Guidance needed

saborio Member

Registered: 2013-04-17 Posts: 15

I have been studying Japanese for around 1 year now and I have made some steady progress.

Completed Genki 1, Genki 2 and 'a course in modern Japanese 2' (slightly more advanced than Genki 2)
At around 650 kanji and 3000 vocab

However I am now at a loss at to what direction my studying should take.

I can devote around 2/3 hours a day for Japanese study.

Currently I learn around 40 new kanji a week and 70 new words.

I class my current ability at nearing JLPT N3.

Therefore I would like to know how to really push on further. I am happy with my SRS strategy for Kanji and vocab but I would like some advice on grammar.

What textbooks for grammar would people recommend for someone of my current level? Or is there any online resources (anki, spreadsheets etc etc) already made? I had a look but I could not find any.

What advice can you give me to help me with regards to the more advanced grammar to ensure that I not just know it but can actually use it frequently ( a common problem I have) ?

NightSky Member

From: Japan Registered: 2008-04-13 Posts: 302

If you are comfortable with essentially all of the grammar points in Tai Kims grammar guide, I'd probably try and get hold of the JLPT lv2 Kanzen master books and go through all of them, putting all sentences into Anki. For ones that aren't clear you can usually see more information on JGram for them.

erlog Member

From: Japan Registered: 2007-01-25 Posts: 633

I agree with NightSky. The JLPT study materials provide a good framework for breaking into intermediate level.

In terms of being able to USE the stuff you're learning, you need to find language partners on a service like Lang-8 or something else. There's no easy way to have quick access to it in your brain other than putting yourself in situations where you need to use it.

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uisukii Guest

[side question] NightSky and/or erlog, have you any experience with the DoBJG, and how it compares to TK's Grammar Guide, in respect to coverage (not depth of coverage but range) possibly in respect to JLPT terms?[/side question]

NightSky Member

From: Japan Registered: 2008-04-13 Posts: 302

uisukii wrote:
[side question] NightSky and/or erlog, have you any experience with the DoBJG, and how it compares to TK's Grammar Guide, in respect to coverage (not depth of coverage but range) possibly in respect to JLPT terms?[/side question]

I haven't read TKs grammar guide for a while and he may have added a lot of stuff, but I remember when I was studying for 2kyuu (this was ... wow ... nearly 5 years ago) there was tons of stuff in the Kanzen master 2kyuu books that wasn't on his guide.

I had to look up what DoBJG even was, but it seems its where that big Anki deck with 8500 sentences came from?

If so I'm working through that now. I deleted everything that wasn't a 1kyuu sentence and have been going through some 3000 of those sentences very slowly. It seems to cover essentially everything, and quite often I've found myself looking up sentence structures from there on JGram and not being able to find any sources at all. So it seems extremely complete for 1kyuu level. As far as I'm aware Tai Kims guide doesn't really cover anything at 1kyuu level.

NightSky Member

From: Japan Registered: 2008-04-13 Posts: 302

Hyperborea wrote:
The 8500 sentences deck was mined from the whole 3 volume series of the Dictionary of {Basic|Intermediate|Advanced} Japanese Grammar. If you are at sentence 3000 you are into the sentences from the Intermediate volume depending on the sort order you used. The dividing line between the basic and the intermediate volumes is somewhere around 2200/2300.

Well, I deleted everything that wasn't a 1kyuu grammar point so I'm not going through it in any sort of order. Presumably these sentences are from the Advanced volume though

Anyway I've never looked at the books themselves so I'm not really able to comment further, but at least the sentences in the advanced book seem to cover a lot.

firecracke70 New member

Registered: 2013-05-04 Posts: 1

Hello. Sorry, I just started using these forums today and I have no idea how to begin a new thread. Just wanted to ask how on earth people find these Tanuki/KiC etc. resources for learning onyomi and kunyomi readings I've been looking for a while... Thanks in advance

amtrack Member

Registered: 2012-12-23 Posts: 74

saborio wrote:
What advice can you give me to help me with regards to the more advanced grammar to ensure that I not just know it but can actually use it frequently ( a common problem I have) ?

Honestly I think you blasted through those courses too fast. Genki 1 and 2, if you went through them properly, should get you at a comfortable output level. At the very least, most of the grammar you need for casual Japanese is all there. The only barrier is vocabulary, but you have plenty it seems like.

Honestly I'd do two things. I'd spend some time doing all the exercises and getting repetitions in. Most textbooks/textbook sets are designed to take you about a year to finish, bc they cover comprehension as well as production. Don't blast through them. Simultaneously, i'd start looking at native materials.

Last edited by amtrack (2013 May 16, 7:11 pm)

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