Review of Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday Living (Japanese Edition)

[Urbashi Basu]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday Living (Japanese Edition)" by Peter Liptak.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday Living (Japanese Edition) by Peter Liptak was a delightful and instructive read. This book begins with an explanation about what idioms are and how native speakers use idioms in day to day speech and then covers usage of English idioms in almost all aspect of current living including making conversation, shopping, dining, and romance. It has sections covering aspects of time and social cues and different social settings. The Japanese explanation and sections make it tractable for English second language readers to follow up usage of different idioms and learn their usage in everyday speech. The style is conversational, and narrative of each section has an outline of a story to induce the readers to pay attention.

This book provides ample practice questions and context along with thought provoking questions in the context of social customs/scenarios which might be different in the readers’ country/region versus the West. The author also explains synonymous idioms in case more than one idiom is used to explain a scenario. In addition to the regular comprehension type exercises, crosswords are a very engaging way to keep the ball rolling for more practice.

There are no negative aspects per say, however, the formatting specifically the different font size at the beginning of the exercise is bit confusing. Sometimes during reading I wondered if providing idioms with opposite meaning in a specific context might facilitate better associative learning.

I would rate this book 4 out of 4 for the depth at which different aspect of modern life is covered. Another positive thing which I liked was that the English section were by themselves informative and detailed enough to provide any English second language reader an opportunity to have a better grasp of the idioms of this language. This makes the book useful for readers who do not know Japanese and at the same time the Japanese explanations make it easier and meaningful for the Japanese too. Finally barring the placement of different font letters at the beginning of each chapter the book is very well edited.

This book is suitable for teenagers and onward in terms of age groups. The language is simple and there are no offensive description/discussion in the religious context. Though some aspects of relationships are discussed there is no sexual overtones. In fact, there are next to no idioms involving the religious context/overtones. I wonder is it because religion is a serious topic precluding idiomatic expressions.

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Idiom Attack Vol. 1 Everyday Living (Japanese Edition)
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[Bisola Adeleke]

I got to learn new idiomatic expressions from this book. it is really educative.