Cons:
using this as a language learning course book requires careful consideration; not really a dictionary nor a language learning course; all words in full Japanese script (kana & kanji) with no transliteration or pronunciation help, meaning that beginners will need another resource to be able to read the vocabulary; any use requires a lot of memorization; language learning resources in book clearly intended for classroom study; clearly intended for Japanese students learning English

The Oxford Picture Dictionary English/Japanese isn’t so much a dictionary as it is a topicalized, themed vocabulary book with exercises and suggestions for further study. If you’re learning to speak Japanese, its glossy, colorful, picture-driven pages with matching vocabulary words may help you expand and contextualize your understanding of Japanese words.

The book’s content – roughly 200 pages – is broken down into general language categories like people, food, work, means of study and plants & animals. Subcategories take up one to two pages apiece, and tackle more specific topics like daily routines, feelings, a family reunion (people) or a grocery store, a restaurant (food).

Some pages have large illustrations while others have a range of drawings in smaller, thumbnail-like boxes. The pictures are always in full color. In every case, numbers or letters within each picture indicate the concept associated with a particular vocabulary word found below or to the side of the image (so a #20 on a girl’s rain boots is easy to locate below the picture: “20. rain boots”).

This “dictionary” goes a bit beyond vocabulary by including helpful questions to stimulate vocabulary use, practice and further discussion. A few pages even include reading exercises and further activities, although these really show how the book is intended for ESL learners, since all questions and readings are in English only.

Japanese words are written in full script, including kanji and kana, which makes the vocabulary difficult to read for beginners (impossible if you haven’t studied katakana and hiragana, and just plain difficult if you haven’t mastered kanji or, at least, bought a kanji reference dictionary). The book ends with brief tidbits about grammar and pronunciation, along with a most useful vocabulary index (both English and Japanese), giving page numbers for every vocabulary word in the book.

The Oxford Picture Dictionary presents a colorful, sleek, organized and highly visual overview of a good deal of basic Japanese vocabulary. It even crafts questions and activities to help students learn words, and the book is fully searchable through the index. With all this useful material, what are the downsides? It’s not really a dictionary, and requires too much memorization to be used as a lesson coursebook as is.

The Japanese script without any furigana or transliteration makes it a chore at best to decipher each word, especially words in kanji. The text is clearly aimed at ESL learners, and leaves its other potential audience – Japanese learners – in the dark by failing to include the kind of information you would need to read these words. If you’re happy settling for a snazzy, thematic vocabulary reference that requires a bit of work to use, you’ll likely be satisfied with your purchase. If you want more, you can supplement this book with OPD Lesson Plans, OPD: Low Beginning Workbook and OPD Classroom Activities, although these were all created for teaching ESL.

Cons:
doesn’t offer the kind of intensive writing practice found in a good kana workbook; must buy two books to learn both hiragana & katakana

Jimi’s Book of Japanese: A Motivating Method to Learn Japanese comes in two small volumes, one for each of the syllable writing systems. The main thrust here is to teach you all the basic Japanese “letters” (syllables) in both hiragana (Jimi’s orange book) and katakana (Jimi’s blue book). Filled with colorful anime illustrations, sample vocabulary words for each character, and paragraphs of cultural information about Japan, this book aims for children, but is readily accessible to anyone starting to learn how to write Japanese. If you’re not yet familiar with the Japanese writing system, you can learn a bit more in my introduction to Japanese writing, pronunciation and grammar

The books’ format is straightforward and simple. On each page, you’ll see one hiragana or katakana symbols printed large in the a white bubble at the center of the page. Arrows and numbers show you how to write each stroke of the symbol. The symbol/character/”letter” is surrounded by 1) a cartoon monkey face showing how to pronounce the symbol, 2) an example word using that letter, with the character in question highlighted, and 3) a few vocabulary words using that same letter in the colored border areas, accompanied by small illustrations of the vocab words.

