seeing it. Fun coincidence

[shitsurei]

Just finished the 世間 section. I thought the part about how 人間 gained the meaning 人 was really interesting. It’s not anything I had ever thought to question, and now it seems funny that I never did. I guess it’s just such and early word that you learn that you’re just fine learning words by rote at that point