Need your opinion guys !

I finished the Minna no Nihongo series (1+2) then I bought Minna no Nihongo Chukyu I. (3/4 done) Its a "new" book. Not so many people used it. I like it though.


Well, the thing is that usually people tend to buy the same books so its really easy to answer the question "whats next ?"

For exemple: Minna no Nihongo I / II => Nihongo Chukyu J301 ==> Nihongo Chukyu J501 etc...
Its one exemple among others.

According to the editor, Minna no Nihongo Chukyu I is a lower intermediate level book so once Im done, I should get the Nihongo Chukyu J501 book ? (i mean no need for the J301 one i guess)
I read good reviews on the J301 one, so I guess the next one (J501) is probably worth it ?

Or do you think that I should skip this book (J501) and just go straight to the kanzen master series ?

thank you

assuming you've done rtk 1,...manga with furigana, along with an electronic kokugo jisho...(daijirin 大辞林 works really well on an iphone). personally I liked the first 6 volumes of fullmetal alchemist (鋼の錬金術師) a lot. also bleach (ブリーチ) and keroro gunsou (ケロロ 軍曹) enjoy

dtcamero Wrote:assuming you've done rtk 1,...manga with furigana, along with an electronic kokugo jisho...(daijirin 大辞林 works really well on an iphone). personally I liked the first 6 volumes of fullmetal alchemist (鋼の錬金術師) a lot. also bleach (ブリーチ) and keroro gunsou (ケロロ 軍曹) enjoy

yes bleach!

No, I haven't done RTK. Im already familiar with Kanji. I speak chinese (not fluent though)

And I'm not into anime, same goes for mangas.

I understand you are being sarcastic though.

If you don't like manga/anime, have you looked at doramas? Some of them are pretty good, least IMO.

khanifinolu Wrote:No, I haven't done RTK. Im already familiar with Kanji. I speak chinese (not fluent though)

And I'm not into anime, same goes for mangas.

I understand you are being sarcastic though.

If you don't like Japanese comics you're learning the language for the wrong reasons.

yeah sure

Love dramas and stuff.

But to me, its more like additional material.
I need a book too !

You know, a big book, 300 pages, tons of grammar, huge headaches.
I need that otherwise, I feel empty

Actually, a book helps me to know where I am going. And I also like the "book done ! Next one !" feeling.

but thanks for your advices though !

Ginmanm Wrote:

khanifinolu Wrote:No, I haven't done RTK. Im already familiar with Kanji. I speak chinese (not fluent though)

And I'm not into anime, same goes for mangas.

I understand you are being sarcastic though.

If you don't like Japanese comics you're learning the language for the wrong reasons.

haha, nice one.

khanifinolu Wrote:

Ginmanm Wrote:

khanifinolu Wrote:No, I haven't done RTK. Im already familiar with Kanji. I speak chinese (not fluent though)

And I'm not into anime, same goes for mangas.

I understand you are being sarcastic though.

If you don't like Japanese comics you're learning the language for the wrong reasons.

haha, nice one.

But I'm serious.

well, it's even funnier then.

there is no wrong or good reasons to learn japanese.
If your goal keeps you motivated to "endure" 1000/3000 hours + of study time, then it's a good goal.

For exemple :If you wanna learn Old Greek because you truly believe that Zeus is your father.
Well, if it keeps you motivated for the silly amount of work that learning a language requires...then go for it.
No matter how silly is this goal for ME, who cares...it's YOUR goal...so whatever.
Honestly, I could not care less why you would learn Greek but I respect someone who puts this amount of effort into something he truly likes.


Comics ain't my cup of tea but I respect someone who goes through years of studies to reach his goal.

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the books you're talking about, but at my school we used An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese
I thought it was pretty decent, although I did have the author as an instructor...so I may be a bit biased...

After that, my class went into native materials with grammar points explained/expanded upon as they came up.

If you haven't already, I'd definitely suggest looking into the Kanzen Master series. It's more of a workbook to practice what you've already learned, but you could do it either way.

Also, if you like big, 300+ pages of grammar explanations, DEFINTELY get the
Dictionary of [Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced] Japanese Grammar
It's technically a reference guide, but it's so good that I'd go through it like a text book (picking up points when they become relevant as opposed to straight through...) It's got pretty much everything, and a lot of explanations and example sentences. IIRC there's a shared anki deck about it too?? Maybe?

Other than that yeah...Break into native materials and learn what you need to when you need to.

khanifinolu Wrote:well, it's even funnier then.

there is no wrong or good reasons to learn japanese.
If your goal keeps you motivated to "endure" 1000/3000 hours + of study time, then it's a good goal.

For exemple :If you wanna learn Old Greek because you truly believe that Zeus is your father.
Well, if it keeps you motivated for the silly amount of work that learning a language requires...then go for it.
No matter how silly is this goal for ME, who cares...it's YOUR goal...so whatever.
Honestly, I could not care less why you would learn Greek but I respect someone who puts this amount of effort into something he truly likes.


Comics ain't my cup of tea but I respect someone who goes through years of studies to reach his goal.

