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:)

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.

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

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