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Beniko Mason, Ed. D. is a faculty member at Shitennoji University Junior College in Osaka, Japan. She first began her Extensive Reading (ER) program in 1984 at a vocational school in Osaka, Japan based on the Input (Reading) Hypothesis (Krashen, 1981, 1982, 1985).

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Original Jpn Graded Readers

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White Rabbit Press - Japanese Graded Readers

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Graded readers are books especially written for language learners. They employ a limited set of grammar and vocabulary which allows learners to enjoy reading without struggling. Studies show learners who use graded readers improve not only their reading skills but many other language abilities.

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Claire Walter

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The Great Story Reading Project, sponsored by the Stories First Foundation, is a free teacher-to-teacher shared story wiki. Find a story for your classroom, and share a story with teachers around the world.

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The Great Story Reading Project, sponsored by the Stories First Foundation, is a free teacher-to-teacher shared story wiki. Find a story for your classroom, and share a story with teachers around the world.

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White Rabbit Japan offers Japanese language products for all levels, Japanese snacks and more. Order today from White Rabbit Japan. Worldwide shipping.

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Literacy: Free Voluntary Reading

Literacy: Writing

Letters to the Editor

Literacy: Free Voluntary Reading

Bilingual Education

Letters to the Editor

Literacy: Phonemic Awareness and Phonics

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Literacy: Free Voluntary Reading Literacy: Writing Letters to the Editor Literacy: Free Voluntary Reading Bilingual Education Letters to the Editor Literacy: Phonemic Awareness and Phonics

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NEWS WEB EASYは、小学生・中学生の皆さんや、日本に住んでいる外国人のみなさんに、わかりやすいことば　でニュースを伝えるウェブサイトです。

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Tadoki printables マンガで読む！グルメ本「まんぷくシリーズ」｜コミックエッセイ劇場

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Tadoki printables マンガで読む！グルメ本「まんぷくシリーズ」｜コミックエッセイ劇場

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マンガで読む！グルメ本「メディアファクトリーのまんぷくシリーズ」｜コミックエッセイ劇場

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マンガで読む！グルメ本「メディアファクトリーのまんぷくシリーズ」｜コミックエッセイ劇場

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東京の激旨グルメ、スイーツの名店から『ワカコ酒』で大ヒット中の新久千映による広島の酒場まで。全国津々浦々の美味しいものが大集合したご当地グルメコミックエッセイ「まんぷくシリーズ」の総合サイトです！

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With "How tos"

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Japanese-Language Proficiency Test Official Practice Workbook | JLPT Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

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For all levels, the workbook contains almost the same number of questions as an actual test, with questions selected from among those used in 2010 and 2011 tests. This is the first official practice workbook for the JLPT since the 2010 revision.

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Some with audio

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KCでの教材例 - KCクリップ

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外交官・公務員研修では、KCよむよむを使い「Yom Yom Class」という多読の授業をしています。 ここでは、「KCよむよむ」の紹介をします。

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1https://youtu.be/7HY7UFE3K20