I think the only right reason to learn a language is because you enjoy it. I think you have a weird resolve, enjoying a brutal and torturing way of learning, but that should be respected.

That said... I've nothing to contribute here...

TwoMoreCharacters Wrote:I think the only right reason to learn a language is because you enjoy it. I think you have a weird resolve, enjoying a brutal and torturing way of learning, but that should be respected.

That said... I've nothing to contribute here...

I was being ironic on the "headheache" part

However, As much as I like learning japanese, it's not everyday 100% fun.
It's like your favorite movie, there is a scene or two you may not like that much.
But overall you loved that movie.
Sometimes some grammar is hard, sometimes I struggle to remember a kanji. No big deal, just keep on going, next page will be fun.

Asriel Wrote:I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the books you're talking about, but at my school we used An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese
I thought it was pretty decent, although I did have the author as an instructor...so I may be a bit biased...

After that, my class went into native materials with grammar points explained/expanded upon as they came up.

If you haven't already, I'd definitely suggest looking into the Kanzen Master series. It's more of a workbook to practice what you've already learned, but you could do it either way.

Also, if you like big, 300+ pages of grammar explanations, DEFINTELY get the
Dictionary of [Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced] Japanese Grammar
It's technically a reference guide, but it's so good that I'd go through it like a text book (picking up points when they become relevant as opposed to straight through...) It's got pretty much everything, and a lot of explanations and example sentences. IIRC there's a shared anki deck about it too?? Maybe?

Other than that yeah...Break into native materials and learn what you need to when you need to.

Thank you for your detailed answer.

I heard about "An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese"
People usually say it's a good book.
Since I want an "oldschool" textbook (vocab+text+exercices+listening practice) I ll check it out.

Everyone recommends this "Dictionary of [Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced] Japanese Grammar"
It's probably a very good extra tool.


Thank you for your time !

I've also studied "An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese" and I didn't like it at all. The book itself is not bad, but I hated the topics it covered. It's all about university and most of the vocabulary/expressions you learn are not useful for real life. They're possibly useful if you do an exchange year in Japan or something like that. Plus, after more than 10 lessons all about school and university I was absolutely sick of it. I can see why this textbook is used in universities but I don't think it's very useful for a post-university adult learner.

The best books I have worked with is the 日本語総まとめ series. They actually teach you stuff that's useful in the real world. When I was staying in Japan and studying from these books I always encountered the vocabulary and phrases I learned in actual everyday life, which made me really happy and got me motivated. 日本語総まとめ books are used by a lot of language schools in Japan. They exist for different levels, N4, N3, N2, N1, etc. Each level has separate Vocabulary, Reading, Kanji, Grammar and Listening textbooks. You can probably skip that Kanji one (that's what I did since I had done RTK). I also skipped the listening one since I got enough input by being in Japan.

I checked a couple of language schools in Japan to check what material they are using and I've seen the book you mention. But I had no idea about the content. I thought it was primarily a "Jlpt aimed" book (wich is not something negative)

From what you say, the content seems pretty interesting and useful.
i will do further research.

Thank you for your help !

Yes, the books are aimed towards the JLPT. But as you said, I don't think that's a bad thing. The only thing that's JLPT specific about 日本語総まとめ is that the questions at the end of every lesson are in JLPT format. In terms of actual content it's the most useful book I've encountered because a lot of the content is taken directly from native Japanese sources (especially in the "Reading" book). That's unlike most other books that use some kind of artificial conversations (Genki, Integrated Approach to JP, etc).

You can find the books and sample content here by the way: http://www.whiterabbitpress.com/search.p...1&q=matome

Ginmanm Wrote:

khanifinolu Wrote:

Ginmanm Wrote:If you don't like Japanese comics you're learning the language for the wrong reasons.

haha, nice one.

But I'm serious.

ya for real, if you want a big book to learn from get a big book of manga. I didn't read comics before language study, but it is the bomb for understanding colloquial spoken japanese. Tae Kim is a good place to go when you find grammar you dont know... But seriously, will you find:
金田：俺用に改良したバイクだ…ピーキー過ぎて、お前には無理だよ
鉄雄：そんなのに乗ってる方が気が知れねぇぜ…　乗れるさ！
金田：はは、欲しけりゃなァ　お前もデカイの分捕りな…
in a textbook? I think not. if you want to understand those doramas you need to learn this stuff first.

Manga is just scripted interaction plus pictures... what do you have against pictures?!1! whatever subject matter you're interested in you can find in manga form. it's just a medium, not a message.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4872176995 is a good and cheap book.

I think JLPT books are good even if you're not doing the JLPT.

Also you could read an easy novel without many problems if you so wished

caivano Wrote:http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4872176995 is a good and cheap book.

I think JLPT books are good even if you're not doing the JLPT.

Also you could read an easy novel without many problems if you so wished

I couldn't agree any less. They allow the person progress slowly, while building on their knowledge.

Omoishinji Wrote:

caivano Wrote:http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4872176995 is a good and cheap book.

I think JLPT books are good even if you're not doing the JLPT.

Also you could read an easy novel without many problems if you so wished

I couldn't agree any less. They allow the person progress slowly, while building on their knowledge.

?