I have spent much of today reading a Japanese chess book for beginners titled "Chesu no Kihon" or "The Basics of Chess".
I bought the book to lend to some of my Japanese college students who are curious to learn about chess, but I thought it would be an interesting challenge to read it myself so that I can better discuss the content of the book with my students.
Chess is Eclipsed by Igo and Shogi in Japan
There are not that many books about chess in Japan because the two board games that totally dominate are igo and shogi, or Japanese chess. A typical bookshop will have a whole library of shogi and igo books and not a single volume about chess.
The bookshop where I found this copy of Chesu no Kihon had hundreds of volumes on those two games while, tucked away on a lower shelf, there were just two volumes about chess.
Chesu No Kihon
Luckily, Chesu no Kihon is an attractively presented and clearly written guide to chess for beginners. In typicaly Japanese fashion, it uses manga to pull the reader into the topic and maintain interest.
Once the manga has established a basic storyline we get into the meat of each chapter.
The Japanese is written in a clear and accessible style but even so, I have ended up with three pages of vocabulary notes before getting half way through the book...
For me, reading about chess is an enjoyable way to practise reading Japanese. What is really useful is that many of the new words I have learned come up again and again as you go through the book, words such as "tenkai" (development), "nerau" (aim at), "yuuri" (advantage), which helps you get accustomed to seeing them and to using them.
I'm looking forward to sharing this book with those of my students who want to play chess, and to talking about chess with them in English and Japanese.
What about you? Do you practise a second language? If so, how? Let me know!
Cheers!
David Hurley
#InspiredFocus
P. S. The Japanese for "to kill two birds with one stone" is "一石二鳥 (isseki nichou)", "one stone, two birds".
Hello, Nice to meet you on Hive, I am a chess player. I see we both share a common interest. How often do you play online? Would you like to play our tournaments on Hive?. Would really love if you join our chess community.
In addition,I've been learning Spanish for 3 years and it really difficult to speak a foreign language.