Chukei Publishing Company (part of the Kadokawa Publishing group) is set to publish a new book that teaches English to Japanese students with help from the Haruhi Suzumiya series. This is not the first time Haruhi (and other anime characters for that matter) has been involved in promoting education — back in 2011, Chukei published a two-volume set of English vocabulary guides featuring Suzumiya Haruhi and friends to help Japanese school children and teens enhance their English skills in school. Similar books, such as chemistry books starring the cast of Lucky Star, have also been published in the same manner with the series mangaka providing artwork and jokes while promoting educational subjects.

The new book is linked to the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie/novel and features Yuki Nagato smiling while holding her glasses and a book on the cover. The one-volume English grammar guide is called Suzumiya Haruhi no Shōshitsu de Eibunhō ga Omoshiroi Hodo Mi ni Tsuku Hon and uses translated text from the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya novel to help Japanese students improve their English grammar. Noizi Ito provided the original new art work for the cover as well as the special poster bundled with the book.

While digging for information on this book, I kept thinking that it would great if English speakers could access a version of the book that would teach Japanese vocabulary and grammar using the Japanese version of the Haruhi Suzumiya books… I did come across this: if you visit this page on Chukei’s website, you will find free downloadable MP3 audiobooks of the Haruhi Suzumiya English guides published in 2011. The audiobooks contain English words or phrases taken from the light novels followed by spoken Japanese translations. You will probably need some familiarity with Japanese already to make the most use of it, but any seasoned anime fansub watcher should have no problem.

Below: Covers and sample pages from Lucky Star teaches chemistry books.

Original source: ANN. If you have Haruhi-related news or media to share, send it in through our Haruhi Tracker.