Japanese Hiragana & Katakana for Beginners: First Steps to Mastering the Japanese Writing System (Includes Online Media: Flash Cards, Writing Practice Sheets and Self Quiz)

If you are learning Japanese, this is the book to pick up. Nothing is more important then learning the basics first. And this book gives you everything basic you can hold in your hand. In the beginning of the book, it gives you a back story of the man who invented TUTTLE. As soon as I stumbled upon the Tuttle Collection, it has been a blessing. And so far, learning Japanese has been a blast!After reviewing the man behind the name in a paragraph or two. It gives you information on how to use the book, vowel pronunciations and even the past of the character sets themselves. Don't worry, it doesn't overload you with textbook definitions. It gives you brief and to the point back story's. Trust me, none of it is a waste of your time. All of it is useful and interesting information.The Hiragana Chart is then introduced and you learn how to write them. This is important. If you are going to write in Japanese , you need to know the stroke order and stroke types. It keeps it neat and legible. When I first started using it I immediately wanted to buy another one. So I suggest, buy two or copy the pages so you can keep practicing off paper. The book provides wonderful practice as well as memorable mnemonics and vocabulary. When you're done with learning how to write them, there's an activity section. Where you are putting what you learned into use. It helps you remember the characters as well as their stroke order. Then when you're done with Hiragana, the exercise begins again with Katakana.Though I would not recommend this to someone to learn Katakana and Hiragana straight out. But if it is what you want to try, go for it. I would offer this book to someone to learn how to write them and make their memory of the characters concrete.If you want to use something to help you learn them, there are many resources on your Nintendo DS (I DON'T recommend Japanese Coach). And there are many free options on your Android Phone like JA Sensei, Kana Mind, Qwiz-Hiragana and more. You won't know until you start looking. The more fun it becomes for you, the easier it will become to learn.The CD has a large number of names in katakana so you can look up your name in japanese. It even has flash cards with the same mnemonics images that are in the book.This is a great tool, get it while its still cheap and they don't realize what they're selling.

Just for clarification purposes I haven't goten to use the book YET. I will be doing so when my college class / holidays at work slow down some.This book will greatly augment any learning program or class you are taking. I highly recomend it.Try and remember what it was like to learn curssive back in 4th or 5th grade. Are you picturing it. Ahh yes that's right you had that mean teacher that made you re-draw those weird symbols that you were never going to use again in your life over and over again in between those extra big lines just like you were an Elementry student. Which of course you were.That's what this book is like. There's a big cursive "a" at the top of the page and boxes for you to draw them in. Only they're not "a's" they're japanese character symbols. Each page also has a pronociation guide in the upper right corner. They're around 77 pages in this format. These include numbers, basic characters, & other important characters.In the back of the book there is flash cards. So no you don't have to buy the book & flash cards. This books has you covered.There is 96 pages all chuck full of learning. the back third of the book is questions and anwers that you can fill in with your newfound skillz. This is also very useful as it practices you writing & improves knowlege of the country. For example on question looks like this: "2. How much is a rice ball (o ni gi ri)? _______________".EX # 2: There is also a map of Nippon (Japan) at the back of the book with cities on it. it states the name of the city and the english translation for it's name. You must use hiragana to fill in the proper characters.The first few pages are dedicated to explaing the book, system, and process. We have all used these types of books at one point or another in our life, and yes they DO work. If they didn't I wouldn't be able to sign checks, or my name. granted I don't know all of my cursive because I'm a programmer and type really really fast. So I don't need cursive much, but as I will be using hiragana this book will be indespencible.

I love this book! It is very simple and easy to understand and I have no former training in Japanese. I think learning to read/write the language is definitely a first step you should take compared to just learning to speak it. It helps you sound out the characters and essentially drills them with you. You can trace and then draw them yourself. I personally use a piece of notebook paper when I write so I don't ruin the book. I do copy the characters the first few times but other than that I keep it clean, because you never know!It has cute little pictures and sayings to help you remember the characters which some help more than others but that doesn't mean you can't figure out one that works best for you.I'm just starting in my trek of learning a new language but this book is already a fantastic buy! It has a list of names on the cd as well as other useful tools like flashcards (I don't use those, I do have an app on my phone to help me draw and remember characters).It starts with hiragana and then katakana. After you learn each set you have a bunch of actives to put your new found writing skills to use! Along the way you can learn some new vocabulary too! It doesn't touch on Kanji which I did not expect it too and frankly I'm happy for. Kanji will be a daunting challenge to undertake but I want to get these kana down.I would definitely buy again!