Simplified Bible Stories for Japanese Language Learners
｢日本語学習者のための聖書物語｣ JMLI 日本語学校 December 1999

Audio Now Available - Here !                

Here is an explanation of the ‘Seisho Monogatari’ - now available in PDF format to JEMA members registered on this site - just click the image to the right to display the download links.  Both a version with furigana for many kanji and a version without furigana are available.

This resource is recommended for post beginner upwards but is not so helpful for intermediate learners and above unless their Japanese reading ability is low.

There are 20 Bible stories graded from very easy to higher intermediate or from levels 1-5 . There is a word glossary at the back divided story by story. In the  furigana version, readings  are usually not repeated when a word has already appeared once. There are also great illustrations.

The stories were written by the staff of the former Japan Missionary Language Institute( JMLI) in
Tokyo. Their aim was to help students become more independent learners by means of
EXTENSIVE READING. (ie reading for gist as opposed to reading to understand every word
which is known as intensive reading.)

Japanese is probably one of the most difficult languages for non kanji background students to do extensive reading in because of the Kanji barrier so this is a great little resource. The aim was ‘to produce ‘reading material for outside the classroom. Reading material for pleasure. Reading material to fill the gap between the textbook and authentic written Japanese. Reading material where students could glean biblical names and expressions in Japanese. Reading material that would make students want to read more. Reading material that would drive students out of teacher guided learning.'