Japanese Short Stories for Beginners: 20 Captivating Short Stories to Learn Japanese & Grow Your Vocabulary the Fun Way! (Easy Japanese Stories)

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Note: Read "Japanese Pronunciation, Part 1" (below) before you start learning hiragana. Basic Japanese Pronunciation In this article, I wanted to focus on books that were meant for language learners rather than native speakers, had a series of different grades or difficulty levels available, and were written entirely in Japanese. That means the list of recommendations won't include materials that offer English translations. While having the English translation can certainly help comprehension, it reinforces translation rather than natural comprehension.

And now, armed with a few good reads, a good dictionary app and some personalized flashcards, no matter whether you’re lazy or gung-ho, you’re ready for battle!It seems like every-other fable includes an “old man” as a main character. 16. “Japanese Graded Readers” University of Virginia Japanese Text Initiative– a huge library of Japanese texts online, and you can even choose to read with furigana The hundreds of stories featured here have minimal kanji and lots of helpful audio accompaniments. Read the story first, then listen and read along!

Learning katakana is about the same as learning hiragana, with a few Shyamalanian twists. We have yet another mnemonic-based guide for you, and chances are you'll be able to read katakana within the next few days if you're willing to put in the work. The themes of each book vary from tales of passengers on a bus to guides on how to wear traditional clothing. New vocabulary is slowly introduced according to level, and furigana accompanies new kanji. Since the vocabulary is relatively simple, a beginner should be able to handle the first few books without a dictionary. He took a bunch of traditional Japanese children’s stories and typed them out in Japanese. Then, he added in the English translation, line-by-line. Afterwards, he provides vocabulary explanations as well. A lot of the work is done for you, which can be good or bad, though it’s definitely an educational way to go through Japanese stories while practicing reading. You’ll find the sentence-by-sentence format particularly helpful, I think. Another point I want to make is that graded readers are simply a stepping stone on your Japanese learning journey, not the destination. What I mean by that is that I think graded readers are for a Japanese learner at a specific stage in their Japanese learning progress — before starting to dive into native materials. I think they should help you bridge the gap between being a learner who has yet to start reading in Japanese, and someone who reads native materials as part of their studying. Extensive Reading: How to Get the Most out of Graded Readers

Kowai!” is aimed at young readers, so there’s furigana that accompanies kanji and occasional pictures will help readers with the context of the novel. This collection of short stories is focused on the 1995 Kobe earthquake. It contains six short stories centered around people who, while not directly affected by the physical devastation of the quake, find their lives forever changed in its aftermath. Aozora is where it gets more advanced. While there are not so many children’s stories in the form of picture books, you will find plenty of youth literature (as well as full novels for adults when you reach that level). You can import the text into LingQ, however be aware that because the translations are written alongside the text, you may get some English words thrown into the lesson as well. Just ignore them (or you can manual delete them) and focus on the new Japanese words as you normally would.

And FluentU has a learn mode which turns every video into a language learning lesson. You can always swipe left or right to see more examples. Finding herself alone in the house she grew up in, without the warmth and companionship of her guardians, suddenly Yuichi—a young acquaintance of her grandmother’s—appears. He and his transgender mother’s presence is soothing to Mikage… I think the level of kanji and vocab here is fairly good for a beginner. They also don’t do the furigana thing, which is nicer for your studies. In terms of the newspapers, this is a pretty darn good one. That being said, they don’t update every day, so you’ll want something else if you’re studying very regularly.Finally, don't be afraid to stop reading a book that's too difficult or uninteresting and find something you like better.

This collection is perfect for Japanese learners who have an interest in ghosts and the paranormal. 7. “Ichiyo Higuchi Complete Works” by Ichiyo HiguchiDon’t worry about your skill level being an issue when it comes to understanding the language. FluentU makes native Japanese videos approachable through interactive transcripts. This is an important time in terms of pronunciation too. Make sure you consciously mimic the vocabulary audio. Think about pitch accent as you do it. This work will prepare you for sentences later.