Japanese Hiragana & Katakana for Beginners: First Steps to Mastering the Japanese Writing System (Includes Online Media: Flash Cards, Writing Practice Sheets and Self Quiz)

If you are learning Japanese, this is the book to pick up. Nothing is more important then learning the basics first. And this book gives you everything basic you can hold in your hand. In the beginning of the book, it gives you a back story of the man who invented TUTTLE. As soon as I stumbled upon the Tuttle Collection, it has been a blessing. And so far, learning Japanese has been a blast! After reviewing the man behind the name in a paragraph or two. It gives you information on how to use the book, vowel pronunciations and even the past of the character sets themselves. Don't worry, it doesn't overload you with textbook definitions. It gives you brief and to the point back story's. Trust me, none of it is a waste of your time. All of it is useful and interesting information. The Hiragana Chart is then introduced and you learn how to write them. This is important. If you are going to write in Japanese , you need to know the stroke order and stroke types. It keeps it neat and legible. When I first started using it I immediately wanted to buy another one. So I suggest, buy two or copy the pages so you can keep practicing off paper. The book provides wonderful practice as well as memorable mnemonics and vocabulary. When you're done with learning how to write them, there's an activity section. Where you are putting what you learned into use. It helps you remember the characters as well as their stroke order. Then when you're done with Hiragana, the exercise begins again with Katakana. Though I would not recommend this to someone to learn Katakana and Hiragana straight out. But if it is what you want to try, go for it. I would offer this book to someone to learn how to write them and make their memory of the characters concrete. If you want to use something to help you learn them, there are many resources on your Nintendo DS (I DON'T recommend Japanese Coach). And there are many free options on your Android Phone like JA Sensei, Kana Mind, Qwiz-Hiragana and more. You won't know until you start looking. The more fun it becomes for you, the easier it will become to learn. The CD has a large number of names in katakana so you can look up your name in japanese. It even has flash cards with the same mnemonics images that are in the book. This is a great tool, get it while its still cheap and they don't realize what they're selling.

I am about to begin formal Japanese classes for the first time and set a personal goal for myself to at least be able to read Hiragana and Katakana before classes began. I had seen how highly rated this book is and it is NOT an exaggeration. I carved out a minimum of 30 minutes a day (sometimes more, however because I got carried away with learning), and set out on my own. Within a week or so, I could recognize and write in Hiragana. Another week set me up in Katakana. I have already read 2 Japanese children's books as a result. The CD that comes with this book has two really basic, but useful, sets of flash cards for the two alphabets as well as handy vocabulary sheets that let you practice writing. NOTE - this book is not meant to teach you vocabulary or grammar as its primary focus. It does cover the uses of "ha" vs. "wa", and the use of particles "e," and "o" but this is as far it goes in that regard. Keep in mind, however, that while you're practicing stroke order and writing you are practicing writing actual words, and there are tons of words in this book. Since this isn't a vocab training focus, they aren't organized into any particular categories for the most part, but if you list them (as I did) you'll have a hefty set of words you can learn. The same author wrote a very well rated beginning Kanji book which I have already purchased but not yet started using (don't want to be TOO ahead of the class), however I know I have a very solid foundation to begin formal studies now. I feel so much more empowered that I don't have just a passing understanding of the two alphabets but can absolutely get myself through reading a book, several Japanese tweets and websites, and more. Once I learn the grammatical structure of sentences, I will be one step closer to simply learning the vocabulary necessary and not bogged down by remembering characters. This is a must own.

Just for clarification purposes I haven't goten to use the book YET. I will be doing so when my college class / holidays at work slow down some. This book will greatly augment any learning program or class you are taking. I highly recomend it. Try and remember what it was like to learn curssive back in 4th or 5th grade. Are you picturing it. Ahh yes that's right you had that mean teacher that made you re-draw those weird symbols that you were never going to use again in your life over and over again in between those extra big lines just like you were an Elementry student. Which of course you were. That's what this book is like. There's a big cursive "a" at the top of the page and boxes for you to draw them in. Only they're not "a's" they're japanese character symbols. Each page also has a pronociation guide in the upper right corner. They're around 77 pages in this format. These include numbers, basic characters, & other important characters. In the back of the book there is flash cards. So no you don't have to buy the book & flash cards. This books has you covered. There is 96 pages all chuck full of learning. the back third of the book is questions and anwers that you can fill in with your newfound skillz. This is also very useful as it practices you writing & improves knowlege of the country. For example on question looks like this: "2. How much is a rice ball (o ni gi ri)? _______________". EX # 2: There is also a map of Nippon (Japan) at the back of the book with cities on it. it states the name of the city and the english translation for it's name. You must use hiragana to fill in the proper characters. The first few pages are dedicated to explaing the book, system, and process. We have all used these types of books at one point or another in our life, and yes they DO work. If they didn't I wouldn't be able to sign checks, or my name. granted I don't know all of my cursive because I'm a programmer and type really really fast. So I don't need cursive much, but as I will be using hiragana this book will be indespencible.

I would skip this book if you are looking for a book to write the kana in. It's very small with lots of pages, so it's hard to write in. The introduction uses less technical terms than the Tuttle kana book by Henshall and Takagaki, so it is easier to understand the basics of hiragana and katakana. The pictures used to help remember the kana are really out there, but it may be useful to others. What really makes this book useful is the exercises after the pages introducing hiragana and katakana. It also provides links to practice pages that you can print and other resources on the Tuttle website but you don't actually need this book to use the Tuttle resources. My advice is to print out the kana practice pages and create a spiral bound book for yourself (cheapest), or buy an already spiral bound kana practice book. It will make writing the kana easier.