2https://youtu.be/vZgC3yoIVVs

3

https://youtu.be/wMcdU8KFjzc

4https://youtu.be/e2g7yYn5KmA

5https://youtu.be/aK7Ke9Kq8iU

6

https://youtu.be/YXV-glI5QPs

7https://youtu.be/BfawXqARers

8https://youtu.be/zWY1LQbeBJY

9

https://youtu.be/1I61vYkSI0U

10https://youtu.be/SXBHl19jllo

11https://youtu.be/-__WYs4_aeo

1https://youtu.be/GQdaljs-GXY

2https://youtu.be/TgDu73jqAJQ

3https://youtu.be/ritHNFqxUk4

3https://youtu.be/LWy_qOqHeMo

4https://youtu.be/ITa2LWxQ8dI

5https://youtu.be/V7l7br7TdSM

6 https://youtu.be/tMUr-w_LA2g

7 https://youtu.be/xRhNrBnWW9I

8 https://youtu.be/_dGkzJP_4Hk

9 https://youtu.be/FYUDX1OA0TE

10 https://youtu.be/1FRw4EMhkIs

11https://youtu.be/NYoJYhDh--0

12 https://youtu.be/OFbEXNa0CK4

13 https://youtu.be/E8_wKP7FQGA

14 https://youtu.be/C8LJkXsj9zo

15https://youtu.be/m7Hw61rwe2c

16 https://youtu.be/F-BKKJcMzog

17 https://youtu.be/0nMdFcAKNGM

18 https://youtu.be/t0OsVa7Xhh4

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1. Which has been your favorite book so far?
2.Why do you like that book?(Because of the pictures because of the characters because of the storylines?)
3. From what you read and understood what was the story about?
4. If you could create a new ending for the story, what would you write?

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Courses // East Asian Languages and Cultures // University of Notre Dame

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The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures provides language instruction in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, and also offers innovative courses in English on culture, business, literature, history, philosophy, religion, film, gender studies, political science, and anthropology.

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ND

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I never imagined myself sitting at the CSLC on my last regular week of classes as an undergraduate, drawing pictures of a little Japanese girl wearing red shoes, sharpening color-pencil after color-pencil, and telling her story through a classical Japanese nursery rhyme for my Japanese Extensive Reading class.

The Extensive Reading course, taught by Professor Noriko Hanabusa, emphasizes a innovative method of developing linguistic competence in Japanese. It is a language course in which students read widely books of their choice, at their own pace. Each book has a sticker placed on it, indicating what level of difficulty in Japanese is incorporated into the book. At the beginning of class, Professor Hanabusa selects a few students to discuss about what they are reading and a couple Japanese words that they found intriguing. Following the oral reports and or some brief announcements made by Professor Hanabusa, students then commence their independent reading. The use of Japanese-English dictionaries were discouraged as its use would hinder the class philosophy: pleasure-reading. Additionally, if students found themselves entrapped in a book too difficult to comprehend or wished to read a different work closer to their own interests, they were more than welcome to read another work. During the class, Professor Hanabusa actively assisted and advised students.

For much of the semester, I read a Japanese manga called "はだしのゲン" ("Barefoot Gen"), which is about a young boy named Gen whose family lived in Hiroshima when the first Atomic Bomb detonated at 8:15 A.M. on August 6, 1945. Processing Gen's reality of confronting impoverishment and harsh criticism for his father's sentiments against the war, I came to a deeper understanding not only of the slang utilized by the Hiroshima population as embodied by Gen and his family but how their language is also a deep reflection of Japan in the 1940s. I shared these reflections and noted other Japanese vocabulary that intrigued me in our weekly evaluations of the particular book we were reading during class.

In essence, Japanese Extensive Reading classes are rare among four-year accredited universities. Moreover, what makes the class unique is that at the end of the semester, students created a final project which provided an opportunity to showcase their creativity in addition to their Japanese language skills. Professor Hanabusa was not only impressed with the time they spent on their projects but she "never expected this to happen but everybody came up with such different ideas so I now realize how different each student is."

All Extensive Reading students share their passion in Japanese, but their passion has been expressed differently. Final projects from the Beginner Extensive Reading included: illustrated pictures and Japanese children's books while integrating Greek mythology, a board-game of the youth-oriented Shibuya district in which players try to find Hachiko, and even a video-game!

On the other hand, students from the Advanced Japanese classes focused on book reports and utilizing music in their projects such as Emily Campagna, a CSLC Japanese Peer-Tutor, who has taken the Extensive Reading course since its inception in Fall 2014. For her final project, she composed a piece, informed by her music theory class that leant itself to a combination of Japanese and music. Moreover, in her words, "the number of tones in each phrase matched with the structure of a haiku, so [she] thought it'd be interesting to write a piece for voice and piano that used a famous haiku as lyrics." In her words, she considers the course to be "a natural way to absorb a new language" because it does not require the use of textbooks, and the class structure is not as formal as an ordinary Japanese language class.

