Japanese Reader Collection Volume 4: The Mouse Bride: Plus Ikkyu-san

I am a beginner at Japanese, but experienced language learner (Japanese is my fifth language). The author of this series has got it 100% right: reading is the skill that beginners need to overdose on before worrying about speaking & writing. I started this book two weeks ago, sounding out the hiragana painfully slowly while getting used to piecing together meaning and adjusting my mind to grapple with Japanese word order. At the beginning I was getting exhausted by the end of the first paragraph, but each day I started over and little by little built my reading stamina. Now I can read the first story fairly quickly and am recognizing words & their meaning on sight. The word order is feeling intuitive to me too. As long as you have become familiar with kana, there is enough scaffolding to help the reader easily understand the text. I wish every language had beginner texts like this. I will be buying more by this author!!

Tales which "spiral" vocabulary, e.g. the tale of the mouse bride, are very helpful with language acquisition. By the time each character declares it's not the greatest in the world, the vocabulary and grammar pattern needed are fairly well reinforced! Music is not the only place where repetition generates pleasure. It's true of children's tales, too!Read along with the audio file. Give your Japanese tongue some exercise!

Kind of disappointed with this one. The TWO stories are shorter than book 1, and book 1 had FOUR stories! The printing is even spaced wider, maybe to give you the impression it's bigger? Not to mention the physical size of the book is 1/2 an inch taller and wider? I know it seems trivial, but keep in mind, it's book 4 of 5! So now when I stack the 5 books on the shelf, 4 of the 5 match, and this one sticks out.Don't get me wrong, the books are great for a beginner reader (like me), but really, what happened with the size!?!

Classic bilingual short story. I really like the format where the story is told in English and different Japanese scripts with and without translation notes so you can decide for yourself the best way to read them.

Fantastic Reader for beginning Japanese language learners. Easy-going story, a bit old-fashioned, but teaches core grammar and Japanese language in bite-sized bits. I still read this title for the nostalgia. Also a good story to read your children at bedtime in English.Features: Grammatical notes for each section of the story, Vocabulary words and meanings, written in Hiragana, Kanji and English.

This is excellent for a beginner to intermediate Japanese student. Absolutely the best. I highly recommend using this book first before the otherJapanese Reader Collection Volumes, it is the easiest to understand in both reading and listening.

This book was helpful, but it just seemed something less than Volume 3, perhaps the order should be switched.

As an English only speaking grandparent I am trying to learn Japanese for my grandchildren and this serious is great for me. The best

Very nice book but would not recommend it for n5 learners as it is too difficult having a lot of unknown grammar. I think it's ok for someone at a late n4 or early n3 level.'

El libro es perfecto. Contiene el texto en japonés por capítulos con su vocabulario y su traducción, al final del libro explicaciones gramaticales y un link para bajarte el audio en un zip.El cuento es bonito, para niños.Muy buen precio, he visto muchas muestras con solo el texto japonés para que te las apañes tú solo y tres veces más caro.