Product Description
For every student, a time eventually comes when basic grammar is no longer the problem. You can say a few words about the weather, or the fact that, yes, you are feeling hungry, or explain that you are going out for the day -- and actually be understood. Beyond that, however, the going gets tough. You cannot make pertinent comments about philosophy, politics, art, science, law, or business -- simply because you lack the necessary vocabulary. In fact, you may not be able to say that you are interested in "philosophy" at all, because you don't know the Japanese word for it. How do you go about acquiring this specialized vocabulary (most of which consists of kanji compounds)? Usually by spending hundreds of hours reading Japanese books or picking through a dictionary.

This book is an attempt to shorten that process by collecting a good number of the more commonly used key words from crucial areas of human endeavor. Now, without spending years mastering the written language, you can occasionally come up with the right word at the right moment in a conversation that is striving toward comprehensibility. This can even be done by students who do not have a strong grasp of kanji, for they can learn the words as sounds.

The areas covered in the book are ideas and theories; philosophy and religion; politics and government; the fine arts, humanities, and social sciences; science and technology; law and justice; and business and economics. This division allows the student to go the category where vocabulary is needed and learn the key words given there, rather than floundering around in a dictionary and hoping one has found what is needed. A further advantage of this arrangement is that certain kanji tend to be repeated over and over in certain categories: for example, the kanji read "gaku" in the science section of the book. This type of repetition allows the student to get a feeling for certain kanji and usages.

Beginning students can pick up individual words and put them in sentences of their own making, no matter how simple, and advanced students can get a better understanding of context by reading the sample sentences in the book. Since no one, even in their native tongue, can hope to be proficient in every field, advance students can quickly pick up key words in areas they are unfamiliar with.

Previously published in the Power Japanese series under the same title. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Warning: For ADVANCED students
If you're looking to go from talking about the weather and what your favorite food is to more complicated topics, then this IS NOT the book for you.

This book is geared for students who already have a very good grasp of the language, i.e. are at about a can-read-the-newspaper level and are looking to move to a can-attend-Japanese-college level.

Some sample sentences are something in my wildest imagination I would never use unless I was in a graduate seminar.

But, for its intended purpose, it's a very good book.

It breaks up the topics into subjects such as philosophy, religion, politics, economics...and then gives key words that are used in these arenas.In this way I find it useful. (I'm at about a JLPT 2 level.)

mistitled, phenomenal book
A more accurate (though decidedly less catchy) title for this book would be "Introduction to Talking About Issues of Importance to Scholars, Critics, Philosophers, Pundits, Journalists, Politicians, and Intellectuals."

If the phrase "sound intelligent" makes it seem like a way to deceive people into thinking you're intelligent when in fact you are not--think again. "Sounding intelligent" refers to a communication strategy for making your conversation partner feel confident that they can speak with you about any topic without baffling you or risking a one-sided conversation. I find that when you use words like "yuigaron" (solipsism) or "dokyo" (Taoism) just reassures people that it's okay to go beyond the typical "How long have you studied Japanese?" and "Can you eat Japanese food?" rigamarole.

If you're genuinely interested in talking about this stuff, this is the book for you. If not, don't expect that it will be some kind of self-help book designed to help you achieve any kind of intellectual image-makeover.

Perfect for graduate students, long-time residents of Japan, researchers going to do archival work in Japan, those seeking to build academic/critical/intellectual relationships with native Japanese speakers, and lovers of complex debate in cross-cultural context...

Just what I was hoping for
I was familiar with the Kodansha series--some I have loved, and some I have hated--so I was prepared for either option.
I'm intermediate-advanced, but lots of "useful" words I don't know. I still haven't done the "do you really use this" test with my Japanese friends, but they seem to be the kinds of words I've had trouble finding elsewhere.

Sounding Intelligent
This is a great book for the dedicated Japanese student. Many, many useful words and phrases for someone tired of the same old "introductions and asking for directions" kind of Japanese book.

Pros:
-Categorized well
-Tons of great vocab
-Kanji with furigana

Cons:
-Too advanced for beginners. Dedicated third year college students, or fourth year college students should definitely consider this as a supplementary text to their assigned readings.

Excellent for the professional user and advanced students
This little book is of great pleasurand fun. It gives you a hole lot of special and essential vocabulary,and does it with fun examples and explanations . It's a great tool for the advanced students and the only weak spot is the lack of grammar notes. I know that the aim of the book isn't grammatical, but I would loved it if there were some Keigo, Ukemi and other advanced notes. All together a very fun book that will build up your vocab confidence. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent resource for adult beginners
I have recently started to learn Japanese and this book has proved to be an excellent guide. Besides gradual and usage-oriented introduction to the basics of Japanese grammar, the book teaches the reader about different useful aspects of Japanese culture. The quality of recordings on attached CDs is excellent and you can use the CDs to learn new vocabulary and practice dialogues when you are on the road. Every lesson has tons of excercises to practice. The only drawback I can think of is that there are no answer keys to most excercises

Helps novices language gain basic conversational ability
Breeze Into Japanese is a book with two audio CDs designed to help novices language gain basic conversational ability in the Japanese language. Featuring time-tested instruction methods, numerous examples and self-exercises, language and culture tips, native Japanese speech on the audio CDs, and a flexible, gradual introduction to the language that does not rush the beginner into the Japanese script but rather gradually teaches hiragana and katakana (the two Japanese alphabets), and a few kanji, Breeze Into Japanese is a first-rate self-preparation resource for business travelers, vacationers, or anyone looking to learn the basics. ... Read more

Product Description
This book contributes to building the research knowledge that language teaching professionals need in developing curriculum for the large population of East Asian heritage students (including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) in countries like the United States, Canada, and Australia, where speakers of East Asian languages are among the fastest growing populations. Heritage learners are defined as those who initially acquired certain levels of linguistic and cultural competence in a non-dominant language mainly through interaction with foreign-born parents and other family members at home.
 
Heritage language instruction is currently a “hot topic” and is becoming a sub-discipline within the fields of foreign language education and applied linguistics. Special instruction for heritage language learners is on the rise, particularly in the U.S. and Canada. Providing theoretical and practical information about heritage-language instruction in terms of curriculum design, learner needs, materials development, and assessment procedures, the goal of this book is not only to promote research about heritage students in East Asian languages but also to improve the teaching of these students in various educational settings and all over the world, especially in English speaking countries. The volume is organized in four sections:
*Overview—addressing the timeliness, necessity, and applications of the work and issues and future agendas for teaching Chinese, Japanese, and Korean heritage students;
*Language Needs Analysis;
*Attitude, Motivation, Identity, and Instructional Preference; and
*Curriculum Design, Materials Development, and Assessment Procedures
 
Teaching Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Heritage Language Students is intended as a primary text or reference for researchers, educators, and students in the areas of curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment studies related to teaching bilingual and heritage students in general and East Asian heritage students in particular. ... Read more

Product Description
This writing companion to the best-selling Japanese: The Spoken Language begins with the two kana syllabaries and introduces approximately 300 kanji, following the Spoken Language text lesson by lesson. It is appropriate for beginning and intermediate students in a college or self-study program. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

this book != fine wine
As in, it hasn't gotten better with age.

