Hideho Kindaichi and the Japanese Language

In a recent review by Shane, he brought up Professor Hideho Kindaichi, a scholar of language learning here in Japan. Professor Kindaichi was born in Tokyo in 1953 and attended Sophia University, or 上智（じょうち）大学, where he studied psychology. He continued his studies at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies where he earned his doctorate in Japanese (日本語学）.

I should probably point out here what 日本語学 is and how it differs from 国語. As many of you know, 国語（こくご） is a subject taught to Japanese students in the elementary, middle, and high school curriculum. Students learn about the Japanese language, grammar and other rules, and how to write kanji among other topics. Japanese literature is also taught in the class. It's teaching Japanese to native speakers.

日本語学, or Japanese, is slightly different in that it approaches Japanese as a (foreign) language and dissects it from that perspective. This means that somebody who studies 日本語学 will gain many of the skills necessary to teach Japanese to foreign language learners. Scholars of 日本語学 also study what makes Japanese different from other languages and what these differences mean, as well as how to teach them properly. Dr Kandaichi is one such scholar.

In addition to publishing several books, he also appears frequently on television here in Japan. He is probably most well-known for his appearances on 知るを楽しむ on NHK's 教育（きょういく）テレビ. He also makes appearances on Japonica Logos, タモリのジャポニカロゴス, and other similarly themed programs.

The reason I brought up the professor was to discuss a book I recently picked up that he authored. The title is 日本語のカタチとココロ, The Ins and Outs of Japanese (lit. The Form and Heart of Japanese). The book is available via NHK's online shop and is a collection of topics from the 知るを楽しむ television show mentioned above.

You should also be able to find this at your local bookstore by checking the NHK educational books section. This section is usually full of English, Spanish, French, and other language books for Japanese natives to study, so you may not have suspected there would be something good in there for you, too! (Check out their cooking and hobby books while you're at it!)

Here's a sampling of the table of contents:

• 外国語として見た日本語 (Japanese as a Foreign Language)
• ひらがな・カタカナ・漢字がある理由 (The Reason for Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji)
• 「ある」と「いる」にはルールがある (The Rules of ある vs いる)

As you can see, the book covers a variety of topics that are relevant to any scholar of Japanese, especially those learning Japanese as a foreign language. There is loads of trivia such as which sound (あ、か、さ、た、etc) is found at the beginning of the most words in the dictionary, to the difference between saying パンツ and meaning "pants" and saying パンツ and meaning "underwear". There is even an extremely informative section on particle usage and the nitty-gritty rules between は and が. However, since the book is targeted at native Japanese speakers, I can only recommend this to upper-intermediate and advanced learners.

One of the best things about this book is the price: 650yen (about 5 USD). You certainly can't beat that! Although it comes in a small package (135 pages), 日本語のカタチとココロ is one of the best books I have read recently on Japanese. This is an extremely worthwhile purchase that should leave you fully satisfied and a bit more knowledgeable.

Lastly, I want to mention that you should pick this book up soon. It's a June/July edition, and will likely disappear from store shelves in another month or so.