qwertyytrewq
Member
From: Gall Bladder
Registered: 2011-10-18
Posts: 529
I've got $200+ Amazon dollars stored in my account but I don't have anything to spend it on... except for perhaps buying books related to Japanese language learning.
I've gone through the Japanese grammar and I am in the process of memorizing and hopefully not forgetting James Heisig's 2200 Kanji (as of 6th Edition) once and for all, using Anki to keep up on the reviews.
Now I want to specialize a bit more by reading books that specialize in a certain aspect of the Japanese language. I am looking for books that really focus their attention on something specific. Just one example of what I am looking for are books that cover common 四字熟語 (4 Kanji phrases/idioms). I imagine those are reasonably common so it would be the perfect thing to analyze after finishing Remembering The Kanji. I remember there is a book that has an illustration on the left page and the 4 Kanji compound on the right page with a description/explanation of it.
Other things I might be interested include the meaning/history/analysis of set Japanese phases/expressions, a detailed analysis/explanation of casual speech and its contractions/abbreviations/slang etc..., maybe even a history of the development of Kanji (Heisig mentions Kanji etymology in his introduction of RTK1).
Apart from that, I don't really know what I'm looking for when it comes to Japanese language books so I'm seeking recommendations on good Japanese learning books.
What are some interesting books that really gave you an insight into the language and improved your overall grasp/comprehension of Japanese?
What are some books that explain certain specific and important parts of the Japanese language that most average/general textbooks would not cover, or cover very little of it?
What are some books that were really helpful to you personally?
Here's the Japanese language book section of the Amazon website: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_4?r … =684261011
Things I am NOT particularly interested in buying at this time or don't want/need:
1) General "jack-of-all-trades" textbooks (EG. Genki, Rosetta Stone, Minna no Nihongo, Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide, etc)
2) General Japanese dictionaries
3) Hiragana/Katakana/Kanji memorizing books
4) Fictional novels/manga
5) Non-fictional books not relating to the Japanese language (EG. history)
6) General "Japanese culture" books that are intended for light reading and not relating to the learning of the Japanese language (EG. the influence of Japanese animation, the Japanese brand of cuteness/kawaisa, Japan's prostitution/pornography businesses, the impact of Yakuza on Japanese society, and other useless bullshit etc...)
7) Digital books (I want something I can hold and won't break)
8) Free stuff on the Internet (I want to get what I paid for)
Last edited by qwertyytrewq (2012 July 30, 12:08 pm)
qwertyytrewq
Member
From: Gall Bladder
Registered: 2011-10-18
Posts: 529
dizmox
Member
Registered: 2007-08-11
Posts: 1149
Just save your money for when you do want something from 1-8 or anything else fun. You don't need to spend any money at all if you have the internet though, honestly.
Learn Japanese from native materials, not from textbooks! The only reason I can think of "specialising" in four character compounds is if if they were some 四字熟語オタク. No one learns slang from books, and do you want to be spending your time reading history of the language or learning it? Anyway, I don't mean to overstate the importance of particular subset of vocabulary, but I think the phrase 本末転倒 is fitting here if you're still a beginner.
This is assuming you want to learn Japanese and not become a language scholar.
chamcham
Member
Registered: 2005-11-11
Posts: 1444
The 3 books I recommended are the 3 books I keep going back to all the time.
They each serve a different purpose.
Well worth it IMHO (and they're very cheap).
I wouldn't go crazy buying JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) books.
That'll be expensive and you'll blow the $200 really quick.
If you live in New York or California, you can buy Japanese manga.
For native material, if you like the news, I'd recommend http://www.fnn-news.com
They have exact subtitles for all their news videos. Literally, they are the exact words
the news anchors are saying.
Last edited by chamcham (2012 July 31, 12:23 am)
qwertyytrewq
Member
From: Gall Bladder
Registered: 2011-10-18
Posts: 529
dizmox wrote:
Just save your money for when you do want something from 1-8 or anything else fun. You don't need to spend any money at all if you have the internet though, honestly.
bertoni wrote:
I'd say save the money for some actual Japanese books, for when you get that far.
It's not an either/or. Actually, I've got plenty of native materials (books, DVDs, games, etc) already.
dizmox wrote:
Learn Japanese from native materials, not from textbooks!
I don't know about this statement and it's probably off-topic but sure, it is useful to see what real Japanese looks like "in the wild". However, the problem with learning Japanese from native materials is that, for example, one has to reach for their dictionary every 5 seconds when one encounters an unknown Kanji or an unknown grammar point. I find that extremely boring and a very big hassle.
I don't know about other "anti-textbook" people but that's why I like to read to completion textbooks like Heisig's Remembering the Kanji and Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide: Because I want to "enjoy" the native material as much as I can, not learn something for the first time from it. The more I prepare myself with having a decent "Japanese toolbox" beforehand, the less often I have to pick up a dictionary when I'm actually consuming the native material.
dizmox wrote:
The only reason I can think of "specialising" in four character compounds is if if they were some 四字熟語オタク. No one learns slang from books, and do you want to be spending your time reading history of the language or learning it? Anyway, I don't mean to overstate the importance of particular subset of vocabulary, but I think the phrase 本末転倒 is fitting here if you're still a beginner.
Fair point but after the daily grind of Heisig's RTK, I just want to kick back and diversify a bit by read something interesting about the Japanese language. The 四字熟語 was just an example of what I'd like to read about.
