Job Discussion Forums

[hip-hop boy78]

I lived in Japan for three years between 2000-2003 and studied a little Japanese in my first year there. I never really continued with my studies after that first year due to various reasons but would now like to start learning again.

The problem for me is that now I'm living in South Korea and there are very few Japanese language learning materials such as books, kanji cards etc..even in major bookshops in Seoul. Therefore I've decided to start searching for study books on amazon.
I still have my copy of Japanese for Busy People, but would like to supplement this with other books, so I'm basically curious to hear what books/other materials you guys recommend.

What books did you use to study Japanese? What kind of materials should I be looking for exactly?

I'm initially going to study by myself becuase I've been told it's not a good idea to join a class with Korean students because the classes are tailored towards Korean students and that they will probably be much further ahead then me. So if anyone can assist me with ideas and useful advice, please help me out.

Thanks in advance.

[hip-hop boy78]

Anyone??

[Sweetsee]

I remember your username. How goes it?
I'd love to help you but the book you mentioned is the only one I know of. People who know probably want you to search the information, you know, business as usual here.
Enjoy,
s

[furiousmilksheikali]

I used Japanese for Busy People for a while but I didn't like it and ditched it quite quickly. I had the romaji version and it wasn't very practical. I would advise you to learn hiragana as quickly as you can and then use materials in the Japanese scripts.

Minna no nihongo is a good text to start with. This is the cover of the second book, but the first one looks similar, only in pink.



A useful grammar reference book is A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar by Seiichi Makino and Michio Tsutsui



As for kanji, I started using the Tuttle Kanji cards. This set is the second set of cards. The first set looks the same, only it is in a red box.



There are new kanji cards on the market which I think are better, as they are of a higher quality, they list more useful compounds and they are designed for the JLPT as each card is given the grade at which it appears on the test (either 4 kyu, 3 kyu, 2 kyu, 1 kyu).

The drawback is that they are more expensive. Probably a good investment though.



There is a little bit of debate about the best way to study kanji. I have never used the Heisig method but some people swear by it so here is a link to a previous thread on the subject.

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=43139&highlight=heisig

Also useful for me was a book on the tricky particles. I haven't used it in a while but I think there are some good explanations and examples in this one. Personnaly I think the Dictionary of Basic Grammar is better, but this one isn't bad.



A fun book for learning the onomatapaeic expressions frequently used in Japanese is Practical Guide to Mimetic Expressions through Pictures by Akutsu Satoru.

Sorry, I don't have a picture.

Anyway, as stated above this forum has had a lot of discussion about how to learn Japanese so if you want to find out more information, please do a search for it.

[hip-hop boy78]

FuriousMilk,

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate the time you took to drop me a little advice, I'll try to look into purchasing some of your recommendations. I'm currently going through the process of learning Hiragana/Katakana and once I've mastered that then I'll move on to actually studying from a textbook.

Thanks again!