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Best resources for learning Japanese? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Luai_lashire Diglot Senior Member United States luai-lashire.deviant Joined 5836 days ago 384 posts - 560 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: Japanese, French | Message 1 of 8 13 June 2009 at 5:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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Myself and a friend with whom I took Japanese 1 and 2 at High school (using Genki 1) are going to be doing self-
study this summer with an emphasis on increasing speed of reading, learning new kanji and vocabulary, and going through some new grammar. At the start of next school year we'll be auditing a Japanese class at the local University using Genki 2. At first, our plan was to buy Genki 2 and start working through it right now, but instead we're thinking maybe we should do something else, so there will be as little overlap with the class as possible (best use of time and all that). We're thinking of relying heavily on Tae Kim's grammar and other free online resources, but we're not averse to buying a few textbooks if they're worth it. So my question is this: For someone who's worked through Genki 1 quite thoroughly and learned a bit on the side, what textbooks/other resources are best? If we get Pimsleur, how much will be just repeating what we've already learned? Is it better to get Makino and Tsutsui's Dictionary of Basic Grammar, or should we just use Tae Kim's? Also, in a year or two we'll both be going to the University of Pittsburgh, where they use Japanese: The Spoken Language and Japanese: The Written Language as their textbooks, and I've read mixed reviews on those. Now, I hope I'll be good enough by then to skip the lower-level classes, but if not, I will have to use these books. I want to get a good idea of what material they cover. Is it worth getting them? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Luai_lashire Diglot Senior Member United States luai-lashire.deviant Joined 5836 days ago 384 posts - 560 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: Japanese, French | Message 2 of 8 16 June 2009 at 10:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi chyaddo, thanks for the reply! I hadn't heard of SpaceALC before, I will definitely check it out. I do already use
Rikaichan, it's wonderful. I've tried a couple of Japanese podcasts, and I can't remember, but I think I disliked JapanesePod101 because of the fake-ness of the host.... it really annoyed me. I like "Learn Japanese with Beb and Alex" but they usually only go over one or two words per episode, so it's really only a nice add-on to an otherwise complete curriculum. For an SRS, I currently use Mnemosyne, which is nice, and I've seen conflicting arguments as to whether Anki is better or not so I haven't made up my mind about trying it. Thanks for the advice about Genki II, I think that's what we'll end up going with. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| andee Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7085 days ago 681 posts - 724 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Korean, French | Message 3 of 8 17 June 2009 at 3:23am | IP Logged | ||
I personally prefer JapanesePod101. Ironically, I found the Beb and Alex podcast a little fake due to him trying too hard to be a comedian - it's all personal preference :) There are quite a few podcasts out there are you'll find one you like over the others - they're really useful to study when you don't feel like studying. Edited by andee on 17 June 2009 at 3:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Luai_lashire Diglot Senior Member United States luai-lashire.deviant Joined 5836 days ago 384 posts - 560 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: Japanese, French | Message 5 of 8 17 June 2009 at 2:35pm | IP Logged | ||
Really? That's excellent, I'll try it. Thanks. :) And thanks for the link as well, I like dictionaries with extra information. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pfwillard Pro Member United States Joined 5707 days ago 169 posts - 205 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 8 24 June 2009 at 11:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Not exactly what you were asking for but you might look at this book/dvd:
Living Japanese: Diversity in Language and Lifestyles (Conversations with Native Speakers) by Karen Colligan-Taylor It's more for listening comprehension when you want a break from cramming the kanji. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Luai_lashire Diglot Senior Member United States luai-lashire.deviant Joined 5836 days ago 384 posts - 560 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: Japanese, French | Message 7 of 8 25 June 2009 at 4:15pm | IP Logged | ||
:) Thanks, I'll check it out. Hopefully the local University library has it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6324 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 8 of 8 26 June 2009 at 8:24am | IP Logged | ||
Anki has the advantage that you can also sync your deck online, so it works as a kind of backup if your computer crashes, but also makes your study options a little more portable than is the case with Mnemosyne. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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