Anyway, chamcham already recommended some books which appear to be good and I would like to hear more recommendations like those.
umetani666
Member
From: Tuvalu
Registered: 2010-10-01
Posts: 138
try to find 'nihongo notes'. it's a ten-volume series that centers on various expressions, idioms, grammar stuff, etc and ties it all with cultural context. it even sheds some new light on very well known phrases and expressions. also, it's very straightforward and to the point, there's no mystification of the language(as it's often the case with japanese).
unfortunately, it's out of print, so it's best to just download it from somewhere and print it out. or go to ebay.
I second Making Sense of Japanese, and Basic Connections: Making your Japanese Flow, also, there a book called Japanese Core Words and Phrases: Things You Can't Find in a Dictionary which is kind of a "sequel" to Basic Connections and is also really good. 13 secrets for speaking fluent Japanese is pretty helpful as well.
A Dictionary of Japanese Particles, the Dictionary of Basic/Intermediate/Advanced Japanese Grammar series are great, though they are more like reference books.
Effective Japanese Usage Dictionary is a gem of a book explaining how similar, easily mixed up words are used differently. Oh, and Japanese Idioms by Nobuo & Carol Akiyama is a really handy book to have around for those times you see an idiom that the regular dictionaries don't include.
Last edited by Bokusenou (2012 July 31, 1:20 pm)
KanjiMood wrote:
Japanese Kindle, that should be interesting, Japanese support on my kindle touch seems pretty good I think (only tried PDF), though having a better dictionary/other stuff would be handy..
Yeah, me too. My Kindle Keyboard can show Japanese txt and PDF files, but having a dictionary (or ideally EPWING support...I can dream, cant't I?^^; ), and Japanese ebooks in the ebook store would be amazing...
Last edited by Bokusenou (2012 July 31, 2:08 pm)
qwertyytrewq
Member
From: Gall Bladder
Registered: 2011-10-18
Posts: 529
umetani666 wrote:
try to find 'nihongo notes'. it's a ten-volume series that centers on various expressions, idioms, grammar stuff, etc and ties it all with cultural context. it even sheds some new light on very well known phrases and expressions. also, it's very straightforward and to the point, there's no mystification of the language(as it's often the case with japanese).
unfortunately, it's out of print, so it's best to just download it from somewhere and print it out. or go to ebay.
That one certainly looks interesting but unfortunately it seems a bit expensive, especially if I want all volumes. I'll have to get them "somewhere".
Bokusenou wrote:
A Dictionary of Japanese Particles, the Dictionary of Basic/Intermediate/Advanced Japanese Grammar series are great, though they are more like reference books.
If I've already read the Japanese Grammar series, could you explain how that book would further help? What does it have to offer that the latter 3 books don't?
Here's my non-finalized To Buy list so far. Most books are about $10 and none over $20.
Basic Connections: Making Your Japanese Flow - Kakuko Shoji
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/156836 … PDKIKX0DER
Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You (Power Japanese Series) (Kodansha's Children's Classics) - Jay Rubin
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/477002 … PDKIKX0DER
Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication: A Self-Study Course and Reference
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/156836 … PDKIKX0DER
And here's my Maybe I Will Buy list:
Beyond Polite Japanese: A Dictionary of Japanese Slang and Colloquialisms (Power Japanese Series) (Kodansha's Children's Classics) - Akihiko Yonekawa
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/477002 … PDKIKX0DER
Reason to buy: In manga or video games, I come across casual speech and slang frequently and they are reasonably difficult to look up in dictionaries. For example, これは becomes こりゃ and それは becomes そりゃ. Hopefully with this book, I can recognize and understand these things as I come across them.
Japanese Core Words and Phrases: Things You Can't Find in a Dictionary (Power Japanese Series) (Kodansha's Children's Classics) - Kakuko Shoji
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/477002 … PDKIKX0DER
Reason to buy: From the sample pages, it seems to cover useful grammatical phrases. Also, the idioms section should be reasonably useful because I prefer to memorize them first, before coming across them in books etc.
Breaking into Japanese Literature: Seven Modern Classics in Parallel Text - Giles Murray
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/156836 … PDKIKX0DER
Reason to buy: This might be used as my first serious attempt at understanding/translation. With the original Japanese on one side and the book's English translation on the other, I can gauge my own attempts.
A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters (Tuttle language library) - Kenneth G. Henshall
Reason to buy: The usage of the book looks similar to Heisig's RTK so I probably won't be SRSing this. However, reading about the origins of each Kanji seems interesting and may be useful by giving each Kanji a "personality", helping with memorization (then again, that's what RTK is supposed to do). I would probably read this book randomly when I'm bored and learn something new and interesting about a Kanji.
Japanese Idioms (Barron's Idioms) - Nobuo Akiyama
http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Idioms-B … ese+Idioms
Reason to buy: It may be of limited usefulness but as far as idioms go, this book is packed with it.
Last edited by qwertyytrewq (2012 August 02, 6:10 am)
qwertyytrewq
Member
From: Gall Bladder
Registered: 2011-10-18
Posts: 529
qwertyytrewq wrote:
You'll also encounter obsolete kanji and readings, e.g. 傾く(かたぶく), that might lead to mistakes in writing/speaking that shouldn't be occurring in this century.
That's funny, because that's in Heisig's Remembering the Kanji book (1086). Or were you saying it's an obsolete reading, not obsolete Kanji. Yeah, that's it.
Even English is vague.
Last edited by qwertyytrewq (2012 August 02, 7:57 am)