It says right on the cover that this is a field test edition. So perhaps I should forgive the spelling mistakes and instances of characters being used in samples sentences before they have been introduced.

And perhaps I should forgive the lack of an index. Forget how to write a certain character? Have fun thumbing thru the entire book trying to find it again.

Or how about the fact that the characters are shown, and then the stroke charts are pages away in a separate section at the end of the chapter? What a lovely idea!

And then my absolute favorite feature. Once you finally do get to the kanji, they don't give you all, or most, or even some of the readings. You get one. And there doesn't seem to be a pattern as to whether you get the ON or Kun reading. Nor does it tell you which of the readings you are getting, much less what ON and Kun readings are. If another reading is given, the same character will be brought back later in the book to introduce the new reading.

There is also precious little discussion of radicals, and the important part they play in understanding kanji.

If you have to buy this book for a class which uses it, and the equally odious JSL companion, hold your nose and dive right in. But you may soon finding yourself in need of a proper kanji dictionary as well. If you're thinking of picking this up for self study, look elsewhere. ... Read more

Product Description
What student of Japanese has not grappled with the amazing diversity andelusive nuances of its idioms? One would not want to confuse, for example,ki ga mawaru (to be considerate) with ki o mawasu (to be suspicious). Andit would be useful to know whether your boss is really hara ga tatsu(angry) or merelyki ga tatsu (irritable). Indeed, even a single idiom can have a bewilderingnumber of meanings depending on context; te o ireru, for instance, can meanfixing up (as a house), asking someone to investigate secretly, or making araid.This dictionary offers the most comprehensive compilationand English translation of those idiomatic expressionsthat so enrich the Japanese language but fail to find their way intoconventional dictionaries. It presents more than 7000idiomatic phrases under 1000 main entries, including several thousands ofidioms never presented and explained in English before. Multiple samplesentences are given for each entry, and furigana allows even beginningstudents to pronouncecorrectly and to use the expressions immediately. Athumb index and two-color printing, with all kanji and kana in red, makeentries exceptionally easy to access. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

pearl japan
this book will astound you with its comprehensiveness. Although the idioms have not been supplied with sample sentences it eliminates this weakness with providing exact equivalents of Japanese idioms. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
Brand new edition of Barron's best-selling 501 Verb Series





· 501 most common Japanese verbs in table format


· Detailed explanation on Japanese verb formation and usage


· Hepburn romanization used throughout


· Japanese characters, kanji and kana, for each verb


· Essential 55 verbs with example sentences and related expressions


· Verb exercises with answers


· Examples of verbs used in sentences


· Index of verbs by gerund


... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Not useful at all
Why would you need a book that conjugates all the verbs in all the different form in romanji on one page per verb? Learn the rules instead!!! The book also has some simple usage comments on some of the verbs, but not on all. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything positive with this book.

Beware! Watch out for out-of-date reviews -- new edition here.
Watch the date on some of the reviews given -- many apply to an earlier version of this book.The content in this book has gone through a _major_ revision with this edition.

More than that, I've looked at this book some, but not received my copy nor used the book, so I cannot give a review.I bought the book mainly as a guide for what verbs to learn, as much as I did to get some clarification about how to conjugate the different forms; grammar books and the like which explain the verbs only confuse me.So I think this will help.

Verbs yes; kana not really; yay it looks nice on a shelf.
On the day I received the book, I flipped through and mostly liked what I saw. There are in-depth pages on 55 select verbs, but if a verb is not included in the 'essential' list, then the verb is simply displayed in a variety of forms. Unfortunately, there isn't as much use of kana in the book as I would like, and I found a romaji entry that didn't match its corresponding hiragana. Alas. At least I can get exposure to hundreds of verbs :]

Great addition to study collection.
This book is very helpful.It conjugates many of the most important verbs used in everyday speech. I refer to it constantly. It is laid out well and very easy to use. I highly recommend it.

The Best Japanese Verb Book Out There!
Japanese expert Nobuo Akiyama's revision of Lange's book is excellent. The book is comprehensive, logical, easy to use, and very up to date. The sample sentences are fun and interesting, and the introduction gives practical, easy-to-follow information. I've looked at similar books, and this is clearly the best in terms of its learner-friendly format and its contemporary feel. I highly recommend it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

a great book for learning kana
this book is definitely what u want if you want to learn hiragana and katakana. if there was a kanji version i would buy it. i would use this book more than once just because it has been the best i have tried so far.

Missing some key points
This book SOUNDS like a great idea because its the complete Kana - all in one book, however some important points are left out.

THE BAD

1. Stroke TYPE is not covered. As you may or may not know, unlike English,the characters in Japanese have very strict ways of writing. This may sound harsh but its a good thing (my handwriting in English is illegible - even to me, but my Japanese is pretty impressive (again, to me, lol). This book DOES cover stroke order, but doesn't describe the stoke type, different types of strokes are used and its very important (talking about the little flicks on some characters etc).

2. No vocabulary practice. After being forced through the entire hiragana there is some writing practice, but not enough. In other books, such as "Lets Learn Hiragana" (and the corresponding katakana book), there are practice works after each (of 5) groups of Hiragana - what does this mean? You get MORE practice and exposure to some common words, which you are not going to memorize but will continue pop up in your beginners Japanese course/book. BUT THIS BOOK DOESNT DO THAT! As i said there is SOME practice, but no way near enough and worst of all it doesnt even tell you what the word is (ie no english translation, so no meaning).

3. Not enough writing practice of individual characters - note thats supposed to be the purpose of the book!

4. No imagery to remember the characters. This sounds childish, but you will find your self making up your own little ways of remembering the characters, its much easier if the book would supply these.

5. Overall presentation is not pleasing, ugly font and square boxes around points


THE GOOD

Basic sentence structure is covered (inc. basic particles), although not in a very effective way.


THE VERDICT

If you have never ever tried kana before (Hiragana or Katakana) then this will probably do, but you will need to makes some improvement later on, i think its better so spend a little extra time (and money) and learn the most correct and complete kana from day one.

I would not recommend this book to anyone.
I would recommend Let's Learn Hiragana: First Book of Basic Japanese Writing (Kodansha's Children's Classics) andLet's Learn Katakana: Second Book of Basic Japanese Writing(Mitamura)
I believe those two books have been compiled into one, but i cant find it, so just get them separately, or even put off the katakana cause you probably wont need it for a while.
I ended up borrowing those two from the library after buying "Easy Kana workbook".
The only thing "Lets learn..." is missing is the imagery. There is alsoJapanese Hiragana for Beginners: First Steps to Mastering the Japanese Writing System which has imagery, however i have not used the book so i dont know if the vocab practice and sentence practice is as good.

