Category Archives: reading

The Kindle Paperwhite: A godsend for Japanese learners (if you’re in Japan)

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Happy New Year everyone! I don’t know about you, but the New Year has got me motivated to get back to studying languages and reading more Japanese. I also plan to take the N1 this summer. I will touch on that in future posts. Another of my long-term goals is to become more literate in Japanese and to read books that Japanese people read.

I like reading Japanese news and blogs like Itai News on my PC and iPad but I have always wanted to read more Japanese content offline. It’s more relaxing with a book and looking at a screen all day makes my eyes sore. However, I hate looking up kanji and new vocabulary manually. It takes a lot of time and distracts me from the book I am reading. This and a lack of space in my tiny Japanese apartment has meant that, over the years, I haven’t bought that many books in Japanese. Up until now, there haven’t been many Japanese e-books available either. Well, I have finally found my solution.

Amazon’s answer to e-books in Japan

As you may well know, Amazon released the Kindle Paperwhite in Japan at the end of last year. I preordered mine and have been pleased with it so far. It’s a beautiful product and much lighter and easier to use than the previous models (My Kindle 2 looks like it came from a different century!). You get a Japanese-Japanese dictionary with it as standard which really lightens the load of looking up new words. Granted, the lookup function is not quite as good as Perapera (a tricky feat to be fair :) ) but it’s much better than trying to work out the readings and manually inputting words into an electronic dictionary.

One big downside at the moment is the Kindle Store in Japan. Amazon have apparently struggled winning over Japanese publishers who are hesitant to embrace e-books and see their cosy business model crumble. The lack of publishers definitely shows. Compared to the Amazon.com Kindle store, the selection of books is woefully lacking. Hopefully this improves in the future (knowing Amazon it probably will!). That said, according to Amazon there are already more than 10,000 free e-books available which should keep Japanese learners busy for a while.

Also, as far as I am aware, the Kindle Store for Japan is only available for people in Japan with a Japanese IP. I haven’t been able to find much information on this, but it would be good if someone could provide some more information on this. Anyone?

What am I reading?

So far, I have been reading the following free books:


Kokoro

I admit that I have not read a lot of Japanese fiction. I’m usually more of a non-fiction guy but figured I’d give this one a short as one of my colleagues highly recommended it.


Botchan

Another famous novel by Natsume Soseki that most Japanese seem to have read.


The Japanese Constitution

I downloaded this because I fancied reading the post-war original in Japanese but unsurprisingly, it is boring as hell.

I have also bought one paid book, Michi Wo Hiraku (The Path) which is a Japanese business classic that I have always wanted to read. The author, Konosuke Matsushita, founded Panasonic so I guess he knew what he was talking about.

So all in all, there are some negatives but I can still recommend the Kindle Paperwhite as a great tool for intermediate and advanced learners of Japanese. As I progress I will update you on what I am reading. I will also share in another post how I am using my Kindle to learn and review new vocabulary.

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More good books for learning Japanese

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We got some good feedback for our best 10 books for Japanese post so we thought we would add some more to the list of worthy study aids for Japanese. The books we present here are somewhat more advanced than the previous post. If you are just starting out, we recommend you check out the books in the top 10 post before getting these.

Read Real Japanese

This is a great book for making the tricky jump from intermediate to advanced Japanese. Of course, you can read “real” Japanese anytime nowadays online but it’s sometimes nice to have explanations for unknown expressions and writing styles you come across. The book contains eight varying and interesting essays by famous Japanese authors such as Haruki Murakami, Seiko Ito and Banana Yoshimoto. I enjoyed studying with this book except for the author’s inexplicable usage of romaji in the vocabulary explanations. Why would an advanced learner still be using romaji? Anyway, it is an interesting read and you should be able to find it used for cheap on Amazon.

Read Real Japanese Essays: Contemporary Writings by Popular Authors 1 free CD included

The follow-up to the original is much improved with an audio CD included and the romaji scrapped! It gets difficult in some places and new kanji readings are only given once so it’s definitely for intermediate learners and up.

