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fromCanada · Joined: 20 Sep 2003 Posts: 48 Location: Ontario

Hi Everyone,

I leave for Japan in December and would like to brush up on my Japanese skills. I've taken an intenstive first year uni Japanese language course where we used Genki I: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese. I'd rather not continue with Genki II as the text it is better suited for a class

Can anyone recommend any Japanese learning materials for elementary-intermediate learners? (self-study). I basically want to be able to have a grammatically correct conversation with my Japanese relatives when I get there. Laughing

Munchen · Joined: 29 Apr 2003 Posts: 76

Hi. This topic has been discussed previously on this Japan forum. There are many options. Dig into the past pages and you will come across some of the suggestions.
I imagine many of the same materials are available in bookstores in Canada as in the US if you live near a major metropolis.

If you have gotten this head start, you might want to continue with an all audio series like Pimsleur. The master comprehensive courses are pricey but they follow a pattern.
Check libraries for materials. Also In Your Car series, Immersion Japanese on CDs, run roughly $40. Pimsleur available in lesser expensive courses if you have access to a major bookstore like Borders/Barnes & Noble. Ck. on line.
Hope this helps..

JimDunlop2 · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Posts: 2286 Location: Japan

Personal recommendation: Mina no nihongo. It's not THE industry standard, but it does seem to be the top choice of many Japanese schools. (Yamasa Institute, and a bunch of them around where I live too).

I like it because the grammar sections in the "yellow" book give you sentence patterns and gramatically correct forms to build on. The pink book is good too.

Self-study is of course fine, but I recommend doing it also with a tutor/teacher who can drill you and do the pink book exercises with you. That's what develops your fluency..

My wife (and I) both used to use JBP (Japanese for Busy People)... But since I've started Mina no nihongo, I've also made a believer of my wife. IMHO it's a far superior series when compared side-by-side.

You can also buy them from most well-stocked Japanese bookstores that have a Japanese study section/English section.

Gambatte!

canuck · Joined: 11 May 2003 Posts: 1921 Location: Japan

nomadder · Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2004 3:21 pm Post subject:

The one Jim mentioned Minna no Nihongo is as good as it gets. As far as I'm concerned they haven't written a decent book yet.

fromCanada · Joined: 20 Sep 2003 Posts: 48 Location: Ontario

Hi,

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I am not interested in any audio learning series. I hear Japanese all the time at home. My listening skills are the strongest. I basically want to fine tune my grammer and build more vocab and learn kanji on th way. I a looking for more specific texts such as Japanese verbs at a Glance by Naoko Chino. Actually, I read on amazon.com that anything published by Kodansha is pretty good. Is this true? Thanks again for your help.

utopianthreat · Joined: 24 Jun 2004 Posts: 12

Munchen · Joined: 29 Apr 2003 Posts: 76

To Canuck.
Just go to their website, i.e., type in Pimsleur language programs or Pimsleur and you can get info. on any of their courses. They're offered on Amazon.com as well.
CD versions run over $300 each for the full 30 lesson courses in three levels.
If you're near any good library, check there first. They just might have it.
Have found the entire Spanish series at one near me.

To the original author, yes, Kodansha and Tuttle do publish many excellent books on almost every facet of Japanese language. Power Japanese series which has many titles like Love, Hate and Everthing Between, How to Sound Intelligent in Japanese, and others.
Getting a serious collection of these can become expensive as prices have increased with updated and newer formats.

Then there's the good ol' entertaining "Making Out in Japanese" in two paperback vols, recently updated. Bill Murray had a copy of this in the movie, "Lost in Translation."!!

Dominique · Joined: 26 Aug 2004 Posts: 141 Location: Juso, Osaka

Dr.J · Joined: 09 May 2003 Posts: 304 Location: usually Japan

I'm not sure of your level, because you say you hear Japanese at home.

MY advice would be, concentrate on reading skills. This is because once you are in Japan you will be picking all sorts of grammar and vocab automatically if you are a good learner, but you have to put in more effort with reading.

So, if you haven't already, learn hiragana and katakana with flash cards, then work on kanij. I used Basic Kanji Book which was OK but I didn't really look around that much. There is a book by a guy called Heisig too which seems to be popular but to me there's no magic method.

senorwaq · Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 24

I'm about to do the same and I got "Teacher Yourself Beginner's Japanese Script" by Helen Gilhooly. Practising how to talk on your own seems a bit pointless to me, but this is something you can get your teeth into and feel like you're getting somewhere, rather than reciting 'watashi wa igirisu jin desu' into thin air. It's fairly straight forward and you can pick it up anywhere. Well worth it. Learn to speak in a class or a language exchange or when you get there.