Learning the KANA should be the very first thing you do (once you have decided to learn Japanese), even if you only want to speak Japanese, you should be away of their syllables.
I would like to have a look at the "Japanese... For beginners" books to compare, but so far it seems the "Lets learn..." books are the original and the best.

Helpful
This is a basic workbook for learning Hiragana and Katakana.Each character is given to you to trace to learn stroke order.There are then nine boxes you write the character in.Repetition is crucial in learning the characters, and this book stresses that.The two sections (Hiragana and Katakana) end with exercises in memorization and translating.The back of the book contains an answer key.

One thing missing from the book which helped me are memorization pictures for each character.These are extremely helpful in telling the differences in characters so they don't "all look the same."Google "The Japanese Page" and go to the Beginners section to find useful memorization images for each character.

Flash cards will reinforce what you are learning.I use online flash cards at Real Kana and it is really helpful.

Last but not least- Hiragana and Katakana characters are given to you in a lump sum.Split it up.Do not try to learn more than two rows (ex. ka, sa, ta) in one day.Be patient and you will learn it more efficiently.Review and repetition are key.

Makes Learning Easy!
It came on time , that's great ! It does everything it says it's going to do and helps you learn fast! I 've had no problems with shipping or the product itself!

Excellent way to learn Kana
I have been using the Easy Kana Workbook in conjunction with Remembering the Kana by James Heisig to learn both hiragana and katakana.Remembering the Kana gave me ways to easily remember the symbols and this book gave me the means to get a lot of practice.Not only is there practice with the symbols, but also with writing words and sentences both vertically and horizontally. The book also includes exceptions for when symbols should be used for different sounds.Finally, there is further opportunity to get practice transcribing between romanji to hiragana/katakana as well as from hiragana/katakana to romanji.Within a one month period I have become very comfortable with hiragana and am well on my way to doing the same with katakana.These two books are all you need. ... Read more

Product Description
The new edition of this popular course in Japanese for beginners has been completely rewritten, to make learning Japanese as easy as possible. The course teaches Japanese script, though romanization is also included throughout for those who prefer to conentrate on the spoken language. Other features include: *Dialogues covering a range of social and business situations*Exercises with answer key*Grammar reference section*Extensive vocabulary lists, including Japanese script and romanization*Index of kanji (Japanese vocabulary & characters)120 minutes of audio material, recorded by native speakers, is available on cassette or Cd. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

if you want to learn practical and essential Japanese quickly
The aim of this book is to get you speaking practical Japanese in the shortest amount of time possible without neglecting the script. It focuses on teaching you to communicate well, will teach you to read katakana and hiragana, and will explain around 250 Kanji characters.

If you need to learn practical Japanese very quickly, say for a business visit or holiday, this is an ideal book to use.

Good reasons to use this book, in my opinion:

> the book is very easy to work with
> the grammar is clearly explained
> the kanji characters are explained and practiced in the chapters
> the exercises are many and varied
> at least two reading passages per chapter ( in script )
> it gets you learning hiragana and katakana gradually
> large vocabulary build-up: the glossary lists around 2800 words
> practical vocabulary for everyday use and conversation
> can be completed in 3 month's time

I think this book is especially practical for business-people, because:
> it includes alot of business terminology
> it avoids "college"-topics such as 'what is your major?'

My complaints about this book are:
> there are typo's here and there in the romanized script
> some parts of the grammar and some topics (like telling the time) was not explained adequately
> it can be argued that it places too much emphasis on business-terminology

Overall, this book does a very good job of teaching practical Japanese in a short amount of time and in a user-friendly manner.

Great buy
For the money, you cant go wrong with this one.The books and tapes cover material at fast but easy to follow pace.The method really helps the means of retention.It's a great buy for any beginner.

A nice resource for those who like to use romaji, and those who do not.
I am now living in Japan, and am fluent in Japanese(among other languages), a holder of a degree in linguistics, and a professional language teacher, and tutor of Japanese. I think that this text is a great place to start your japanese studies, whether or not you prefer to use only Romaji, or authentic Japanese scripts (or a combination of the two, like myself.) This feature is what sets this book apart from similar priced texts like Hugo's and Teach Yourself, or the Berlitz Essential Japanese books.

Having succeded in learning in Japanese, I think people who 'demonize' romaji as a crutch, or useless are seriously misguided.Understanding new grammar rules, and sentence patterns can be mastered much faster, and with more confidence if the student isnt concerned about reading new characters correctly as well.Also, I dare anyone to look at japanese only text and not be a little intimidated.I think romaji is important for providing the beginner with the sense of achievement that is so often needed to overcome the inevitable frustrations that come with learning a new language.Viewed in this context it can be a valuable tool.

That said, even if spoken japanese is your only goal, if you plan to live or visit Japan (where japanese is spoken) kanji is a necessity if you realize it or not.It takes a lot of work, and is best started sooner than later.

I like the approach in this book because it presents the option of studying Kanji right from the first chapter, and avoids the common mistake of only teaching kanji individually, out of context like so many other 'kanji' specific texts.

---When helping others study, I often suggest that they work through the first few chapters, working primarily with the romaji grammar transcriptions first, and learning to transcribe them into Katakana* and Hiragana without looking.Once they begin to deal with the basics I have them go back and start to tackle the beginning chapters again without the romaji.This command of the meaning makes working through the japanese scripts less frustrating.

--Another issue I should address here is, that like many reviewers have noted is that vocabulary is not repeated very often within the chapters.I find this to be annoying, but ultimately it is the job of the student to practice, and practice the words on their own.-- if the book provided more chances for the revision of vacabulary, it probably wouldnt cover as much material overall.

The reason I give this book a four is that I find the mixed romaji-japanese script thing to be more annoying than its worth. Also, there are some typos, and that is just lazy editing.



*Katakana has more bang for buck in terms of practicality in Japan--- many foreign words are actually written in Katakana, if you can read it, or write it, its really written that way in Japan.-- Hiragana on the other hand is used for grammatical functions, and small words, while the bulk is written in Kanji--Hiragana is also sometimes used as tiny transcriptions which apear above kanji which tell japanese people how to pronounce them. (only for kids, or rarer Kanji, or odd pronunciations-- most Kanji are NOT accompanied by hiragana transcriptions)Its better than nothing to write gakusei, in hiragana, and kind of 'cute' for japanese friends, but when you read something real, its in Kanji. Which is why katakana is just more useful in the real world.

