Our textbook is titled Japanese for Busy People, vol. I, and the lessons are organized around situations that a businessperson would want to handle. (A very early unit concerns exchanging business cards.) Each unit has a theme, like “Express gratitude,” or “Make a telephone call,” or “Order food at a restaurant.”
With more than a little nod to James Thurber’s “There’s No Place Like Home,” I remixed some of the unit themes into
Japanese for Busy Terrorists
- Ask for telephone numbers
- Describe what is inside a building
- Talk about numbers of things or people that exist in a particular place
- Talk about schedules in detail
- Ask someone to do something for you
Japanese for Busy Counter-intelligence Officers
- Talk about nationalities and occupations
- Talk about where you live, where you work, and who your acquaintances are
- Talk about the times of meetings and parties
- Talk about what you are doing now
- Forbid someone from doing something