Extensive Reading indeed elevates a student's understanding of the Japanese language but for me personally, the class takes on a role beyond the walls of a small classroom inside the Hesburgh library. Reading "Barefoot Gen" for this class inspired me to visit Hiroshima, a place of rich culture, a place of unparalleled resilience, and a place of one of the most unforgettable World Heritage sites: the Atomic Dome and the Peace Memorial Park. I was in great awe to witness hundreds of Japanese elementary children singing a song called 青い空 (Blue Skies) at the Peace Memorial Park and then placing their thousand cranes that they folded into one of several glass displays.

While Professor Hanabusa is a pioneer of the Extensive Reading Program at Notre Dame, she also emphasizes that she "cannot do this on her own because she has been working closely with the East Asian librarian, Hye-Jin Juhn, because she helped us a lot to buy books and it's a good collaboration with the library, then of course, the CSLC."

I want to personally thank Professor Hanabusa for giving me the chance to teach my classmates about part of Japanese culture prior to the Great War through making a Japanese kamishibai (paper play), and then singing one of the nursery rhymes that I listened to as a child with my mom called 赤い靴 (The Red Shoes).

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ENR/PAZ // University Communications: Web // University of Notre Dame

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Notre Dame Offers Innovative Japanese Extensive Reading Language Course

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The Center for the Study of Languages & Cultures (CSLC) is an innovative facility dedicated to supporting Notre Dame foreign language students by providing space, technology and programming to promote advanced foreign language and cultural competency via structured practice, interaction and communication.

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USC

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USC Workshop on Japanese Extensive Reading 2015 > East Asian Studies Center > USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

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Tomoko Bialock - Japanese Studies Librarian, University of California, Los Angeles Noriko Hanabusa - Professor of the Practice, University of Notre Dame Natsuko Osada - Lecturer, Pennsylvania State University Hiroko Sugawara - Lecturer, University of California, Santa Barbara

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Create a FREE account of Jpn books

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A new way to study, practice, and deeply comprehend Japanese.

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Learn Japanese anytime, anywhere.

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At Minato, you can find friends to communicate with.

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Make friends of all ages, cultures, and backgrounds.

Minato has virtual communities where users from around the world can communicate with one another. Here, you can interact with friends of all ages, cultures, and backgrounds.

Your common topic is Japan.

Feel free to join the community with a focus on Japan (Japanese manga, Japanese TV dramas, Japanese cooking, tourist spots in Japan, Japanese traditional culture, methods of studying Japanese, and so on). If you can't find a theme that you're interested in, you can make your own community.

Beginners are welcome, too.

Communicate with the Japanese that you know. It's okay to use your own language too, if you're just starting out. Reach out to people using hiragana or romaji. After that, try out a bit of Japanese that you've just learned. It's a great challenge.

JF has other environments for learning Japanese, too.

JF has other environments for learning Japanese, too.

Minato, a place to learn and meet.

Minato, a place to learn and meet.

JF Japanese e-Learning Minato is a Japanese language learning platform provided by the Japan Foundation. Minato means "port". Here at Minato, a place to learn and meet other like-minded people, we invite you to expand your understanding and knowledge of Japan, Japanese people, and the Japanese language.

Take various online Japanese courses.

On Minato, you'll find all sorts of Japanese online courses. With Minato's online Japanese courses you can start learning Japanese wherever you are, whenever you want to. Have you given up on learning because you can't find a class nearby? Are you too busy to commute? Just want to try it out but are a bit nervous? Well this is the place for you. Choose the level, course type, study category, and language of explanation that suits you and you're set to go.

Interact with Japanese language learners all over the world.

On Minato, you can communicate with people all over the world who are studying Japanese, on various topics. You can make your own community or join a community that you might like. Find friends from around the world who share your interests.

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If you want to know more about Japan, get really into Japanese language, brush up your Japanese, or make friends with people around the world who speak Japanese, then this platform is for you. Start by signing up today.

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'Minato' - learn Japanese and interact with fellow students around the world online. At Minato our constant goal is to always develop the most inspiring Japanese courses. Let Minato be the place you start your Japanese language and cultural exchange journey.

