Short Stories in Japanese for Intermediate Learners: Read for pleasure at your level, expand your vocabulary and learn Japanese the fun way!

by Olly Richards

An unmissable collection of eight unconventional and captivating short stories for young and adult learners of Japanese.

"Olly's top-notch language-learning insights are right in line with the best of what we know from neuroscience and cognitive psychology about how to learn effectively. I love his work - and you will too!" - Barbara Oakley, PhD, Author of New York Times bestseller A Mind for Numbers

Short Stories in Japanese for Intermediate Learners has been written especially for students from low-mid intermediate (ACTFL) level of Japanese. Mapped to B1 and approaching B2 on the Common European Framework of Reference, these eight captivating stories are designed to give you a sense of achievement and a feeling of progress when reading, and most importantly - enjoyment!

What does this book give you?

- Eight stories in a variety of exciting genres, from science fiction and crime to history and thriller - making reading fun, while you learn a wide range of new vocabulary
- Controlled language at your level to help you progress confidently
- Spoken dialogues in a range of polite and casual forms in real settings to help you to improve the flow and accuracy of your spoken Japanese.
- To help you advance your kanji recognition skills, furigana is used to support reading higher level or unusual kanji and for the first appearance for common kanji.
- Common vocabulary from levels 4 and 5 of the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) along with vocabulary carefully chosen from the higher levels help you learn useful new expressions and progress through the intermediate reading levels.
- Accessible grammar so you learn new structures naturally, without feeling overwhelmed or frustrated
- Practical tips help you to unlock the meaning of Japanese sentences and new kanji words successfully.
- Beautiful illustrations accompanying each story, to set the scene and support your understanding
- Pleasure! Research shows that if you're enjoying reading in a foreign language, you won't experience the usual feelings of frustration - 'It's too hard!' 'I don't understand!'

With intriguing plots that will spark your imagination and keep you reading, Short Stories in Japanese for Intermediate Learners will take your grasp of Japanese to the next level with key features to support and consolidate your progress,

- A glossary for bolded words in each chapter
- Full plot summary
- A bilingual word list
- Comprehension questions after each chapter.

As a result, you will be able to focus on enjoying reading, delighting in your improved range of vocabulary and grasp of the language, without ever feeling overwhelmed. From science fiction to fantasy, to crime and thrillers, Short Stories in Japanese for Intermediate Learners will accelerate you journey towards fluency.

Use the codes inside the book and ebook to access a bonus story for free and the discounted audiobook on our Language Readers Library site or in the Language Readers app.

Genres: Japanese Literature, Japan

328 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 29, 2022

Reviews

[Marija S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually a useful tool for language learning and I am glad I bought it.

I see some people remarked it lacked explanations of grammar points, but I don't think that is a demerit - teaching grammar specifically is not this book's objective.

Honestly, anyone picking up an intermediate level text to read should already know how to use dictionaries and how to get explanations on grammar points from elsewhere. I don't think books that are easing learners into reading in a foreign language at this level should be burdened by anything excessive, and for me this one has a good balance of texts and glossary. Texts are, after all, THE thing I sought out this type of book for.

Some complaned that it was too simple and easy - I don't understand this argument. It takes max 2 minutes to browse it and see whether it suits your proficiency level, so the teaching book being too hard or too easy cannot be considered its objective trait.

Some complaned about stories being stilted, boring, etc. Yes, this is not a gem of literary history, as it is not supposed to be, but I found that short sentences, repetitions, different takes on same situations, etc. actuality serve a purpose of making readers familiar with certain phrases, grammar points and just language in general - if they pay attention (this is self study after all). The ones who are really, really grated by this should move on to more demanding texts, i.e. metaphorically pick on someone their own size.

What I think the book could have done better was use kanji more naturally. There were common words that would normally be written in kanji, however were written in hiragana instead.

[Eszter · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book contains a set of 8 short stories of different genres (SF, history, slice of life, fantasy, ...). Each story is structured in 3 chapters whereas the chapters contain a summary, vocab, and questions for reading comprehension (solutions are at the end of the book). It uses Furigana throughout the book for about 95% of the Kanji. For my taste, it was too much. Difficult words are marked in bold and are translated at the end of the chapter.

The stories were ok - but it was still engaging to read as you are exposed to different genres. I am at around N3, though I think the book is also appropriate for N4. The reading comprehension questions were good as they helped to enforce the understanding. Overall, good structure. I can recommend it.

[Ariane Dokusho · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of short stories for Japanese learners! This book covers many genres of stories and manages to write interesting plot while still maintaining an understandable way of speaking for readers with intermediate reading abilities. Some stories were a bit silly, though.

[Tristen · Rating 2 out of 5]

My main takeaway from this book is that if you are at the skill level where you are able to read this book, then you really just owe it to yourself to read native material. The short stories are, for the most part, sooo lifeless, predictable, and poorly written that it really doesn't make sense why anyone would choose this over native material that is frankly much better written (and natural).

