Let's Learn Hiragana: First Book of Basic Japanese Writing

by Yasuko Kosaka Mitamura

Book Overview

There are three types of Japanese script-katakana, hiragana, and kanji. It is possible to read Japanese knowing only a limited number of kanji, but it is not possible with only a limited number of katakana or hiragana-one must know all of them. Let's Learn Hiragana, and its companion volume Let's Learn Katakana, is a textbook that introduces the learner to the basics of one of these fundamental Japanese scripts. Being a workbook, it contains all the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870117092
• ISBN13: 9780870117091
• Release Date: June 1985
• Publisher: Kodansha
• Length: 72 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 10.7" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

What an AMAZING book!!!

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!!:)

helped out a lot

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.

This is a fantastic learning tool.

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.