Learn Japanese with Hatsune Miku! “Miku dé Nihongo” Book Review
We’ve probably all said it at one point – “I’m going to start learning Japanese so I can interact with my favourite franchises more!”, and especially considering the wealth of information locked behind language barriers (even on the internet, to an extent), that’s definitely not a bad idea! But the age-old question I tend to get asked is “where do I start?”. “What resources will help me learn the quickest?”. We’re definitely not going to go through all the ins and outs of learning Japanese here, but what we will be doing, is looking at one resource that could come in handy on your Nihongo-benkyou journey!
Product description
Miku dé Nihongo
Sing with Hatsune Miku and Learn Japanese Culture & Conversations
Have fun to learn Japanese through Miku’s songs which reflects the real and authentic Japanese culture!
※This is an unpromoted review of a product originally released in 2018
Aesthetics
Taking a look at the book, it’s nothing short of beautiful! The cover and inner-flap illustrations were done by ボルボネ / Borubone, who also worked on artwork for the sake of the Sakura Miku x Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival 2020! The title has a gold, shiny, embossed effect, the paper has a pearl finish and the colours are bright and cheerful.
As with many Japanese paperbacks (compared to books you may be used to), the books has a removable cover, which reveals the illustrations behind, but in a pale red hue this time. If you don’t want to damage the coloured cover, or you just want the book to have a more subtle look when in public, you can take the cover jacket off.
The textbook features illustrations from various popular VOCALOID illustrators, including: kobayashi onyx (saihate), mebae (tell your world) and of course iXima and KEI, making the book overall, rather stunning visually.
Song list
The book features a total of 10 songs, 9 featuring Hatsune Miku, 1 featuring Kagamine Rin and Len, a SONOCA card exclusive song and a specially commissioned song:
1.Hello/How are you? / ハロ／ハワユ by nanou / ナノウ
2.Desktop Cinderella / デスクトップ・シンデレラ by HachioujiP / 八王子P
3.Haru ga Kita / 春が来 by Kuroda Ashin / 黒田亜津
★A cover of the famous Japanese nursery rhyme, now featuring Hatsune Miku! Buy the book to hear it for yourself.
4.Hajimete no Oto / ハジメテノオト by malo
5.Saihate / サイハテ by Kobayashi Onyx / 小林オニキス
6.Tell Your World by kz
7.Rimokon / リモコン by JesusP of WONDERFUL★OPPORTUNITY! (じーざすP of ワンダフル★オポチュニティ！)
8.Soyokaze Drive / 微風ドライブ by 40mP
★ A song available exclusively on certain SONOCA cards (one of which comes with this book!)
9.Sakura no Ame / 桜ノ雨 by halyosy
10.Meguri, Natsu / 巡り、夏 by teaeye
★ A specially commissioned song for this book which can’t be found anywhere else!
Artists featured
- Cover art, “Meguri, Natsu”: ボルボネ / Borubone
- Desktop Cinderella: TNSK
- Haru ga Kita: おがころろみ / Ogakororomi & CoPe
- Saihate: 小林オニキス / Kobayashi Onyx
- Tell Your World: めばえ / mebae
- Rimokon: グライダー / Glider
- Soyokaze Drive: 賀茂川 / Kamogawa, 森倉円 / Morikura En & pemu
- Sakura no Ame: iXima
- Background art: KEI
How to use the book
There is actually a section in the book explaining this very thing, but I’ll briefly go over it here so you know what to expect!
- Each song has its lyrics listed in three ways – first in the original Japanese, then in romaji (romanised alphabet to help with pronunciation and understanding) and then a literal translation into English). Seeing the lyrics in the different scripts can help you get used to word order and vocabulary when you’re starting out!
- Grammar points! After the lyrics come examples from the text in regards to grammar structures, handy phrases and cultural/contextual notes.
- Then there will be sections with conversations that you can practice aloud to yourself, or that you can practice using the recorded voiceovers featuring Hatsune Miku, as well as “Mai” and “Shin”. There are opportunities to practice casual AND more formal speech based on the same topics.
It’s probably good to note that the romanisation system used in this book is quite different to that of other books. Long vowels here are written with (whatever that bar is called) (e.g. â, ê, ô, î, û), “separate long vowels”, which are often written like “au”, “ou”, “ei” etc. are written with an apostrophe in-between: a’u and “e” is written as é for the sake of assisting with pronunciation. Particles are also indicated with a dash, (e.g. watashi-no as opposed to just “watashi no”), which could become confusing if you’re used to using “―” for long vowels/extended sounds.
