The Big Persimmon » Japanese http://www.little-wings.com/wordpress From DC to Tokyo and Back Again Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:45:25 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc TheJapanShop’s Hiragana eBook for Free http://www.little-wings.com/wordpress/2010/08/12/thejapanshops-beginners-hiragana-ebook-for-free/ http://www.little-wings.com/wordpress/2010/08/12/thejapanshops-beginners-hiragana-ebook-for-free/#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:46:09 +0000 Michelle http://www.little-wings.com/wordpress/?p=273 I recently received an email that owners of the thejapanshop.com published their first Kindle ebook, a beginners’ level Japanese language text called “Hiragana, the Basics of Japanese.” They’ve asked mailing list subscribers to download the book (available for free here at least for the moment) and review it on Amazon’s website. I haven’t loaded the PDF on a Kindle to see how the formatting looks, but each page appears small enough (horizontally and vertically) to appear well on the Kindle’s screen.

As far as hiragana books go, this one looks straightforward enough. However, I wonder at the viability of this type of book for an e-reader interface. Isn’t the point of a workbook to actually take your pencil and practice drawing the characters in real life? This text includes spaces to write characters, fill-in-the-blank exercises, and crossword puzzles… but Kindle isn’t a good platform for this type of activity. Perhaps an iPad or iPhone app would make more sense…

Still, if you have a printer and want to learn the basics of Japan’s hiragana writing system, grab the free download while it lasts and work your way through the book the old fashioned way.

]]> http://www.little-wings.com/wordpress/2010/08/12/thejapanshops-beginners-hiragana-ebook-for-free/feed/ 0 Right Place http://www.little-wings.com/wordpress/2008/11/11/right-place/ http://www.little-wings.com/wordpress/2008/11/11/right-place/#comments Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:36:43 +0000 Michelle http://www.little-wings.com/wordpress/?p=154 I forgot where I saw this… whether it was part of a film festival or just on YouTube. But either way, it’s funny in a particularly Japanese sort of way :-) .

Right Place
By Kosai Sekine

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