Hello,

I recently purchased these books and am waiting on them in the mail. I have been doing my RTK religiously (i am at about 500 frames now) and studying Adjectives and nouns using Anki (though this format makes retention a bit difficult with no context at all) I also have been using Japanese the manga way to help with some of the more unusual grammar, but all the romaji really throws off my learning/immersion. Hence, I bought these two new (and very expensive -__-) books. I was wondering if anyone on here had any experience with them and what I could expect while going through them. Also, what is the best way to commit the vocab to memory while learning? I have heard these "tomes" are rather dense with information, so any pointers would be greatly appreciated. I have already worked through a lot of lessons in Japanese for busy people 2 and I really dislike it. I would rather not go into detail on why...It's not particularly difficult or anything, I think I finished the first 10 lessons. I am still working on it simply because I have nothing else to work on, but These new books seem really awesome and I am hoping I can stick with them as my primary learning material for the next year or 2. Thanks for reading

Can you provide a link to the books (on amazon maybe)? Thanks.

One of the best ways of acquiring vocabulary is by reading a lot. Also by doing a lot of written translation both into and out of Japanese.

I gave up on Anki because a) it doesn't stick anyway b) Anki is mind-numbingly boring.

I have used Japanese For Busy People too and I too do not like it. It was the textbook used in these courses I took so I had no choice.

Now I'll get jumped on for this (as I have been in the past) but the book I used for teaching myself the basics of Japanese grammar was this one, and I still refer to it even though I'm done working through the exercises. I think it's a great book. The proof of its effectiveness is that I am now making my way through the intermediate reading selections of Miller's Japanese Reader:

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchRe...f+japanese

Sorry I can't answer your question... but Tae Kim has a highly regarded grammar guide http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/

The corresponding anki deck for it is awesome. Might be a good idea to give it a shot while waiting for your texts

If you change your mind about reviewing the vocabulary in anki; there is already a deck online:

https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/320130059

Apparently it covers the first 28 lessons.

wow, i didn't realize there was an Anki deck for the book. That's really great news. thanks a lot! As for the book mentioned by john555, Do you know where I can find a review of this one? I have bought a lot of books lately (mostly manga and text books) and I might wait a while before I buy anymore. I already use a pretty good grammar book with my Japanese lessons that my tutor bought for me. Can't recall the name though...

Anyone else heard of this series before? THere are actually two series with the name "introduction to modern Japanese". one of them is quite old and outdated while the one i purchased is actually used at cambridge university. I suppose finding a more comprehensive book with lots of exercises is kinda what I need. Most of the unstructured and day to day learning I do takes place through immersion as I live in Japan currently. I think the biggest problem I have when studiying is that I have too MUCH freedom, so I tend to dabble in many different forms of book learning, but nothing seems to suit me as much as actually going out and practicing the language. That is kind of why I think a more rigid and comprehensive approach would be good for me so I can set clear goals rather than ambiguously picking up new grammar points and finding ways to use them randomly. The manga reading is doing pretty great for vocabulary on it's own, but I would definitely like to check out some other anki decks if anyone recommends them.

I have actually tried tae kim's guide to japanese grammer as well as his Anki deck to go with it. I personally just can't get into it. Maybe I can give it another try, but I didn't like using the cards because I have to actually type in the answers. I might give it another go though. who knows. I hear nothing but good things about his work.

Kabukicho, by any chance are these the two books you're asking about? If so, they have excellent reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Moder...n+japanese

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Moder...n+japanese

I took a look at the previews--I see romanized versions of some answers. This is always a good thing in a beginner's book. When I was totally new to Japanese I found it was simply too much overload to jump right in with kana. I had to take a breather and learn using romaji for awhile.

Kabukicho Wrote:I have actually tried tae kim's guide to japanese grammer as well as his Anki deck to go with it. I personally just can't get into it. Maybe I can give it another try, but I didn't like using the cards because I have to actually type in the answers.

oh I remember that.. I hated it too the 'cloze deletion' or whatever crap it is! (I realize many people like it though haha)

That's pretty easy to change though. Just edit the card template. I changed it to look more like an ordinary card. Here's my template if you are too lazy to change it yourself haha

Goto Tools -> Manage Note Types, Select your 'Note Type' and then press 'cards'


Front Template:
{{Sentence Answer}}<br>



Back Template:
{{FrontSide}}

<hr id=answer>

<br><span style="font-family: Mincho">{{Sentence Kana}}</span><br>{{Definitions}}<br>{{Sentence English}}<br>Note - {{Notes}}

The book is fairly comprehensive for a beginner's course, but keep in mind that the book was designed for a class setting, which is fine, however, there is no teacher's manual nor is there an answer key to check your work.

As far as typing in for cloze-deletes? If you don't want to, don't; just press enter on the blank space.

I am aware there is no answer key. I am going to have my Tutor check my work for me when we meet. I am not exactly a beginner. I have been speaking for about 2 years and understand basic grammar very well.

In that case(Assuming that by basic grammar you mean you are comfortable with N5 and N4 level grammar), I am personally a big proponent of the following method: Cram the most common 2k-5k worth of words. I think Nayr's deck is a pretty good collection. Do this in any way you need to, mnemonics, brute force, repeated exposure. The point is to get them down.(My preferred way is sentence on the front, and just go with "do I understand this word in this sentence")

Once you have this basic vocabulary down, go for extensive reading. Supplement this with grammar workbooks/textbooks. I find grammar tends to stick more once you have seen a few examples in real situations.

Thank you. This is very good advice.

I've used this book; I think you'll really want to study the vocab for the book with Anki, because it's not gentle at all with introducing kanji. You -can- work out the pronunciation by flipping to the end of the chapter and finding the equivalent romaji (most of the time ; there are times that kanji appear in example sentences that don't appear in the chapter introduction dialogue).

As for words not sticking because they have no context, this is why I have an example sentence for every anki card I have. I put my examples on the front side personally, although a lot of people are afraid of learning the sentence instead of the word and put them on the back side. (This is also a reason that I prefer short, concise sentences -- a 'good' anki sentence for me is one that doesn't give away too much. Also because with long sentences you either take a long time with each card or you stop actually reading the sentence.)

You will find that some of the terminology and explanations in the book are somewhat different from other books, in a way that will make it easier to talk to linguists but a little harder to talk to other learners. (I'm not aware, for example, of any other beginner's text that teaches i-adjectives as 'descriptive verbs' even though it's technically correct.)

The only hesitation I have about recommending this book is that it is so heavily oriented towards the classroom, but you've already solved that by having a tutor so I think it'll be a great introduction to the language for you.

I actually just received the book this evening. I wasn't expecting it to come so soon, but those guys at 黒猫　are pretty darn fast I guess. The book definitely seems super dense, but it looks like exactly what I have been looking for. Flipping to some of the later chapters, it has entire letters written out in Kana/Kanji. I will probably still do exercises with my tutor to practice my knowledge, but reading "exercises" in a context that is completely unimportant to me is abysmally boring. As for the Kanji, I will make anki flash cards for each lesson and repeat until i have got it down. I am also liking the fact that there is very little english in the book. Romaji is the devil.