Kodansha's Katakana Workbook: A Step-by-Step Approach to Basic Japanese Writing

I am very fresh and new to learning Japanese, so I didn't really know what books to get on learning Japanese script. I looked on Amazon and to be honest, I was looking something that would do the job, be fun and cheap. Ha ha ha, a tall order I know. if you study languages, you know that the resources are not cheap and getting more and more expensive by the year. I was reluctant to buy these books because of the strange looking characters on the cover but I figured it couldn't be that bad. Turns out, I was right! I love these books! I bought both the Hiragana and the Katakana books and they were not that expensive. Its not perfect but it will do. The positives: you learn the Hiragana in the order they were meant, they teach you not only how to write the letter but also you learn lots of vocabulary, about 300+ words along with the Hiragana and another cool thing, is that they teach you not only to write it horizontally but *vertically* as well, which I love! I also really love the flash cards in the back. I am a little bit slower in learning and while some are learning 10 characters a day, because of being a busy mom, I am only learning to write and pronounce 5 or 6 characters at a time. Plus, I am not in any rush; I am fascinated with and love languages, so learning the characters and speaking as quickly as possible is not my goal. Acquiring language is a lifetime goal that will never be mastered; only enjoyed and spoken well.The negatives of this book is that there is very little practice spaces for the characters, even to copy pages to write them. I wish each character was a bit larger on the page; and I wish there were some exercises to help cement the letters more in your head. Even so, the book is good, it does the job and you learn some vocabulary to boot. I am not sorry for the purchase and would buy it again.

If you need flashcards, and a simple workbook, this is a good option. I felt that compared to another workbook, this one wasn't as detailed and helpful for learning the characters. But I absolutely love the perforated flashcards as an additional learning tool, and I use them each day that I'm learning.Cons: - Workbook doesn't have pronunciation information for each character. It has an introduction section that lists them, but showing clear "sounds like 'ee' as in sleep" is so important for new learners, and helps them create mental connections to the characters helping memorization. - Not as focused on quizzing/structured reviewA recommended workbook that is a great supplement to this would be "Learning Japanese Hiragana and Katakana: A Workbook for Self-Study" which you can find here: https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Japanese-Hiragana-Katakana-Self-Study/dp/4805312270/That workbook has a bit more detailed information for each character that I really found helpful. Adding these two resource together has been really good for my introductory learning the kanas.

I love the book. its easy to write and erase. and its really nice that it has flashcard at the end of the book for you to study and that nice. I like the book. its a great way to study your Japanese and do some puzzle too inside the book.

Get the Kodansha's Hiragana Workbook first! Learning Hiragana may not be necessary to practice this book, but when learning Japanese, it is best to go Hiragana, Katakana, and then Kanji. This Katakana book is set up in a way that it helps you retain the knowledge. However, having the background of the pronociations and structures helps you incredibely with this book. The main negative with this book is it does not go by normal table (k,s,t,n,h,m,y,w,n), it goes by which characters will be able to help you learn words the quickest. I prefer a more structured approach, however I do seem to be remembering the katakana fairly well by going through a chapter a day, and then writing the characters I know into the structured table once I have finished that day's chapter. Out of all the study guide's out there, I have found the Kodansha's workbooks to be the most helpful and would reccomend them to any begginer of Japanese.

I Purchased this workbook along with the companion workbook by the same author for hiragana. This book really helps you learn to properly write, read and pronounce Katakana. There is a link in the book to the publisher's website where audio files can be downloaded to practice pronunciation.

I got this for my daughters (six and eight years old) to help them begin to read in Japanese and develop their vocabulary. Their dad and I speak Japanese so they're familiar with the sounds, but as they don't speak Japanese themselves they were nervous to begin. However this book was laid out in a clear, efficient manner so that they could easily work through it at their own pace. I also like how it immediately begins to teach words that use the kana, so they can begin to read and write full words right from the beginning. As both a 12 year language teacher and an 18 year language learner, this is one of the better beginning script books I've seen, both for kids or adults.

I think this is a really good workbook. I purchased it after I purchased the Hiragana workbook in the same series. There is plenty of room to practice and the flash cards are great. My only complaint is that I wish it were organized like the Hiragana book with all the vowels first and then the other sections letter group by letter group. In theory I understand that they wanted to mix is up so you could start spelling some select words right away but it is really not working for me.That said, I would still recommend this book.

I'm a beginner at learning Japanese and have been buying tons of different study supplies to help. If you're at the stage where you are memorizing Hiragana/Katana, this series of books is excellent. You get a ton of practice writing different words and characters and it really drills into your mind what each of the characters are. It doesn't go into grammar or rules of the lanuage but it's a great supplemental tool to help you memorize the characters.

If you are learning Japanese this book is a real help, buy it and its Hiragana version. This one completes the basic characters used in the Japanese language and teaches you how to write them properly, it also has a lot of basic words to learn. If you write in it with pencil it can be erased and done again if your learning ability requires it.

Great for 1st timers

Papel de buena calidad y textos explicativos. Lo que más nos gustó es que al final vienen una especie de "cartas" recortables con los dirigentes símbolos para que practiques jugando.

Una forma facil y divertida de aprender la escritura japones. A su vez aprendes algo de vocabulario y lo haces casi sin darte cuenta. Recomendable.

Para empezar a aprender el katakana va muy bien contiene ejercicios, frases, palabras sueltas. de esta forma puedes aprender más rápido.