The right idea, but poorly executed
In contrast most other reviewers, I have finished the whole book.I was initially drawn to this book because unlike many introductory Japanese books, hiragana, katakana, and kanji are introduced right away.I continue to believe that learning kanji is essential to learning Japanese as the building blocks of vocabulary, not something to tack on after learning the spoken language.For this reason, I think this book's concept is head and shoulders above the competition.However, it is very poorly executed.Especially in the later chapters, long lists of kanji appear at the end of each chapter, but most of them were not ever used in the chapter.Each chapter has one or two dialogues, concepts introduced, exercises, and vocabulary, however, there is virtually no overlap of vocabulary in the chapter.This means that you will see each word/character once or twice, but there will be around 50 new words.Somehow, the reader is supposed to be able to effectively learn 50 new words with little repetition.As one progresses, there can be some repetition (a word you saw once in chapter 8 reappears once in chapter 14), and so I can say that I have learned some vocabulary, but not very effectively.Same problem with the grammar--it is introduced in one small section of one chapter, and if you are lucky it will reappear in a sentence in a later chapter.A much much better way to learn would be to stick to a set list of words and one major concept per chapter and repeat these same words and concept in the dialogue, exercises, vocabulary, etc.I have used Random House Living Language books for French and German (they use this approach) and in 6 months was told by a German professor that I sounded like someone with 2 years study.(Unfortunately, the beginning Japanese in their series appears to be just romanji.)With Japanese, I feel like I barely grasped everything, and this overload of information forces more of a passive learning style--just try to get through the immense amount of material that passes by you just once.Since this book was so intense, I thought that I must have learned more that if I had used a seemingly easy book, for example Berlitz Essential Japanese.I was surprised that I could easily read everything in the last chapter and understand it, but that it included the same grammar concepts as in the Routlege book, but without the pain and overkill.Although the book looks like it would be too simple, I think that getting 100% of less material is better than getting 10% of much more material.

Very well designed course
This book is fantastic, I love the way it eases you into the different scripts and the realistic dialogs in each chapter. Unlike some other books it's also easy to follow and learn from. It teaches you some very usefull sentence structures right off the bat and then eases you into different grammatical concepts.

Of course Anyone using this book would find having a japanese dictionary, grammer reference and kanji dictionary very helpfull to fill in any gaps that pop up. (I really like the Oxford starter japanese dictionary, Oxford Japanese grammer & verbs and Kodansha Kanji learner's dictionary). This book does a way better job than my $100 university text and 2 other self study guides I have had the misfortune of wasting my money on but there are still a few topics that could use more in depth explainations.

I've had a year of formal Japanese instruction in university so I didn't have any problems grasping the early dialogs. Allthough It doesn't look like the author intends complete beginners to understand every word since there are some fairly advanced grammer in them. I guess some people will find this an interesting prelude and others will find it annoying. I personally liked it because it kept things interesting.

The only real complaint I have is there are quite a few obvious spelling errors throughout the book, hopefully they get corrected in a future edition. ... Read more

Product Description
In this jet age, one can reach any part of the world within a day or two. It is wise to have some knowledge of the language of the country one visits to make the trip enjoyable and worthwhile. —THE AUTHOR
Jun Maeda has purposely written Let’s Study Japanese for the tourist visiting Japan, although the book will undoubtedly prove its worth to anyone wanting to acquire a working knowledge of spoken Japanese in short order. With approximately 350 essential words and 130 pages of practical conversational usage, this handy book provides the basics needed to converse in simple Japanese.
Intended for beginners, the book concentrates only on key grammar and pronounciation points. Most of the 26 lessons include exercises that reinforce vocabulary items and grammatical structures. Phrases and sentences are recycled for long-term learning. Over 200 simple illustrations allow even beginners to express themselves. In short, Let’s Study Japanese is an introduction to basic Japanese that is concise, simple, and useful from the very first page. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best all-round primer for English speakers to learn Japanese
This little book is a gem and I recommend it to any English speakers who are considering learning the Japanese language.The entire contents of this book can be memorized in less than a month.Some of the patterns area little stiff and unnatural, but they allow the learner to expressthemselves quickly without worry of offending.This book contains a solidpedagogical foundation which can be used for further study.For first-timevisitors to Japan and others who need to learn to communicate quickly, thisbook, combined with Webster's Pocket English-Japanese dictionarywill help shorten the learning curve and get you where you need tobe. ... Read more

Product Description
Each of our Kana Flashcards includes a memorable verbal andvisual mnemonic, provided by award-winning illustrator Michael Rowley. Along with stroke-order diagrams and hundreds of vocabulary building example words, Kana Flashcards is sure to become the most desirable product on the market for kana learners.

Each stroke-order-diagram includes arrows to indicate stroke direction. Each example word is written in kana on the card front with the English reading and definition on the flipside.

Along with the Audio Companion, these cards include all the information you need to recognize and remember, to read and write, and to pronounce hiragana and katakana in no time at all.

• Master hiragana and katakana with visual and verbal mnemonics.
• Learn 450 basic Japanese words.
• Includes stroke-by-stroke diagrams.

Varnished cards with rounded corners. Boxed with plastictray and shrink-wrapped. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

Very good flash cards, with some faults.
For starters, these are very nice, they have every kana, plus a little chart showing all the kana, although they do not come with combined kana, but they do tell you the "changed" kana, such as Pa and Po.

The main problem is that they are color coded, so you instantly know if it's katakana or hiragana, this can be overcome if you scan them to your computer and change the colors to black and white (like i did)

It works well, but it would be nice if they chose just one color for both, as kana are not color coded for tourists convenience.

5 stars if you change the colors, 4 stars if you don't.

These are very well made and high quality cards.

Wonderful Learning Tool!!
These flashcards are amazing! When I got them, I had mostly mastered hiragana, but these are still great for a refresher. I hadn't yet come even close to learning katakana and with these, I learned ridiculously fast! I also got two very reasonably priced flashcard cases from White Rabbit Press's website (the same company that produced these flashcards). I would definitely order the cards from Amazon, though, not from WRP's site--they are far cheaper. ;)

Missing cards
Two hiragana cards are missing (wa and wo, #44,45) not sure if this was intended. In katakana, those are present. Otherwise pleasant cards to play around with.

I now tend to agree with other reviewers that the missing Dakuon & Handakuon (voiced Hiragana) and Yoon (2-character Hiragana) is not very helpful- they are separate different characters and should have had dedicated cards. The author should add those for a new edition. Because I had already learned the basic 46 Hiragana before getting those cards, they are pretty useless for me (for the Hiragana part).

The cards should not be used alone- I recommend Let's Lern Hiragana as a book with some useful background info.

Best flashcards!
The question every potential buyer is probably asking himself is, "Should I buy the White Rabbit or the Tuttle flash cards?"Well, my personal answer is: White Rabbit.

The White Rabbit cards have a few things I favor over the Tuttle versions.First, the kana characters themselves are displayed in a large format.Also, four other 'fonts' are given which display the character (in a smaller size, too--some characters may look different to you when scaled down).These things are a HUGE advantage and would help you read big signs to newspaper print effectively.Tuttle cards have the character shown only once in a large size on the front and a smaller size on the back.

