Japanese Folktales for Language Learners: Bilingual Legends and Fables in Japanese and English (Free online Audio Recording) (Stories for Language Learners)

This is a must if you want to really improve your Japanese! It has the English story on the left page, and the Japanese story on the right page - so it is very easy to compare sentence to sentence in translation. The stories are actually really interesting and enjoyable, usually about 2-5 pages long. The best studying method I use with this book is, I usually read the entire story first. Then I start over, and memorize about 3-5 sentences per 1-2 weeks. THIS IS KEY! There is also a word review after each story, which is great help!

I am an intermediate learner with about 1,200 words under my belt, and love the editorial design of this book! Like all language books from this publisher, it is thoughtfully laid out to engage and efficiently facilitate learning so that the reader is exposed to culture, vocabulary, kanji reading and vocabulary. Each story is broken into digestible parts and includes a vocabulary list at the end along with discussion questions. I took it to a discussion group and we worked through one of the shorter stories as a group exercise. It was not easy, but very rewarding as we came back to study the story in subsequent meetings. It changed us with new vocabulary and grammar usages that we both had and hadn’t encountered in our other grammar lessons. Though the material was doable, understanding each sentence as a group took some time , with one 1-hour meeting spent dissecting a short 3-sentence paragraph. Group participants who were at the start of their learning journey, however, found the story too challenging; these students had only a basic grasp of hiragana, no kanji reading skills and very limited vocabulary.

good stories! nice reading practice! i like that there are a lot of translations to help with studying.

1. Lovely stories. Folklore shapes cultures. Reading it increases understanding of others. 2. It has extensive vocabulary lists for each and every story. I didn't expect that. I was happily surprised when I saw them. 3. there's a verb list thing in the back. I've been learning Japanese by learning phrases and some words, and knowing what the verb forms actually were is something that's been elusive. This will absolutely help with that. 4. The vocabulary lists are deep. meaning, there's like one page of story, three or four pages of vocab and explanations about the vocab. 5. there's a place you can go to hear the stories read online, so you know how to pronounce the words. I like this book so much, I'm going to see what else these authors have written :) I haven't started the book yet, but I expect it will take (me) a month to get through each story.

This is one of my best purchases. The book is excellently written and its stories are captivating. Although my Japanese level is likely around N4, I was able to understand the story due to the availability of vocabulary and translations. I made an effort to read only the Japanese version and consulted the vocabulary list for any unfamiliar words. Only after I felt that I had comprehended the content did I read the English version to ensure my understanding was correct. Overall, I highly recommend this book to those with at least a basic understanding of the Japanese language structure.

I am not at that level of Japanese yet so I can’t fully read it, but I can say this book is beautiful and very well made. If they publish more titles in the same style (many languages have two books, so maybe they’ll publish more options), I will definitely buy them. A great resource for any language learners.

It's a one of a kind book. If youve learnt upto n5 grammar you can use this book. There are short stories split into parts and there's full translation and vocab for each part. Even furigana is removed for words after showing it once. My only quib is that some kanji are too rare or advanced. May not be useful for jlpt n4 or n3 students.

I testi sono ben scritti. Ogni storia ha un piccolo glossario nel quale si possono trovare anche parole spiegate in precedenza. La traduzione in inglese di ogni racconto non è particolarmente ostica, facilitando la lettura del libro anche a chi l'inglese lo mastica poco. Consigliatissimo a chi inizia e a chi ha già un po' dimestichezza con il giapponese.

I love this book, learned so much

Belle presentation. Reliure solide. Beau papier. Mise en page aeré et facile a lire. Niveau de langue tres adapté a mes capacités. Chaque mot est traduit a la fin du conte, Il y a aussi la traduction totale du texte en face, mais que jne regarde presque jamais, preferant de rester proche du texte japonais avec l'aide du glossaire. Seul bemol -- le furigana sont trop gris et petit pour mes yeux affaiblis par l'age. -- J'ai lu les 2 premiers contes -- ils sont interessants et bien racontes.

Very interesting and helpful for learning about old Japanese stories when you learn the language.

Interesting Folktales and Great in practicing Japanese Pronunciation