On May 22, 2006, at 6:09 AM, tokyo dog wrote:
> Does anyone have any suggestions for trying to learn classical Japanese
> language, with the ultimate goal of reading material such as Murasaki
> Shikibu? I found the following on Amazon. Anyone have any experience
> using
> these books, or have any alternative suggestions?
>
My impression is that these are the two main texts used for classical
Japanese teaching in the states. My professor didn't like them (and
the Bungo manual is pretty short) and made his own materials to teach
the class. I haven't seen the Shirane book, so I can't speak to it,
but the other has only limited utility. Get yourself a good classical
Japanese dictionary (be advised that the iwanami one lists verbs by the
renyokei) and just start reading texts. I would suggest that you read
the introductory matter and the back matter (explains verbs
conjugations and the joshi and jodoushi) of whichever dictionary you
buy thoroughly. Also, it will probably help you to start with texts
that have translations already so that you can check your progress.
Good luck.
Shannon