Let's Talk in Traveling Japanese

Thank you Net Galley for the free ARC. Not sure if this was a starter Japanese book, but it was way beyond me.

I had to get a Japanese speaking friend to help me with this. I am learning Japanese and had a little trouble getting through it, but this is a wonderful resource, the illustrations were helpful as well. It allows you to be able to write on it as well.

Before launching into this review, I should note a few things, namely that I have been learning Japanese for seven months. This is entirely self-taught study, and therefore I am always on the lookout for new ways to practice and improve, hence my decision to request this title from NetGalley. From the blurb, I got the impression this book was aimed at beginner to immediate level Japanese speakers. However, when I opened the book I soon realised the entire text was in Japanese, with no accompanying English explanations. I could read bits of it, but not all, as I am still in the early stages of learning kanji. From what I could make out, the book opened with talk of kana, kanji and some grammar elements, before going on to travel-based scenarios. Again, from what I could understand, these little sequences contained plenty of good info and useful vocabulary. Nonetheless, I find myself unable to work out who this book is aimed at. With the text fully in Japanese, it's a little too advanced for a beginner like me, as I can't understand enough to get much use out of it. On the other hand, if your Japanese is good enough to read this book then I doubt you are in need of tips on travel vocabulary. In the end I am giving this three stars. The layout was good and I thought the mix of text and manga scenarios worked well, but I cannot see who would benefit from the text.

Let's Talk in Traveling Japanese is a textbook and learning tool (in a series) for English language travelers to Japan. Released 22nd Feb 2020 by Bingo LLC, it's 140 pages and available in paperback format with multimedia support.

This is a very nicely illustrated upbeat guide to travel in Japan including each of the prefectures (with maps) along with short dialogue practice examples. I liked that they didn't just include the standard things but also included several examples of interacting with emergency personnel and police/rescue type situations.

For beginners to Japanese language study, it's important to understand that more than 90% of the text in the book is in Japanese. There are no translations included. The publisher information states that each chapter is supported with a QR code linked to videos, online resources, and other support materials. I found several QR codes in the book but none of them functioned for me. Note: I received an eARC for review purposes, not the full physical edition of the book. It could be that the actual book will have functional codes.

This is a nice book in what looks like a fun series. It didn't function well for me because my understanding of Japanese is much (MUCH) lower than needed to use the book. My kid, who's studying linguistics, helped me by translating some of the text for me and said that they didn't see any glaring errors in the parts we looked at together.

Final thoughts: readers need a fairly advanced degree of facility with written Japanese to utilize this book. It is very well illustrated in an appealing cartoon chibi style and covers a wide variety of situations, from seeing local tourist attractions, ordering and eating food, social situations, emergency services, and useful things like that. The QR codes and support materials did not work for me at all.

Three stars, likely 4 for people who can utilize the online resources.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

I received a complimentary review copy of #LetstalkintravelingJapanese from #NetGalley

Based on the description, I thought this book would be in English (or at least English and Japanese) for readers who plan to travel to Japan soon. The layout is done well, and the contents look very well-organized, with pleasant and simple illustrations. There is also room for notes on some pages. However, the entire text was written in Japanese, which I cannot read, so I am not able to provide further feedback. I am rating this book 3 stars because I can't actually tell how useful it is, and I think the description should have mentioned that this is for people who can already read Japanese.

You have to be at least somewhat familiar with Japanese in order to learn from this book, otherwise, you won't be able to understand anything as there's no English at all:)

This book is beautifully illustrated, and has clear graphics and charts for Japanese learners. HOWEVER, this book does not contain English translations and therefore it would be better to have a Japanese teacher or tutor go through the book with you. I'm at an intermediate level and am very excited to go through it, but I am definitely going to need to source outside help to fully benefit from it.

This book has unique interactive features not normally found in language learning texts. I think this book would be a great supplement for English speakers that are enrolled in a college level Japanese course because no instructions or guidelines are in English, but provides great opportunities for practice reading, listening, and writing the language.

I just reviewed Let's Talk in Traveling Japanese by Nihongo Inc (Author), Iroriko (Illustrator). #LetstalkintravelingJapanese #NetGalley
[https://www.netgalley.com/member/book/185609]

Thank you NetGalley for providing this book. Unfortunately it can't be downloaded properly on my computer, and apparently it's all in japanese.