At the bottom of each page, you’ll also read a short paragraph relating the words you’re learning to Japanese culture. These simple notes span a variety of topics, from travel to language use to TV to getting around town. The cultural notes may distract some readers and prove too tedious for certain students, especially younger kids.

The books don’t depart from that colorful, animated pattern, which makes them ideal for a kind of “show-and-tell” of all the kana symbols. A few extras also appear in the back of the book, including a table summarizing all the kana characters learned, a list of numbers, and a brief vocabulary glossary.

Jimi’s Book of Japanese has a lot to love, and it’s a good small companion that can help you learn to visualize the Japanese kana by reading the symbols in the context of simple words, whatever your age. If you’re looking for a more practical writing manual with drills and exercises, I recommend checking out something like Let’s Learn Hiragana
& Let’s Learn Katakana (as you can see, many courses divide katakana and hiragana into two books). You don’t have to forgo Jimi’s, but my recommendation is that you supplement this visual trip through the kana with the kind of real practice you’ll find in those other beginner books.

Cons:
more of a pleasure read than a serious resource for learning Japanese; better for intermediate learners still struggling with things like the difference between particles wa & ga or sentence structure

It takes so much time and involvement just to start to learn Japanese that after a short while, beginners find themselves overwhelmed and confused. The Japanese language is different, to be sure, but Harvard professor and translator Jay Rubin intends to show you just how non-threatening and straightforward the ins and outs of Japanese are. As you read his wordy but thoughtful essays in Making Sense of Japanese, you’ll take a literary and linguistic journey through a variety Japanese language functions.

Each essay sorts out your confusion on one specific piece of language use. For instance, one explains the differences between wa and ga, while another debunks the “myth” of subjectless sentences. This means that you’ll only deal with certain slices of the language selected by the author for their difficulty.

Along the way, you’ll find far more explanations, sidetracked musings and food for thought than actual examples or anything resembling lessons. Don’t be put off – it’s a good, fun read that can complement your study and give you a stronger framework for learning the language.

Of Japanese lesson books and language courses, there are many. But few books offer the chance to spend time with a seasoned Japanese learner, teacher and translator, gathering the kinds of language learning tips you’ll encounter here. It’s not complete, perhaps not even robust, but it’s a good read for those in a position to get something out of it. Recommended especially for intermediate students – put the heavy-duty materials away for a day or two, and take this joy ride through the Japanese language.

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Cons:
takes an experienced student or casual reader to get something out of this; some of these expressions are dated or highly impractical; phrases are given in romaji only (rather than kana and kanji, as would be seen in Japan); not really a dictionary, phrasebook or lesson course – simply an instructive pleasure read

Books like Dirty Japanese and Outrageous Japanese show us there’s a market for resources that teach us gaijin the naughty, raunchy, gritty, raw lingo heard throughout urban Japan. Japanese Street Slang takes this study in a new direction by offering a prose exposé of Japanese phrases, with short essays that tie language use to Japan and its unique social scenes.

Over the course of 175 pages, author Peter Constantine takes readers on an alphabetized, explanation-rich ride through scores of phrases. Each phrase gets the spotlight for a page or so, during which the author explains where the phrase comes from, how it’s used (and by whom!), then contextualizes words and phrases with sample sentences and other slang options. All of this material is woven together in a straightforward, readable manner. You’ll doubtless find yourself snickering at quirks or raising and eyebrow at obscenities along the way.

At the end, a Japanese word list with page numbers allows you to find any of the phrases covered in the book. There’s also an index of topics (cities, people & cultural items). Don’t miss the introduction, either. It gives a rundown of Japanese slang, dialects and language functions heard on the street.

It’s a bit unfortunate that the book’s uniqueness works against it for the main audience – Japanese language learners. It’s not really complete enough to count as a dictionary, too verbose for a phrase book, too methodical and linguistic for a guide to Japanese culture, and provides no pacing or practical application to be used as a language course. Additionally, many of these amusing phrases will strike Japanese ears as vulgar, out of date, or both.

