The Japanese -Okinawa Dialect - English Translation Guidebook is both a translating guidebook and dictionary of the Okinawan language and dialect. This book references approximately 14,000 words edited from the Okinawa dictionary and Okinawa Encyclopedia and is translated both into Japanese as well as English.Although the Japanese language is understood by everyone who resides in Okinawa, the Okinawa-Hogen or Okinawa Dialect and language is still preserved today as a native tongue in many parts of Okinawa. This special dialect is preserved by elders and many Okinawa natives, and it goes back centuries when there was a split between Old Japanese and the Ryukyuan langauges.The Ryukyuan languages are referred here to the languages of the Ryukyu Kingdom that ruled most of the Ryukyu Islands from the 15th to 19th Century.If you visit Okinawa today, and you are able to use some or many of the Okinawan words referenced in this guidebook you will not only have a leg up but you will be treated with extra respect and love.There is no other book of this kind which translates words from Japanese to Okinawa Dialect to English, and from English to Okinawa Dialect to Japanese.It contains thousands of useful references and words and this guidebook will make you feel closer to the culture of Okinawa and say many beautiful expressions while communicating with the people of the Okinawa Prefecture in Japan.This book was written and edited by Shigeichi Matsukawa, who was born in Peru to Japanese parents on June 2, 1928. At the age of 12, he moved to Okinawa to further his Japanese education. He later became a teacher and taught at the Haneji Junior High School for a few years before moving back to South America where he resided in Argentina. In 1958, Matsukawa studied English at the American Language Program at Columbia University in New York City, and two years later trained at the RCA Institute of New York for electrical and television repair work. After his training, he moved back to Argentina where he met and married his wife, Setsuko Matsukawa. They had three sons and moved as a family to reside permanently in New York City.For 30 years, he worked at Miya Company, an importer and wholesaler of Japanese tableware and gifts. After retirement, he turned his love for his beloved Okinawa and the Okinawa language into his life’s work and created an Okinawa Dialect Dictionary, a reference dictionary of Okinawa Dialect with translations in English and Japanese. He would spend the next decade dedicated to this work until his death on May 1, 2009.This book is a result of these ten years of his labor of love, and we hope that you will enjoy the work, dedication and love that he has put into this translation guidebook.