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I'm using the HelloTalk app. I posted a picture of my Shin Kanzen Master books (JLPT N3). This picture in fact.

enter image description here

Then I got this response:

きっと英語圏、中国語圏むけのテキストなんですね。

and this response:

怪しい本だなぁ。表紙の漢字は日本語じゃないよ😄

"The book is aimed at English and Chinese speaking countries"? "The kanji on the front page is not Japanese"?

Why do these people think that there is some Chinese element to these books?

EDIT:

(Of course I know that Kanji was imported from China, I just want to understand why these comments were made)

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    「怪しい本だなぁ」なんて失礼だなぁ、著者はネイティブなのに。 :/ じゃあ旺文社「ロイヤル英文法」も大修館「ジーニアス英和辞典」も研究社「プログレッシブ英和中辞典」もどれももっと怪しいじゃん、外国人が書いて外国で出版してるもん！
    – chocolate ♦
    Dec 29, 2016 at 13:57
  • @chocolate Well, I guess it would be confusing for a low-level Western learner to see Chinese text printed on the cover of a book supposedly about Japanese, so I kind of see their point. (The picture is cropped so that the Japanese text on the top is not properly visible, which adds to the impression.)
    – oals
    Dec 29, 2016 at 15:06
  • @oals Hm I didn't say the OP was 失礼. I said the Japanese person who commented "怪しい本だなぁ" was 失礼.
    – chocolate ♦
    Dec 29, 2016 at 15:11
  • @chocolate Oh, yes, I did understand that.
    – oals
    Dec 29, 2016 at 15:11

2 Answers 2

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The kanjis at the bottom line of the front page (日本语……) are Chinese kanjis. These kanjis are not used in Japanese except 日本, 能力 and 法. One line above is an English phrase "JLPT Grammar." So they judged that the book is for English and Chinese speakers.

But the other part of the front page seems to be valid Japanese phrases.

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Why do these people think that there is some Chinese element to these books?

Because 「语」「测」「试」 are Simplified Chinese. These characters are written as 「語」「測」「試」 in Japanese.

Also, 「测试」("exam, test") is 「試験」, and 「语法」("grammar") is 「文法」 in Japanese.

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