Read Real Japanese Fiction

Similar to the last two books but for fiction. I don’t own this one but it has some good reviews so it is probably safe to assume it’s of the same quality as the others in the series.

Nihongo Through Newspaper Articles

Another pretty solid offering from the Japan Times for building up your Japanese vocabulary. Each lesson presents a new article with vocab and exercises. There’s also two audio CDs included. A lesson a day will quickly improve your reading comprehension.

Nyuzu de fuyasu jyokyu he no goi/hyougen (Amazon Japan)

Another news-based intermediate book I found useful. The articles tend to be a bit longer than the Japan Times book. Audio CD included. One minor annoyance is the furigana on every single word in the articles. I guess it is better than no furigana…I bought this book a few years ago in Japan and it appears to be relatively unavailable abroad.

Nihongo nouryoku shiken N1 ni deru jyuyou tangoshuu (Amazon Japan)

Another book you might have trouble finding outside of Japan. It is supposed to be used for studying for the top level (N1) of the JLPT but it would be useful for most intermediate to advanced learners. If you think your Japanese is getting there, prepare for your ego to be shattered. Each page has deceptively similar looking words and expressions that will really test your knowledge. We follow a general rule that any books by the excellent publisher, ALC, are generally a good bet. This is no exception. It is a great little book which will take you a long time to master!

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Our 10 best books for learning Japanese

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In the 6 years of Japanese study we have bought many many books always looking for the one to rule them all. It became almost a weekly habit and an obsession, so after all that here is what we think are the best ones we would recommend to others starting the journey.

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar

There’s a reason why this book is known as the “Yellow Book” or “The Bible” among Japan expats. It is probably the best Japanese learning resource I have ever come across. Clearly and thoroughly written with great example sentences. If you are at a more advanced level, check out the “Blue” and “Red” books by the same authors.

Kodansha’s Furigana Japanese Dictionary

Best Japanese-English dictionary out there. Lots of example sentences.

Pimsleur Japanese

Not strictly a book, but it’s a great audio course for starting out in Japanese. Gets a bit too corporate for my liking towards the end of the 3rd series, but you will remember and be able to use what you learn with Pimsleur.

Remembering the Kanji, Volume 1: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters

An invaluable book for mastering the kanji. Required reading for all serious learners of Japanese. I haven’t used books 2 or 3 much but some people seem to like those too.

Kanji Study Cards

Kanji study cards that accompany James Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji (above). It is definitely nice having all 2048 kanji with their readings in one set and it saves you the effort of making the cards/notes yourself. If you’re lazy like me it’s a no-brainer!

Kanji in Context

Wow..I guess I have a lot of kanji-related books! This book allows you to build a strong vocabulary after using Heisig’s book. Might be hard to get outside Japan, but I also recommend the accompanying workbook.

The Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary

Great kanji reference. Used this so much it brings back good memories of my first stint in Japan.

Remembering the Kana: A Guide to Reading and Writing the Japanese Syllabaries in 3 Hours Each

In this book James Heisig applies his mnemonics method to learning to read and write the Hiragana and Katakana. I found it helpful when I was starting out.

How to Sound Intelligent in Japanese: A Vocabulary Builder

This is a very useful Vocabulary Builder but more importantly, just owning it makes me feel smarter :)

Making Out in Japanese
Had a lot of fun with this book! Not a serious one but definitely had a lot of laughs with it.

So there you have it. There are probably more (I have spent $$$s on Japanese books over the years) but those are the books that stood out for me. Enjoy!

Update: We have since posted up some more helpful books for studying Japanese. Check them out here.

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Our 10 best books for learning Chinese

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Continuing the book collecting obsession into my Chinese studies, I have amassed around 20 books and courses in Chinese over the past 3 years. Of the ones I’ve purchased, borrowed, or been recommended by friends studying in China and Taiwan, here are what I can say are quality and useful to others.

Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar: A Practical Guide

If you buy only one book for Chinese, get this one. Easily the best book I have found for everything. It is split into two parts, Part A for the structure of Chinese and explaining all the grammatical features, and Part B for situational Chinese like how to describe things etc. Explanations are solid, provides tons of example sentences and everything is in Simplified and Traditional characters.

Practical Audio-visual Chinese (Traditional)

My friend in Taiwan swears by this series and he used this at his language school when he studied in Taiwan. He was on book 3 and was at a very impressive level of Chinese. Comes with CDs and has workbooks if you want them. Only Traditional characters and starts with teaching you Zhuyin, but also has all the sentences in Pinyin as well. I am on book 3 now also and have to say it is my favorite course book.

Colloquial Chinese: The Complete Course for Beginners

This was actually the first book I used for Chinese that a friend recommended when I was starting out. A solid beginner course that is lesson based and comes with CDs. Spent a good bit of time with the pronunciation using this one. Another good option if you are looking for a starter course. Also has an intermediate book as well in the series.

New Practical Chinese Reader: Textbook 1

If you want more of a course-type book this series is a good introduction. I did the first book in their series using Simplified Characters. Concise and nicely organized. Would recommend it as your first introduction to Chinese and Chinese characters. Especially good if you like the dialog lesson format. Comes with CDs.

Conversational Chinese 301

Bought this one when I was in China. It goes at a faster pace than the above course, but would still say it is good for beginners. Either one of these are a good introduction course. No CD though, so take that into consideration.

The Michel Thomas Method: Speak Mandarin Chinese For Beginners

For working on speaking this is probably the best starter course. Harold Goodman does a good job of introducing the tones with concept of colors as an aid for remembering them. I love the Michel Thomas method and have used this series for other languages as well (French, Russian and German!).

Pimsleur Chinese

Pimsleur courses tend to be a little slow for my tastes, but if you are looking to learn a language while exercising or driving this would be the one to get. If you are sitting down and can focus, Michel Method is better and will get you to think more about what you are saying, while Pimsleur kind of hypnotizes you into memorizing, and that’s better than nothing when you cant devote all of you attention.

Remembering Simplified Hanzi: Book 1, How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Chinese Characters

I don’t actually own this book but I’m a big fan of the method and used it to learn all the Kanji in Japanese with the original “Remembering the Kanji” book by the same author (see my Japanese book reviews). Comes in Simplified or Traditional versions.

Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters

Since I did Japanese before Chinese, I had already done my time learning 2000 characters, so I don’t actually own this one either. My friends at a language school love it though, and the method sounds very similar to the “Remembering the Hanzi” mnemonic system. So I would just pick either one and stick with it.

Chinese Demystified: A Self-Teaching Guide

A good overview of the Chinese language. I personally would buy the Modern Chinese Grammar over this one if I could only choose one, but that one can be intimidating since it is rather thick and does read a bit like a textbook with alot of explanations using grammatical terms. If that puts you off and you want a gentler overview of Chinse, but still with solid content, I would recommend this one.

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Japanese and Chinese Resource Links – 8/17

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Found some great resources today.

Japanese
I found a blog awhile back called MutantFrog Travelogue which offers up interesting viewpoints on Japan related news/politics. In a recent post about which reports on Japan he respects he trivially tossed a link in his post to http://www.gregoryclark.net/ who is a used to be famous/is still famous australian who has lived in Japan and written many an article for Japan Times and other publications in Japan (in Japanese and English) and has these posted on his website. The articles are all in 2-column form with English on the left, and Japanese on the right–a great resource for learning political or recent news vocabulary!

Chinese
This also applies to Japanese, but a resource I found a loooong time ago (before I was studying Chinese) then remembered is MIT’s OpenCourseWare program. Everything is released under the CreativeCommons copyright and therefore is 100% free. You can download the whole course or go thru all the homework assignments, tests, handouts, and in the case of Chinese (and others I suppose), even textbooks are online for free. They also have culture and history courses available for the interested. Amazing resource and quite handy since I’m still at the starting out stage in Chinese. Highly Recommended.

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