This book has a beautiful playful comic book style to the pictures. Full of bright colors and a lovely layout. Very beautiful book.

This book is great if you already know some basic Japanese (Involving Hiragana , Katakana and at least some Kanji) The book is great as a workbook and textbook as it provides explanations and cute examples of certain grammar and speech topics. It provides a good amount of activities as well to practice and I really enjoyed their comic approach throughout the book with the two main characters struggling to learn Japanese and eventually mastering it, showing that anyone can learn this language!

However, I would not recommend this book for those just stepping into Japanese as the kanji makes it difficult to follow and I believe this book should be considered intermediate level.

This was a super fun read! I've always been into the Japanese culture. Its a fantastic read, fun and refreshing. I've always enjoyed reading about how different and wonderful and beautiful every culture in the world is.

First off, anyone reading this review should be aware that I've been studying Japanese for 30 years, so I'm certain that I'm not the intended audience for this book. That being said, I'm a bit perplexed about who the intended audience is. Topic-wise, it's an intro-level book. On the other hand, based on language skills, especially reading & writing, it assumes at least some familiarity with Japanese already. The majority of the text is in Japanese.

You definitely already need to know hiragana and katakana to use this, and quite a bit of kanji wouldn't hurt, either. Some sections are very carefully annotated with furigana (reading guides) so that you can read the words even if you don't know the kanji. Unfortunately, other sections may be lacking furigana entirely, so if you don't know the kanji, you're tough out of luck. So going entirely on the language skills you need to be able to read and use this book, I'd estimate it's for someone with at least 1 year of (American) university-level Japanese courses under their belt.

Each chapter is loosely task-based and follows the adventures of two foreigners visiting Japan. Every chapter starts out with a dialogue between characters, then has a section of explanatory information, which may be grammar points or cultural information (such as the right way to rinse your hands when you visit a Shinto shrine). This is followed by several pages of exercises.

The layout and graphic design are excellent. You may not think that's important, but it can help guide a learner in very helpful ways.

Overall, I think this is a helpful book for intermediate Japanese learners who are either using this in a classroom setting or who don't mind figuring things out for themselves if the Japanese-only explanations are above their heads. If you're an absolute beginner to Japanese language study, though, save this one for later.

I know absolutely no Japanese, so this book, written entirely in Japanese, was not helpful. I am planning a trip to Japan but I will have to get help from someone who knows Japanese to see if this is helpful at all.

It is pretty and seems well laid-out.

I received a free ARC as a reviewer for NetGalley.

I will not review the content since my Japan is not that advance. But you still can learn from this book, because they provide you with katakana and hiragana. I like the illustrations in this book. It has manga style. If you are a beginner maybe you want to find another book that has romanization.

As a student of US college level Japanese, I love this book. It provides the grammar explanations and colloquial usages which are hard to find in American language learning materials. I will be buying a copy of this book for my own personal collection of study materials. This intermediate level book fills a need in the American market which caters mainly to the beginner self-lead student of Japanese. This is definitely a book for the beginner-intermediate learner. The book is written mainly in Japanese with firigana to assist with unfamiliar kanji. English is used to help explain grammar and usage. The phrases and situations in the book are useful for traveling in Japan while assisting the learner to achieve a more conversational voice,

At first, I thought it was going a mixture of Japanese and English explanations, but it's all in Japanese... I'm not sure if this is a starter Japanese book, but it maybe with all the media support this can be easier than it seems.
I loved the clean leasons and the illustrations
I'm sure that this can be an excellent and helpful book to learn the language.

I think the layout of this book makes sense, and would be a good book for someone who has a rudimentary understanding of the Japanese language to begin with. I have friends who are living in Japan and thought this book would be a good way to familiarize myself some of the language and culture before we go to visit them. I was lost in trying to understand the book. I also had problems accessing it on my computer, which didn’t help my frustration level. I think this book would be a wonderful asset for someone, like my friends, who have traveled there to live and are immersed in the language and culture. #netgalley #Let’stalkintravelingJapanese #goodreads

I really really looking forward to this. One of my favorite subjects. Sadly my tablet wouldn't let it load.

I misunderstood this book, and from the cover I thought it would have both English and Japanese translations. It definitely does in some areas of the book, but generally just to explain unique expressions or grammar.

This is a very similar (but updated) version of the textbooks I used when I studied Japanese. With cute illustrations and places to write. This isn't a style I enjoy studying with, as the books always seem to lovely to write in.