This book is strange. The vocab selection is pretty much perfect for the level of reader it is targeted at (lower intermediate/intermediate), but the actual writing is so stilted and choppy that it just becomes unbearable to read. It's as if I were to write the following in English: "Sally went to the store. Sally thought it was strange that apples were so expensive. Sally left the store. Then, Sally got in the car and started the engine." Comparing to something like また、同じ夢を見ていた, the writing here insists on repeating the topic over and over again, which honestly treats the reader like they are a much lower level than they actually are, whereas in the native material, it feels natural and flows, without unnecessarily stating the topic of the sentence ad nauseum.

There are also frequent discrepancies between the audiobook and the written copy that might annoy you.

So yeah, I don't really recommend this book. Glad to be done with it.

[Lóra Nagyová · Rating 2 out of 5]

Serves it’s purose as a language learning tool well but i do wonder if the stories could have been written at least in a bit more engaging and interesting way.

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m feeling pretty accomplished after my first book in Japanese! Which is the feeling this book, and tadoku in general, aims to create in its readers. This book is very often recommended in Japanese language learning spaces, so, as someone stepping into reading more, I think this book was a good way to try something novel length while still being aided by what is clearly a “learning material”.

From a language learning perspective, the book is well structured. Each of the eight short stories is broken into three parts; each part a few pages long. They’re a good length to read without feeling too tired or overwhelmed. The stories start out in the everyday (i.e. easy and recognisable situations for intermediate learners who should know a lot of everyday vocabulary), then cross over into historical fiction and sci-fi.

As a learning aid, the book repeats a lot of vocabulary across parts and across stories, to really drill in those words as you read — and I do think I’ve picked up new words by reading this book. My one disappointment is that it doesn’t explain grammar at all; sometimes there’ll be a localised English translation given of what is really a grammar point. I don’t think that helps the learner understand the nuances of the sentence or how Japanese is actually constructed.

From an enjoyment perspective, the book promised fun and interesting stories, but honestly I found most of these a tad boring. My two favourites were probably 侍 (Samurai) and カプセル (Capsule), just because both had a twist and were the closest I could get to a mystery. A lot of the stories resolve very anti-climactically, probably because of length restrictions, and I found the repeat of words and ideas a bit tedious from an enjoyment perspective.

I didn’t read any sentences and think, wow that was beautifully phrased. This falls more on the learning material side than as a true, native text. What made this book a good language learning guide is what also made it less enjoyable to read as a “real book”. But ultimately, I think this book is an important step for anyone getting into reading more native material.

The book grades itself as B1-B2 on the CEFR and high N4-low N2 on the JLPT. I think that’s about right. I’d say this was about low N3 for readability. Some of the specialist vocab and kanji is probably what makes this low N2, but honestly the grammar was very simple, definitely N4-N3. I think anyone in the N3 range could read this book quite comfortably.

[giru · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a pretty fun book to read and perfect for my level, which is around N3 (I just sat the exam). The book is a collection of short stories, each one broken into three chapters. The stories at times are slightly contrived and overly simplistic, but what made me give this a 5 star rating is the attention to detail that the author went to as well as the supporting materials. Throughout each chapter, any words or phrases that are uncommon or >N3 are in bold, indicating that the meaning is at the end of the chapter. This mini dictionary is only a few pages away so it made it easy to look them up and stay within the context of the story, and broadly speaking 99% of the time the chosen words were spot on for what I didn’t already know. Very helpful! I also generally found the stories engaging, even if they were somewhat silly.

[Nikki T · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried to finish this book. I really did. But do you know what I found about halfway through it? Hilariously, two of the pages had not been completely cut from whatever factory it was printed and assembled at. I didn't think much about it in the moment, and just absent-mindedly separated the pages so that i could read them. Moments later it hit me that this book has been at a large library for years - and yet I don't think that a single person has read even half. THAT is how stilted, boring and unhelpful this book really is.

From the perspective of someone who has passed the JLPT N2, this book is probably mostly at the N3 level (considering the vocabulary), but reads like it should be N5. It's unhelpful for every level because either you can't read it because you don't understand enough, or you've caved your head in on a nearby wall because it's so boring that you're now on a random Japanese book site praying that books actually written by Japanese people are actually readable. Spoiler alert: they are. Don't let Olly Richards convince you otherwise.

Japanese graded readers/children's books are worlds more interesting and, would you know it? Actually include native Japanese. If you're at the N4-N3 level, skip this trash and go read something better. N2? Skip this trash and get into native material that interests you.

[Dimitriy Yaroshchuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good learning tool. Stories are... bad, structure-wise, but what can you expect when the goal is language-learning. I'm pretty satisfied all in all!

[ポピ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for language learning purposes. Lost a star for a few spelling errors and mistakes throughout though

[Paradox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book to start reading Japanese.

[Rory · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really greatful to the author of this book. Because thanks to the great way this book was put together I was able to finish my first book in japanese. And it's really a great way to learn japanese and they really understand the needs of people still learning with the chapters not being too long, so one can have a sense of achievement and not be too exhausted and yeah everything about it was just very well done. I mean the stories weren't the best literature ever, but I don't think that's the point here. Also, mind you I didn't understand every sentence, but I'm so glad I fought my way through. I hope someday this will be an easy-peasy read.
edit: one year later wouldn't call it easy-peasy, but it's SO much easier already