Japanese Short Stories for Beginners: 20 Captivating Short Stories to Learn Japanese & Grow Your Vocabulary the Fun Way! (Easy Japanese Stories)

Product Information

The language in here is pretty simple, although a few words might not be heard in everyday conversation. The tone throughout, however, should make for a cozy, non-threatening read. 4. “Heaven’s Bookstore” As you learn kanji you will also learn vocabulary that use those kanji. Not only will this help solidify those kanji concepts in your mind, but it will also be where you learn the remaining kanji readings. Plus, as you know, this vocabulary will be used to give you something to glue together with grammar later. Best known as the first Japanese writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, Osaka born Yasunari Kawabata is a prolific novelist and short story writer with a proclivity for heartbreaking and poetic imagery. FluentU even uses a learning program which adapts to your specific needs to turn every video into a language learning lesson and get you to actively practice your newly-learned language skills.

Many Japanese learners and non-learners have been introduced to Studio Ghibli or Hayao Miyazaki films at one point in time. The hundreds of stories featured here have minimal kanji and lots of helpful audio accompaniments. Read the story first, then listen and read along! One of the most well known of the collection, the short story “The Human Chair” tells the tale of a writer who sits down to read her fan letters one afternoon. What she finds is a detailed confession letter from a man who manages to fool wealthy women into sitting on him, transforming himself into a human chair. Truly creepy stuff! 4. “A Treasury of Japanese Folktales” by Yuri Yasuda Our goal is to reach Japanese fluency as directly as possible. Unlike a teacher or a textbook, we have the freedom to be ruthless in the path we take to get there. Bilingual Japanese books are incredible learning tools that can help you practice your reading skills, learn new vocabulary and get exposed to various grammar structures…It's time to learn how and when to introduce vocabulary words from outside your kanji studies into your study routine. The most important thing is to have a good system in place. You can find your favorite storybooks like “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” (はらぺこああむし), and even Disney tales in Japanese. The “Guri and Gura” books written by Rieko Nakagawa and illustrated by Yuriko Yamawaki, are a series of famous children’s books that have been translated into numerous languages. It seems like every-other fable includes an “old man” as a main character. 16. “Japanese Graded Readers”

While I started by talking about how Japanese reading practice is very limited for beginners, I hope you’ve come away with the feeling that there are options out there for you. That being said, there’s probably plenty more to add to this list.While graded readers have become more popular for language learners in many languages, they're still relatively new in Japanese, so unfortunately there are fewer options available than you can find in English or Spanish, for example. That said, there are a couple of great options we think will fit the bill for any Japanese student looking to learn to read and improve their overall language ability. After you’re done installing, it’s time to learn how to actually type. Use the following guide, and only focus on the hiragana portion (since that’s all you know how to read right now): I think the level of kanji and vocab here is fairly good for a beginner. They also don’t do the furigana thing, which is nicer for your studies. In terms of the newspapers, this is a pretty darn good one. That being said, they don’t update every day, so you’ll want something else if you’re studying very regularly. Slam Dunk” by Takehiko Inoue is a classic basketball-themed manga, where delinquent and gang-member Hanamichi Sakuragi winds up joining his high school basketball team to catch the eye of a girl. He’s assumed the role of substitute manager, and he’s got a new coworker with an intriguing past herself. What are they doing there? How did they get there? Are they dead? Don’t you just need to find out right now?!

If you are an advanced Japanese learner, I recommend using real Japanese materials as much as possible. By this I mean books and articles written for native Japanese speakers – not for language learners. The next step is processing. I'd recommend you create a habit where every day, week, or month (it depends on how much new vocabulary you want to introduce to your routine) you go through this list and put them into your SRS of choice. What is an SRS? I'm glad you asked. 3. Adding the Words to Your SRS Okay! Make sure you get started now. Do the work, don't just plan to do it! Sitting down and starting is the hardest part. Learn to Read Katakana

It naturally and gradually eases you into learning Japanese language and culture. You’ll learn real Japanese as it’s spoken in real life.