I liked that along with language it discussed customs, food and specific locations to visit in areas of Japan.
Definitely a useful book if you have been studying Japanese for some time and are planning a trip. Too advanced for beginners, and not useful enough for anyone fluent. A great middle ground book though, with answers provided at the back.

Excellent book to continue learning Japanese. This book is for someone with intermediate level japanese proficiency. It’s colorful and fun and uses real life language instead of made up phrases you never will actually use in life! It would have been helpful if all the kanji had readings above.
As a person having a degree in Japanese this book is great. I love to learn language in the language I’m learning. It does make for a more challenging learning experience but it stretches your mind. This book is not for a beginner. But it is a great book to further your Japanese study. I would recommend it.

I'm very much a beginner in Japanese, and this book was too advanced for me. The illustrations and layout were great however, and if you're intermediate level I think this would be perfect for you,

This is not a book for beginner or even early intermediate. I really can't review on the content since I'm a beginner and the whole book is mostly in Japanese.

We are likely going to purchase this title for the library collection.

However I can't give a review. When I downloaded the digital book to Adobe Digital Editions the pages were blank except for some manga pages in Japanese. I think is was an issue with formatting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bingo LLC for this review copy.

I feel like I need to preface my review with my own learning experience. I took several years of Japanese at a university and then transferred to another. The first program was amazing. By the third semester we would have class four days a week and Fridays were optional. The Friday class was at a Japanese restaurant and we would speak in Japanese as much as we could and learn about culture, habits, things not to do and so on. In other words, it was fairly immersive.

The second school I transferred to to finish my degree was paltry in Japanese. They were
phoning it it. I think the American school system (in general) phones it in. We don’t teach to be prepared to speak. It’s a bunch of courses to get students to spend money.

Having said that, not all said beginners are equal. This is not a beginner for an average student. You need to be intermediate with excellent vocabulary. When I say vocabulary I mean Kanji and full mastery of hiragana and katakana. You need to probably be at least grade 4 with your kanji. I do like this. It's very engaging with the illustrations and the dialogue. I'm having to rack my brain for the vocabulary, but it's getting there. This requires effort from the student. It's not magic. If you have the basics down that I mentioned above, then this is excellent for pushing you further. I have noticed an increased difference in recall. I recommend this to intermediate students.

I think this book was fairly well done. I have been speaking/reading Japanese since 1992 but haven't had the chance to use it on a regular basis so I was looking for someway to brush up. I thought the pictures and the dialogue were pretty good however, this book assumes the reader already knows Japanese and is more like a quick refresher course. Definitely not for someone new to the language.

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to review this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Overall, this is a nicely illustrated travel guide filled with cute chibi characters and drawings. The book is filled with comics, colorful diagrams and tons of activities/examples. For further guidance, they have several activities with video support and other supporting materials that you can access via a QR code.

Unfortunately, I was unable to open access these links or videos as I could not get the QR codes to function. This may be due to the version I was provided with, as I received an eARC for review purposes. Based on some of the other reviews I have seen on Amazon, it seems that those using the physical edition of the textbook had no issues accessing the supplemental videos.

In terms of the textbook as an educational tool, I am sad to say that I would not recommend this to any beginner as it is primarily all in Japanese with a few English sentences sprinkled in. Now, the videos may be fully in English and may walk you through the entire textbook, but I cannot confirm this. Those with a high enough Japanese reading level are sure to enjoy this though as the activities appear to be creative and engaging. I can also confirm that the answers are provided in the back of the book.

My final thoughts: I strongly recommend that only advanced beginners use or those able to fully read Japanese use this textbook. Due to the lack of English translations, I don’t find this to be very beginner friendly. Since I do not speak fluent Japanese, I was unable to fully review this textbook and therefor give the following ratings:

For beginners: 2/5
For advanced beginners (who can read Japanese): 4/5
My overall rating: 3/5

Disclosure: I received an eARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

Wow! What a cute and educational book! I've been studying Japanese for a little while so I was extremely excited to dive into this book. I learned a lot of new thinds and really recommend this to someone thinking about visiting Japan.

Let's Talk in Traveling Japanese gives us a illustration it gives a kind-of easy to read by looking at the picture. The topic is very thematic and fun to learn, you will never get bored by this.

But as for beginner I think it would be hard for them because there are less english word, if its for me I would try to translate it with translator tools.

