Early Hiragana readers?

[Slache]

Does anyone have any favourites? 

[egao_gakari]

Pricey, but: Japanese Graded Readers from White Rabbit Press. They come with audio recordings, and also iPad versions if you happen to have an iPad (I don't). Even the Level 0 ones use kanji, but always with furigana.

I'm a Japanese teacher. These ones seem to be the only game in town for the very early levels! It would be nice if there were more options out there so the price on these ones would drop a bit. I don't usually make my students purchase them, because they're just so darn expensive. They're excellent though. Nicely limited in scope so as to be right in the Zone of Proximal Development and not overwhelming.

[Slache]

1 hour ago, egao_gakari said:

Pricey, but: Japanese Graded Readers from White Rabbit Press. They come with audio recordings, and also iPad versions if you happen to have an iPad (I don't). Even the Level 0 ones use kanji, but always with furigana.

I'm a Japanese teacher. These ones seem to be the only game in town for the very early levels! It would be nice if there were more options out there so the price on these ones would drop a bit. I don't usually make my students purchase them, because they're just so darn expensive. They're excellent though. Nicely limited in scope so as to be right in the Zone of Proximal Development and not overwhelming.

This was my plan, but holy price gouging Batman!

And I want this for later: https://www.amazon.com/Treasury-Japanese-Folktales-Bilingual-English-ebook/dp/B00HXY97EQ

[Slache]

11 hours ago, Paradox5 said:

At the risk of exposing my ignorance, does Japanese have different dialects like Chinese does? I have always wondered.

Yes. And different grammars for different levels of formality.

[Slache]

 

On 4/19/2018 at 6:44 AM, egao_gakari said:

Pricey, but: Japanese Graded Readers from White Rabbit Press. They come with audio recordings, and also iPad versions if you happen to have an iPad (I don't). Even the Level 0 ones use kanji, but always with furigana.

I'm a Japanese teacher. These ones seem to be the only game in town for the very early levels! It would be nice if there were more options out there so the price on these ones would drop a bit. I don't usually make my students purchase them, because they're just so darn expensive. They're excellent though. Nicely limited in scope so as to be right in the Zone of Proximal Development and not overwhelming.

I've decided to get the ridiculously expensive readers but as gifts, not curriculum because he loves Japanese and will lose his mind over them. How long should each set last for a beginner?

[egao_gakari]

2 hours ago, Slache said:

 

I've decided to get the ridiculously expensive readers but as gifts, not curriculum because he loves Japanese and will lose his mind over them. How long should each set last for a beginner?

 

Depends how old he is, and how motivated! I'd say Level 0 Volume 1 (8 little books I think?) would last a typical beginner at least 2 months. They're designed to be read multiple times, with the goal that the images provide enough context that a dictionary is unnecessary. I'd say start with L0Vol1, and when he says he's done with them, "evaluate" by having him explain to you what each story was about, and his sense of the meanings of certain words, before getting the next set. Do you speak Japanese? That's not essential, but it would be helpful in judging his progress!

[egao_gakari]

14 hours ago, Paradox5 said:

At the risk of exposing my ignorance, does Japanese have different dialects like Chinese does? I have always wondered.

Yes different dialects, but everybody speaks and understands Standard (Tokyo) Japanese because that's what's used in the schools and on news broadcasts, etc. More like "extreme accents" than the Chinese case, where (I hear) some Chinese dialects are more like different languages--mutually unintelligible.

I studied standard Japanese in school, then wound up working in local government in a region of Japan with a pretty thick backcountry dialect. It took about a month for the dialect to become familiar to my ears and about 6 months to be able to use it well myself, but it was never a total barrier to communication the way trying to use Cantonese in a Mandarin-speaking region would have been.

[Slache]

2 hours ago, egao_gakari said:

 

Depends how old he is, and how motivated! I'd say Level 0 Volume 1 (8 little books I think?) would last a typical beginner at least 2 months. They're designed to be read multiple times, with the goal that the images provide enough context that a dictionary is unnecessary. I'd say start with L0Vol1, and when he says he's done with them, "evaluate" by having him explain to you what each story was about, and his sense of the meanings of certain words, before getting the next set. Do you speak Japanese? That's not essential, but it would be helpful in judging his progress!

I do not speak Japanese but we are studying together using Japanese From Zero as our spine, Japanese Hiragana and Katakana For Beginners to really perfect stroke order, Rapid Japanese and Duolingo.

[Slache]

9 hours ago, Paradox5 said:

Kind of like the different tenses in French then? I believe there are 9 in French plus a few extras for law and other professions.

Sure? I know nothing about French.

[egao_gakari]

16 hours ago, Slache said:

I do not speak Japanese but we are studying together using Japanese From Zero as our spine, Japanese Hiragana and Katakana For Beginners to really perfect stroke order, Rapid Japanese and Duolingo.

That should be fine then! I've found that often adults sort of grasp context-related stuff quicker than kids, so if you're reading them together, you should be able to understand them and keep him on the right track.

9 hours ago, Paradox5 said:

How would one go about teaching throughly Texan American kids Japanese? I have always been fascinated with the culture.

(One of my ancestors began the Japanese Navy centuries ago. The movie/book Sho-Gun was based on him. He never went back to England, though.)

Oh you're related to Anjin-san! That's cool.

For learning Japanese, there's a Youtube channel called JapanesePod101 that has almost 1,000 videos teaching Japanese. If you go to their Playlists tab, they have helpful "sets" of videos so you're not drowning in options, lol. For something more structured, you can try Yasashii Nihongo from NHK. Can't get cheaper than free-ninety-free! It's a bit dry, but my kids are showboats and enjoy memorizing the dialogues and performing them. It just doesn't provide much opportunity for output practice. For that, a teacher would be best. You can usually find a friendly international student at your local university who would be willing to help out for cheap! (Also, not to toot my own horn, but I do offer online lessons ;) )

[egao_gakari]

Hey Slache, I just figured out that those graded readers are NOT published by White Rabbit Press... they are published by a Japanese company and imported. They are slightly (!) cheaper on Japanese Amazon, which ships internationally for a reasonable price. Might not end up being a big enough price difference to make it worth ordering from Japan, but I thought I'd let you know! A bit shady of White Rabbit to make out like they are the publishers.

[egao_gakari]

While digging around the Japanese section of my university library, I found another series of graded readers! I think I like the ones posted earlier a bit better because the grammar is simpler and they have a stricter word limit, but for everyone's reference here's the Nihongo Tadoku Books series. Vol. 1 has little books from Level 0-2, Vol. 7 and 8 are just Level 0-1.

This series has some familiar folktales, like from Aesop's fables, as well as original stories. The Nihongo Yomu-yomu Bunko series mentioned above has a bit more in terms of nonfiction/informational text.