Illustrated by Stephen Cartwright
'The Usborne First Thousand Words in Japanese' is a welcome, friendly introduction to a fascinating language. It provides a wealth of vocabulary-building opportunities for young learners of Japanese, and also for anyone who wants the stimulus of learning with pictures. Devised to appeal to a wide age range, this book contains bright and amusing pictures by Stephen Cartwright, illustrating a basic Japanese vocabulary. It encourages direct association of the Japanese word with the object to ensure effective, long-term learning.
Through the book, each Japanese label is printed in kana, the Japanese syllabic signs which are often introduced to beginners. Each label also has an easy-to-use pronunciation guide so that the kana signs can be learned over time or ignored, whichever suits the reader best. At the start of the book, there is a thorough introduction to kana signs, along with general pronunciation tips and further notes about written Japanese. At the end of the book, there are Japanese/English word lists, which cover all the words in the book.
