Review by Matthias

At his level the booklets contain often just a list of words or contain very simplistic texts and thus are useful only for real beginners. Each pack has one CD and several small booklets, the stories are short and words at this level repeating enough to remember them. The levels are compared to JLPT exam levels, though the words still seem limited compared to what is required for the JLPT level. What I miss though is a list of words used at each level (like online). Since the booklets are short you can tick them off with a satisfactory feeling very quickly.

I chose this book to learn more Kanji and words casually on my own pace. It is organized in 6 chapters with each 6 pages (like one per weekday Mon-Sat) to learn which introduce like 8-10 Kanji per day and comes with a test for the day. On the day 7 (like Sun) there is a larger test for the entire chapter and also a page with additional Kanji. Each page is themed like signs, train platform, recipes, ... so you also could just use the book to learn Kanji per topic. Or just go through from page 1 to the end. At the end of the book there is a list of all words and Kanjis. Every Kanji lists useful words and each word uses furigana but there is no romaji in this book.

The chapters group the vocabulary into some useful groups. In addition to each entry there is the translation, some example sentences and also additional entries provided like opposites such as good vs bad. Some pages are added explaining graphically some topics such as family or jobs. Also red card is a nice addition, once put over the page the japanese is not visible so you can train translations from English/Vietnamese into Japanese. Unfortunately not the other way round. Finally the physical format of that book is great and in the beginning the usage is well explained.

The chapters group the vocabulary into some useful groups. In addition to each entry there is the translation, some example sentences and also additional entries provided like opposites such as good vs bad. Some pages are added explaining graphically some topics such as family or jobs. Also red card is a nice addition, once put over the page the japanese is not visible so you can train translations from English/Vietnamese into Japanese. Unfortunately not the other way round. Finally the physical format of that book is great and in the beginning the usage is well explained.

This book is a good resource to learn or refresh the relevant Japanese grammar for the JLPT N4. The reading and listening sections are also great as finding texts with the correct Kanji and vocabulary items elsewhere seems quite hard (if you want those in printed form). I would by it again as it is overall a very useful book.

This book is a good resource to learn or refresh Kanji and Vocabulary. For each Kanji different examples are provided, which is very helpful. There also are various pages about various topics as well. Also a nice grammar overview is provided too. When learning Kanji I would like to have the stroke order as well but this book does not contain that. I would by it again as it is overall a very useful book.

The story is nice and this manga differs not too from the anime adaptation. The manga contains additional scenes which explain the actions much better. Also this is suited for readers not knowing all the Kanji as Furigana shows the reading (from what I had to look up the Random House Japanese/English dictionary contains most of the terms, a few I could not find).

The story is nice and this manga differs not too from the anime adaptation. The manga contains additional scenes which explain the actions much better. Also this is suited for readers not knowing all the Kanji as Furigana shows the reading (from what I had to look up the Random House Japanese/English dictionary contains most of the terms, a few I could not find).

Although quality of these books are great their content varies from good to not soo good in my opinion. Some of those stories tell some interesting story though. Each pack has one CD and several small booklets, the stories are short and words at this level repeating enough to remember them. The levels are compared to JLPT exam levels, though the words still seem limited compared to what is required for the JLPT level. What I miss though is a list of words used at each level (like online). These are not really cheap but they offer short texts which one can read within a set amount of time.

The story is nice and this manga differs not too from the anime adaptation. The manga contains additional scenes which explain the actions much better. Also this is suited for readers not knowing all the Kanji as Furigana shows the reading (from what I had to look up the Random House Japanese/English dictionary contains most of the terms, a few I could not find).

This book is a good resource to learn or refresh Kanji and Vocabulary. The grammar section is ok although it feels a little bit unorganized. For each Kanji different examples are provided, which is very helpful. There also are various pages about the numbers in Japanese as well. The enclosed CD is helpful as well for some listening practice, but be aware these are not easy. When learning Kanji I would like to have the stroke order as well but this book does not contain that. I would by it again as it is overall a very useful book.