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I'm looking for a book/website that helps me to increase my reading skills and vocabulary. The only "problem" is, that it should be only written with hiragana and katakana. At the very best there should be an English or German translation.

This question seemed to be a good starting point but later I saw that all of the texts contain kanji.

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You'll actually find it harder if you work with only kana instead of kanji. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Jun 12 '12 at 13:16
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If you hop over to the meta board, there is a list of resources. Some of the online courses linked there have (optional) kana-only versions, I believe, and some of the other resources listed may also be of use to you (e.g. browser add-ons that add furigana). – nkjt Jun 12 '12 at 15:10
Thank you nkjt :-) As soon as I'm at home I will review the list and post my selection to this thread to have it aggregated with my question. – Marius Kleber Jun 12 '12 at 15:25

closed as off topic by gibbon, istrasci, nkjt, jkerian♦, cypher Jun 13 '12 at 1:59

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1 Answer

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The book you are looking for is Minna no Nihongo. The main text is in only kana and kanji. They have a separate textbook that is translated to the reader's native language.

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Thanks for your answer but I was actually looking for a book without kanji. (Before starting with kanji I would like to strengthen my hiragana und katakana skills, so I can start learning kanji with the aid of the furigana - thats the plan in my head so far...) – Marius Kleber Jun 12 '12 at 15:37
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To be honest, I think you should set your sights a little higher and try to get a book that has hiragana, katakana, and kanji with furigana. With this, you can still strengthen your hiragana and katakana. Then go back and learn kanji when you are ready. The textbook I mentioned has this. Also the "Japanese Graded Readers' Series" is very good as well. Level 0 starts with only hiragana and katakana. Level 1 and above have a mix of all the script. But all kanji have furigana. [1]: thejapanshop.com/Japanese-Graded-Readers-Level-Vol/dp/… – dotnetN00b Jun 12 '12 at 15:48
I get your point. My beforehand mentioned approach was also only a plan that I made up myself. I think I'll give your book a try, thanks for the links :-) – Marius Kleber Jun 12 '12 at 16:41
If I was helpful, please hit the up arrow. If you feel that I've answered your question, please hit the check. :) – dotnetN00b Jun 12 '12 at 17:46
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@dotnetN00b meta.stackoverflow.com/q/1661/38765 – Andrew Grimm Jul 2 '12 at 23:23
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