Japanese Tadoku Books by Students
Smith College Tadoku Project
桜が咲く時期と日本の春を教えます。この本は本当に優しいです。そして絵がきれいです。
I really enjoyed reading this book. It is about the cherry blossom in Japan and teaches us when and where it blooms. Since cherry blossom blooms in spring, the book also introduces what kind of events there are during the spring in Japan. I recommend this book to other JPN110 students because it is easy to read and there are many kanjis that we learned in the class.
私わこの本が大好きです！面白いですから。I really like this book, because it is interesting. The warm story is about this small family celebrating the mother’s birthday. The other members in the family prepared a surprise for the mother.
I recommend it to other 1st year Japanese students. There were vocabularies I didn’t recognize, but it was not difficult to guess the meaning of them based on the context and the pictures. It did help me to learn some new words and gave me a sense of how conversation is presented in Japanese written text.
この本はやさしいです。おもしろいです。むずかしくないです。
This book was very easy, great for first-year Japanese students! There are some unknown vocabulary and Kanji, but the pictures and context make it pretty clear. In general, I thought it was funny and a great story to help practice my Japanese. I would recommend it to other first-year Japanese students 🙂
この本は面白いです。でもちょっと怖いです。I think this book is interesting but it is also a little bit horrible. This book is about a story happening among an old man, an old women and a bird. At the end of the story, the old women received a box of monsters from the bird because of her greed. The picture of the monsters was terrifying. The story is warning the readers to not be greedy by using the horrible picture of monsters to terrify readers, which I think is smart.
I recommend this book to all Japanese students who like to read stories. This book might be easier for students who know more kanji to read, because there are many vocabularies and kanjis that first year Japanese students haven’t learned. However, students, without knowing many kanjis and vocabularies, still can get the idea of the story through the pictures.
大豆はかわい本です。ちさい本です。でも、おもしろかたですよ。This book explains the importance and functionality of the soybean in Japan. It contains colorful pictures that compliment the information nicely so if one doesn’t understand the reading, they’ll still be able to grasp the main idea by use of the illustrations.
I would recommend this book to my classmates. It’s not only a great exercise in practicing your Japanese skills, but also quite informative! The only qualm I have with this book is the lack of text to make sense of. Each page consists of only 1-2 sentences. However, the Japanese skills needed to understand this book are very fitting of the Japanese 1 class. Enjoy!
なおみ
この本は おもしろいです！かわいいです。ちょっと むずかしいです。この本が すきです。
Don’t be scared of the kanji in the title—this is a fun book to read! There are a lot of characters that fellow first-years probably won’t recognize, but there’s furigana, so, it’s not a problem. Additionally, there’s some phrases that are used that will seem a little odd / unfamiliar, but I think that’s just the difference from the kind of Japanese you’d read regularly to the sort you’d read in a textbook. Altogether, though, even if you don’t know every word, you’ll still get a good sense of what’s going on in the story and find it funny and cute. It’s definitely an enjoyable read. Give it a try!
この本はとてもかわいいです。ウサギとカメはおもしろいです。むずかしくないです。やさしいです。
This book is great for JPN 110 students. Some vocabulary is unfamiliar, but the story of the turtle and the hare may be familiar enough that one understands the context very well. It’s not too dense, and includes cute onomatopoeia words. At the end of the book, there’s even a little sing-along. Some grammar structures are familiar from class, so it’s good practice as well.
この話が有名だと思います。 笠地蔵の話は教科書にもありました。 私は笠地蔵が好きです。 おばあさんとおじいさんはとても親切です。
I think this is a harder Level 1 book. There were some kanji we didn’t learn and overall there was more to read than the other Level 1 book, ハチの話. I recommend this for students who want to see more kanji we have learned in context because 笠地蔵 uses a good amount of the ones we have learned.
ウサギとカメは短く、たくさんの写真がありました。私は前に英語で本を読んだので、読むのは難しくありませんでした。また、本にはたくさんの絵があります。
ウサギとカメ is a good entry level book. I borrowed it from the library and it’s a good book to read if you want something you may not need a dictionary to read. I read it on the bus home during spring break and it was fun to see a story I know in Japanese, especially the onomatopoeia
一郎と京子はかわいいですょ。一郎と京子が好きだと思います。
The book was short and, since I already knew some stuff about school in Japan, I didn’t learn anything new. It’s a good quick read perfect for level 0 and a good book to start the semester.