Japanese Short Stories for Intermediate Learners: Learn Japanese and Build Your Vocabulary the Fun and Easy Way

"Japanese Short Stories for Intermediate Learners" by "Language Guru" delivers exactly what the title promises. However a more accurate title might have been "Practice Reading Japanese with 10 Easily Consumable Episodes of a Typical Salaryman's Life Including Glossaries, Comprehension Questions, and Excellent Language Advice."I completely agree with the author's premise that reading is an excellent method to develop language skill. People with a good command of any language are typically avid readers. As an educational tool, this book provides an excellent framework for an intermediate student of Japanese that would be well suited for a formal learning environment. Each chapter covers an aspect of the life of Makoto, a typical single male college educated worker at an insurance company. The topics are well chosen to showcase a variety of vocabulary and situations that are stereotypically representative of life in Japan. These include medical care, dieting, food, hobbies, exercise, dating & relationships, work environment, house work, family, and education. The glossary that accompanies each chapter is sufficiently comprehensive that a separate dictionary is unnecessary for the intermediate learner.The target audience for this book is accurately described as "Intermediate Learners". This book assumes that the learner can read Hiragana, is not afraid of Kanji (But don't worry! All kanji are annotated in Furigana!), and has a decent grasp of Japanese grammar (but here too, some of the grammar is explained in the glossary). In other words, the target is someone who can already read Japanese, but needs some more practice, and could stand to learn more vocabulary. For advanced learners (or even intermediate learners that do not need formal structure), I would suggest reading something a bit more entertaining, perhaps a novel by a Japanese author that writes in a genre that you like.

I appreciate the list of vocabulary words and the quiz! I had made my own translation while reading the first chapter, and only saw the full English translation at the end of the chapter. Comparing one’s own translation with the book’s is a helpful exercise.

The stories are written in Japanese. There's furigana for the kanji. The stories are translated to English. There's a vocabulary list for each chapter. There are several questions after the story with an answer key. There's no transliteration. Must know kana.

I'm writing this review after only reading one page. Why? This book is definitely not for beginners as the title suggests. I do understand that the title says beginners and intermediate. However, after ten lines of reading the first page of the first story, the author felt it necessary to include THIRTY words in the vocab list. As in....hey you might not know these words so here's a list for you. Why are you including that many non-beginner words in a book that beginners should be able to read? A number of them I looked up were N1 level.The story includes pages 10,11 and 12. THERE ARE ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN VOCAB WORDS.There isn't even an author listed, just 'language guru'.Rated one star for false advertising.

A really good way to practice Japanese reading.

I do not believe that this book is aimed to beginners. The target reader in my opinion is intermediate to upper intermediate. The book is divided in 10 chapters, each with the Japanese text (with furigana over kanji), vocabulary list, quiz and English translation. The chapters are linked with each other, as we follow Makoto daily life. It is a very good Japanese reading practice book. I also appreciate it available as a Kindle book. Highly recommended purchase.

I’m enjoying reading this book so much! It’s cleverly put together to include a lot of useful vocabulary and grammar structures in a variety of stories/scenarios. Please please make another book with more stories! 😊 I’m so pleased I bought it and feel that it’s helping me to remember the vocabulary in context. I recommend it a lot for intermediate learners and really hope to buy more! A great little find! 😊⭐️