Five vocabulary words are given for each kana with White Rabbit, versus four from Tuttle.This isn't a huge deal, but it adds up: With ROUGHLY 100 cards total, your gaining an extra ~100 vocabulary words with White Rabbit.However, White Rabbit provides vocabulary words which start with the given kana AND include the kana (somewhere) in the vocabulary.Tuttle provides only words which begin with the given kana.To me, this really doesn't matter.

Stroke order is shown on both versions, but to me the White Rabbit version is a bit more 'clear.'This is probably also subject to opinion.

White Rabbits BIGGEST help are the mnemonics.Okay, so if you read the introduction cards they admit that not all the mnemonics are great.They urge you to buy the accompanying audio lessons, but a quick search for "hiragana pronunciation" on any search engine will yield you audio clips of correct pronunciation.Youtube has some good results too.Point is:The visual mnemonics especially can be very helpful for any kana you have particular trouble in remembering.Yes, some of the mnemonics suck, but I challenge you to do better.Plus, if you need a mnemonic to remember every single kana, maybe Japanese isn't for you!

Cons?I only have one:White Rabbit insists on numbering the cards on the kana side.For me, this is bad news!Some difficult to remember kanas can be remembered simply by their number.For example:to the novice, 'i' and 'ri' may look similar, but i is number 2 and ri is number 40.Me, ne, nu, wa, and re also have (superficially) similar symbols.My best advice if your subconscious likes to cheat is to cover the numbers with your thumb (they aren't really important).

TIPS FOR LEARNING JAPANESE:Immerse yourself.Watch movies in Japanese with Japanese subtitles.Buy flash cards for kana AND kanji (especially kanji!).Buy a college level textbook.And whatever you do, don't just buy one textbook, buy multiple books that teach in different ways!

Perfect!
I just started learning Japanese and today I received my Kana cards in the mail. I've already learned 32 of the Hiragana writing system, but I kind of wish I would have had these cards sooner. The clever drawings and phrases to remember the characters is very effective! I'm glad that I still have to learn Katakana too, because this time around I'll be able to use the cards as an easier way to remember the characters.

The cards are smaller than I expected, the size of a regular deck of playing cards. But the words are still big enough to easily read. They are a bit slippery, so they're a little tricky to mix and keep a hold onto. Even so, they are definitely worth getting. I wouldn't suggest any other flash cards, I now want the kanji cards too! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

More than 'Beginning'
This book requires a solid working ability in Hirogana & Katakana.
The vocabulary index is very awkward.The chapters don't relate to
each other as progressive content.

However, it has been very good for my purpose which is to hone my
limited language skills from a different viewpoint.

It is a bit expensive for the content.Not a particularly good
value, but worth it for me. ... Read more

Product Description
Learn step-by-step in 40 easy lessons

Grammar & Usage Explained Throughout

Comprehensive reference sections Included

For Beginners or Those Who Want a Thorough Review

Learn to speak, read, and write Japanese quickly and easily with Living Language. Developed by U.S. government experts, this book introduces you step-by-step to the basics of Japanese pronunciation, vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, and grammar.

Inside You'll Find:

• All the words and phrases from the 40 lessons on the Living LanguageJapanese Complete Course recordings plus additional vocabulary
  
• A guide to pronunciation
  
• Useful topics: Directions, Introductions, Shopping, etc.
  
• Explanations of grammar and usage
  
• Short quizzes to help you check your progress
  
• A comprehensive summary of Japanese grammar
  
• Verb charts, including all tenses
  
• A special section on writing letters

While this book stands on its own as an instructional program and an invaluable reference, you'll find that using it with the recorded lessons is even more effective. Along with the recordings, Living Language Japanese Complete Course cassette and compact disc packages include this book as well as a dictionary. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Nothing Special
I bought this book to prepare for a year long exchange in Japan.Having no teacher and only a few months to study before departure, this was a fine book to get me started.However, once I arrived, I immediately came across better books.

This book is a good start as it introduces the reader to some basic phrases, has a section on hiragana and katakana, and is especially useful with the CD you can buy with it.

However, if you're serious about learning Japanese, I wouldn't recommend this book.It's taught in Romanji (Roman letters), which is good only as a time saver and might even hurt in the long run.Learning in Romanji is one of the biggest setbacks to speaking with a Japanese accent.It also teaches the particles all at once instead of little by little.This is frustrating, tedious, and the point when I stopped using this book.It also introduces no kanji, which again is fine (even recommended) if you're only looking for a little bit of starter Japanese.

It was a good book to get me on my feet and to start learning Japanese, but switching books was a really great move and if you're serious, there are many better books out there.

Gambatte kudasai! ... Read more

Product Description
Feminist critics have long considered language a primary vehicle for the transmission of sexist values in a culture. This much-needed sociolinguistic critique examines the representation of women in traditional Japanese language and culture. Derogatory and highly-sexualized terms are placed in historical context, and the progress of non-sexist language reform is reviewed. Central to this work are the individual voices of Japanese women who took part in a survey, expressing their candid thoughts and concerns regarding biased gender representations. In their own words, they give voice to the reality of being female within the constraints of a traditional--and sometimes misogynistic--language. ... Read more

Product Description
Meetings in Mito? Holiday in Hakone?From Kobe to Kyoto, now you can join the conversation with Instant Immersion? Japanese for Travelers, the dynamic audio language learning system on 8 compact discs. Providing effective, progressive instruction in all the basics of structure, syntax and grammar, Instant Immersion? Japanese for Travelers emphasizes the building blocks of proper speech and conversational skill-building, all set to a lively lesson plan of practical Japanese vocabulary. Not a phrase book, not a translation guide, Instant Immersion? Japanese for Travelers is the speedy, sophisticated route to proper Japanese, for all non-native speakers on the go. Follow the audio lesson plan at your own pace!CD 1: Alphabet; Sounds; Pronunciation tipsCD 2: Greetings; Introductions; JobsCD 3: Numbers (1-100); Telephone numbers; Age; Time/hours; Days & monthsCD 4: Shopping & asking questions; Numbers (100-90,000)CD 5: Family; Addressing family membersCD 6: Verbs; Forming sentencesCD 7: Finding & following directions; Using the telephoneCD 8: Descriptive words relating to weather, sickness, events & friends ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

very detailed but format is somewhat confusing
This set is an excellent value: over 8 hours of Nihongo for less than $14. Many of the Japanese words are repeated 2X (unlike other sets) and the audio quality is pretty good though you can hear breathing (?) at times. I wish the quizzes and dialogues were better structured. Seemed a bit haphazard and thus hard to follow. This isn't too bad but it could be a lot more engaging. Well worth your money.

informative but lackluster
Obviously with 8 disks there is a lot of information. This course gives you everything you'd expect in a beginner's audio course: asking for directions, discussing the weather and your family, etc. However I was disappointed for two reasons. First, the word "immersion" in the title made me think it would be an innovative course with little or no English used, but this is actually just an ordinary audio language course with alternating English and Japanese phrases and a little grammar explanation thrown in here and there. The second disappointment is the dialogues -- they are acted out by two women with similar sounding voices. This edition is called new and improved, but there is room for even more improvement, in my opinion.