Using SONOCA
Follow the instructions in the book to register for SONOCA and download the songs and conversations to your account! You’ll get all 10 songs, plus 18 conversation tracks to practice with. Do keep in mind though, that the SONOCA card codes have an expiration date (mine said 2023), so if you want to get your money’s worth of the book and its features, you’d better buy one fast!
If you’re downloading the songs to PC, and your PC language isn’t Japanese, some of the song/conversation recording titles may look like gibberish.
※Please do NOT re-distribute any of the songs featured on this SONOCA card publicly to e.g. YouTube, bilibili etc.
Some (potentially useful) advice before starting
So now you’re ready to go with Miku de Nihongo! Depending on your level of Japanese when you pick up the book, my advice for using it varies…
For anyone
I’d recommend familiarising yourself with the songs first if you haven’t already. That includes the new, exclusive songs on the SONOCA card! It helps if you know the rhythm of the songs, since you’ll start to remember vocabulary and sentence structures quicker that way. Regardless of your level, I’d say that this book works best as supplementary resource, alongside bigger textbooks which will go into more detail on all the grammar points, but if you can’t do that yet, try out the tips below!
For newbies
If this is your first time learning Japanese EVER, or you’re very new into your studies, I’d recommend not reading the book in the order it was printed in. Yes, I know that sounds weird, but let me explain: the book doesn’t follow an ascending difficulty structure when it comes to what it teaches. The first lesson will include something you’ll potentially find more difficult than, say, the third lesson. And some vital lessons you should have at the beginning aren’t until much later on, which may hinder learning. My rough recommendation for reading for newbies is:
- Pronunciation & verb/adj conjugation (pg. 191 – 193) (refer to this throughout)
- Hiragana / Katakana charts (pg. 194 – 197) (refer to this throughout)
- Desktop Cinderella (pg. 35 – 53) – katakana practice
- Meguri natsu (pg. 170 – 189) – counting using “-tsu”
- Hello how are you (pg. 14 – 33) – greetings
- Haru ga kita (pg. 54 – 67) – simple sentence structure + past tense
- Hajimete no oto (pg. 68 – 87) – using frequency & times, “-no” particle
- Tell your world (pg. 102 – 115) – saying what you want to dowith “-tai”
- Sakura no ame (pg. 150 – 169) – particle “-kara”, structure using “-naide”
- Saihate – (pg. 88 – 101) – saying what you would like with “-ga hoshii”
- Soyokaze drive (pg. 136 – 149) – “looks like” using “no you na” / “mitai na”
- Rimokon (pg. 116 – 135) – teen and internet slang, negative forms
For more seasoned Japanese students
Try to use the list I made above to figure out which sections would be most useful for you, or cruise through the whole book at your pace, in whichever order you most feel like doing. Use it to reinforce what you’ve already learned and hopefully learn some new stuff!
Review
Visuals ★★★★★
- You can tell that a lot of thought has been put into everything here, from the newly commissioned illustrations to the colours and layouts representing each song. There were a couple of formatting errors, but nothing to majorly impede the overall look and feel of the book
Lessons ★★★☆☆
- I feel like the cultural and contextual information was interesting and well-done, but the actual grammar lessons could be confusing, especially to people new to the language. Regardless, the lessons are a really good way to connect your learning to something you enjoy (VOCALOID), which is always the best way to learn something, so there’s still merit to that! I definitely recommend using it as a supplementary resource to other textbooks and whatnot to get the best use out of it.
Bonus items ★★★★★
- The SONOCA card is a really cool addition to the book and makes the overall product so much more interesting and interactive. My only criticism is that the card itself is made of a very flimsy card/paper, as opposed to being one of their more expensive plastic-type cards (which I was expecting) so definitely be careful with it if you want to use or display it. The new songs and conversations with Miku make the product more exciting by far!
Book details
- Title: Miku de Nihongo (初音ミクで日本語)
- Author: Noricco Toyoda
- Supervised by Crypton Future Media. INC.
- Publisher: Sanshusha
- Size: A5/softcover
- Pages: 200 pages (full colour)
- ISBN: 978-4-384-05892-5 C2081
- Release date: 30/05/2018
- Original price: ￥2,530 (￥2,300 +tax)
Where to buy (2021)
Try to have a look at your local bookstores, especially if you have any dealing with Japanese/East Asian language studies! Otherwise, try these links:
So there you have it – Miku de Nihongo, a gorgeous book that’d look wonderful on any Miku fan’s shelf, and that can assist you with your learning of Japanese! Let us know if you buy it, and what you think of it when you do!
Links
Official product page from SANSHUSHA
SONOCA
- Official Website (EN/JP)
- Download Page (Enter serial code)
