Miku Ono

This Japanese reader includes audio tracks of short conversations and Q/A sets, written in English and Japanese (Hiragana). Each chapters covers vocabulary for a particular rooms of the house (eg Kitchen, Dining Room) and everyday subjects (eg looking for a job, shopping, school). I've only listened to half the lessons, but plan to complete it when I have time. The vocals are clear and easy to follow. I would recommend it for advanced-beginners to intermediate. It would probably be too difficult for complete beginners, unless they are using another source to cover the basics. I'm only a beginner (I've gotten rusty from disuse), but had no trouble along following the dialogue, and learned some new words. Overall, I found this a very useful addition to my study materials.

Summary: Recommended for beginner Japanese learners looking for a challenge or to expand their vocabulary.… (lisätietoja)

I have a degree in Japanese studies so I was excited to have a chance to read this book (sent to me by the publisher) in exchange for my honest review. I found myself quite disappointed. I loved that there was an extensive vocabulary list at the beginning of each section. Not only were there words but a few phrases as well. Then came a paragraph written in Japanese with romaji and English next to it. This would be helpful for people who can't read the characters but it would have been nice if there were superscript hiragana characters written in over the kanji. The English translation was funny at times. It wasn't natural. Also, To go searching through the English/Romaji translations to find one thing you might not have understood was hard. The format of this could be better to make it easier to switch between the three. Next came some questions and answers. This is great but it would be nice if there were some comprehension questions relating to the paragraph... there is nothing in the text that makes the student form their own Japanese sentences. In terms of the way the book looks: I found the images strange and disjointed. They seemed out of place in a Japanese book. Most people were not Japanese! I am also not drawn to the cover at all unfortunately. This could have been better. I would not recommend this book for learners of Japanese. It needs some more to it in my opinion.… (lisätietoja)