Overall I would give 3.5/5

Thank you

Not a beginner book

My background comes from doing my undergrad in EAS and that I lived in Japan for 8 years; I speak and read Japanese quite well so I was sort of taken aback at the actual difficulty of the content. When reviewing this book, I looked critically at its use as an instructional tool for an independent learner and for a learner in a classroom setting.

Besides the full color pages, the nice bit is that the book does use furigana above the kanji, so those with a basic grasp of hiragana can struggle along with the first few pages of block text. Rarely is kanji not with out furigana....

Sorry, “hurigana”.

The book is split up into 3 levels.

The first level reviews the writing system. However, I was surprised the author chose to use “hu” rather than “fu” for ふ/フ - that’s not traditional for Japanese language learners and may be awkward for nonnative speakers of Japanese to understand the lip movement. It was an interesting, but welcome, choice to show the alphabet in another font, too.

It goes a little bit into the differences between commonly confused characters, which I thought was a nice touch. It even explains a bit about the JLPT and that reading this book will bring the reader anywhere between N5-N4 level. Awkward because up until that point, the level is way beyond a beginner looking at JLPT.

After what feels like eternity of taking an entire first year Japan writing history class, part 2 starts. Part two is where the description gets it’s chapters from. Each chapter has a script, research, and learning page. For example, chapter 1 has 4 grammar points that it covers. It does kind of an okay job on it, but again, I do not feel the grammar and presentation matches the level this book advertises.

At the end of part 2, there is an answer key for the activities, so answers can be checked.

Part 3 has a vocab list for each chapter, verb conjugation charts, and some other helpful things like calendar vocab and counters.

Overall, this is not a beginner book, but the title and description makes it appear to be geared towards students who’ve dabbled in Japanese language learning. Traveling is usually associated with tourist which is usually associated with new learners. This book would be best used in a classroom for study abroad students who are planning on studying in Japan, or who have started studying in Japan, with at least a year of Japanese study underneath them. Students returning to study Japanese could be confused and frustrated by the difficulty. Some of the translations in English are also slightly...off. This is pretty typical though of Japanese textbooks written by nonnative English speakers, but is unfortunate because it can trip up learners, especially emerging language learners.

I wanted to rate this a 3, but it may be a lower 4 if this is used as part of a curriculum with a good teacher who can go beyond the gaps in the book. Could be a decent review for JLPT 4, but is too simple for JLPT 3.

An enchanting and fun guide to beginning Japanese or a refresher for anyone who has studied in the past. Nimble and easy to absorb.

**If you can’t understand the text on the cover, this book might not be for you.**

I want to learn Japanese and I’m always on the look out for books or resources that can make it fun. The key to learning something challenging without high amounts of self-discipline is to make it as enjoyable as possible. Anime comes to mind, I have learnt lots of words and phrases while listening to anime in Japanese, but if I am looking for more serious learning resources, I still want to have fun in the process.

Let’s Talk in Traveling Japanese gave me a bit of that, but as a beginner, I found it also confusing. Each chapter follows different events in the life of our characters: Mari, Mika, Tomoya and Shingo. Through their dialogues you learn how to communicate in most common situations. It has a lot of cute illustrations with dialogues, explanations and exercises. There’s also interactive content that you can access through QR codes. However, it is not meant for someone who has just started to learn Japanese.

The front cover doesn’t clarify the level of Japanese the reader is supposed to have. The big Japanese text and small English translation made me think of a highly immersive bilingual course for tourists. To my surprise, the content is only in Japanese!. Some words and a short vocabulary list at the end of the book being the only exception. That’s the only issue I see about this book, it can be easily mistaken for a beginner’s book with English translations.

If we focus on the real readers this book is meant for (students with previous knowledge of Japanese), I can say that I like their approach!, it’s not the first time I have come across this teaching method. Many years ago I had a language class, where you learn the alphabet and basic words, completely taught in that foreign language. Only thing in English was when our teacher introduced herself and mentioned that English was not allowed.

Our course book was also fully in a foreign language, just as this book is. You know what? It worked marvelously, instead of focusing on English translations, I associated words with drawings and gestures the teacher made. I learned super fast. This book has that same approach, they want you to focus on Japanese and really remember it, instead of getting distracted by translations.