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(Eng/Jpn site)

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Crunchy Japan

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If you're learning Japanese, you might want to get a book to start reading and improve your Japanese. But did you know that you cannot pick any manga/light novel if you're still a beginner? Tempted to do this, and you might end up depressed and disheartened!

What then is a good material for reading practice? This guide will help you to pick books and manga that are perfect for your beginner Japanese practice reading material! If you're looking for book to help you learn Japanese instead, check out our guide here: Where to Start Learning Japanese

Q: Can I just get any manga/light novel I like?

You can... but actually, doing that will get you depressed instead of increasing your motivation to learn Japanese or level up your reading skill.

Why? Because most manga contain a lot of kanji without furigana (reading of kanji), lots of slang, and complicated grammar structure. So you might (will, actually...) end up confused and depressed. But a manga is a good practice if you have finished learning N3 material though! In fact, it would be recommended!

Furigana (What is Furigana?) is important for beginner because you will need to be able to read the kanji to look for each word's meaning in dictionary. Here's a sample of what you might encounter if you pick just any manga you like.

Main Purpose of a Reading Practice Material

Note that these books purpose is not to practice reading Hiragana / Katakana (although you can also use the book for this purpose too if you'd like). The main purpose of these reading practice book will be to expand your vocabulary and get yourself used to Japanese everyday grammar pattern.

It will be hard to learn Japanese grammar with these...

Although it's possible, but a textbook is a much much better option for this purpose. Check out this link if you want to learn Japanese essential grammar.

For Hiragana / Katakana practice, you can use our practice page below:
* Hiragana reading practice
* Katakana reading practice

There are 3 type of categories we recommend. Picture books, Simple Manga and Japanese-English Bilingual Manga. Well then, let's start!

Ghibli's Picture Books!

We really recommend that every beginner Japanese learner need to have atleast 1 of this book. ｡ﾟ✶ฺ.ヽ(*´∀`*)ﾉ.✶ฺﾟ｡

One of the best Japanese reading practice material are children's books! They are easy to read and mostly written in simple grammar pattern. But what children book do you need to buy? Despite the high price, most of the books are very slim, with very little kanji, and the worse part is that you don't even know the content until you bought it! Therefore, this series here is something that we really recommend.

Reason to get 1: It's thick & really worth it!

How thick? Depending on the story, around 150 - 180+. And they cost almost the same with a 10-20 page Japanese children book? And that's not all, it is also a full color book! Filled with best scenes from each movies. Perfect for Ghibli fans or anyone who just started to learn Japanese

Common 10 - 20 page children books will cost about the same as ghibli movie books due to the illustration cost. But Ghibli use the image from their movies so they are able to press the price.

Reason to get 2: You might be a Ghibli fans

There is a big chance that if you want to learn Japanese, you also like a few Ghibli's movies. Reading what you love will give you more motivation. And it also a good book as a collection! Have we mentioned that it is a hard cover? Look at this gorgeous character introduction and famous scene of Spirited away!

Reason to get 3: Great for beginners!

This book is made for children and thus it have simple sentence structure! But they're not too simple for beginner. It's also have kanji & furigana. You absolutely need furigana to search the meaning of kanji in dictionary. And that's not all! The font is big and clear. Have we mentioned that the book is quite large? About F4 size but a bit wider.

In summary: It's perfect!

Yes, if you're looking for a Japanese book for beginner reading practice, Ghibli's movie books are perfect! There is no reason for not having this book as your beginner's Japanese reading practice.Be sure to buy the correct one though. They are also provided in English version, which are okay for collection but not okay for Japanese reading practice (lol)...

Q: But I'm not a fan and doesn't know any of Ghibli movie

If you're not a Ghibli lover and don't know any of the movie. We would suggest Spirited Away. It's one of the most famous, award winner, Ghibli fantasy story with a very interesting world and a deep meaning behind it. Click to see the movie trailer.

