Recommendations on learning Japanese
 

Seeing as i couldn't find a topic about this, i figured i'd ask here.
At some point, due to the large amount of free time i have, i would like to learn Japanese, but at the moment my current situation renders me unable to get direct lessons.
And while i'm sure the linked websites are extremely usefull both my internet acess and My time using a PC will be limited over the coming weeks.
I was basically wondering if anyone could reccomend a couple of up to date books that cover the basics of reading japanese (preferably available through amazon.)
Taking into consideration both that i have no knowledge of reading Japanese in any from and that i have a lot of free reading time.

In other words i'm looking for something relatively easy to understand but comprhensive enough to last me a long time.

If you have any reccomendations, thank you, if not if you know another site where i could ask i would greatly appreciate it.

Edit: I've moved this from the "Useful Links" thread to it''s own thread on learning recommendations. If you have good recommendations on learning Japanese, please post them here! ^_^ --Wrex, new JCulture & Language mod.

Re: Recommendations on learning Japanese
 

This question seems to pop up periodically. And since it does pop up every now and then, I'm thinking of "stickying" this thread... what do you think?

Anyway, here are some previous threads in a similar vein:
About books to learn Japanese

Books and tapes for learning Japanese

Quen's kanji pracice software

and Electronic dictionary recommendations

Re: Recommendations on learning Japanese
 

Do you know any Japanese at all, or are you starting from scratch?

If you are starting without ever having previously studying Japanese, speaking from my personal experience, it may take you a while before you can read it.

Currently, my favorite textbook series is the Minna no Nihongo series by 3A.

However, I will warn you on two things. First, you will get the most benefit by not just buying the main text book, but the supplementary texts as well. They have supplementary texts for reading, writing, and Kanji. Second, these books are not cheap. However, you can just buy the Volume 1 text and supplementary texts and wait on the second volume series until you are ready for them.

If reading is your ultimate goal, stay away from any textbooks that use Romaji. Minna no Nihongo uses only Kana (and Kanji with Furigana) from the very first lesson. Which is admittedly difficult to start with, but you will avoid the Romaji crutch that only makes things harder in the long run. If you haven't studied Kana (Hiragana & Katakana) before, you may want to start out with the Self-Study Kana Workbook first.

The Minna no Nihongo audio CDs are great. The dialogs are spoken at normal speed so your ears are trained to hear Japanese as it is spoken in the real world. The listening comprehension workbook CDs are also excellent.

All the texts are meant to be used together, so the grammar and vocab you learn in the the each chapter of the main text is reinforced and applied in the corresponding chapters of the supplementary texts, including the Kanji text, so you won't be lost.

One note about the main text. It is written exclusively in Japanese. You will need the Translation and Grammatical Notes book as well (again don't pick the Romaji version). The Translation and Grammatical notes are available in 10 different languages (English, Chinese, Korean, French, Spanish, Thai, Portuguese, Indonesian, Russian, and German).

All of the books are available through Amazon.co.jp. You can search by the ISBN numbers for each book listed on the 3A site, linked above).

If you get through the both Kanji books in this series, you will have learned about 550 Kanji. Which will only allow you to read books written for young children.

To make the next step, I would recommend Bonjinsha's Basic Kanji and Intermediate Kanji series of books. They will take you up to just over 1000 Kanji which will get you reading on a 6th grade level.

You can also get them from Amazon.co.jp, here are their ISBNs:
4-89358-091-4
4-89358-119-8
4-89358-356-5
4-89358-489-8

Finally, if you want to be able to read Japanese on a 12 grade level, I would recommend the Kanji in Context series, which will teach you the entire 1945 Jouyou Kanji (plus 2 bonus kanji) and a ton of vocabulary.

The ISBNs are:
4-7890-0753-7
4-7890-0754-5
4-7890-0756-1

For reference materials I would recommend either the Kanji Learner's Dictionary (4-7700-2855-5) or NTC's New Japanese-English Character Dictionary (0-8442-8434-3) - this second one is actually sold in the US & UK. Both use the SKIP look up system which makes looking up unknown kanji very easy.

For Grammar references:

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar (4-7890-0454-6).

A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar (4-7890-0775-8).

Both are excellent.

