Darobat Diglot Senior Member Joined 7179 days ago 754 posts - 770 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Latin
| Message 1 of 6 22 September 2005 at 5:38pm | IP Logged |
What books could you recomend to somebody learning Japanese? My friend is already using Pimsleur Japanese, but wishes to find something to learn to read and write. The only requirement is that the book uses Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji, no romaji. Does anyone have any suggestions for materials?
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Bart Triglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 7151 days ago 155 posts - 159 votes Speaks: Dutch*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese, Swedish
| Message 2 of 6 22 September 2005 at 6:04pm | IP Logged |
the assimil books are very good in my opinion, althoug under the hiragana/katakana/kanji there is romaji, it's very easy to cover up.
one downside is I don't think it really teaches the writing of kana & kanji (for kanji there's a seperate volume)
for learning to write (actually for any learner of japanese :)) I strongly recommend the book "Kanji & Kana" by Wolfgang Hadamitzky and Mark Spahn
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Darobat Diglot Senior Member Joined 7179 days ago 754 posts - 770 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Latin
| Message 3 of 6 22 September 2005 at 7:18pm | IP Logged |
I forgot to mention that it doesn't really matter if the book doesn't explain how to read Katakana and Hiragana, as long as it uses it. My friend can already read it, but doesn't know many kanji or Grammar. And learning Japanese in romaji is just wrong.
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vincenthychow Tetraglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 7095 days ago 136 posts - 145 votes Speaks: Cantonese, English, GermanB1, Japanese Studies: French
| Message 4 of 6 23 September 2005 at 12:14am | IP Logged |
You may try the series "nihonngo 90 nichi" which means "Japanese in 90 days". It is a series written for students to attain the standards of level 3 within 90day.
I have never tried it myself, but it seems that it is not bad.
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Bart Triglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 7151 days ago 155 posts - 159 votes Speaks: Dutch*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese, Swedish
| Message 5 of 6 23 September 2005 at 3:47am | IP Logged |
If your friend knows French I still recommend Assimil le japonais sans peine, if he/she doesn't I recommend he/she learn some French first so he/she can use Assimil! ;)
Joking aside, for english speakers I don't really know of any books that are as good as the french assimil ones. But I'll look into it anyway!
I do know of one series of books to absolutely _NOT_ buy and that's the Japanese for Busy People series (even the kana editions). First of all they're all in romaji, (and the kana version of volume 1 is all hiragana/katakana wich is just as artificial) they take ages to teach you even the most basic stuff. Basicly they're just slow, tedious and not at all interesting. Steer away from these books!
Edited by Bart on 23 September 2005 at 3:48am
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lucsi Newbie Vietnam Joined 7118 days ago 6 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English
| Message 6 of 6 23 September 2005 at 4:36am | IP Logged |
I would recommend Heisig Method: Remembering the Kanji; Remembering the Kana.
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