I use Genki, but just got "Japanisch mit Manga 2" by Bernabé from the library, its quite well done. Gives me a lot more explanation and examples, with more fun than Genki. Plus it has different levels of politeness, which isnt covered in Genki at all. I dont get the examples that well (yet) though. On amazon I found "Japanese in Mangaland: Number 3" by this author, no clue how the two books are related.

atylmo wrote:

"Japanisch mit Manga" is the German edition of "Japanese in Mangaland" as far as I know. I think I saw it listed on the publisher's site or something before. They should be similar in content.

They're three books in the series, as well as "Kanji in Mangaland".

If that was sarcasm, kindly shoot me

Actually the german version seems to have only 2 books but with the same content (+practices). It says in the foreword that the basic course will be finished with the 2nd book. The second book finishes at about 50 lessons. U dont like it?^^°

I wanna buy a Kanji book to study side on side with Genki.
Nevertheless, I want one book that shows various words with the kanji in order to get some more vocabulary and know the various words/meanings the kanji has.

Is this one any good?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essential-Kanji … amp;sr=1-1

This one looks good to me, do you happen to recommend it?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kodanshas-Furig … amp;sr=1-3

Please, help me, thanks.

Last edited by CarolinaCG (2009 March 22, 7:58 am)

Tobberoth wrote:

RtK2 lists several compounds for each kanji. So does the kanji part of Minna no Nihongo.

Thanks, but I'm really aiming for a dictionary |:
Genki also as some compounds (like 3/4).

Don't waste your money on Essential Kanji.

Kodansha's Furigana Japanese Dictionary is simply a basic paper J->E E->J dictionary based on kana rather than romaji.

If you want to build vocabulary by finding a lot of similar words by kanji, I'd recommend something like Kanji Odyssey (KO) or Kanji in Context (KiC).

KiC's reference book is good in that it lists a lot of words per kanji that use the same kanji. The downside is that KiC isn't strong on providing a lot of example sentences. (Which come in 2 separate volumes, by the way.) You'll probably need to find proper example sentences on your own, but you can find them using an online dictionary like yahoo.co.jp, which is very good, and free. (Or use wikipedia.co.jp, or google blog search, etc.)

I'd say KiC is slightly better than KO in that it lists more vocab. KO tends to stick to just the most important words you need to know, but KO is better about giving you example sentences for each kanji. (Well, it is for the first 1,110, then it stops. You're on your own after that.)

Last edited by rich_f (2009 March 22, 12:53 pm)

If you mean N3 then the official Unicom one is good for grammar:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/実力 … 4896894693

If you want decent explanations in English I'd use the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar series too.

And this one for reading is good to see all the grammar in action:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/日本 … 4820746227

I don't know about written exercises though...

頑張って

This one isn't bad. We've used it in my JLPT prep class for the N3 students. The explanations are a bit ... odd (don't use it for explanations), but it has good exercises.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%80%8C%E6%97 … pd_sim_b_1

The only warning I'll give about the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar Series (at least what I've seen coming from N2) is that is omits a lot of stuff that shows up in the N2 practice books, so when you go on to N2, you'll start noticing that, and getting frustrated, considering how expensive these books are.

It's still an excellent series just for the explanations, which are very good. I just wish it covered more "stuff."

The N3 Unicom book is good, I'll second that. I've had a chance to look at it. It's very thorough.

If you don't want to use Amazon.co.jp, check bk1.jp and see if the shipping to Europe is any cheaper.

CarolinaCG wrote:

After much consideration I ended up ordering

"Tobira a gateway to advanced japanese" (or something like that) to study along with AIAIJ. What do you think of this book? I bought it because had already heard about it and the review from the japan shop made me want to buy it, they said it should be good for someone who finished genki or Minna no nihongo, as I have.

"Tobira" is great, and in my opinion the best intermediate textbook on the market currently. I used to use "An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese" for my intermediate students, but have switched to using Tobira. It's a great next step if you've completed Genki. My only qualm is that there is only a kanji workbook, and not a normal workbook, so you'll need to make sure you design ways of practicing the grammar yourself. There are, of course, exercises in the textbook, but I don't feel that they're quite enough on their own to nail the grammar.

So I'd personally advise coming up with some exercises of your own. For each grammar point you learn in any given day, try to use it five times in a Japanese conversation, or create ten practice sentences with each one. Things like that should be fine

AIAIJ has a workbook, so if you're lacking in exercises, you could always get that. The main downside is that there's no answer guide I can find for it. But I think AIAIJ has really good grammar explanations. They're simple and easy to understand for the most part.

Unless I had a copy of Tobira on my desk, I couldn't tell you what to think of it.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. As long as you stick with the book and do all of the work and study it all, you'll make progress with just about any textbook. The trick is finishing it.

And the 日本語500問題中級... actually I just ordered that yesterday with another N2 practice test book (among other things. Gotta get your money's worth when using amazon.co.jp's shipping.) Remind me in a couple of weeks and I'll let you know what I think about it. If you want to see more previews of it, there are some on the White Rabbit Press website, too.

Sorry for the double post.

But what do you guys think os Kanzen Master 2kyuu?
Does it have english grammar explanations? I really liked kanzen master 3kyuu.

Kanzen Master 2Kyuu is *really* useful if you have a Japanese Language instructor or a native speaker around to help explain things. We used it as a JLPT class review text.

It has some good tests at the end of each chapter, which are very handy. But the explanations are really short, and if you want a more detailed explanation, that's where a teacher or a set (and by that I don't just mean one set) of grammar reference books is necessary.

The Dictionary of Japanese Grammar series by Japan Times does NOT cover everything in Kanzen Master 2Kyuu. It covered maybe 50-60% of the stuff in there. Very frustrating.

The どんな時どんな使う grammar dictionary has just about 99% of it, but its explanations are also pretty short, just like Kanzen Master. I mean 1 sentence explanations, which can be pretty cryptic.

I used the older version of this review book:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/4872177290

And this one:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/45日ž … 4384055749

as extra references... and ALC's search engine as well. Both have easier example sentences than KM2, although their explanations aren't always very good. The extra data helped me to fill in some of the holes. ALC's search engine helped when all else failed.

And I still wound up bugging my JLPT class instructor for a lot of things, because some things are just hard to explain in a paragraph. I just have to experience them over and over again to get them to sink in. I'm still trying to get a feel for もの and こと. There are so many expressions with もの, it makes my head spin.

Also, the sentences can be difficult if you don't have the vocabulary for them. There aren't any translations for those.

The one positive (and it's a big one) is that a group of people on the forum put all of the example sentences into a spreadsheet to make it easier to put into Anki.

The vocab, oddly enough, wasn't the problem for me. KO will go a long way to help knock out most of that. I just needed more explaining, so I could internalize the concepts better.

Using this book (45日間):
http://www.amazon.co.jp/45%E6%97%A5%E9% … 4384055749

is a little frustrating after using KM2, because it groups grammar by function, instead of KM2's random scattering of grammar. So when you have to differentiate among 4 expressions that all essentially mean the same thing, you can't just get by with a general, "Oh, it roughly means X" explanation.

The 45日間 book has so-so translations of the grammar points, but it makes up for it with a ton of exercises, plus two extra exercise books-- a ドリル book and an N2 テスト book that has 3 overall tests for book (one for each third) and 4 N2 grammar section practice tests.

And it's nitpicky as hell.