Easy Hiragana

I just started learning Japanese 10 days ago. I've started with this book, and let me just say, it is wonderful! I had read the other reviews on this book before I bought it, and I wasn't sure what to think.. it sounded good. But I am so overly impressed by this book, that I would suggest it to anyone trying to learn Hiragana. I also bought a book called "Let's Learn Hiragana: First Book of Basic Japanese Writing." I have only looked through it, but I am happy that I started with Easy Hiragana. The lessons are extremely well organized, and very easy to learn. The other book has longer lessons and crams a bit too much into them, it looks much harder to learn. It does include extra explanations about grammar, but that's all it's really good for with both books. With Easy Hiragana I've been studying 10 days, I've learned 32 of the 48 character and have also learned 80 words! I do each lesson 7 times to commit it to memory, and a review after a few days. I do about 5 repetitions of a lesson a day, but you could spread it out more. I LOVE this book! It is the best that I have come by!

This book is great- it shows stroke order and encourages practice. However, I greatly disagree with the ease of writing order. For example, I can make a "ma" and a "ya" MUCH easier than I can make a ku, i, or he. Also, the book needs to dedicate about 10 pages of text to a passage of any kind (short story or series of poems) that is written strictly in hiragana for reading practice. It's one thing to recognize symbols and be able to write down a sound in a different writing style, it's an entirely different thing to read at even a first or second grade level.

If you're about learning Japanese writing, then this book is a must for you. It will smoothly teach you how to cope with Hiragana and explain the concepts.Very good book for beginners.