A small book to get slowly into Japanese language

kikujirononatsu · (#1 (**permalink**))

hej!

I have a year left to learn a bit of Japanese.
Can anyone recommend me a book in which I can read from 10 up to 15 minutes per day and slowly learn some sentenced, maybe also learn some kanji?

I would be pleased!

klaas, 19, germany

willgoestocollege · (#2 (**permalink**))

Guten tag. For Kanji I recommend getting a book called "Remembering the Kanji". You may have heard about it and I'm sure you can get it in the German language now.

kikujirononatsu · (#3 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by willgoestocollege

Guten tag. For Kanji I recommend getting a book called "Remembering the Kanji". You may have heard about it and I'm sure you can get it in the German language now.

it's mor like "hallo" or "hey" or "Guten Abend (good evening) than Guten Tag! ;-)

but thanks for the tip!

WingsToDiscovery · (#4 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by willgoestocollege

Guten tag. For Kanji I recommend getting a book called "Remembering the Kanji". You may have heard about it and I'm sure you can get it in the German language now.

I've heard that this book doesn't actually teach you how to say the Japanese word for the Kanji. Just how to remember it and recognize it in English. Is that so?

StonerPenguin · (#5 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by WingsToDiscovery

I've heard that this book doesn't actually teach you how to say the Japanese word for the Kanji. Just how to remember it and recognize it in English. Is that so?

Yes, it's true O: It also teaches you kanji in order of radical, not it order of grade or commonality D: 人 is like one of the 1000th kanji RTK teaches you. I can't say I'm too fond of RTK but it'll (eventually) teach you all the kanji so I guess the order doesn't matter much...

kikujirononatsu · (#6 (**permalink**))

sounds good

but I think it is also/more important to know some words and sentences

willgoestocollege · (#7 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by WingsToDiscovery

I've heard that this book doesn't actually teach you how to say the Japanese word for the Kanji.

In volume two it does.

KyleGoetz · (#8 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by WingsToDiscovery

I've heard that this book doesn't actually teach you how to say the Japanese word for the Kanji. Just how to remember it and recognize it in English. Is that so?

If you want one that will help you legitimately learn kanji and tons of vocabulary, check out Kanji in Context. With it, I've learned hundreds of kanji and thousands of new vocabulary in a matter of months, with an hour or less per day on average.

I'm closing on 100% of the pre-2010 joyo kanji!

And I'm not the only one: I got the inspiration from another guy who claimed to have learned 1000 of the joyo kanji in a couple months by spending 4–5 hours per day of study on them.

My experience is that this is 100% possible if you study properly and already have a decent foundation. This is what is happening to me.

I'm probably 2–3 months away from 2000 kanji. I seem to have forgotten a few hundred since I lived in Japan, so I started back at about kanji #700 and have been flashcarding them all since the late spring.

Such progress is amazing! I seem to retain about 80% of the vocabulary/kanji over a month of study. Granted, I'm only going JP->EN and only focusing on reading, so I can't write many of them by hand (nor can many young Japanese!). I also cannot use them all in conversation yet fluently. But I'm getting there.

In summation, Kanji in Context is 300% recommended!

Seele · (#9 (**permalink**))

On courses we use "Minna no Nihongo" for grammar, new words, dialogs, exercises & listening and "Basic Kanji Book" for learning kanji (there're readings there & order of strokes).

Before I went to the corses, I've read the book "Ultimate Japanese" & the knowledge I've got from it made my studies easier. The only minus of the book is that it's in romaji. But grammar is written rather clear & there's a CD to it.

example of pages
http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/9486/page012k.jpg
http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/9582/page013.jpg

And may be it'll be worth to consult with "Oxford Japanese Grammar"

yuriyuri · (#10 (**permalink**))

Just because it could be useful for anyone who wishes to recommend a book, can you please tell us what kind of level you are in your Japanese studies?

From your first post I assume you are just starting out, but you never know.

Well, anyway, perhaps you could look at All about particles:

This is one of the only books I bothered to read through properly when I started learning.

It's nice and small, has lots of sentence examples of grammar usage and should give a fairly nice start to any Japanese studies.
(Just watch out for the occasional typo)

Also, like KyleGoetz said, Kanji in Context is an awesome book.
It can be difficult when you first start it if you aren't used to Japanese only, but after using it for a while I've certainly noticed massive jumps in my understanding of Japanese in general.
(Just remember there are no translations of sentences in this book and it assumes you already understand at least basic Japanese)