Kodansha's Hiragana Workbook: A Step-by-Step Approach to Basic Japanese Writing

This workbook was REALLY helpful for reenforcing Hiragana memorization. I wouldn't use it by itself, but as an additional tool in learning it was fantastic. So much so that I ordered the Katakana workbook from Kodansha immediately after finishing this one.

This workbook is an excellent aid in learning Japanese Hiragana characters. The quality of paper is excellent (which matters when you will be writing a lot in the book!).

First off, let me say - I am a TOTAL beginner to learning Japanese. My aim was to first learn hiragana, then katakana and so on. I plan on learning with multiple study resources.This is an excellent resource for those that are brand new to hiragana characters.What I liked about it:* step by step illustrations of each hiragana character with brushstroke type* tear-out flashcards at the end are a great fun study tool* helps you practice writing hiragana both vertically AND horizontally* you learn a few basic words via the practice words of each lesson with some pictures* great for those who self-study* fill-in charts for some lessons once you learn more of the advanced hiragana like "ga", "gi", "gu","ge", "go" etc.What I did not like:* the explanation of double consonants was very confusing at first - had to research further about how and why you use the small "tsu"* not a whole lot of grammar background is in this bookOverall, if you want to learn the set of hiragana characters and get your writing strokes down pat, this is the book for you. I will be moving on to the Katakana book after this.

If you need flashcards, and a simple workbook, this is a good option. I felt that compared to another workbook, this one wasn't as detailed and helpful for learning the characters. But I absolutely love the perforated flashcards as an additional learning tool, and I use them each day that I'm learning.Cons: - Workbook doesn't have pronunciation information for each character. It has an introduction section that lists them, but showing clear "sounds like 'ee' as in sleep" is so important for new learners, and helps them create mental connections to the characters helping memorization. - Not as focused on quizzing/structured reviewA recommended workbook that is a great supplement to this would be "Learning Japanese Hiragana and Katakana: A Workbook for Self-Study" which you can find here: https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Japanese-Hiragana-Katakana-Self-Study/dp/4805312270/That workbook has a bit more detailed information for each character that I really found helpful. Adding these two resource together has been really good for my introductory learning the kanas.

The book was great. Inside the book there's word puzzle that you can play with to help with your memory and its a very easy to use book and easy to erase a mistake and so on. But overall i do say that the book is very easy to used to study for your Japanese.

Combined with other applications this book was very helpful in learning how to write and recognize the characters and it was also helpful in learning how to pronounce them when combined with the audio files.The only thing I found a little confusing and wish was touched on more is the different styles of hiragana for the same letter. For instance on the book cover you can see "sa" and "ki" have the down stroke and bottom attached, where as the version you learn in the book doesn't do that. Aslo, "so" on the cover isn't drawn that way in the book. "ri" and "fu" in the book look different than how I've seen them displayed in the memrise app. This isn't a huge problem, but it would have been nice to include some reasoning and different styles.The cover is not secured to the book and falls off easily.This book worked very well for me as an adult and I bought another copy for a third grader and they seem to be having no problem with it combined with a little outside guidance.

Out of all the Hiragana books that I have bought, this one takes the cake. There is so much practice available that it's not even funny. I am not only learning how to write the letters, but I am also learning new words at the same time. When I finish this book, I will buy the Katakana version. I am sure it will be great too.

I've got three different workbooks for Hiragana and Katakana, and this one (along with her Katakana one) is my favorite. You learn a character, then have to write it alone a few times, then you start writing words. You can download the media files to hear how each word should sound (they're free).I like how often it has you writing the characters, and as long as you read them aloud while writing them, you shouldn't have any issue memorizing them in as little as a day :3 It does teach both vertical and horizontal which I thought was very helpful.Another good thing - when you're writing the words - except in vertical work pages found at the end of a lesson - it never gives you Romaji. You start off with Hiragana and only see that, with the exception of the vertical writing. It gives you the word, you trace it once in Hiragana, then write it yourself in Hiragana. The other workbooks i had used always put the Romaji and have you write the Hiragana. Well, what good is that? In workbooks like that i found myself relying on Romaji because its familiar.I can honestly say I have mastered Hiragana because of this book. :3

I really enjoyed using this. The instructions are clear and easy to follow for a complete beginner like me. Giant handwriting though which was a little difficult for someone like me with naturally small handwriting.The biggest downside was I was unable to access the website for the listening files to hear any of the words or do the the listening exercises. I just got an error message saying 404 error and permission not granted which was frustrating and meant the appendix activities were useless. Initially I had accessed them and used them successfully but a month later the website didn't exist.In the end though, my handwriting and knowledge of what they all looked like has gone from 0% to 100%.

The content of the book is what it says. A beginners guide to writing hiragana. By the time the book arrived, i had already learned everything that was in it. But that isn't the book's fault, its mine, for ordering it later then i should have. But I decided to go through it anyway, to help reinforce what i had learned.I liked the pull-out hiragana cards in the back of the book, it was a nice touch.All in all, the book is very good.However. At the start of the book, it tells you to write in the book (trace over, then fill in the blank, kind of thing). This woul have been fine, but the spine of the book has no give, making it difficult to write properly on the left hand side of the book. This problem got less and less and you get to the middle of the book, then starts up again on the right hand side as you gt to the end. At first, I thought along the lines of "This is slightly annoying, but i can put up with it." But i was wrong. I ended up cutting all of the pages out of the book, so i didn't have this problem. Which at almost 100 pages long, was annoying.

Great book really helpful would suggest it to anyone

This book is amazing!!! It’s so easy to follow. I started with absolutely no knowledge of Japanese, but I’ve been hoping to learn to read traditional and untranslated mangas. This book has helped me learn hiragana so well. The flash cards in the back are amazing and so cute! If you’re a beginner, I really recommend this book.

Buon metodo di insegnamento che permette in due settimane (una se si ha tempo solo di fare quello) di apprendere TUTTI i suoni della lingua giapponese e così scoprire di essere in grado di scrivere qualsiasi parola giapponese. Poi non rimane che imparare il significato delle parole e la grammatica, e lì sono dolori!!Corredato di link online per scaricare i suoni delle sillabe e le parole scritte sul libro. Consigliatissimo. Da comprare quasi obbligatoriamente insieme al suo gemello "KATAKANA workbook".