

Buy anything from 5,000+ international stores. One checkout price. No surprise fees. Join 2M+ shoppers on Desertcart.
Desertcart purchases this item on your behalf and handles shipping, customs, and support to Iceland.
Learn about Japanese culture while improving your language skills! Japanese Folktales for Language Learners presents 22 traditional stories in parallel Japanese and English versions on facing pages, with detailed notes and exercises aimed at beginning to intermediate learners. This book can be used as a language reader and will be of great interest to anyone wishing to learn more about Japanese culture and folklore. The stories in this collection gradually increase in length and complexity as the book progresses. They include: "The Candy-Buying Ghost" - A female ghost mysteriously buys candy every night from a small village shop, until one night she reveals her true identity and her tragic story. "The Old Man Who Made Trees Blossom" - Regarded as one of the five greatest Japanese folktales, this touching story tells of a kind old man who uses his magical powers for good. "The Abandoned Mother" - An elderly woman is abandoned at the top of a mountain by her own son, a reference to the old practice of senicide in Japan. Vocabulary lists, cultural notes, exercises and discussion questions help to reinforce an understanding of the stories and bolster language skills. Free online recordings of all the stories are provided. Review: English and Japanese translated stories - a must! - 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! Review: Challenging but very good language exercise - 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.












| Best Sellers Rank | #91,688 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #22 in Japanese Literature #70 in Grammar Reference (Books) #90 in Vocabulary Books |
| Customer Reviews | 4.8 out of 5 stars 219 Reviews |
T**R
English and Japanese translated stories - a must!
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!
T**R
Challenging but very good language exercise
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.
K**N
good stories
good stories! nice reading practice! i like that there are a lot of translations to help with studying.
H**I
Excellent resource for students wanting to improve their Japanese reading!
Just got this book in the mail and I am floored by its incredible quality! The 22 stories are interesting and compelling, and are written in a straightforward way. I also love that they have audio recordings available as well! A very high-quality product!
B**R
Better than expected
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.
T**N
Excellently written and resourced. Fun to read for a beginner.
I am self-learning Japanese and finding reliable books is difficult. This book is well written and fun to read. I do not need resources to read the book as it has most words and kanji at the end of each story. No need to use a phone to looks up kanji.
S**T
Amazing and unique
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.
R**L
Great series, amazing for language learners
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.
F**O
Libro ottimo
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.
S**E
Hautement recommandé
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.
V**A
Buena calidad
Llegó a tiempo y en bunas condiciones (los dobleces que se aprecian en las fotos son de uso del usuario). Los kanji tienen furigana lo que facilita su lectura para quienes no conozcan el caracter. Los audios del texto japonés también es de muy buena calidad
H**A
Nice book to learn from
Very interesting and helpful for learning about old Japanese stories when you learn the language.
L**N
👍🏻
Great!
Trustpilot
2 months ago
1 day ago