Pretty good...
I just got this, it works pretty good. pretty thorough. I'm only on the 3rd cd, but its ok so far. If you get frustrated on the first cd, thats ok because you aren't really supposed to remember any of those words. After that it becomes easier, even though there are a few areas you feel like skipping. Don't try to listen to it all in one sitting. It might take a while. this is a VERY thorough product. ... Read more

Product Description
Kodansha's Katakana Workbook teaches the basics of katakana, the Japanese script used for writing loanwords borrowed from English and other languages. The book introduces the katakana characters not in the traditional a-i-u-e-o order, but in a unique new one that makes it easy to read, write, and speak everyday Japanese words from the very first lesson.

A full page is devoted to each of the 46 basic characters, providing students with ample space to practice reading and writing them. In lieu of review pages, Kodansha's Katakana Workbook features entertaining exercises that test students' reading skills at various stages. Appendixes include practice in differentiating between similar-looking characters, a list of computer-related terms, a picture dictionary of frequent onomatopoeic words used in Japanese, and--best of all--117 katakana flashcards for self-study and play.

Like with Kodansha's Hiragana Workbook, free audio for much of the book's content is available at the publisher's website. By downloading it and listening to it while working through the book, students will develop an ear for Japanese at the same time that they learn to read and write it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Learning Japanese
I think this book is very well done and would recommend it to anyone interested in learning Japanese. I am presently living in Japan and found that is was cheaper to buy it from Amazon then it was from my local bookstore!

great workbook
this is a great workbook. under each new katakana character you not only get writing practice but get to learn new vocab words. kodansha is an excellent company with great products for studying japanese.

if you are just starting out studying japanese you should know that first you learn hiragana then katakana then kanji.. most kanji learning books list the onyomi (chinese pronunciations) in katakana.. so having a good handle on katakana is helpful later on for kanji study.. this book will help.

in this book there are a ton of exercises to do. the flashcards come with a couple of fun game instructions to make using the flashcards fun..

the best part about the flashcards is that unlike other katakana card sets they include voiced and unvoiced ones and even contracted sounds (kya, ju, nyu....).. other sets dont include these so you end up having difficulty learning them later when you actually attempt reading katakana..

ok and also the flashcards are tinted light green.. like many people with dyslexia my poor reading skills are exacerbated by the glare of black writing on white paper. since the cards are colored i dont have that problem.

oh and the flashcards have pictures on the backs to cement the sounds in your brain (the regular katakana ones do but not the voiced/voiceless or the contracted sounds, but young usually learn those after mastering the regular katakana anyway)

i havent downloaded the audio file though.. so im not sure how good it is

if you havent learned hiragana i suggest you do that first..

Good Workbook
I found this work book to be very helpful in practing this alphabet and learning new words.Would recommend it for any beginner.

`KODANSHA'S KATAKANA WORKBOOK' is a magnificent workbook that goes beyond what most katakana books offer
Katakana is a Japanese syllabary and a component of the kana system to read English or foreign words not native to Japan and are derived from components of complex kanji.

If you are a new to learning Japanese, you may have just finished learning how to read and write Japanese in hiragana but now you are realizing that for English words, the Japanese use a whole different syllables to read those words. So, on top of hiragana, now you will need to learn katakana.

When I first started out learning Japanese and before I went to college to minor in Japanese, it was important for me to learn katakana.If you are a foreigner from another country, you will need to write your name in katakana.Go to a restaurant or even a public restroom, you will notice signs that are in katakana. If you are an avid anime viewer or manga reader, you will notice that titles such as "Dragon Ball Z" and "Bleach" are written in katakana.And as daunting as it seems, that you have to learn another syllable system in addition hiragana, you will eventually learn to read and write katakana.

Like hiragana (which you should actually try to learn first), the first thing you will learn is that in Japanese, you will need to learn the a,i,u,e,o but then you move on to the ka, ki, ku ke, ko and then sa, shi, su, se, so and then eventually using the "t's", "n's", "h's", "m's", "y's", "r's", "w's" and others such as "n", "g's", "z's", "j's", "d's", "b's" and "p's".As difficult as it may seem, the truth is that katakana is quite easy to learn and possibly after a week of studying, you will be learning how to read and write words in no time.

I have had the opportunity to test a few katakana workbooks over the years and primarily the workbooks focus on two principles:

* Learning the stroke order of how a katakana is written
* Writing the katakana, for example, "ka" several dozen times.

"KODANSHA'S KATAKANA WORKBOOK: A Step-by-Step Approach to Basic Japanese Writing" by Anne Matsumoto Stewart was actually a bit of a surprise because you write the katakana symbols about 16 times but then after each lesson, you start learning and writing words.

You also learn how to write the symbols in the correct order.So, for an example, symbols like riand nare written differently.With "ri", you are writing top going down.While with "n" you are writing the bottom stroke from bottom to top.So, it makes it easier on the eye especially when things are handwritten.

After learning how to write and read these vowels and eventually the syllables, then you will start learning more and eventually in the book you will start learning to write words.

Rarely do workbooks have you start writing the words down.So, the book does a great job in getting the person to learn how to write words immediately.

So, writing and repetition is a quick way to learn how to write katakana but the book also includes flash cards.So, you can practice with a partner who can quiz you on your katakana skills which is wonderful.

Some people find it easier to have a teacher than learning from a book because it helps with pronunciation.For example:

a (is pronounced as "ah"), i (is pronounced like the letter "e"), u (is pronounced like "ew"), e (is pronounced as "eh") and o (is pronounced as "oh").So, a word like "anime", and I know many people who never learned Japanese start off and pronouncing it as "ah-neem) but you want to pronounce it like "ah-ni-may".So, Kodansha International allows the user of this book to go online to their site and learn how to pronounce the symbols and words correctly.Here is an example.

This is important because for those who don't go through a class on pronunciation, these MP3's are wonderful in learning how to pronounce the words.And most katakana workbooks do not offer audio files to learn from.

So, it takes a bit of time learning to see how the words are used in Japanese writing and then eventually, you start to catch on.It's not easy at first learning the long vowels but eventually, you get a hang of it.

"KODANSHA'S KATAKANA WORKBOOK: A Step-by-Step Approach to Basic Japanese Writing" is probably the best workbook that I have seen on learning how to write and read katakana.It goes beyond the learning of the strokes and writing the symbol dozens of times but offers you the chance to learn words, write words, use of flash cards and also download audio files through the Kodansha International website for this book.