Like adorable characters? Get either Totoro or Ponyo. You could also pick famous story such as Princess Kaguya who was born out of a bamboo shoot. Or if you like biography, plane or touching story, The Wind Rises is a good choice.

Links to get Ghibli's Picture Books

Easy to Read Manga!

Ghibli's book was a big picture story book . If you're looking for a manga/comic which is smaller and mobile, these are the recommended title.

Although very tempting, try to avoid shonen at the beginning since shonen manga commonly use a lot of pun/made upwords that will be hard to understand...

Yotsuba!

Yotsuba is one of the most recommended manga for beginner. It's easy to read since the main character is a child (thus it has simple sentences) and it's about everyday life. Lastly, this manga has furigana!

If this is the first manga you try to read, to avoid frustration (and depression _:(´□`」 ∠):_ ), you might want to have both Japanese & English version side by side to help you with understanding the grammar pattern/nuance of the sentence.

Shirokuma Cafe

Another recommended manga is Shirokuma Cafe! It's a cute (and weird in a funny way) story about a polar bear who owns a cafe. ( Furigana? Yes!)

This series is very short and comes in 3 fruit flavor (literally! Strawberry, Mango, and Melon! lol) . (Look at that cover!!) Since this series is short, they can be an awesome gift for your friend who is trying to learn Japanese!

Bilingual Manga!

Bilingual mangas are good sources to learn Japanese. Most bilingual books are actually published for Japanese people to help them learn English, but it also work the other way around. This can be a good alternative for your Japanese reading practice.

The might be exited to know that the famous Doraemon series is published as bilingual Japanese-English manga!

Pros: Understand set-phrase and onomatopoeia words with no frustration

For example, on the photo, Giant said "気をつける!" (Ki wo Tsukeru!) "Watch it!" (Lit: Careful!) and Suneo said "ぼくのせいじゃない". "I didn't do it! (Lit: It's not my fault)".

This kind of set-phrase meaning will be hard to understand especially since the word is written in hiragana, so you can't find which SEI orTSUKERU words that the book means. (There are a lot of SEI & TSUKERU with different meaning).

Onomatopoeia is a sound effect that mimics the thing described, making the description more expressive and interesting but is very hard to be understand by foreign people.

This type of word is used a lot in mangas. As you can see in this screenshot, the word PeroPero is being translated as "NYAH NYAAH~" , YAIYAI~ as "See this? (attracting atention)" and BA as "BLEHH!"

Cons: No Furigana

Unlike Yotsuba or Shirokuma Cafe simple manga, these book don't have any furigana (kanji reading). You will need a denshi jisho (electric dictionary) to help you identify the kanji you encounter in the book with less frustration.

Doraemon Bilingual Manga Special Collection

These are collection of stories with specific theme! Great book if you want to get a taste of a bilingual books.

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Doraemon Bilingual Manga Series

If you want more bilingual books and love doraemon funny stories, get these.

Jippi Japanese-English Bilingual classic comics

These mangas below are bilingual mangas published by Jippi. They are actually classic manga. They are not completed volume. But if you like the classic title, this can be a good choice for you 😀 Note that they are incomplete stories. It has the same layout as the previous Doraemon bilingual manga.

As you can see above, the main text is in English while for every conversation, you can review the Japanese version written nearby. Below are the links to get these books.

That's all for now

Reading Manga to learn Japanese is a good way to learn, but picking a correct one to read and building good foundation before reading is very important or you will end up with depression instead of increasing your motivation _:(´□`」 ∠):_

We hope that this guide could help you to find your ideal Japanese beginner reading practice book! Click here to see all recommended resources to learn Japanese. Happy learning ｡ﾟ✶ฺ.ヽ(*´∀`*)ﾉ.✶ฺﾟ｡

You May Also Like To Read:

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Japanese Reading Practice Material for Beginners

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If you're learning Japanese, you might want to get a book to start reading and improve your Japanese. But did you know that you cannot pick any manga/light novel if you're still a beginner? Tempted to do this, and you might end up depressed and disheartened!