Essays by Ryunosuke Kuroda

Essays by Ryunosuke Kuroda (“Learning languages through literature”)

Ryunosuke Kuroda is a linguist, language teacher and popular essayist. He is a polyglot, speaking Russian, Czech, French, English, German, and others.

He has also taught English and Russian and based on his experiences laments the tendency of language learning in Japan being dedicated mainly to “conversation” skills or test taking skills. He strongly believes that utilizing literature such as novels and plays when learning foreign languages is vital. I totally agree with his idea. The best forms of a language are expressed in literature, so novels are in a way the best textbooks. I still remember when I read an entire book in English and French for the first time in my life and that sense of elevation and excitement. They were respectively Salinger’s “Nine Stories” and Camus’ “L’Étranger”. Since then, reading novels in a foreign language has lain in the center of my language study.

Kuroda recommends Kanae Minato’s “Confessions” to Japanese learners. I would personally recommend Haruki Murakami or Banana Yoshimoto.

Have you ever read a story in Japanese from cover to cover?