Customer Reviews

Let's Learn Hiragana: First Book of Basic Japanese Writing (Kodansha's Children's Classics)

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Let's Learn Hiragana is the first book all students wanting to learn to read and write Japanese should buy. I learned all the 107 hiragana in two weeks practicing only a couple hours each day. There are only really 46 hiragana to learn. The remainder are made with the addition of what look like " ,or with the addition of a small circle, or by writing one hiragana on top of another to make a new syllable. This book shows you the basic stokes which are numbered and easy to follow, and it gives a tracing exercise for each syllable. After you have mastered all 107 syllables/(46 symbols) it walks you through how to write words. Then it walks you through how to write sentences. It gives lots of practice translating romanji to hiragana and vice versa but manages to ween the learner from romanji which builds confidence. It points out ample, pertinent examples of spelling and writing "exceptions" in the exercises. Six stars. Next get Let's Learn Katakana. Mitamura-san is a wonderful sensei. The only critisism I can offer is that the hiragana are written in brush and it can be confusing for the beginner to know the importance of those little check marks at the end of the lines. I advise begginners to look in other Japanese books to get a sense for the amount of flexibility permitted in Japanese writing and to expose themselves to print styles other than ink brush, but this is a very minor critisism. With this book alone, you will easily be able to write beautiful Japanese even if you are in a Siberian jail in solitary confinement..which thankfully, I am not.

I am new to learning Japanese. It seemed daunting to me, but I wanted to do it anyway.

After reading many reviews on Amazon. I started here. Everyone talked about how quickly this book got them going and I must say it is very true. I had a week of fall break and ordered this book. At the end of the week I have completed the book.

As I went about it from the beginning, I was thinking, "This isn't going to help me memorize the Hiragana." But as I went on the repetion of the quizzes brought me into a quick memorization. By the end, I was able to complete a word search in hiragana and could tell/write the sound for any of the symbols and vice-versa.

The great thing is that you can set your own pace. There's no rush of a classroom. Just go along as you get each section. You can do it in as short a week if you like. Or you can take a month.

I would recomend this book to anyone who has never studied japanese.

This book is an excellent resource for self-study. I found it very helpful.

Note that the book is intended for older children or adults, despite the bright cover and the "Kodansha's Children's Classics" at the top of the Amazon page.

This book is incredible!! In less than a week I have learned each and every character in the hiragana character set!! The end of lesson quizzes truly enforce the skills and characters learned in the preceding lesson, I especially like the fact that you are taught to use your newly learned hiragana through "fill in the blank", romanji->hiragana and hiragana->romaji spelling practice. This book doesnt just teach the characters, you learn grammar, word structure, sentence structure, and special use situations as well. I cant say enough great things about this book!! If you can find it, be sure to buy the sequal, "Lets Learn Katakana", too!!:)

I'm a college student eager to learn Japanese and found this book to be almost perfect. It gives instructions on the writing of the characters and quizzes after each section. I studied it a couple weeks before I took my first Nihongo class and found myself ahead of everyone in the class. Yes, it only took me a couple weeks with a little writing practice and memorizing each day. The only problem with the book is that they don't provide answers to the quizzes in each section and the character for "so" may be written differently as my sensei taught me at school.(their format is the way a brush writes it, not pen) Go buy it for fast, easy Hiragana lessons.

Let's Learn Hiragana is a great book on writing basic Japanese. It's easy to learn. The book starts off with an introduction(of course), then there is a chart of all the Hiragana. Then the book shows you how to write the characters properly. Then, once you're done learning all the Hiragana, you move on to learning the Dakuon and Handakuon(normal characters that have been 'voiced'), and then you learn the Yoon(_ + y + either a, u, or o), and then you're done. It's a good book, indeed.

Although you do need to practice outside of this book as well, Let's Learn Hiragana has a nice set-up so it's easy to understand and work through. There's an introduction about the usage of hiragana and an overview of what's in the book, then there's sections for groups of ten morae. I've only had time to finish two sections, but with outside practice and the worksheet, I've already memorized the twenty. A great way to start learning the kana system!

Although I'm following the Japanese for Busy people approach to learning Japanese, the Let's Learn Hiragana and Katakana books are very good.
Both books break down the Kana into groups. Stroke (or brush) order and direction are detailed, which if you want to be accurate with your written work, this is a must! Additional information about the Kana, how it is used and combined are all explained in simple to understand English.
The books are designed for self-learning (no teacher), and I believe they are simple enough to do this.

Very, very satisfied. The honest truth? No, you probably don't need this book to learn Hiragana. It's very easy. Find a complete list of Hiragana that tells you the stroke orders and brute-force memorise them. Is it fun? Well, for me, yes, as I find writing Hiragana fun, like creating artwork. But, fun or not, brute-force works fine for both sets of Kana alphabets. It doesn't take nearly as long as you might expect, even for dense learners such as myself.

But, if you want to learn Hiragana quickly, you should probably get this book anyway. They're written BY HAND within the book itself. It's someone's actual handwritten Hiragana being printed into the book. I found this very helpful, but I'm not sure I can really explain why. I've found that others also find this supplements the learning experience. It also includes some very minimal practice quizes; these quizes also incidentally introduce some vocabulary. I have to admit that I didn't use these in the Hiragana volume I'm reviewing here, but I probably should have.

I found having a real book that I can carry around with real paper and pen to be the best way to learn. Getting away from electronics, including the computer, helps many like myself to focus better on the actual material and get it down. If you're like me and find yourself a "lazy learner" - and I know there are many of us out there! - this book's for you. Short, not too expensive, and does what it says, earning 5 stars from me.

This book is the ONLY way to learn hirigana. It's easy, fun, and inspiring. Although many books daunt you by presenting all 100 and something syllablic characters in one place, this book methodically explains them in a easily comprehensible way, explaining how they are intertwined. AFTER that, the author tells you about exceptions, word, sentences, etc., all in a very sound way. Wonderful book. It's so practical, I've been using it to learn hirigana in a biology class.