I have an extreme interest in learning Japanese. Ever since I was in High School over 10 years ago, I have tried to take courses (only to have them cancelled due to lack of enrollment). It has been frustrating. I purchased Japanese Hiragana & Katakana, with Learn Japanese in 7 Days, and the Japanese Vocabulary QuickStudy. This has been the BEST of those purchases by far. I'm sure after I get a good grasp of the basics, those other ones will be really useful as well, but for my visual learning style this REALLY helped. HOWEVER, I will warn you the CD it comes with isn't going to have the workbook pages on it- it was HIGHLY frustrating. Just a the writing quiz for Hiragana/Katakana, Answers, Flash Cards (12x12 format you have to duplex them yourself but there are cut marks which come in handy), and the "writing practice" that is on it is more like an intermediate test where (as an example from the book)- there is a blank line, then A KA (red) - you hand write in the right Hiragana (in that case). However, the actual practice on graph paper is no where besides the (very permanent) book. This was a pain for me because I do not want to write in a book. In a perfect world this would have been on the CD or at least a spiral bound book that could be copied a few times easily. I hate bending the bindings, and there is no way after one time of trying to copy a page for yourself it isn't heavily creased like it went though a lifetime of reading. The writing practice/ non-printable working pages are the downside to this but it has been so useful I still give it the full 5 stars- because I would have given up (like I had other times) because it is so difficult. If you have extensive THIRST for learning I suggest if you need audio pick a really simple anime so you can hear the actual syllables (DO NOT get instant immersion japanese cd- they pronounce things wrong). You could also go to www.tofugu.com/guides/learn-hiragana/ or download an app on Amazon called TenguGo Kana. All of these are really good ways to keep you interested in learning (especially if you are like me and don't have internet access all the time because you have big bills and little money).

I see no problems with this book. I am roughly a beginner, familiar with some stuff but most of it is new to me. The book goes through all of the characters for hiragana and katakana, one page for each character. This is a really good method because you get a lot of practice writing each character 10-12 times. Then, at the bottom of each page there are 4-6 words of new vocab that incorporate the character that is depicted on the page. Throughout the book there are also reviews with a list of vocab that should be familiar. What I also like is that the book gives you a fair amount of practice to write the characters. Learning to write japanese is an important part in learning the language and this book's method helps you to learn the characters as you go. Now, the only part that is a bit of a pain, but expected, is that when learning new vocab the book provides slots for each word for you to write the characters in. Like me, if you don't have every character memorized you will have to flip through the book many times just for one word. Don't let this prevent you from buying it though. I recommend memorizing the hiragana before doing the extra activities. It will save you so much time instead of looking up every character, for every word, on every page, for many pages. It also comes with a CD that has a list of names on it and flashcards of every hiragana and katakana character to print out. Basically, you should get this book. Don't listen to any negative review about it. Enjoy!

I love this book! It is very simple and easy to understand and I have no former training in Japanese. I think learning to read/write the language is definitely a first step you should take compared to just learning to speak it. It helps you sound out the characters and essentially drills them with you. You can trace and then draw them yourself. I personally use a piece of notebook paper when I write so I don't ruin the book. I do copy the characters the first few times but other than that I keep it clean, because you never know! It has cute little pictures and sayings to help you remember the characters which some help more than others but that doesn't mean you can't figure out one that works best for you. I'm just starting in my trek of learning a new language but this book is already a fantastic buy! It has a list of names on the cd as well as other useful tools like flashcards (I don't use those, I do have an app on my phone to help me draw and remember characters). It starts with hiragana and then katakana. After you learn each set you have a bunch of actives to put your new found writing skills to use! Along the way you can learn some new vocabulary too! It doesn't touch on Kanji which I did not expect it too and frankly I'm happy for. Kanji will be a daunting challenge to undertake but I want to get these kana down. I would definitely buy again!

YES! I absolutely LOVE this book. I initially bought the Japanese Living Language set (which is GREAT learning to speak the actual language) but it didn't offer nearly enough assistance in writing and understanding what I was writing in terms of the symbols. That is where this book came in and scored 5 stars! This book starts by explaining the basics in writing Japanese: Hiragana, Katakana, (and also briefly explaining Kanji) and the different uses of each. Then they are step by step instructions on HOW to write and very interesting but useful ways of how to remember the symbols. I could not believe how much those helped. For the long awaited question? Can you just go online and find videos and information for free similar to that provided in this book? Well, personally, I tried. I TRIED for a total of 3 months searching the internet far and wide and I can honestly say that this book helped me more in 3 WEEKS than those THREE months of trying free online resources. So yes, DEFINITELY WORTH THE MONEY. The CD was nothing so much to be excited about. My name wasn't in the "list of common names" ... which to be honest didn't surprise me as it is unique. And the "flash cards" were very difficult to print because the symbols and clues were on different pages so it required double sided printing and then information didn't always line up. However, I still rate the book for 5 stars because it REALLY helped me and I can now say that I can write and pronounce all 46 hiragana symbols.... in a VERY short time period. I can't wait to keep learning!!!