Read Real Japanese Fiction: Short Stories by Contemporary Writers1 free CD included

I got this book after a good friend of mine suggested it, and it's definitely worth it! It's chalk-full of interesting stories and grammar tips that could help anyone from beginners to more advanced students of Japanese. I like that there is an index in the back of the book for words that you'll find in the stories, as well as example sentences. Also, with every Kanji that's used in the story, Furigana (Kana that tells you how to pronounce Kanji) accompanies it (until they've assumed you know how to pronounce that particular word), which I think is pretty great, especially because Kanji have so many different pronunciations. The only thing I would warn you about is that they don't have full English translations for the stories. As in, you're going to have to go by the sentence translation chunks they give you to know the meaning of the story, which can be a bit confusing. Also, a lot of the wording used in this book is only used in books, not in common, spoken Japanese. Like 'de aru', at the end of a sentence. That is no longer normal to say in conversational Japanese, only formal written. Good luck! I hope you loved this book as much as I do! :)

I agree with most of the 5 star reviews above in that this is a great book to advance one's own Japanese language skills for intermediate speakers. I have studied Japanese 3 years at an University and this book (as well as the Read Real Japanese Essays: Contemporary Writings by Popular Authors 1 free CD included have served as a transition for me to read real Japanese novels albeit at a slow pace (Note that the link above is a reference to another book: it is POPULAR authors instead of Contemporary). Since it's hard to find a list of the actual stories and authors, I'll just kindly write them out: 1.) "Kamisama" by Kawakami Hiromi 2.) "Mukashi yuuhi no koen de" by Otsuichi 3.) "Nikuya Omuu" by Ishii Shinji 4.) "Miira" by Yoshimoto Banana 5.) "Hyakumonogatari" by Kitamura Kaoru 6.) "Kakeru" by Tawada Yoko The short stories are arranged in increasing difficulty with vocabulary, irregular kanji usage, and linguistic play with Japanese. The collection of stories is truly served fantastically as a sumptuous 6-course meal. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did from appetizer to dessert.

This book is way better than I anticipated! The stories seem really fun, and because it's actual literature the grammar is vastly different than what you'd see in a classroom text. (That's what I wanted.) Plus, the supporting material is amazing. The facing translations are enough to give you the sense of what's going on without becoming too dependent on them, since they're deliberately incomplete. The grammar notes in the back are quite detailed and feel like the grammar notes you might get in a textbook like Tobira. And the dictionary is there, should you really need it. I didn't even realize I'd be getting an audio CD. Seriously, this book is a gem. I was able to slowly make it through the first page of the first story last night; I can tell that this is above my current reading level but very reachable, which is exactly what I wanted. For context: I'm familiar with perhaps 300 kanji, and studied 4 college semester's worth of Japanese; I'd place myself at "intermediate" level.

The selection of stories is interesting, and useful for my language studies purposes. I am a guy who can't stand to sit there with a list of vocabulary to memorize, but need to plow into a work and see the vocabulary in context to maintain interest. As such, these text readers have been a godsend for me. I recently read the story about the child trying to find how deep a sandbox goes, that reminded me of my childhood sandbox experiences. As there is no rating between 4 and 5 stars, I chose 5. The one issue - a minor one - is that the dictionary, by being in the back of the book, is a bit clunky to use.

The stories here are a great collection of varying genres. They are from well-established writers of Japanese fiction, so that should be no surprise. So reviewing the book on that point is moot. What you should know about the book is how it is formatted, so you can judge how it will help you learn to read Japanese fiction, like the titles says. That's where the book is a toss-up. It has some very strong aspects missing in other dual-translation books, but it also has some very confusing design choices that hinder it from being my first choice when it comes to breaking into Japanese literature. First, I would have to say the notes that accompany the stories in the back of the book definitely elevate this book up from 3, possibly 2, stars. They are the reason why you would choose this book over others that offer similar dual translations, due to them giving you critical insight into the nuances of the language that are not apparent in books that simply give you a side-by-side translation. While there are quite a bit of them, I was always wanting a few more for some trickier passages. However, that could just be my familiarity with the language. What is easy for one person to read and understand will be different than another, so I can see why there is not one for every sentence, and so on. What is frustrating, however, is that the book is presented in a very poor way to being an effective tool from the get go. The book does not have complete translations of every passage. So you might get to a point where you will be second guessing yourself, since there is no translation for a certain part of the story. Usually, though, the book is good about giving you enough of a chunk of text to piece together the correct meaning. I just feel that the guessing part does not really help anyone learn. A dictionary is included in the back of the book and houses a multitude of words that you will come across. It is a very nice dictionary, but it is awful looking back and forth between the text and the dictionary. The book would be infinitely better putting the definitions on the same page as the text. I had to end up writing down every word I looked up, so I would not have to look back and forth, which was no easy task depending on the page. One final disappointment I have with the design is that the furigana is placed next to every Kanji the first time it appears. This is an unfortunate choice, because my eyes immediately want to read the furigana instead of the Kanji. At first I thought it was fine, but when you know a good portion of the Kanji, you do not gain anything by having them there, because they serve as a major distraction. All is not lost, though, as I eventually just went over them in pencil--dark enough where I can't easily read them, but light enough that I am still able to if necessary. One other odd thing about the book is that the second story is probably easier to understand than the first due to the first's use of archaic Japanese. So don't start there if. Just to note, I actually find it harder for me to read fiction than essays in Japanese. So while you might find fiction more exciting, try the essay version of these books first. And if you can find it, get a copy of Janet Asby's Read Real Japanese (2003). It features no furigana, a complete translation of the text, and translation notes, all while being on the same page. It is a superior format, and I wish they kept it for these books. I do, however, recommend this book to everyone who is ready to start reading Japanese literature, but be warned, depending on your ability, this book can take a lot of work to be useful to you. Included are pics showing what it looks like to make the text useful to me.

