Christian Galan's Japanese Language Learning Course: Master the Basics of Speaking, Reading, and Writing Japanese

Kristin M.: I got this for my 11 year old nephew to learn Japanese. The style of the book was much more interesting and comic related than traditional language books.

United States on Jun 15, 2023

FantasyFan: Excellent for learning. There's no romaji, so you're learning to read, really read, in Japanese from the start. You're introduced to a set of 3-5 hiragana, then learn a set of words that can be made with them then works up to simple sentences with some basic grammar points that are explained clearly in a remarkably easy to understand manner. Most often vocabulary is given with a picture and the hiragana beneath it for you to learn by reading Japanese. Each chapter is themed around a bit of Japanese culture, and the conversations and vocab you learn are based around that. It's fun and simple and rewarding to learn Japanese in Japanese.

Toward the end you learn a handful of basic kanji and will have the reading comprehension to get through a letter to test your skills.

All of this is presented in a friendly, easy to absorb manner with a cast of drawn characters and a fox-sensei. All of the answers to everything are right at the back of the book.

My only complaint is that it could have a bigger vocabulary, but as-is it's fine and a perfect intro to reading and writing Japanese for anyone.

United States on Apr 18, 2023

フランク: Wenn es denn einen Wermutstropfen hat, dann den, dass Englischkenntnisse benötigt werden, allerdings keine, die ein hohes Nivieau voraussetzen.
Man bekommt einen guten Einblick in die japanische Sprache. Es wird in die drei Schriftsysteme eingeführt: Hiragana, Katakana und Kanji. Dabei baut alles aufeinander auf mit einem Anspruch, der nicht überfordert.
Darüberhinaus befinden sich am Ende des Buches Lösungen zu den Übungen.
Was, allerdings, verwirrend ist, ist das zwischen den Hiragana-Silben die Katakana-Silbe リstatt りverwendet wird. Das passiert in der Hiraganatabelle (Seite 9) und in einem nichtjapanischen Namen (Seite 40), da frage ich mich, warum denn nicht der ganze Name in Katakana geschrieben wird. Das ist ein wenig verwirrend. Blöd ist dann auch, wenn man wie ich, niemanden hat, den man fragen könnte. Das I-net schweigt sich diesbezüglich auch aus.

Germany on Mar 15, 2023

Miami Tech GirlMiami Tech Girl: If you are over 12 this may not be the book for you. Also the dialogue between the kids is annoying. It seemed like there were about 3 good sentences in the whole book but not helpful at all to an adult like me. Maybe children like the book? I just needed a little more focus on the topic.

United States on Dec 21, 2022

Becky: Just started and it’s brilliant. I have previously learnt phrases and just memorised them but they didn’t make sense to me, but this explained why and it was light a light switch turning on. The book is aimed towards younger children, but some of the words may be a bit complicated for them but rephrases it again and gives examples, so if you didn’t understand now you do. If it can teach children it can teach me.

United Kingdom on Sep 19, 2022

D. BaylorD. Baylor: I've only just skimmed the book and read the first couple of pages, but it seems very cute. Definitely meant for children so maybe I'll work the book with my 11 year old.

It's designed like a graphic novel or comic both, and the kids make wise cracks. Just a cute design. Would definitely make kids laugh, but not so cheesy an adult can't appreciate the humor too.

The first bit is mostly intros to the characters and a few facts about Japan, in English. They seem to teach kana and stroke order as you progress through the book, but there is a chart available in the front if you're already familiar but need to refresh. There isn't too much romanji, which I also like.

There seem to be several exercises throughout and the Japanese increases. It also gives literal translation and English translation, which I personally like, because I have a hard time getting my English brain to adjust to Japanese sentence structure, so creating my own sentences has been difficult (which is why I bought this kids book at 35 years old lol).

So, if you are very beginner with no prior knowledge or maybe a little familiar but need to refresh, I think this is a good book to help you...

United States on Aug 02, 2022

Howlett27: I bought this book for my 10 year old son as he was struggling with learning through apps and my text books were too advanced. He loved the japanglish way of learning and quickly picked up things like Kore, Sore, Dore where he had struggled before. I have to admit I enjoyed reading the book myself.

United Kingdom on Jul 26, 2022

Dan Silva: I've been studying japanese for some months and I was searching for books oriented to teach japanese to children. Fortunately I've found this one! It makes the learning process so simple and easy to understand. Of course the book is not enough to know a lot, but I can easily say that the basic stuff you can find it there.
The only bad thing is that the reading is so catching that when you realize you will be at the end of it.
It's amazing how so many information is concealed on such a easy to read book. I really recommend it for japanese begginers.

I'm from Brazil and I couldn't find a book in portuguese with the same approach. Great book!

Brazil on Sep 24, 2021

Notimetoreadsoreadingkidsbooks: I love languages. I have been a language teacher for over 20 years. I can get my head around the Latin based languages but Japanese has always stumped me. Fourteen years ago I did a course on a Saturday morning and I didn't learnt very much as I had no pegs onto which I could hang my vocab and grammar. None of it made sense. Fast-forward to now, I have a twelve year old obsessed with Japan, so I thought I'd buy him this. It is brilliant. It's presented in a child (and adult) friendly comic-style way. It gives you plenty of 'pegs' onto which you can hang your new words. I absolutely love it. I can ask simple questions, give positive and negative answers, all within reading 50 pages of this book. I love the fact it starts by making 'Japanglish' sentences which allow you to get to grips with sentence word order. I thoroughly recommend this book. It is perfect for children (tweens/teens) and adults alike.

United Kingdom on Sep 21, 2021

Mel82: I enjoyed going through this book. I'm a repeat learner and have started numerous "beginner books" over the years. This one, though a tad childish (so good for kids! But not for 20 somethings) helps with more than basic phrases. It allows you to actually learn how to construct sentences. By the end I was translating the "letter" written by Akira, something I never thought I'd be able to do.

The reason for 4 stars however is that the vocab index in back is flawed. Firstly, there are numerous misspellings, which completely defeats the purpose, as you're learning the wrong word. For instance, "okashi" or "sweets" is listed under "O" but is spelled incorrectly as "akashi" in the index. Similarly, "kuro" or "black" is in the correct category of "KU" words, but misspelled as "kuru" which is a verb and completely different word!

Another note, verbs are listed in the index under their "-masu" forms, not the root. So the verb "kuru" or "to come" is listed under "KI" as "kimasu". Not the end of the world but a little misleading. It works for what its trying to do, but someone trying to dig deeper might get confused.

Overall, I'd recommend it! Just use other resources as...

United States on Feb 08, 2021