Learn Japanese Today

Today we’re looking at Japanese Street Slang by Peter Constantine. This book contains some adult content, not pictures or anything. Just really vulgar Japanese. I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re under 16. See parents, I tried.

I know what you’re thinking. Why learn slang? Well that would be a good question if this was a textbook broken up into chunks of vocab and grammar you have to memorize before you can go on to the next chapter. I’m going to go ahead and say it. The point of this book isn’t to learn slang, it’s to learn why slang is how it is.

Peter Constantine, a British linguist most famous for his voluminous work in literary translation, brings his fascination and passion for language as the driving force of the book. The book is half-dictionary, half-chapter book as it is an alphabetical series a 1 page or longer essays for a series of slang words. These essays delve into the niche group each slang word started among, its linguistic origins, usage, and it even provides a number of example sentences.

An Amazon.com product review described this book by saying “the explainations of the words and expressions are too long: more vocabulary could be included instead of a mass of explaination.” The same review goes on to complain about how the slang is outdated and needs to be researched again. I think this is kind of missing the point of the book. It was written in 1992, so most of the slang is outdated and most would be weird for you to say, but that’s really only a problem if you wanted a slang textbook. The slang in Japan changes daily, and the only way to have a completely up-to-date knowledge is to live there. This book gives you, rather than extremely temporary vocab lists, fascinating linguistic essays that really help you understand the way Japanese slang works, a topic shyed away from by Japanese and linguistics textbooks alike. Plus, it’s a damn fun read.

Ease of Use: 7

The chapters are organized in alphabetic order by romanized Japanese (starts with A). If you know the word you want in Japanese, then it’s very easy to find it. However, if you’re looking for a certain word in English it can be sort of frustrating. There is an index in the back, but the print is small and its hard to find the right page. In the sequel to this book, “Japanese Slang: Uncensored,” the words are grouped by content and by the groups that use them, and I think this is a much more effective organization structure.

Authenticity: 4

Most of this slang is out-of-date, and not stuff you want to incorporate into your vocabulary. That being said, the process by which words become slang in Japanese remains very much the same today. Some of these words (mune, suri, unko…) I still hear all the time today, and most of those aren’t really slang, but really the Japanese word for dirty/criminal things, which textbooks are terrible at teaching. If you’re unsure of a word, ask a Japanese friend. If you don’t have one, work on your social skills. In the meantime, use a dictionary. I guess.

Quantity of Knowledge: 9

There are all sorts of great tidbits of information, especially about the more vulgar side of Japan, that you just can’t find anywhere else. For example, in the etymology of the word he meaning “fart,” Constantine presents this authentic haiku.

Waga oya no
Shinuru toki ni mo
He o  kokite

Even as my father
Lay dying
I farted

I kid you not. You need to get this book for that haiku if nothing else.

Price: 9

I’m not kidding you, right now you can get this book on amazon for $0.26. No joke. You still have to pay $4 shipping and handling, but come on. They’re practically giving it to you. Click here.

Fun: 9

This book is great fun. Aside from the bonus of learning slang words to use with your buddies outside of class, or more importantly, your buddies in Japan, this book also teaches you a lot of interesting stuff about the seedy underbelly of Japan in a really hilarious way. Totally worth it, even for non-students of Japanese who have some interest in either Japan or linguistics.

Overall: 7.7

That probably seems like a pretty random number. That’s probably because it is. I didn’t feel comfortable giving this book an 8 because of how outdated/culturally niched it is, but all things considered it’s really fun and really educational. But don’t tell your parents/senseis I told you about this. Oh wait. Yes you should. I could use the hits.

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