All in all, Japanese Street Slang offers readers an enjoyable and informative ride through the world of Japanese slang. Students aiming to speak informal Japanese (rather than read about it) should try a more linguistically pertinent resource like Beyond Polite Japanese.

Hodges’ & Okazaki’s Japanese Kanji Flashcards provide a systematic way to learn over 1000 kanji characters by studying hundreds of flashcards. Cards are color coded to three levels of proficiency as measured by the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (levels 4 through 2 – it counts down in difficulty). Although I have yet to write a full review of this resource, I compare these cards to the competition in my review of Tuttle’s Kanji Cards.

It’s also worth your while to sneak a peek at some customer images of one flashcard. If you’re going to spend hours upon hours learning and practicing kanji on the path to reading Japanese, it’s worth considering which product you’d rather work with before you buy.

It’s also worth noting that both series have kana syllabary cards (Tuttle and White Rabbit Press).

Cons:
uses romaji for all character readings and examples; some info placed awkwardly on cards; study with index cards helps reading recognition much more than writing

Tuttle offers Kanji Cards in four volumes to help learners as you struggle to memorize the thousands of characters needed to read and write everyday Japanese. As I will mention at the end of this review, you should check out and compare Japanese Kanji Flashcards (White Rabbit Press) to see which kanji flash card series has the best features for you.

Hundreds of flashcards in each set present a routine way to remember your kanji, then test your memory. Every card deals with one character. On the front, you’ll find the character printed large, some compound words that include the character, the radicals, and multiple reference numbers to help you find that character in any major kanji dictionary or resource.

The second side has the on and kun readings in romaji, along with the romaji readings of the compound words that include that character from the front of the card. You’ll find English translations of the character and compound readings on this side. Also, at the very bottom, the character is written stroke by stroke, giving you stroke count and order.

It’s a simple, effective method for studying the massive number of characters. Cover up one side and quiz your ability to remember what the character sounds like and means. Cover up the other to test your memory of what the character looks like. Combine Kanji Cards with a writing practice workbook for a well-rounded, on-your-own approach to reading and writing kanji.

If you’re a discerning student, you might take issue with the use of romaji transliteration, you won’t like that Tuttle’s Kanji Cards list stroke order on the back of the card (with semantic rather than compositional information), and you may find that you prefer the structure of these cards. If that’s the case, you’re better off with Japanese Kanji Flashcards Vol. 1 and Volume 2. Also, keep in mind that both series have kana cards (Tuttle and White Rabbit Press).

Cons:
vocabulary index cross-referencing page numbers would have been convenient; certain phrases are very specific, others less useful for non-native speakers

The Ultimate Japanese Phrasebook is a friendly, organized list of 1800 Japanese phrases by theme/topic. The book is accompanied by an audio CD with mp3 readings of the Japanese phrases.

The book starts with an introduction for “newbies”, giving two pages full of short tips on pronunciation, word order and how Japanese particles work. Then, you’ll have the opportunity to browse through any of 20 chapters covering scores of conversation topics. Each topic includes as many as a dozen phrases.

The organization and use of space is commendable. The formatting sets topic headings/titles apart, making them easy to locate. Phrases in each topic are numbered, and set apart by unobtrusive dotted lines. Phrases occupy three lines – first, bold English, second, large font, readable Japanese script with furigana above kanji, and lastly, the romaji (foreigner-friendly transliteration) reading of the Japanese phrase.

The authors choose to include believable phrases that are relevant to each topic (including realistic examples you won’t find in your average phrasebook, like: “Should we pay here or at the register?”; “Could you send me the link?”; “I can never remember how to say that”). They’re neutral with respect to formality and gender. Unfortunately, some are too specific for every reader, but the range of phrases covered should alleviate any sense of irrelevance. MP3 track names from the disc are listed by each topic title, so it’s easy to keep up and listen to Japanese speakers as they pronounce the phrases.

