Books for Intermediate learners!

[Harumaki]

Hey guys,

I got an email about what books I use, since I am studying Japanese on academic level, the books we use are proven to be helpful. I will give a short list with explanation about the books and why they will be helpful. But don't forget, this is for people who already understand Japanese to some degree and seek for mooooooooooooooooooooooore!

First of all, get yourself a 電子辞書 so you can research kanji much easier and faster. (the papyrus from Sharp are nice ones)

- みんなの日本語 books are very nice. They have a text book, kanji, grammar and exercise book. Very easy understandable with english explanation. There is a lvl 1 and lvl 2 version of most books. lvl 1 is beginner and lvl 2 is intermediate. Check them out! they rock!

-Oxford Japanese: Grammar& Verbs (ISBN: 978-0-19-860382) This is a pocket booklet with grammar constructions and explanation. Very handy to always take with you! ^_^

-会話のにほんご: Jpanaese through Dialogues for INtermediate Learners. (ISBN: 9784789012850)
This book will explain and let you exercise often used expressions and similar sounding expressions in Japanese. The good thing about this is that it handles grammar that is relative to each other. Like first chapter: ～て置く、～ください、～て欲しい、てみる、。。。or によって、による、にとって　or ～るところ、～たところ、ているところ、。。。 So it is nice to understand the difference between expressions.

-どんな時　どう使う　日本語　文型表現　５００：(ISBN: 9784872345896) this is the most awesome book! it explains 500 Japanese grammatical expressions! In Japanese! so, maybe it would be better to first finish the 会話 boook and after that, this book. Since this is all Japanese

- Last one is for when you dont understand an expression, you can check it online. http://www.alc.co.jp/index.html

I hope this helps :P

PS: for training: translate stuff, articles, stories, newspapers, etc etc to get a feeling for real written Japanese! it really helps!

[Mortry]

Ok, thanks I'm using Japanese in Mangaland. Although I'm only at chapter 4 or so...

by the way, are you only using English books to learn the language at Leiden?

[Harumaki]

English and Japanese yes. All courses are in English or Japanese

[Mortry]

Originally Posted by Harumaki

English and Japanese yes. All courses are in English or Japanese

I have some questions for you
Was it hard for you to get accustomed to that?
What's the reason that there's no course in Dutch?
How does you schedule look like?

[Harumaki]

It wasnt hard to get used to it, since Holland has very much English influence.
And another reason why we only have fully english lessons is because we have international teacher from Sweden, Japan, America, etc etc etc who are specialized in their specific course

My schedule? Well, in the first year, like 6 hours grammar lesson each week, 2 hours conversation, 1,5 hours kanji, and the rest is culture study (history, antropology, economy, etc,..)

In third year you have less Language lesson and a bit more culture studies. So pretty hard imo

[hatsuto11]

Originally Posted by Harumaki

It wasnt hard to get used to it, since Holland has very much English influence.
And another reason why we only have fully english lessons is because we have international teacher from Sweden, Japan, America, etc etc etc who are specialized in their specific course

My schedule? Well, in the first year, like 6 hours grammar lesson each week, 2 hours conversation, 1,5 hours kanji, and the rest is culture study (history, antropology, economy, etc,..)

In third year you have less Language lesson and a bit more culture studies. So pretty hard imo

I don't actually think it should be an issue to study in English! The language you use to study Japanese is only a means to master it and it doesn't really matter what language is that. Our mutual aim is to learn Japanese even if the sources are not available in one's mother tongue. Plus, you should bear in mind that there is a big variety of books and internet websites to help you studying japanese all written in English!
Harumaki san, your subject sounds pretty interesting (to me, at least) and I think that learning culture is incredibly essential as well. I mean, the language is a part of the culture and if you learn only Japanese, it means that you didn't 'study' Japan enough. Besides, culture may help you to understand the language and enrich your knowledge in relation to the Japanese archipelago.
最後に、頑張ってね；）

[Harumaki]

Yeah, the culture part is also important. Tho I prefer more linguistic stuff. Thats the reason why I picked courses like 'Second language acquiring' and 'Japanese linguistics' to learn more about human language abilities. Tho courses like "postwar japanese society' or 'gender dynamics in Japan' also sound interesting. And ofcourse the course I pick next semester: "Martial Arts and the Religious and Culture meanings of Budo"

[3dom4pam]

I'm also studying Japanese on University, in Poland. We also have Japanese lectors, so it's in English too sometimes, but most of the time we just talk in Japanese. I'm on the second year, so I'm still very bad at Japanese, but one of our teacher uses this book>> どんな時　どう使う　日本語　文型表現　５００ << on his lectures. It's too hard for the second year, but it's a good one.
We are also using 'Kanji in contex' for kanji lessons and ニュウアプローチ：中級.
On the first year we used 小級日本語 or sth like that.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by 3dom4pam

どんな時　どう使う　日本語　文型表現　５００

1. This book is meant for people studying for JLPT2 and 1
2. THIS IS A SUPER EXCELLENT BOOK

I remember when I opened the book the first time and read about the differences between について、に関して、に対して， etc.

[SceptileMaster]

I only looked through みんなの日本語 for a short time before I decided I didn't like it. Teaching every verb in the ます form and then teaching you how to conjugate it from that is completely illogical and insane.