If you are wanting to learn katakana, I highly recommend this workbook!

Kodansha's Katakana Workbook
The Katakana Workbook is a great self-study book.Very easy to understand and use and is a great learning tool.The flashcards are great and the recommended flashcard activities make learning fun.From Lesson 1, while learning to read and write katakana, I'm also learning useful words and building my vocabulary. A great deal for the price and I highly recommend this book for any beginner! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (7)

Wonderful concept, needs broader range of subjects.
Let me begin by saying that my criticism of this book is far outweighed by its benefits. This book and accompanying DVD are divided into twenty chapters, each dealing with different social phenomena. The one criticism I have is that many of the chapter titles deal with womens' issues (womens' views on marriage, women in the workplace) and environmental issues (environmental education, organic farming). These are certainly hot topics, but I feel like they were over-used at the expense of other advanced topics like economics or government.

Still, this book gives learners the opportunity to "interview" native Japanese speakers, and listen to their stories in 100% natural Japanese. For those looking to improve their accents or brush up on listening comprehension, this is an incredibly useful source. Moreover, the text provides background information, vocabulary lists, and full transcripts of each chapter's interview.

When using this book, I recommend getting the most out of each chapter by following these five (or four) steps:
1. Watch the DVD chapter first, without consulting the text.
2. Read the chapter introduction and review the vocabulary list for the chapter. Focus on words that are new to you.
3. Watch the DVD chapter a second time, listening for those new words.
4. (Optional) Watch the DVD chapter a third time, following along with the transcript in the text.
5. Watch the DVD chapter a fifth time, without any text, listening for every word. If you have time, pause after each sentence to see if you can repeat it verbatim. Repeating a full sentence someone has just said is easy in one's native language, but in a foreign language it can be very difficult.

Overall, this book is a wonderful addition to any intermediate or advanced student's library. In the future, I hope for a book that utilizes this same format with a wider variety of topics.

Good for high intermediate and advanced
This is an excellent resource to listen to various native speakers.The DVD is interesting.Reminded me a lot of the kind of documentaries you see on Japanese TV. The accompanying text is in hiragana, with very little English.I found myself struggling to get most of the conversations.I think you should be very high intermediate level or advanced to find this book useful.

The right idea for language study...
I can't stress enough how small the resemblance is between the Japanese spoken by Japanese people and that taught in most Japanese text books. It's really quite absurd.Some might argue that you need a "foundation" of stiff, stilted, unrealistic, hyper-grammatical Japanese to get started, but that's pretty silly in my opinion.

This book finally has the right idea of using real, unscripted Japanese for its material, and I hope it's the start of a trend in language books.

The book would be better with more two-sided conversation, rather than just monologues.Also, the usage and grammar notes could be more complete, but I think the author intended it to be used in a classroom setting, where supplementary explanations and translations would be accessible.Also, one small thing, the DVD is nice, but practically, I think most people would rather have an audio CD for ease of study.It's not a big deal to rip the audio off to mp3s, but some people might not want to do that.

Regardless of a few shortcomings, it gets five stars just finally "getting it."

Perfect for intermediate to advanced learners
Just what I had been looking for- a product geared towards intermediate to advanced learners for listening and vocabulary practice.

I've only seen about half of the video (which is 2 1/2 hours long) but I can tell you that the quality of the video is first-rate, and the interviews are very interesting and educational.

Some of the interviews are extremely easy to understand; particulary the ones about family structure...others are more taxing.

Best of all is the accompanying book which has a transcript of all interviews, an introduction to the topics in English, and vocabulary lists.

A great buy for the classroom or for individual study.

Unique and much needed
Just a couple of lines to confirm that I fully share the views of the two reviewers before me. I have just finished listening to the book/DVD (I did it over several weeks, more or less one chapter a day). I intend to do a few more passes (I am far from having "learned" the book - I still need the written text to follow the spoken words). I am an intermediate student, with good reading skills (but sadly negligible speaking skills), so I don't mind the fact that there is no English translation - but in the end working back and forth from a translation can be cumbersome, and it would not be a realistic setting for listening to interviews. Ample vocabulary notes are provided, anyway (which helps a lot). A caveat: some of the speakers are harder to follow than others - but that's to be expected from speakers of any language. So that's just a fact of life with a book that gives you "real spoken language", as opposed to the sterilized textbook version.Moreover, they all have something interesting and real to say, so you feel that the effort to understand is well spent. Speaking of which, I found the story of the old lady who had to miss school because of the war work her country imposed on students really touching. She was very dignified (a teacher of traditional ikebana), but hearing her speak you could feel that her grief was still alive 60 years or so later. Sounds like a small thing compared to all the evils of war (some students might even consider it a plus), but it brought home the cruelty and nonsense of war more clearly than reading a history book or watching the news.

I will recommend this book to the other students in my weekly Japanese night-class - but I am certainly NOT going to lend them my copy, this is too good to risk losing...

One last point, I reviewed here a few years ago a book with 3 CD that had lots of good "real sounding" spoken Japanese, including lots of "aizuchi" (no video and no real interviews, though, so not at all the same thing as this one). It's called Aozora, and if you loved Living Japanese, you will probably like Aozora too (albeit not as much). ... Read more

Product Description

*WINNER* Parents' Choice Award

*WINNER* IPPY Award, Education/Teaching/Academic

*WINNER* I.D. Magazine Design Distinction Award

*WINNER* Print Magazine Design Excellence Award

Designed to appeal to a wide age range and a variety of attention spans, "Jimi's Book of Japanese" is for everyone who is learning Japanese and for anyone who has an inquisitive brain.

Put your kutsu on, grab your keitai denwa, and join Jimi, Akiko, and Robotto-san on an exciting insider's journey to learning basic Japanese. Along the way, you'll discover the secrets of using (o)hashi, how to find a unagi shop-even how to practice ojigi through eye-popping illustrations and simple explanations.

Designed to appeal to a wide age range and a variety of attention spans, Jimi's Book of Japanese is for everyone who is learning Japanese and for anyone who has an inquisitive brain.

Read, write, pronounce. Trace, fliplaugh! This friendly book's Triple Bubble Learning System(TM) makes the 46 most important hiragana stick in your brain. Plus, you'll learn over 125 useful vocabulary.

On each page, there's giant kana with stroke order arrows, an illustrated pronunciation key, and vocabulary in Japanese and English. All words are matched with authentic descriptions and colorful characters whose lively expressions make learning Japanese unforgettable.

Additional features include a helpful introduction with tips on Japanese language basics, a large word list with definitions, and a numbers page. There's even a color-coded hiragana table! Prepare your brain!

Highlights

-Master the 46 most important hiragana

-Learn to read, write, pronounce kana from A to WO

-Learn to count from ichi to gojuni

PLUS

-More than 250 full-color illustrations

-Over 125 up-to-date vocabulary, simple definitions

-Quick-reference visual library

-Color-coded hiragana table

-Ready-to-use culture tips, greetings, and MORE!

