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fizayded
Joined: 17 Apr 2004
Posts: 46
Location: Machida, Tokyo
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 Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 1:34 am Post subject: Can anybody recommend a good textbook to learn Japanese? |
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A beginner's one please, something with pictures too.  thanks |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 2:06 am Post subject: |
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| Are you looking for spoken or written Japanese? |
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Nismo
Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 520
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| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 2:29 am Post subject: |
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spoken? written? kanji?
The Pimsleur series is good if you are looking for conversational skills but no reading or writing. It might be a nice place to start. If you are looking to be able to read and write, steer clear of books that heavily use romaji (roman characters) - looking at Japanese in Roman characters is a crutch that you should discard as soon as possible. I majored in Japanese and the books we used are: Yookoso, Genki, and An Integrated Approach At Japanese. Genki was better than Yookoso, in my opinion. |
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fizayded
Joined: 17 Apr 2004
Posts: 46
Location: Machida, Tokyo
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| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 7:00 am Post subject: |
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| well, I'm looking for spoken primarily, but hey, I need to learn it all anyway, I'll wait awhile for learning kanji though |
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6810
Joined: 16 Nov 2003
Posts: 309
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| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 8:47 am Post subject: |
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I reckon learn it all in a big jumble. It all makes more sense the more you use it, the learning curve flattens out after use... but in the meantime, revert to your infant self, be humble and make plenty of mistakes.
I can't reccomend one book, I've used so many, but the "Japanese for busy people - kana edition" I stand by as a bare bones, effective introduction to Japanese. SUpplement with a good book on verbs (just search on Amazon or google" and get the great "Handbook of Japanese Adjectives". Throw in a kanji book (indespensible) and some Japanese friends and you'll be better than crawling in Japanese in no time. |
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guest of Japan
Joined: 28 Feb 2003
Posts: 1601
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 10:33 am Post subject: |
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Fizayed wrote:
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I'll wait awhile for learning kanji though
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Don't wait. It was a huge mistake on my part to wait. Studying kanji helps you learn vocabulary. It also can be one of the more pleasant things to study once you get into it. Buy a set of Kanji flash cards and work on learning a few everyweek. If you do this from the get-go you'll never find it too taxing. I hid from kanji for nearly four years. One gets very tired of being illiterate with a limited vocabulary. Get to it from the start and you'll have no regrets. |
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6810
Joined: 16 Nov 2003
Posts: 309
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| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 11:38 am Post subject: |
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| Studying kanji helps you learn vocabulary. It also can be one of the more pleasant things to study once you get into it. |
I truly second that. Really important words to do with government, education and in fact just everyday life from food, menus, stations, signs etc all make sense if you know kanji. Even if you can only read them (and not write) it's a big help.
And as Guest said, learning kanji is quite enjoyable, it also helps make everything fit into place... |
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BradS
Joined: 05 Sep 2004
Posts: 173
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 12:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Instant Japanese It's amazing! Plus the style it teaches is written in a way where you actually REMEMBER it! A+! |
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