The stuff I have listed here is probably more than you want, and there may be other books better suited for your situation and goals, however, I have personally found them to be very useful.

Re: Recommendations on learning Japanese
 

As also mentioned on one of wrex's links, I would recommend the Genki books (direct publisher link here) if you are interested in self-study. In my non-expert opinion as a Japanese Studies student currently in 3rd year Japanese, the Genki books were the best books that my classes ever used. The conversations are all linked and flow nicely and are illustrated, new vocab is organized in a way that is logical for English speakers, and the kanji sections in the back are very self-explanatory. They have stroke guides to help you write hiragana and katakana, and pronunciation guides (though I wouldnt substitute this with tapes). All in all they are great books and I really learned a lot from them, and I really miss Mary and Takeshi.....

Re: Recommendations on learning Japanese
 

On your say so, I downloaded the samples from Genki. Is there another series you like? Anybody? It's always good to have a choice. [img]/images/graemlins/horse.gif[/img]

Japanese for Busy People; !Nakama; Pimsleur
 

[ QUOTE ]
Mayhem Manaic said:
On your say so, I downloaded the samples from Genki. Is there another series you like? Anybody? It's always good to have a choice. [img]/images/graemlins/horse.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

See the other threads that were linked.

For self-study I think Japanese for Busy People (kana/kanji version textbook + CDs + workbook + workbook CDs; you need all four components for self-study, for each volume) is good.

The other one I have (vol 1 only for obvious reasons) is 'Nakama' which has been recommended, but I think it's a bit crap for self-study because a high proportion of the exercises are dialogues/roleplays/etc that require participation from somebody else.

'Nakama' is probably fine for classes; unless people are sure they've thought about it carefully, I'd take recommendations from those who learnt in class with a pinch of salt. Self-study is a different environment and you need different things (specifically, good dialogue CDs etc, and lots of practice exercises with clear right or wrong answers that you can mark yourself).

I haven't seen any other textbooks (apart from some of the self-evidently bad ones you find in bookstores) so I can't comment on them.

One other strong recommendation, though, is for the Pimsleur CD set ('Japanese 1'; there's a Japanese 2, which I haven'tr tried). You learn entirely by speaking and following the (mostly English) instructions on the CD, basically repeating things back and trying to make up sentences as instructed. I think this could be a very good way to start learning the language; a fun and not very strenuous head start. If I were you, I'd do this course before attempting any of the textbook-based courses. It's a bit expensive so if you are on a budget, maybe not an option; otherwise, buy it. It doesn't get you very far - but *after* that point you can start working on the textbooks from a stronger position, vocabulary/pronunciation/confidence-wise. Plus you will know how to ask a girl if she wants dinner at your place, which is apparently a key skill the Pimsleur people think you must master early. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

--quen

Re: Japanese for Busy People; !Nakama; Pimsleur
 

I think going to a person's place has much stronger connotations in Japan than most other places. I believe most entertaining is done outside the home due to space/noise limitations. Only really private entertaining need be done at home... [img]/images/graemlins/happy.gif[/img]


wrex, stop moving this sub-thread around! [img]/images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif[/img]

Re: Recommendations on learning Japanese
 

After doing some more background reading on the suggestions mentioned in this and the linked threads i went with Genki.
It only arrived this morning so i can;t say how good/effective it is in terms of learning. But it's nicely presented and explains things well.
One thing anyone lese thinking of getting it should know is if you get the workbook for Genki you have to get the CD's as Many of the work book excersises require you to have them.
Also, the practise questions in the textbook and workbook excersise answers are only in the teachers manual as well, which sadly was the one part i didn't get [img]/images/graemlins/cry00000.gif[/img]

Re: Recommendations on learning Japanese
 

[ QUOTE ]
Lucky 13 said:Also, the practise questions in the textbook and workbook excersise answers are only in the teachers manual as well, which sadly was the one part i didn't get [img]/images/graemlins/cry00000.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this should be emphasized for anyone picking up the Genki series. Having the answer manual along with the workbook was probably the most effective part of the Genki package since it's your mistakes that you learn from the most. Without an instructor to correct you, you may never know if you're really getting everything completely right or not.

Re: Recommendations on learning Japanese
 

Anyone have any experience with or comments on YesJapan ?