A Handbook of Colloquial Japanese

In 1873 Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850–1935) arrived in Japan, where he taught English. A brilliant linguist, he quickly learned Japanese, and in 1886 he became professor of Japanese and philology at the Imperial University, Tokyo. This 1888 book gives both theoretical and practical instruction for the learner.

Travelling in order to recover from a nervous breakdown, Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850–1935) arrived in Yokohama, Japan, in May 1873. He was immediately fascinated by traditional Japanese culture. At the same time, the national drive for modernisation in the wake of the Meiji Restoration had created a demand for teachers of English. Chamberlain was taken on as a tutor in the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy, at the same time studying the Japanese language to such good effect that in 1886 he was made professor of Japanese and philology at the Imperial University (later Tokyo University). This 1888 Japanese primer is split into theoretical and practical parts: a Japanese grammar and a vocabulary of useful words and phrases. Chamberlain gives both literal and free translations of phrases and short texts for the learner. His encyclopaedia of Japan, Things Japanese (1890) is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.