The 8 Best Japanese Learning Books (2023 reviews)

We know from years of feedback from readers, customers and amazon sellers, what most people want in a book. The timothy g stout japanese learning book is exactly that - it's a simple book that hits all the right notes. This book covers the most practical and useful words and phrases ranging from greetings and meetings, social media and ordering food, to making a doctor's appointment. It is organized in logical categories that helps easy lookup and learning of related vocabulary. It has vocabulary divided in context and helpful information along with beautiful, easy to understand pictures. It provides access to online recordings that help with pronunciation and even allows you to control the speed so you can slow it down.

This book would also be good for children and adults learning english, as it can of course be used in reverse. The audio recordings are really useful, too. This is a good book for beginners.

Why We Like This:

Companion audio (available online) with native japanese speakers of all the vocabulary and sentences
Super educational tool for learning japanese
An introduction to japanese pronunciation and grammar

Best complete Japanese Grammar Book: Kenneth g Henshall Japanese Learning Book

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Kenneth G Henshall has been making great book for years, thanks to a combination of clever design and appropriate materials. Learning Japanese hiragana and katakana gives you an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at kana. It's always so fantastic to learn different languages, that is something so fundamental. The inside is great-a page per kana, illustrations of strokes, etc, and after every 2 sets there's practice sheets with actual Japanese words. It includes both hiragana and katana characters.

The first sections are dedicated to practicing Hiragana and Katakana, then a section for basic words/phrases, quizzes, and a blank grid. It's really close to each other, making everything look blurry. If you do want to get a workbook that includes flash cards, these are highly recommended. It's actually light and easy to carry.

Why We Like This:

Provides interesting "history" of how each character evolved and came to be
Lots of room for practicing writing in the book
Detailed information on pronunciation and origin information for each character
Great book to start training your japanese writing

Best For Intermediate learner: Hiroko m Chiba Japanese Learning Book

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Best part: hiroko m chiba japanese learning book costs comparatively low and it is available to ship in 24 hours. Whether you have your passport in hand for your adventure to japan or you want to connect with a japanese-speaking coworker, this book will help you jump into basic conversational japanese in no time. It gives you what you need to know in a grammar sense little by little and provides a lot of tips and cultural tricks and things to avoid. It is great for those that want to learn.

This book does have phrases written in kana and kanji, as well as a list of some basic useful kanji. It includes every word or phrase and is also written in romaji and a literal pronounciation. It is interesting and useful information for someone who is not totally inexperienced as well. It is good for getting a firm grasp of the language you have very little exposure.

Why We Like This:

Great addition to the for dummies books line-up
Delivers what they promise

Best For Learning The basics: Christian Galan Japanese Learning Book

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The christian galan japanese learning book's superior materials makes sure that it ages well with use. While this colorful book is aimed at young students, adults learning to speak, read and write Japanese will find it invaluable. It can begin learning japanese all on their own. It keeps your attention, doesn’t bore you, and is very productive with learning.

It's fun and simple and rewarding to learn Japanese in Japanese. The main characters take you along for a japanese learning adventure. It allows you to actually learn how to construct sentences.

Why We Like This:

Fun, cute, approchable and teaches well
Great book and awesome for context and sentence structures
Good brand reputation

Best For English speaker: DK Japanese Learning Book

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The dk japanese learning book should be able to handle its purpose and duties with ease. It is wonderful, for through well printed photos you can have any subject with the japanese way of writing, since the sillabary hiragana, katakana and the beautiful kanjis until the soft touch of a brilliant paper. It gives you the information in katakana, with english pronunciation underneath it, which is very easy for a native english speaker to understand. It works in harmony with the chinese and spanish dictionaries so that a word in one dictionary is available in the other dictionaries on the same page so there is a handy reference between languages, understanding, and context.

The different topics on each page also make it easy to teach all of the words that someone may need to talk about that topic. The book still provides a good foundation for common items you'll likely encounter if you're traveling to Japan, and it's easier to remember familiar sounding words, and native speakers might understand what you're trying to say, you will sound very "foreign. It works with the book to help with pronunciation for free.

It's accurate, compact, and divided up into convient categories, and having the pictures with the words in both english and japanese really make the words stick, so it's an excellent learning tool for everyday life. It is especially useful for intermediate and advanced students who have a strong command of grammar but need to build a rich, functional lexicon for everyday life.

Why We Like This:

Not scaring students with many many conjugations and grammar terms, etc
Easy to use, travel size and pictures are lovely
Great for students, travelers, and more
Great pictures, also labeled in english pronunciation with japanese writing

Best For those: Just reality Japanese Learning Book

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Not everyone likes to purchase book for their daily purpose, but the just reality japanese learning book would be an anomoly. This is a great book for beginning to learn japanese. It goes through every haringana and katakana carachter and has you write them big and small. It includes hiragana and katakana plus it is easy to follow instructions. This solidifies the knowledge of each character. It includes everything you would need to know to get started on your own, and it pairs great with the genki books.

This book is mainly for character drills and remembering vocabulary. It has some romaji, 3 writing systems, and english, but not all writing for the exercises only a few. The book is pretty well made physically for a thick paperback.

Why We Like This:

Fun activities and ways to learn
Great resource to assist in supplementing additional avenues of learning and master japanese language
Holiday gift for someone who enjoys crossword puzzles

Best For Intermediate: Eric Bodnar Japanese Learning Book

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This book helps you understand how to learn and why. The book uses common mnemonic devices to help someone learn a new language and it’s always nice to reinforce and strengthen those techniques. This book offers advice on how to use something fun, like manga or anime, as a tool for learning japanese.

This book is perfect for intermediate japanese learners, offering some really great tips and resources. The book is fairly well written and provides lots of references to other learning tools and sites, so it makes a decent reference book for your language library. It’s useful seeing as it gives you a method to learn that is outside the “language learn class” idea. This book is a great first step for those wanting to pick up Japanese, especially if they are English speakers.

Why We Like This:

Great gift for children to learn japanese
New, fun techniques to improve japanese fluency
Very interesting road map for japanese learning
Teaches common mnemonic techniques that most people don’t know about

Best For upper Beginners: Japanese Language park Japanese Learning Book

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We know from years of feedback from readers, customers and amazon sellers, what most people want in a convenient and appropriate book. The japanese language park japanese learning book is exactly that - it's a simple book that hits all the right notes. For starters, this is a good collection of short stories that will improve your vocabulary and reading skills. Such features (without the use of romaji) are key for improving Japanese reading skills during any learning level. It helps you remember vs. having to stop reading and go look it up because you might have forgotten how to say/pronounce it.

This type of reading will help relieve any boredom or strain that can come from the constant usage of standard textbooks. The stories are concise, fun, engaging and entertaining. It has a smooth matte finish.

Why We Like This:

You will be able to pick up the nuances of a vocabulary word
Leans more toward a literal translation
Fantastic resource for improving japanese reading ability