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5 years of 日本語 TAC 13 桜/Schnitzel | ||
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| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5185 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 385 of 436 06 October 2013 at 7:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Have you tried qid=1381078610&sr=8-1-fkmr2&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70">Penguin parallel texts?
I should read more carefully. I blame lack or sleep. I'm posting from a hotel in Portland and it's early morning because I can't sleep. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 386 of 436 13 October 2013 at 12:36am | IP Logged | |||||
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I do have a copy of the Penguin Parallel Text book in Japanese. As with much of my Japanese library, I haven't got round to reading it yet though!
This week I've managed to get through Chapter 5 of my Kanji textbook. I would say it's 75-80% revision, so I'm still learning new stuff, despite it being N3/N2 level! Seriously, you do not need to know 1000 kanji to pass N2. I am proof. I also cracked and ordered my own copy of Minna no Nihongo. I'm halfway through the grammar points in the first chapter, so it's a bit too soon to put any detailed thoughts here about it, but my main aim is that I can just use it to firm up my grammar knowledge. I'm not sure how much use I'll find the listening or reading bits, but I like the way the grammar is done. It's nice to have something with English translations of example sentences, practice questions that are not based around the JLPT, and an answer key. Bilingual notes aren't really essential at an intermediate level, but it's nice to attempt to translate sentences in the book and then compare to how the authors did it. My general ability to translate sucks even when my comprehension is quite good. My gut feeling is that I don't need to practice translation to improve my Japanese, but I do need to practice to improve my translation, which at times can be a useful skill to have, even if all I want to do is tell my husband why I was laughing at something I saw on TV. Speaking of TV, I am two episodes away from finishing the first season of Aibou. I also watched the movie 告白 (Confessions) last night. This is the film of the book that I tried reading over summer and gave up about 50 pages in. Assuming the film follows the book reasonably closely, it turns out that my comprehension of the book wasn't too bad at all, maybe I shouldn't have given up so quickly after all. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5185 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 387 of 436 13 October 2013 at 6:30am | IP Logged | |||||
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Haven't touched your penguin books :(. I would have really liked your impression of them. Btw did you know
the みなの日本語 is online for free download? It is nice to have a real paperback too though. How are you with the vocabulary? Was reading the 1st exercise any problem? I didn't know nearly enough about a proper Japanese room and tatami mats etc so it had a lot of new stuff for me. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 388 of 436 13 October 2013 at 11:46am | IP Logged | |||||
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Is that available for free and legal download?
Anyway, I like having the paper books. All the grammar notes are in a separate volume, and the answers are in a detachable supplement which makes cross referencing so much easier. I hadn't got to the reading section yet but I just read through it in response to your question. I knew nothing about tatami either so I got some new cultural background from the piece. There were some new words but I didn't have to look anything up to get the main points of the article. I did need to reread some of the more complex sentences though. It's definitely my grammar that needs work. The problem is that most Japanese study materials just equate grammar with sentence patterns and expressions. The old JLPT syllabus really doesn't help here. More time should be spent on the fundamentals of how things are constructed though. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4666 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 389 of 436 13 October 2013 at 3:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
If that was a reference to 初級, then yes and no respectively I would guess: I kept coming across torrent matches when I was searching for the 中級 level books and the relevant ISBNs. I never saw anything other than paper books for 中級.
I prefer paper books too. I did find peruse the So-Matome grammar book electronically before purchasing, but when it comes to actually using something I much prefer paper. I have looked things up in the Dictionary of Basic/Intermediate Grammar books on scribd but I don't think I could work through the whole thing from an electronic copy. I've only very briefly looked at the first chapter of the 中級I book but I do like the format. I particularly like the reading section. I'm not sure about the CD: I purchased the 初級 (mostly) second hand and none of them had CDs. With 中級I I had no choice so I had to shell out the extra clams for the "with CD" version (the girl in JP Books was pretty certain that there is only a "with CD" version). I'll probably crumble and pick up 中級II with CD too ... but I've got a few moths before I get that far I think. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 390 of 436 13 October 2013 at 4:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Looking at the list in the back of my MNN 中級 volume, it seems that the girl in JP books was correct, you can only get a version with CD attached. I don't think it's a bad thing to include a CD with a textbook though. In fact my biggest complaint is all the courses that expect you to purchase it separately. Or even worse, the ones that assume the only listening you will do will be in a classroom controlled by a teacher and therefore the listening exercises are only available separately at extortionate prices. And then you have to purchase a separate teachers guide (also often at an extortionate price) if you want any hope of an answer key. I have no idea why any textbook aimed at adults should not come with an answer key as standard.
Something like MNN where you get the text, the CD, the transcripts and the answers altogether in one volume is a complete relief for an independent learner. It's a shame you have to get a separate volume for the grammatical notes, but at least you get the bonus of an English translation that way, and the price is not totally unreasonable if you buy directly from Japan, now the exchange rate is on my side again. It sounds like we've got the makings of a MNN Chuukyuu study group here on Team 桜 though. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5185 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 391 of 436 13 October 2013 at 8:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Indeed. I haven't made much progress really aside from doing a few random exercises. If you're going to do
the book in earnest I'm game. It would help me a lot. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 392 of 436 13 October 2013 at 11:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well if I actually stick to Japanese for a while (and don't get distracted by another shiny new language) my plan is basically Minna no Nihongo, my kanji book, lessons with my tutor, weekly language exchange, lots of TV and actually reading stuff. I don't think I need to do any more than that.
I'm not quite sure what a TAC MNN Study Group would look like exactly, but anything to help me stay focused (and not get distracted by a shiny new language) is good! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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