My employer will reimburse me up to $500 a year for personal education material (including language learning). What would you spend it on if you could? I've got Heisig's RTK1 and Rosetta Stone(not that I think anyone would recommend that, I bought it 3+ years ago). I'm almost through RTK (for a second time, my hard drive crashed after I finished it last fall). I've also got a kind of cheesy Living Language Basics text book. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Dictionary of Basic/Intermediate/Advanced Japanese Grammar

I suggest only spending about half of that on textbooks and learning materials, and using the rest for books in Japanese.

Genki I & Workbook
Genki II & Workbook
Tobira
A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar

Once you've worked through that material you'll be more than ready for the easier native reading materials, so use the rest of the money on manga and books for children and teenagers.

All I can say is, you lucky b@$+@/d! Where the heck do you work?

Perhaps you can use that $500 to make a big impact on your personal environment. I.E. get rid of as much english stuff as possible and replace with japanese things, media, radio, etc. Maybe you can use that to get a good set of headphones, etc?

I guess that doesn't fit into the "language learning materials" requirement though. What about subscription to some of the tutor sites like edufire.com ?

You don't need $500.

My suggestions:
Tae Kim Grammar guide (FREE online Japanese tutorial)
Remembering the Kanji by James Heisig (~$35)
Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar by ALC Press (~$25)
All About Particles (one of my favorite books) (~$20)
Take a class
Jgram.org (online grammar dictionary and discussion forum)

For grammar reference, you can use http://www.jgram.org (it's basically like a forum for every japanese grammar point you can imagine)

The most important thing is to get an idea for how Japanese is structured.
For many peolpe, this means taking a Japanese class for a few semesters.
Once you have a good grasp on how Japanese works, it just becomes an issue
of building up vocab and grammar.

To learn japanese conversation, I use Japanese drama. They have Japanese subtitles at d-addicts with the exact words that the all actors are saying. No need to read a textbook that teaches you how "In theory, Japanese will probably talk to you". If you can understand what Japanese TV actors are saying, you can probably understand most of what everyone is saying. And it's FREE.

If you like manga, you can download lots of raw japanese manga scans
at various sites online. Or you can buy manga at a Japanese bookstore....

For a dictionary, you can start off with WWWJDIC. If you have an iphone or ipod touch, there are many professional japanese dictionaries that you can buy in the app store. Also,
Mac OS X already comes with a built-in Japanese-English, English-Japanese, and Japanese-Japanese dictionaries.

My advice is to only spend money on the essentials in the beginning.
Through experience, you'll find your weakness and work on them.

scuda Wrote:Perhaps you can use that $500 to make a big impact on your personal environment. I.E. get rid of as much english stuff as possible and replace with japanese things, media, radio, etc. Maybe you can use that to get a good set of headphones, etc?

I guess that doesn't fit into the "language learning materials" requirement though. What about subscription to some of the tutor sites like edufire.com ?

I actually e-mailed my HR to see if they'd let me do things like that but I never heard back. I may still be able to get it though. Not much on the tutor sites though as I work in Japan 1/2 the year and get lots of free "tutoring" at the local Izakayas. I think I will give the office a call though and see if I can buy books and stuff. I'd previously bought a DS LL in Japan with a bunch of games before I knew I had this reimbursement.

JimmySeal Wrote:All I can say is, you lucky b@$+@/d! Where the heck do you work?

I work on a Ferry based out of Naha.

iPod touch with "Japanese", Anki and daijirin?

I recommend the grammar dictionaries by Seiichi Makino mentioned above. If you plan on taking the JLPT, then Kanzen Master grammar and Unicom listening and reading workbooks are really good. I'd take the rest to a second-hand bookshop and buy a ton of manga and short novels.

Maybe I should mention I have no need or desire to study for the JLPT. (Although I'm sure that some of the study material is still decent.)

aargh57 Wrote:Maybe I should mention I have no need or desire to study for the JLPT. (Although I'm sure that some of the study material is still decent.)

In this case I'd recommend:
RTK3,
If you have an iphone, spring for the Anki app
Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar
A good pocket & desk J-E dictionary
A good pocket & desk J-J dictionary.

from there, its all about input, input, input!

Start with things you're interested in Movies, mags, music, HD nature shows......it all counts. Subscribe to some j-mags or papers if you can.

