Students grill Umino with testing questions, and the discussions regularly veer into linguistic and cultural differences between Japan and their own countries. They cover such areas as keigo (honorific language), counter words, and the history of hiragana and katakana. There are now four main entries and a supplementary workbook in the series-which has sold more than 2 million copies-as well as a television adaptation. The manga also appeals through comical misunderstandings and cross-cultural communication with a cast of enthusiastic international students.
As the title Nihonjin no shiranai Nihongo (The Japanese the Japanese Don’t Know) indicates, on one level it was a chance for Japanese people to rediscover their own language. When the Japanese language teacher Umino Nagiko turned her classroom experiences into a manga, created with her friend Hebizō, it became an instant bestseller. Nihonjin no shiranai Nihongo (The Japanese the Japanese Don’t Know)
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