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Intermediate Japanese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes  Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 1 of 12 03 September 2014 at 9:37pm | IP Logged |
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I'll finish the second volume of Genki soon, so I've been doing some research concerning resources for intermediate Japanese. So far, I've come across An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese, which is also known as Genki 3, and Japanese for Busy People III.
My question is if anybody has used these resources and can tell me something about it. I was very happy using Genki (although it may have concentrated on college life a little bit too much), so I was thinking about getting An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese, which is by the same publishing company. The comments on Amazon, however, are pretty ambivalent. Some people praise it as a very good resource, while others criticize it very harshly. Apparently, it doesn't continue the encouraging style of Genki and there are very few exercises, but I suppose I could live with that. However, some customers also criticize the grammar explanations and the way kanji are taught, so I would like to know if it's worth the money. Although the book doesn't seem to continue the typical features of Genki, it's in the same price range, which means it's expensive! A possible alternative would be Japanese for Busy People III, but I don't know how smooth the transition from Genki to this one would be. Are you roughly on the same level of proficiency after Genki 1 + 2 as you would be after Japanese for Busy People I + II? Or maybe you know some other resources I haven't come across yet? What about graded readers? Would it make any sense to start with them after Genki 1 + 2, or would it be too early for that? Many thanks in advance for your valuable advice! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5980 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 2 of 12 03 September 2014 at 10:50pm | IP Logged |
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My first piece of advice would be absolutely do not buy An Integrated Approach to Japanese. It is so obviously developed for using in class with American college students either preparing for or experiencing a home stay in Japan that it is pretty worthless to a 30-something living independently in Europe! Not only is it lacking in important features for the self learner such as an answer key, but the example texts and dialogues range from the boring to the downright patronising. Plus, although it's not directly relevant to the linguistic content of the text, the "cultural notes" assume that the reader shares the worldview of a stereotypical American, which I found quite distasteful.
Japanese for Busy People III mainly covers grammar that is already covered in the Genki series. I only used it because it was a set text for an evening class I took, but since I never really finished Genki off properly I found it quite useful to help consolidate some of the grammar and I appreciated the focus on working adults as opposed to college students. However, if you already feel you've covered the material in Genki II adequately, there is no need to get Japanese for Busy People III. Moving on, if you are keen on getting a general textbook, you could look at the みんなの日本語中級 books. The main textbook comes with dialogues, readings, grammar exercises, CD and an answer key and transcripts. You buy the translation and grammar notes as a separate volume, available in a number of different languages including both English and German. As a complete package, it's not bad for a self learner and definitely one of the better options for a general textbook at this level. The one thing that is not covered by みんなの日本語中級, or any other general intermediate level textbook I can think of, is kanji, so you will need to consider either getting a separate kanji textbook for this, or just figuring things out yourself! As for graded readers, levels 3 and 4 of the 日本語多読ライブラリー series would be at an appropriate level for you. They are a nice package, but like most graded readers with audio they are pretty expensive for what you get. The Read Real Japanese series (one volume of essays and another of short stories is available), is priced much more reasonably and, although the actual texts are real Japanese (as in written for a Japanese audience), they come with detailed explanations in English to help the learner pick their way through. The essays volume contains a pretty nice selection of texts, although I haven't looked at the short stories volume so can't comment on that. Other options to consider are the array of materials produced for the JLPT. Just picking up the 新完全マスター grammar book for N3 and the Unicom reading book, also for N3, would provide plenty of material for study at the lower intermediate level, although the exercises themselves are generally constrained to the JLPT multiple choice format. This doesn't prevent you making your own exercises, of course. 8 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 3 of 12 04 September 2014 at 12:20am | IP Logged |
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Thank you, g-bod! That's very helpful.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4713 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 4 of 12 04 September 2014 at 8:50pm | IP Logged |
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Great post, g-bod! Thanks a lot!
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| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 5 of 12 04 September 2014 at 11:08pm | IP Logged |
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Can anybody say something about Tobira? It has good reviews and seems to be promising.
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| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5343 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 6 of 12 06 September 2014 at 2:34am | IP Logged |
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You can review materials by level on the left side of the page here. I strongly recommend though you work through Minna no Nihongo before proceeding. There are lower intermediate and beyond textbooks available from 3A Corporation that follow up on it, and they're very high quality. They along with Minna no Nihongo will take you on a progressive, consistent path from beginner to upper intermediate. Genki is a good course, but I would regard it as a basic introduction only, taking you at most to A2.
Japanese for Busy People is a good complement, as is the できる日本語 series. For Japanese one really needs to avail oneself of a multitude of overlapping resources. All the while you should be working on your kanji, which of course is the key to the language. Minna no Nihongo has its separate kanji books (as does Genki of course). Let's Learn Kanji from Kodansha is truly outstanding among kanji books. Edited by Juаn on 06 September 2014 at 2:56am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| kyukumber Newbie Japan Joined 3732 days ago 11 posts - 30 votes | Message 7 of 12 06 September 2014 at 7:37am | IP Logged |
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You might want to have a look at this (http://rtkwiki.koohii.com/wiki/
Comparison_of_Japanese_Textbooks_Table) at the RTK site for textbooks. You could also try their forum for more info, tips and resources. I also found this (http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?pid=187698) And for reference materials, there's the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar series (consisting of three, basic, intermediate and advanced, volumes.) Additionally, here are some books/handbooks that deal with specific matters such as particles. The Handbook of Japanese Adjectives and Adverbs The Handbook of Japanese Verbs A Dictionary of Japanese Particles All About Particles: A Handbook of Japanese Function Words Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication Edited by kyukumber on 06 September 2014 at 7:41am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 8 of 12 06 September 2014 at 3:30pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks to all of you for your useful suggestions!
I was able to get previews of all courses that came up in this discussion and although you all strongly recommend Minna no Nihongo, I decided to try a different approach first. The reason is that I really didn't like the way Minna no Nihongo is structured and that it has furigana on top of every kanji. That already got on my nerves while using Genki. I wouldn't bother about the kanji, I'd just go to the furigana and be done with it. Maybe that has worked so far, but I'm in a stage of my studies now where I'd really like to get serious about kanji, so I prefer materials that only have furigana on top of new or difficult kanji. For that reason, I decided to order Tobira, which has excellent reviews all over the Internet, and I also ordered An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese, just in case Tobira is still too advanced. As I said, I compared all materials and although AIATIJ may concentrate on university life, I liked what I saw. I think it will suit my style of studying much better than Minna no Nihongo. Plus, I'm still a graduate student and may or may not choose a life in academia, so university isn't distant past to me. I already own A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar and I might complement it with some other resources kyukumber mentioned, so thank you for those suggestions! If my plan doesn't work out at all, I might give Minna no Nihongo a try, but at the moment I just can't imagine working with it. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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