Although there are many excellent online (free) materials- don't fall into the trap of making your japanese only exist in the computer.

Javizy Wrote:iPod touch with "Japanese", Anki and daijirin?

I recommend the grammar dictionaries by Seiichi Makino mentioned above. If you plan on taking the JLPT, then Kanzen Master grammar and Unicom listening and reading workbooks are really good. I'd take the rest to a second-hand bookshop and buy a ton of manga and short novels.

This is my recommendation. But you know you can get a shitload of these resources for free right? Depending on whether you fly the Jolly Roger.

What Blahah said.

RTK-1, RTK-2, Tae Kim (free), Assimil Japanese 1+2, KO2001, RTK-3

And an Android or iOS device (might be hard to get them to reimburse, but it'll let you study anywhere, and is more valuable than any other thing you could buy in that price range).

I second Assimil incl. CDs. Besides RTK it's the only printed source for learning Japanese I currently use. The audio recordings are very clear without background noise and completely in Japanese without instructional English. I progress slowly because I want to assimilate the lessons as best as possible. In the future I might buy a book about particles or "Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar".

I would add a subscription to japanesepod101.com to the list, although there might be some free resources that are good.

Blahah Wrote:

Javizy Wrote:iPod touch with "Japanese", Anki and daijirin?

I recommend the grammar dictionaries by Seiichi Makino mentioned above. If you plan on taking the JLPT, then Kanzen Master grammar and Unicom listening and reading workbooks are really good. I'd take the rest to a second-hand bookshop and buy a ton of manga and short novels.

This is my recommendation. But you know you can get a shitload of these resources for free right? Depending on whether you fly the Jolly Roger.

The OP gets an allowance for this expense from his employer so they'll effectively be free anyhow; given that it seems a bit churlish to deny Makino & Tsutsui their royalties...

To the OP: find out whether you have to spend this all in one go or if you can buy some stuff, start using it and then in 6 months time buy some more; you'll have a better idea then of what works for you and what you might want or need.

If I were the OP's employer I would consider requests for ipods or Android devices to be clear attempts at taking the piss. If you want them to be reasonable rather than going through what you ask for with a very strict interpretation of the rules, then don't start by trying it on, is my advice.

Ipod touch as others have said. If you explain to your boss it can be an electronic dictionary for way cheaper than normal electronic dictionaries it should be okay.

Classes are a good idea if you want to give your speaking a kickstart.

pm215 Wrote:If I were the OP's employer I would consider requests for ipods or Android devices to be clear attempts at taking the piss. If you want them to be reasonable rather than going through what you ask for with a very strict interpretation of the rules, then don't start by trying it on, is my advice.

As would I. If it were me, I wouldn't even risk asking (hence my parenthetical comment). But I still hold by my advice that the OP *should* get an Android or iOS device--whether he pays for it himself or not--if he does not have one already. It is incredibly useful...

Thanks for all the suggestions all. I do have an iphone with a couple of apps that I'm going to see if they'll pay for (the apps not the phone). Probably get anki mobile too.

http://l2mastery.com/ … learning-korean-without-speaking
http://l2mastery.com/ ... alg-approach-to-self-study

Maybe you can get a tutor and try the things in the links above.

I'm assuming this would be a hard sell with your bosses, but given a time machine and 500$ to give myself back when I started studying, I would advise me to buy the following:

An Ipod Touch
Anki for the Ipod Touch
Daijirin for the Ipod Touch
A copy of RTK
A copy of "Common Japanese Collocations"
Whatever books on grammar I thought were necessary/appropriate

I like the ipod touch/anki idea if you don't have it already - but I'd just suggest a subscription to a Japanese online tv service like JP24. watch lots of TV

Does a kindle count? lol

A set of the white rabbit kanji flashcards wouldnt be bad. (on top of anki of course)

I actually have a pretty good set of books that I think are worth buying but i don't see the point in advising which ones to buy, I dont think it'll make that much of a difference lol

LunaSlave Wrote:I like the ipod touch/anki idea if you don't have it already - but I'd just suggest a subscription to a Japanese online tv service like JP24. watch lots of TV

What's JP24, I haven't heard of it. A google search doesn't return much, could you give a link please?