Japanese Tadoku Books by Students
Smith College Tadoku Project
この 本 は たのしくて おもしろい です 。難しくないです。とても つまらくないです。よんで ください。でも語い は ちょっと むずかしい です。
The book was an amazing and funny read. I would recommend this book to those taking JPN 110 , or have very little exposure in the language. I loved reading this book. The story was colorful. I wished there was a sequel to this book. The vocabulary might be slightly higher than what we have learnt, but the grammar is very easy to understand. Please do read this book. It will definitely make you laugh.
このほんはとてもおもしろくて、ちょうとむずかしです。
The book is very interesting about the life of たろうくん and showing what he did during the school break. The drawing is very cute and it’s pretty self explanatory. There were some phrases and vocabulary that I didn’t know, but I made my guess based on the image the writer provided and the words in the sentences.
I definitely recommend this story for 110 students like me because it’s not too hard to read. The sentences are short and the pictures make you excited to read more!
この本が大好きです。長いそうだから、読む前に、難しいと思いましたが、実はとても面白くて、読みやすいです。たくさんかわいい絵があるから、ちょっと読みにくい時に、ほとんどのストーリーが分かると思います。この本は色々な物の名前を説明します。食べ物だけでなくて、生き物や体の名前も説明します。話はとても面白いです。例えば、「かぼちゃ」は日本までカンボジアから来ましたから、そして名前はかぼちゃになりました。日本語が上手になるために、言葉の元を分かる必要があると思います。だから、この本をよんでください！
I definitely recommend this book. It is filled with extremely interesting explanations of names of things in Japanese, and I think it is helpful to understand the origins of words in any language that you speak. I have always been interested in word origin and etymology and didn’t know anything about Japanese etymology, so it answers a lot of questions. The book is quite long, but it’s something you can come back to again and again and learn new things. Please read this book!
この本はちょっとじしょのような本だので、全部読みませんでしたが、読んだ分はとても面白かったと思います！英語が始めにだけ話せる人として、日本語のオノマトペはいつも難しかったです。英語で、オノマトペはいつも音ですが、日本語で、オノマトペのコンセプトもあるから、分かりにくいです！ぜんぜんやさしくなるでしょうが、オノマトペやマンガが好きだったら、この本は楽しいかもしれません。読んでください！
I didn’t intend to read this whole thing, since it’s sort of a glossary of Japanese onomatopoeia, and very long. But it consists of little comics explaining the onomatopoeia, which I found to be fairly easy to understand – they use a lot of familiar vocab, and almost entirely familiar grammars, and they’re very simple. Plus, the book provides romaji and a translation, so you can check yourself as you go! I would definitely recommend this to 2nd years. (Plus, the pun in the title is just. So enticing.)
As a second year Japanese student, I find the honorific language particularly difficult to remember. I usually confuse honorific words with humble expression and vice versa. It is always easy to remember that in Japanese, you should upgrade your partner (the person you are speaking to) while lowering yourself. However, the verbs are all irregular and thus easy to be mixed together, at least for me.
Therefore, I recommend this book because of three reasons
While I am still reading the book as I have just recently discovered it, I recommend it to anyone who learnt honorific languages before as it will make more sense. Yet, if you are a first-year student eager to prepare for next year, I guess you can also try it out of curiosity. It is a great book to check out as it is way too cute and helful!
P/S: If you love Maruko-chan, you can meet her in anime series too!