I like this kind of books that help me to learn a language. This one has text in Japanese and comes with sentence-by-sentence comment in English

My daughter has been learning Japanese and finds this challenging and rewarding. She likes the format and that it isn’t super easy and is also a real story.

The editor, who has a PhD in Japanese literature from Columbia, prefaces this volume with the astonishing claim that Japanese really isn't that hard. He goes on to say that Japanese grammar is simpler than German, French and Punjabi grammar. Although I can't address Punjabi grammar, I know something about French and German, and both of these languages are far, far easier to learn than Japanese, for a native English-speaking person. I've been trying intermittently to learn Japanese for nearly 30 years, and for the past 3 years I've been fortunate to have the time to spend at least an hour, and often much more, of every day on this task. I've digested Berlitz, Pimsleur, and Learn in Your Car, and I'm nearly finished with the textbook Japanese for Everyone, which I'm converting to a Pimsleur-type audio course (an enjoyable and useful activity for someone with a lot of free time). However, about a year ago, when a French citizen stayed in my home for a month, I took a break from Japanese and studied French for a few weeks instead, using the French Pimsleur course. Although I hadn't spent any time using French since I studied it in high school more than 40 years earlier, I found learning French to be an absolute breeze, compared to Japanese. The main reason for this difference is that French grammar is very similar to English, while Japanese grammar often just seems impossible, from the point of view of my English-thinking brain. (There are other reasons, of course, including the difficulty of learning the many Japanese characters - and I certainly don't agree with the editor's claim that one can learn the 46 hiragana and 46 katakana characters over a long weekend. Also the fact that Japanese sentences don't put spaces between individual words makes reading unreasonably difficult.) Many Japanese sentences are nearly impossible to translate with a mere dictionary and require the help of a native Japanese speaker. I just received this book two days ago and have only finished reading the first page, so I can't provide the kind of definitive review that some other readers are offering here. The editor has taken on a formidable task in trying to explain such complex sentences to his readers, and while his notes are helpful in most cases, it seems to me that sometimes he glosses over the difficulties of written Japanese, just as he glosses over the difficulty of learning Japanese in general in his preface. As an example, take the last sentence on the first page: "Tokoro de, sono soba o uketotta toki no kaiwa de, kuma to watashi to wa, manzara aka no tanin to iu wake demo nai koto ga wakatta node aru." Thanks to the editor's help, I was able to translate most of this sentence into roughly grammatical English: "By the way, due to the conversation resulting from receiving that soba, as for the bear and I, to be called complete strangers, it is not the case thing, I understood since exists." As you can see, the last clause in my translation is very confusing, and the author provides insufficient help for the Japanese phrase in question, "wakatta node aru," in his discussion, and none at all in his dictionary of terms. Instead, he breezily explains that "node aru makes the statement preceding it more emphatic," that it "lends an explanatory feel," and that it "indicates that the narrator has reached a conclusion," none of which seemed particularly helpful as I tried to force my brain to grasp seemingly impossible material. I had to ask a native-speaking Japanese consultant to find out that "wakatta node aru" just means "I understood." After that, I was able to understand what the editor had been trying to say. He had been taking it for granted that the reader would know that the phrase meant "I understood" and had jumped ahead to provide other material that he found interesting. Understandable, in retrospect. I admire the editor for trying to explain such difficult material, and I guess I can forgive him for trying to deceive us into thinking that Japanese is somehow easy to learn. However, the writing in this book may be a little too difficult for me at this stage of my development.

Muy amigable para aprender.

For anyone whose Japanese is stuck at the intermediate level, this is your chance to change that. You get writing by modern (and celebrated) writers with useful phrases explained on the side, a glossary of terms, and a CD to hear it pronounced. It is a great idea and should improve your reading and your comprehension.

This really is the book you need if you intend to read japanese. I personnaly don't have the money to ever go to Japan, so the goal I am trying to achieve is to read Japanese fluently. I bought quite a few bilingual books (not that much available) and this one is my favourite. First, because the short story chosen are excellent, and made me discover very interesting authors, and second because the translations, explanations and furigana are made in a way to help but not prevent from doing at least a little work yourself.

The book arrived safe and undamaged! It's in very good condition for a used book. I've always liked fiction and it's a great book for self-learning because of the english translation on every page. Thank you!

Libro muy completo para leer japonés con pequeños relatos/cuentos de ficción. Está justo en mi nivel (N3-N2). Ni demasiado simple o infantil (de estos tengo muchos), ni demasiado avanzado. Incluye: - 6 relatos de autores japoneses en japonés (lectura vertical) - traducción párrafo a párrafo (una página con el texto japonés, y la siguiente con la traducción) Al otro lado tiene: - Diccionario japonés-inglés específico para las lecturas (no necesitas tener un diccionario al lado) - Notas para aclarar algunas estructuras gramaticales que vas encontrando. Las notas gramaticales me han encantado ya que he aprendido varias cosas nuevas durante las lecturas. Junto a la APP Todaii es de los mejores recursos para la lectura que he encontrado hasta ahora. En cuanto pueda adquiriré el otro volumen (con relatos de ensayo).