Job Discussion Forums

Mark · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Posts: 500 Location: Tokyo, Japan

Hi,

This is a bit off-topic, but just wondering if anyone knows of a series of graded readers written for learners of Japanese?

Thanks,

Mark

kitano · Joined: 18 Nov 2004 Posts: 86

I've looked a lot and basically I don't think there are any. You can use kids materials or manga with furigana but the JSL community isn't into the graded reader thing. Most Japanese teachers I met had no idea what I was getting at. Maybe the market is too small to publish anything.

saloc · Joined: 04 Jul 2003 Posts: 102

I haven't found any graded readers, but in my local Book Off they have kids' books arranged by the grade of students they are aimed at (and therefore by the level of kanji). Book Off is so cheap ( usually 100 - 200 yen a book) that it is worth trying out a few of these.

brichm01 · Joined: 03 Oct 2006 Posts: 9

I live in the US in Chicago. There is a Japanese supermarket and bookstore near my house. I found that the Kumon series is pretty good. They have graded readers for grammer, vocabulary and kanji for grades 1-6. They're called くもん　の　小学ドリルシリーズ。

I also like the Doreamon series of childrens books. I bought a bunch of them at the Kinokuniya in Shinjuku when I was there on vacation. Here's the website --> http://www.ed.shogakukan.co.jp/education1/book/doragaku/

Mark · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Posts: 500 Location: Tokyo, Japan

Thanks for the info. I was hoping to find graded readers for learners of Japanese rather than for Japanese children, but it's certainly worth a try.

I'm still looking around though, as it seems to me that someone, somewhere must have published a series of readers for JSL learners. Perhaps a European publisher somewhere......

Mark · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Posts: 500 Location: Tokyo, Japan

Here, I've found a couple of sites that might be useful

http://www.nihongo-yomu.jp/
http://mail.humber.ca/~reynoldb/jgr/twoholes.html

kitano · Joined: 18 Nov 2004 Posts: 86

The first link looks great. Finally someone has created some JSL readers, now just have to find them in the store. The Reynold's article outlined what I've been thinking for the last couple of years. As you get into teaching more you get plugged into ER and EL but when you go to Jclass all they do is dump more and more grammar on you and your left on your own to find reading and listening materials. Glad to see JSL catching up.

tsumetai mizu · Joined: 22 Jan 2004 Posts: 12

A Japanese reader: Graded lessons in the modern language by Roy Andrew Miller. Some love it. Some hate it. Have a look at the customer reviews at Amazon books. In print I think. Bought my copy at Kinokuniya books in Bangkok a few months ago.