The Ultimate Japanese Phrasebook provides one of the most thorough, organized, comprehensive and interesting phrase book experiences I’ve come across in Japanese. A certain type of traveler will miss the cultural notes of more popular business and travel phrasebooks available, but this one’s hard to overlook, and easy to recommend.

Cons:
these three books each have different features – read below to find which best fits your study; no pacing to break down characters into smaller, manageable chunks; little practice understanding how kanji fit into the broader Japanese writing system, or the written language in general; just workbooks – don’t offer too much hand holding for beginners

Mastering Japanese Kanji, , and Tuttle’s First and Second 100 Japanese Kanji offer three comparable approaches to picking up your first 200-plus kanji characters. I’ll compare and contrast these workbook/guides, so you can decide which, if any, is ideal for your studies. To learn more about those thousands of kanji characters in the context of learning to write Japanese, read my brief overview of Japanese writing, pronunciation and grammar.

Both Mastering Japanese Kanji and The First/Second 100 Japanese Kanji start with a generic intro to how kanji work. This rough sketch merely feeds you some ideas; you’ll need practice to get any sort of a handle on kanji. After that, all three books present only one character (or, in Kanji Power, two characters) per page. There’s an enlarged version of the character at the top right of the page. Near that, you’ll find the kanji’s meaning and reading (how to pronounce it, which differs depending on context). Then, the books provide sample words or phrases using only that character, with pronunciation and an English translation. Importantly, you’ll find a left-to-right, stroke-by-stroke demonstration of how to write each kanji.

Below this information, it’s your turn to practice. Rows of empty boxes provide opportunity to write each character over and over until you get it.

Now, onto the differences. Kanji Power expects you to know katakana and hiragana (the two Japanese syllabaries), since it gives pronunciation of characters and examples in the kana. It also offers the least practice writing space of the three, and the smallest stroke-by-stroke character print size, with no hints on where to start or end your pen strokes. But it covers more kanji than the other two, offers good example sentences for each kanji, and gives several opportunities to complete helpful review tests.

Mastering the Kanji takes pride in its visual memory cues. Kanji are laid over a drawing that you may relate to the kanji’s meaning, with associative explanations. Unfortunately, these associations aren’t historically accurate with respect to the character’s etymology. There are more musings and explanations of character meaning here. Readings and examples are given in kana and romaji (foreigner-friendly transliteration). There’s also a sample sentence, well analyzed, and a good stroke count of how to write each kanji. Current strokes are presented in gray, the rest of the character in black. The book includes a modest amount of empty grid box space for writing practice – more than Kanji Power, along with some review exercises.

The First 100 Japanese Kanji and Second 100 Japanese Kanji offer the best introductory explanation of what kanji are. Each page includes a modest amount of info – pronunciation, a handful of words using the character (no full sentences or phrases) and a simple definition with no explanations. Pronunciation readings include both kana and romaji. The biggest difference here is that three quarters of each page is dedicated to practice writing space, taken up by generous grid boxes. Characters are written out large and stroke-by-stroke for you, with arrows showing the pen stroke direction and counting the number of strokes. This is the most purely workbook-like of the three kanji workbooks.

These three resources share a lot of common ground and cover many of the same kanji characters. Their approach is similar – characters, examples and space to practice writing. And, if you’re a beginner with little experience writing Japanese characters, that practice is exactly what you need. But I’ll leave it up to you to decide which features you prefer.

Other resources are out there as well. If you’re looking for an entirely different method, perhaps try Remembering the Kanji, which builds on character components rather than asking you to memorize individual character after character.