-BONU ... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

Great place to start
The state department lists japanese as one of the most difficult (commonly spoken) languages for native english speakers to learn.This book gives a great stepping stone to learning the Kana (Letters) most commonly used in japanese along with a good vocabulary of basic words.The content is more similar to a childs book than a language manual, but the large stroke diagrams of each Kana make it easy to memorize and the accompanying information has a good if simple introduction to japanese culture.

Too basic; get Let's Learn Hiragana instead
This is a nice book with many beautiful illustrations and colors, which makes it great for kids, but it doesn't help much with learning Hiragana. All the characters are there with the proper strokes, but nothing is mentioned about important concepts like how to end strokes (tome - "stop"; hane - "jump"; harai - "sweep") and diacritical marks (changing ka into ga for example). I feel that it is a very limited learning tool.

On the other hand, I highly recommend "Let's Learn Hiragana" (Let's Learn Hiragana: First Book of Basic Japanese Writing (Kodansha's Children's Classics)) and the other books from that series.

delightful and charming way to learn hiragana
based on other reviews here, I decided to buy this book. It's definitely well thought out and does exactly wheat it intends to do : make learning fun and easy.

Not as exciting as anticipated
I got bored with this book after going through it several times.It's not as straightforward as a textbook, but it's not as fun as it looks because of the distracting vocabulary entries and sometimes overly extensive facts about Japan.It has the advantage of showing the shape and stroke order of each hiragana character in giant size, so it's not bad for learning to write hiragana.I found it distracting that sometimes the vocabulary words were irrelevant to the hiragana character on each page.The book seemed to get a little too sidetracked. The pictures were nice, but they are repeated at the back of the book, which is unnecessary.It does include a glossary for defining words that aren't obvious from looking at the pictures.The pictures are nice, but it probably won't make learning hiragana any easier.It might be better for someone who is just exploring Japanese but not seriously studying it.

Great Idea
Wonderful idea! You can pick a page or 2 a day and in no time you are learning Hiragana. Each page is short, graphic and catches your attention. It is also small and thin enough to slide into your backpack so you can get a mini lesson in anytime you want. I think it's a great way to begin learning Japanese. I got this book together with Jimi's Book of Katakanafor a 1 , 2 punch. ... Read more

Product Description
Kodansha's Hiragana Workbook is an all-new, streamlined workbook designed for beginner-level students who want to learn hiragana, the most basic Japanese script, as efficiently as possible.

A full page is devoted to each of the 46 basic hiragana characters, providing students with ample space to practice reading and writing them. For each character, the author presents several Japanese words in which that character is used--words that are common and can be put to immediate use in conversation. As a bonus, the pronunciation of each word is available as a free download from the publisher's website.

In addition, review pages are strategically placed throughout the book to allow students to test their understanding at various stages. The appendixes offer audio-based character-recognition exercises, and--best of all--105 hiragana flashcards for self-study and play.

Kodansha's Hiragana Workbook is recommended for students of all ages, whether studying on their own or with a teacher. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Great
This workbook is great. I use it with my class lessons and I must confess I will be lost without it.
Just great for beginners and people who want to review katakanas.

Good
A good workbook for those just starting out in Japanese and wanting to learn how to correctly write hiragana.Used it for a Japanese class I was taking and it was helpful.

A wonderful resource for one to learn how to read and write hiragana.
Hiragana.Japanese syllabary and part of the kana system (along with "katakana" for foreign words) and utilizes no kanji.

If you are a new to learning Japanese, you will need to know how to read and write hiragana and katakana and then as you progress, you will need to learn kanji (Chinese characters utilized in Japanese words and sentences).The good news is that by learning hiragana, it will allow you to read Japanese manga (some manga have little tiny hiragana (known as furigana) right on top of the kanji), read various words on Japanese publications, commercials or signs and more.

When I first started out learning Japanese and before I went to college to minor in Japanese, it was important for me to learn hiragana. The first thing you will learn is that in Japanese, you will need to learn the a,i,u,e,o but then you move on to the ka, ki, ku ke, ko and then sa, shi, su, se, so and then eventually using the "t's", "n's", "h's", "m's", "y's", "r's", "w's" and others such as "n", "g's", "z's", "j's", "d's", "b's" and "p's".This goes for both hiragana and katakana and as difficult as it may seem, the truth is that hiragana is quite easy to learn and possibly after a week of studying, you will be learning how to read and write words in no time.

I have had the opportunity to test a few hiragana workbooks over the years and primarily the workbooks focus on two principles:

* Learning the stroke order of how a hiragana is written
* Writing the hiragana, for example, "ka" several dozen times.

"KODANSHA'S HIRAGANA WORKBOOK" by Anne Matsumoto Stewart was actually a bit of a surprise because you write the hiragana symbols about 16 times but then after each lesson, you start learning and writing words.

Rarely do hiragana workbooks have you start writing the words down.Also, as you practice writing vertically, the book has you learning how to write vertically.(Note: In many Japanese publications, reading is done vertically from right to left.Also, if you take an advance Japanese course in college, you will be writing vertically).

So, writing and repetition is a quick way to learn how to write hiragana but the book also includes flash cards.So, you can practice with a partner who can quiz you on your hiragana skills which is wonderful.

Some people find it easier to have a teacher than learning from a book because it helps with pronunciation.For example:

a (is pronounced as "ah"), i (is pronounced like the letter "e"), u (is pronounced like "ew"), e (is pronounced as "eh") and o (is pronounced as "oh").See a word like "kao" (face), some may say "cow" but you want to pronounce it like "ka-oh".So, Kodansha International allows the user of this book to go online to their site and learn how to pronounce the symbols and words correctly.

This is important because for those who don't go through a class on pronunciation, these MP3's are wonderful in learning how to pronounce the words.And most hiragana workbooks do not offer audio files to learn from.

"KODANSHA'S HIRAGANA WORKBOOK" is probably the best workbook that I have seen on learning how to write and read hiragana.It goes beyond the learning of the strokes and writing the symbol dozens of times but offers you the chance to learn words, write words, use of flash cards and also download audio files through the Kodansha International website for this book.

If you are wanting to learn hiragana, I highly recommend this workbook!

Kodansha's Hiragana Workbook
The Hiragana Workbook is great! The "pull out" flashcards included with the Workbook make learning hiragana easy and fun.The free audio download is also helping me tremendously with my pronunciations.It's also great that while learning to correctly read, write, and pronounce hiragana letters, the Workbook is also teaching me hundreds of useful words.I have both the Hiragana and Katakana Workbooks and I hope they come out with Kanji Workbook next!The self-study Hiragana and Katakana Workbooks that I can study at my own pace any time and any where helps me make efficient and productive use of my time. Very informative, educational, and excellent workbook! ... Read more