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!

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.

Very cute illustrations but this book will not help anyone who has less than an intermediate knowledge of Japanese. For those who already are enrolled in a Nihongo class, this may be a perfect companion but for the layman, it gives no real help.

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.

I am self-learning Japanese since last few months and I really thought that this book might be beneficial for my studies. But, I was extremely disappointed. For a book which claims to teach you Traveling Japanese, Majority of the text being in Japanese is a perfect irony. Though I can read Hiragana and Katakana characters fairly well, it gets extremely difficult to read an entire book written majorly in Japanese letters. As it was difficult for me to understand the entire written material, I won't be able to fairly review the book. But, from whatever little I could make from the illustrations and letters, the book definitely has various conversations which might prove helpful for those travelling in Japan. But, yet the question remains, Why Would One Buy a Book to Learn Japanese Speaking written in Japanese itself.

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.

**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.

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.

I was definitely hopeful for this book to strength my Japanese skills, which Ive started learning through Rosetta Stone. Especially since the book description includes things like: "I understand a little Japanese" and "I studied a little but it was difficult so I stopped it." But when I opened this book, I was so disappointed to see everything is in Japanese! This definitely isn’t learning material for a beginner or someone who “studied a little” or was finding the language difficult. This is definitely for an intermediate learner who has a grasp of the alphabet and can read the Japanese characters and needs the words for traveling through the country.

This book fails because it is only in Japanese. Teenagers would be attracted to the manga style but the fog of Japanese words so small they are difficult to read would quickly dispirit them. Some pages contain so much that it all becomes a blur. What a shame!

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.

The blurb of this book says that it is aimed at people who understand a little bit of Japanese and have stopped because they are finding it difficult. I am firmly in this camp. I have been attempting to learn Japanese for longer than I would like to admit, I have multiple books with numerous attempts at learning this language. I am able to recollect some words and a few basic sentences but beyond that it is a mystery. I thought that this book would be a perfect tool for me to attempt to learn with a practical application of being able to communicate while travelling.

Well, this entire book is in Japanese!

I do not know how I am supposed to be learning how to speak Japanese is I do not even know what it is they are trying to get me to say. I feel like this book is not aimed at beginners and more intermediate Japanese language speakers who want to know what to say while travelling Japan. But honestly y that is just a guess as I cannot read it!

That being said the illustrations are cute.

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.

At first glance, this book appeared to be fun and interesting but boy, was I surprised at what little sense I could make of anything in this book.  I thought that even if the book was written in Japanese that there would be explanations along side it In English but I was caught totally off-guard.  This was an ebook that I downloaded to review.  The illustrations may have been interesting but I could make neither hide nor hair of what was going on.  Unless you can read Japanese, you're out of luck.

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