If you are a highly motivated student who wants to get immersed in the language and you already know Japanese at an elementary level (maybe N4 level students?), I would suggest you to take advantage of this book. Also a great option for classrooms, where beginner students can still take advantage of it when properly guided by a teacher and other learning resources.

The illustrations are beautiful, and this appears to be a well-organized language learning resource. However, based on the description I assumed (incorrectly) that this book was geared toward non-Japanese language speakers to learn beginner-level phrasing that might be useful for travel. That's not the case— the entire book is in Japanese and not something a novice could just pick up.

I've been studying Japanese since quarantine began, but this book was too advanced for me. It requires at least an intermediate reading level, I think. The illustrations are lovely, though.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

With thank to Netgalley and Bingo LLC

Let's Talk in Traveling Japanese is a book for those who want to learn Japanese whilst on holiday, it is best that you have a basic understanding of the Japanese language. Not a good textbook for those who don't know any Japanese.

The layout of the book is good as is the artwork.

Unfortunately the book does not specify that more than 90% of it is in Japanese, so for beginners it's a no-no, unless you have someone to help you with.

Other than that, the illustrations were really nice.

Nihongo is a great series of books that help you learn Japanese. I was keen to pick up Let's Talk in Traveling Japanese after reading their other books. I was not disappointed! It's useful phrases are really each to remember and my Japanese has only gotten better. Thank you for giving me a copy in exchange for an honest review!

This book was so educational and would be great for anyone wanting to learn the basics of Japanese! I have always been an anime and manga nerd so when I found this book, I was like, this is THE book you've been looking for! Safe to say it did not disappoint one bit!

I have been wanting to learn Japanese for awhile now, and I was excited to pick up this book. At first I assumed it was a beginner level book, but I assumed wrong. I am still new to teaching myself Japanese so this book is too advanced for me; however, I did appreciate the Hiragana and Katakana character charts towards the beginning of the book. I also noticed there were QR codes at the bottom of some of the pages and scanning those took me to some Youtube videos - still in Japanese - but the idea of interactive learning with QR codes is interesting and may be beneficial to more advanced learners (plus the animation was great and the 360-view videos were really enjoyable). Furthermore, the art throughout the book is cute, and I like the setup of reading a little story before diving into the exercises and main lesson of a particular section. While I can’t utilize this book yet, I feel like this is a good resource for those who have a good base knowledge and are looking for supplemental material to improve their Japanese-language proficiency.

Not a book for true beginners of Japanese, better suited for intermediate learners. This should probably be indicated somewhere on the cover or the back of the book. The description can be a bit misleading. The grammar wasn’t too difficult to understand, and the diverse characters were cute.

I think I may have had some formatting issues with e-arc, but I was able to read most of this textbook/workbook.

I have experience learning Japanese, studying for three and a half years, and have an upper-beginner reading level. (Time away from class has definitely eroded my kanji reading ability.)

I came away from this textbook unsure about the intended teaching level and expected audience. It begins teaching grammar points I personally learned within my first year, but all directions and information are supplied in Japanese. As a student, I've never been a fan of instructions and teaching points supplied in the target language, as I think it gets confusing and you spend more time in the dictionary trying to understand the assignment, vs. actually practicing and learning.

That's all personal taste, however, and I think with the fun situations and characters any dedicated learner can get a lot out of this textbook, especially for traveling!

This book is the perfect resource for intermediate learners of Japanese that want to take their language skills to the next level!

Each chapter follows different events in the life of our characters: Mari, Mika, Tomoya and Shingo. Through their dialogues you learn how to communicate in most common situations. It has a lot of cute illustrations with dialogues, explanations and exercises. There's also interactive content that you can access through QR codes. However, it is not meant for someone who has just started to learn Japanese.

Which is why the book wasn't for me as I want to learn Japanese but don't have enough background for this book yet.

Let's Talk in Traveling Japanese is a really handy and efficient guide to learning how to communicate in common situations. It is perfect for someone who is already learning Japanese as there are no English translations, and rather is a helping hand to those that have already gotten a grasp of the language before.

I knew that the book would be in Japanese when I requested to read this, since it was pretty obvious judging from the front cover. What I did not expect was that my Japanese was not good enough to fully understand the book, but yes, that's my problem. Pushing this aside, I loved how the book content was organized, the author and illustrator threw lots of graphics, charts, and tourist spot recommendations in there, and I would probably come back and try this book out again perhaps after I study Japanese for another few months.