I'm so confused as to which one I should get after finishing Genki 2!!

I've heard that some people go through both of these textbooks (starting with Integrated Approach and then Tobira). However, I've also seen some people who pick just one.

But what's the difference in content? Is there even any difference? I don't have access to a Japanese bookstore so I can't go and look for myself, and the ones online don't provide good enough sample pages.

It would be extremely helpful to hear what people who have actually used these books have to say about it.

Please, please help me <3

P.S - I'm already able to read kanji beyond Tobira/Integrated Approach level, so right now my focus is primarily on grammar, vocab and sentence structures.

I have both textbooks. Tobira is more advanced and I also think a more interesting textbook overall. If you already did Genki I and II or the equivalent and you know a good number of words, I would go this Tobira. It'll greatly help your grammar and reading. The articles are interesting as well. After Tobira go straight to Kanzen Master N2 and N1 workbooks to help round off your grammar study. I never even really used the Integrated Approach book. If you find that Tobira is a little too difficult, you could always fall back to Integrated Approach first. I've seen people use both but I happened to skip it.

PotbellyPig Wrote:I have both textbooks. Tobira is more advanced and I also think a more interesting textbook overall. If you already did Genki I and II or the equivalent and you know a good number of words, I would go this Tobira. It'll greatly help your grammar and reading. The articles are interesting as well. After Tobira go straight to Kanzen Master N2 and N1 workbooks to help round off your grammar study. I never even really used the Integrated Approach book. If you find that Tobira is a little too difficult, you could always fall back to Integrated Approach first. I've seen people use both but I happened to skip it.

Thanks so much for your response and also for suggesting what to read after I'm done with tobira/integrated! <3

Why did you skip Integrated? Was it because most of the grammar points in it were already covered in Tobira?

Onara Wrote:

PotbellyPig Wrote:I have both textbooks. Tobira is more advanced and I also think a more interesting textbook overall. If you already did Genki I and II or the equivalent and you know a good number of words, I would go this Tobira. It'll greatly help your grammar and reading. The articles are interesting as well. After Tobira go straight to Kanzen Master N2 and N1 workbooks to help round off your grammar study. I never even really used the Integrated Approach book. If you find that Tobira is a little too difficult, you could always fall back to Integrated Approach first. I've seen people use both but I happened to skip it.

Thanks so much for your response and also for suggesting what to read after I'm done with tobira/integrated! <3

Why did you skip Integrated? Was it because most of the grammar points in it were already covered in Tobira?

I just now flipped through Integrated briefly. Looks like there is a lot of overlap in the grammar points. Though overall Tobira is a more advanced book. The vocabulary is closer to N2 level. I think I had close to 6000 words under my belt when I went through it. I skipped Integrated because I didn't want to spend time on another textbook and if you are able to do Tobira it renders Integrated a moot point.

PotbellyPig Wrote:I just now flipped through Integrated briefly. Looks like there is a lot of overlap in the grammar points. Though overall Tobira is a more advanced book. The vocabulary is closer to N2 level. I think I had close to 6000 words under my belt when I went through it. I skipped Integrated because I didn't want to spend time on another textbook and if you are able to do Tobira it renders Integrated a moot point.

Thanks a dozen once again for getting out of your way to check it out for me.
Tobira does indeed sound more interesting. Ah, I need to sleep on this lol.

Admittedly I haven't used Approach to Intermediate Japanese, but I have worked about halfway through Tobira and quite like it. Each chapter is devoted to a different aspect of Japanese culture, which is much more interesting to read than the standard school/workplace settings of other textbooks.
It might be a bit difficult after Genki 2 (I worked through Japanese For Everyone, which covers roughly the same ground as the Genki books) but it does have a lot of useful material in it.
I think it's time for me to dust off my copy of Tobira and finish working through it.

For what it's worth, I had to use IAIJ (both the old black & red version and the new blue one), and coming from Genki, it was miserably difficult. The difficulty came from 1) the jump in difficulty from Genki 2, but mostly 2) getting used to the total 180 in style. The readings are boring (dry), words are "introduced" but never seen again for reinforcement, and the grammar explanations...didn't (imo). Honestly, having to use that book in classes, I got more use (and understanding) out of the Dictionaries of Grammar and my particle dictionary.

raeesmerelda Wrote:For what it's worth, I had to use IAIJ (both the old black & red version and the new blue one), and coming from Genki, it was miserably difficult. The difficulty came from 1) the jump in difficulty from Genki 2, but mostly 2) getting used to the total 180 in style. The readings are boring (dry), words are "introduced" but never seen again for reinforcement, and the grammar explanations...didn't (imo). Honestly, having to use that book in classes, I got more use (and understanding) out of the Dictionaries of Grammar and my particle dictionary.

Tobira is a much more interesting textbook in that regard. The articles are interesting.

I noticed that Tobira says it has Online content available once you purchase the book, can anyone talk a little bit about that and if it's any good? Just curious.

Thanks ppl!

After careful consideration, I've decided to start off with Integrated Approach and then move on to Tobira. Even though they're similar, I think for me personally, it would be fun and interesting to do both.

Merry x-mas!