Let's Learn Hiragana: First Book of Basic Japanese Writing

I have been studying Hiragana for about 4 days now and this book finally came. Before the book arrived, I was searching online for free self help study guides and I had to go back and forth and check each site for a certain set of characters. This book makes it 100 times easier.For those struggling with Hiragana, this will easily guide you in the right direction. I mean if I can do it, ANYONE can, and I'm 31 years old for heaven's sake. I thought I would never be learning but I'm actually understanding the keystrokes, meaning, and this book is just incredible it has it all. Before I bought this book, everyone was recommending this book in every Japanese review so it was a must to pick up!It explains everything clearly and with easy words. The characters are big and you can clearly see the way it is supposed to be written with step by step instructions. The step by step strokes and modifiers are beautiful. I am so happy with this book I almost want to not write on the squares given because I can keep it forever. And for those who want to learn all of Japanese, of course you have to pick up Let's Learn Katakana. I'm learning this now and I'm glad I picked up this book as well.I just need to learn Kanji and vocabulary, vocabulary, vocabulary, which I heard can take YEARS. I'm up for that challenge! ^_^ Cheers~

I first found this book when taking a Japanese course in college. It is very easy to use, and has become my go-to book for refreshing my hiragana skills or for introducing someone new to writing and reading Japanese.

I had seen this in some major lists for learning hiragana, so i knew i had to have it, even if it sucked. I am a major skeptic with learning materials, but when something is that popular, it's atleast worth the try, right? So hear me out on this review guys.I am extremely specific. I need to know every detail, and why, so i can make judgements in every aspect of learning to write and understand these squiggles. It guides me through my own sea of successes and failures, and identifies them. This workbook lacks some of that detailed explanation at the start, but makes up for it in some more practical aspects (i.e. defining characteristics of the symbols, simple introduction to the language, and adding in relevant detail later). I actually started in another, more technical workbook, and i started using this in tandem for one very specific reason: the practice exercises! This book has amazing exercises that really drive in what you just learned in multiple ways, making your brain absorb it from every angle. I never once felt uncomfortable or unprepared in starting a new set the next day.While i feel the actual guidance in the writing could be improved, its still very good. I had genkouyoushi grid paper in the other workbook, "learning japanese hiragana and katakana" by Kenneth G. Henshall and that really made a world of difference for practicing my line length, shape, and spacing compared to just freely trying to copy the symbol in a space. ( I highly recommend pairing the 2 for a full and detailed experience in writing and practicing). That being said, this workbook comfortably lays out the information in a very comfortable order and doesnt make you feel overwhelmed or rushed in the slightest, while the exercises really give you confidence in reinforcing what you learned.This workbook lays out a neat plan of attack from the get go, starting with a clean foundation, adding in the minor details, and topping you off with basic rules and grammar, such as how to form words, sentences, and use basic punctuation. The review portion of this book is thorough and comprehensive, and even has a cool "word search". This was unique and exciting, and surprisingly helped a lot more than i thought. The more i worked on it, the more comfortable my eyes were in processing each character, which increased my speed as well. By the time you reach the end of the book, you feel fully confident in writing and understanding your newly learned hiragana.It took me about 7 days from cover to cover, and I can't wait to start katakana. I already have the matching workbook, so Ill start right away tomorrow 😁

I started the journey of wanting to learn Japanese a few weeks ago. I began with youtube videos, and after learning all the hiragana syllables, I had no idea how to learn to apply what I knew. I bought this book, and it arrived in perfect shape one day before the estimated arrival. This book is helping me memorize and apply what I had already learned. The section that teaches sentence structure and the particles really helped me understand how the Japanese language works. Great book!! ありがとう

I have purchased this book and Let's Learn Katakana because I kept seeing it pop up as a 'must have' on various websites. Turns out it comes highly recommended for good reason! The instructions are very clear and straightforward, and I really like the fact that they after each set of kana taught, they provide you with exercises that gives you a chance to not only practice what you learned, but to start getting a feel for some vocabulary at the same time. I was able to learn all the Hiragana in about a week, and I have been in the process of learning Katakana while keeping myself refreshed on the Hiragana. I would definitely recommend this book series to anyone who is just starting out with Japanese.

Like this book a lot. It has some good exercises translating between hiragana and the romanized Japanese. They are helpful for the way I am learning from a Romanized Japanese book (Japanese for Busy People) for the other part of my studies. I like the way it shows the strokes and has practice space in the workbook. Got this for a class I am taking. It was required by the teacher. That being said I also use an iphone app to practice my Hiragana in addition to this book. Using the app in addition seems essential for me to learn, but people are all different.

Great thorough book. I used it for a long time until I could write in Hiragana. I love it because it teaches you how to write vertically as well and has fun puzzles and exercises. It's a very well put together book that is thoughtfully designed.

This is a great book if you're totally new to Japanese and Hiragana and want to start learning! Having said that, I think the book would have been a better value for money if they had included Katakana in here as well. The exercises aren't particularly extensive and you'll have to practice on your own if you plan to properly memorize all the symbols. But overall a well-organized book and easy to get through!

just perfect

If you are planning on learning Japanese, this a great start as all Japanese vocabulary is based off the sounds from hiragana. すごい。

Ho acquistato questo manuale durante il mio corso di giapponese, per esercitarmi nella scrittura del sillabario hiragana ed ho trovato quello che cercavo: un libro semplice, senza troppe pretese, ricco di esercizi e utile allo scopo che si prefigge.Il fatto che sia scritto in inglese non ne rende difficile la comprensione: gli esercizi sono molto intuitivi.

Lovely book, shiny and new.In the book it has a preface for an introduction to hiragana and how to write the symbols. It has the hiragana syllabary (like an alphabet) and then it starts to teach you how the write hiragana, 10 symbols at a time. It teaches you words to write by giving you exercises, making you translate words into Japanese hiragana (giving you the English and symbol hints), into hiragana (giving you English and Romanized Japanese hints) and finally giving you an exercise to write out the Romanized Japanese (giving you hiragana and English hints).Each section for the group gives you some information about the characters and exercises. The book also teaches you how to write words and sentences.The only problem is if you learn better by someone physically teaching you it will take you longer to learn. Otherwise, you're good to go. I also learn Japanese from podcasts and videos which makes the book easier for me to use.If you want to learn how to pronounce the words, I suggest downloading an app that helps you with that as the book doesn't teach you about pronunciation at all.

Anche se in inglese questo libro è molto utile per chi si avvicina alla lingua Giapponese e vuole conoscerne i sillabari.Con esercizi di riepilogo e semplici spiegazioni, se ti impegni questo libro può arrivare a farti imparare a leggere anche in un paio di settimane.