Cons:
the material is too strong for some readers; romaji only (a negative since this book is better for experienced, intermediate students); too advanced for most beginning learners (although the cultural commentary will be worth a read); no index or vocabulary appendix, only somewhat redeemed by reference-friendly table of contents; this book includes plenty slang words & phrases that are now out of date; there seem to be some errors in the text, so verify before taking their word for it; even those phrases that don’t sound odd or outdated will be hard for a gaijin to pull off in real-life contexts; the author fails to differentiate the gender & register of many phrases, which is an extremely important consideration when using your Japanese slang

Zakennayo!: The Real Japanese You Were Never Taught in School dishes out twelve lessons of everything dirty, sexual and mischievous in the Japanese language and culture. Cunningham and his sketch artist, Brandt, engage students who’ve slogged their way through the typical formal Japanese texts with some in-your-face, real, downright inappropriate Japanese.

Each chapter starts out with a cultural note about some grittier aspect of urban Japan and the Japanese language. The focus here is street culture – sex, stereotypes, alcohol and cursing. Then, you’ll take a crack at dialogues and vocabulary lists. The vocab lists match key words in the dialogue. These conversations showcase the uncensored tone of this book, and are relevant to the variety of situations and social scenes where people really use language (life’s dark corners, if you will). Stylized cartoon drawings here and there add to Zakennayo‘s flippantly rude, yet silly, attitude.

Unfortunately, a handful of persistent issues keep Zakennayo! from being a cultural and linguistic tour de force. Japanese speakers will find many phrases awkward or outdated, which means you’ll have to be careful using what you learn here. On top of that, the author doesn’t go far enough to explain 1) how phrases will come off once you say them in Japan and 2) who should say this phrase (young men to young women? old men to older men? – this kind of thing makes a big difference in colloquial Japanese).

Also, for all the examples here, it’s a shame that the book only includes romaji (and without vowel length markings!) That problem struck me as particularly acute, since Zakennayo! is aimed at learners with some formal experience studying Japanese. Why no hiragana, katakana and kanji? Why fail to include even long vowels?

If you’ve immersed yourself in formal, polite Japanese, but want to get an over-the-top taste of Japanese slang and seedy conversation, Zakennayo! might suit you. Between the dialogues and notes, you’re sure to learn a few things here. At its best, it delivers an appealing, informative and shocking view of Japan’s street lingo. At worst, it might come off as trite, less than helpful, and outdated, in which case you’ll wish it resigned to the humor section of your local bookstore.

Cons:
the specific selection of phrases is hit-or-miss – you might wish to express something that’s not here; best approached as a vocabulary/phrase enhancement guide, not a comprehensive dictionary or lesson course (no pacing or exercises); better appreciated by later beginners, intermediate and early advanced students of the language

Beyond Polite Japanese: A Dictionary of Japanese Slang and Colloquialisms puts a range of common, everyday, street-wise and even inappropriate words an phrases at your fingertips. Like Love, Hate and Everything in Between and similar resources, it acts like a hybrid, partway between a dictionary and a topicalized phrasebook.

The overall organization is approachable and easy for students looking to ditch their “textbookish” formal Japanese and learn to speak the language more realistically. Phrases are divided between sections, and each section handles a certain topic. Topics include “people”, “mind and emotions”, “body and functions”, and “nature and all that”, along with others.

The book lists phrases in bold, giving romaji first, then kana/kanji, then literal English translations in quotes. Parts of speech are abbreviated in a box next to the phrase (like V or N). After that, you’ll find the phrase translation into colloquial, spoken English. For example, the word that literally means “short-of-brains” actually translates to “dimwit” or “numbskull”.

Each phrase is accompanied by a sample Japanese sentence using that expression in context. Each sample sentence is translated into English. Below that, there’s often a small hand icon pointing to tips for remembering or understanding the Japanese phrase.

It’s enjoyable to read through Beyond Polite Japanese and learn some real Japanese slang. This book comes across as well organized, with a good selection of terms, examples of every term in use, and a glossary index. Yet it’s still limited enough that I can’t recommend it as a full-fledged dictionary, nor as a student-friendly language resource for routinely learning to speak colloquial, “impolite” Japanese.